Birmingham v Ipswich: Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy says Christophe Berra’s last-gasp leveller at Birmingham City will make a ‘huge difference’ to his side’s preparations for the visit of East Anglian rivals Norwich City on Saturday.

Having started the season with a 2-1 home win over Fulham, the Blues looked to be heading for a third successive defeat following their Capital One Cup exit at Crawley and 1-0 loss at Reading.

Non-existant marking at a corner and a poor pass by Cole Skuse led to David Edgar (30) and Clayton Donaldson (63) twice putting the hosts in front, but twice Town hit back with Paul Anderson providing the assists for Berra’s brace (50 and 90+3).

Asked how big a boost Berra’s diving header could make to the confidence in his squad heading into the eagerly anticipated return of derby day, Norwich coming from behind to win 3-1 at home to Blackburn last night, McCarthy said: “A huge difference. It’s a huge difference to travelling back on the coach, a huge difference to how you approach training tomorrow and it just creates a different atmosphere having something.”

He continued: “I think we deserved it. The two goals we gave away were awful and the two goals we scored were brilliant. I’m sure Lee (Clark) thinks similar. It was bad marking for their first and an awful pass for the second. I think Birmingham look a different side this year, they look very good.”

Berra failed to score in four-and-a-half seasons at former club Wolves, but already he has netted six times in little more than a year for Ipswich.

“Let’s hope that continues,” said McCarthy. “We were teasing him about the first one, I don’t know if he did get his head on it, but the second one was a great goal.

“It was an outstanding cross from Paul Anderson. He provided a great free-kick for the first two, so that’s two assists for him.

“Every point is a prisoner. Last year we were saying ‘if we’d have done this and done that’ towards the end of the season, but what about when we lost to Leeds when we were 1-0 up early on? Just get your points and put them on the league table.”