Leicester City 2Ipswich Town 2BLUES boss Joe Royle hailed his Ipswich heroes after they came from behind to snatch a point at Leicester last night.

By Derek Davis

Leicester City 2

Ipswich Town 2

BLUES boss Joe Royle hailed his Ipswich heroes after they came from behind to snatch a point at Leicester last night.

Although Ian Westlake put Town ahead within 40 seconds, they went behind to goals from David Connolly and Matt Heath before an own goal at the death gave Royle's side a draw.

Ipswich suffered the same sort of onslaught they inflicted on Burnley last Saturday for large periods of the first half and had Lewis Price to thank for some excellent saves to keep them in the game before staging their own remarkable comeback.

Royle said: “We are what we are. A collection of kids who are still learning, along with a bunch of free transfers and Bosmans, and they have done fantastic for us.

“They are honest boys and we have more than come back at Leicester. Their keeper has made a couple of terrific saves but we should have been level earlier and then, who knows, because we were so much on top.”

A switch in formation helped when Pablo Counago went on for Jim Magilton and Town went with three strikers.

Royle said: “We did better when we went to the three. Pablo did well when he came on but there's more than one player at this club. The last time I checked we were leading goalscorers in this league, so I'm not getting into the Pablo crusade.

"Leicester are a big team and the only problem they gave us was from an aerial bombardment. They certainly were not going to play through us and, sure enough, both goals came from headers.

“I'm delighted the way we got hold of it and pressed them back in the second half. Really, it was one-way traffic for a lot of the second half.”

The Town manager appeared amazingly calm at the post-match press conference but must have been seething after Tony Leake disallowed a Shefki Kuqi effort when Kevin Pressman dropped Dean Bowditch's header.

Royle said: “We are puzzled why he disallowed it. The keeper never had hold of it and the referee is the only person who thought it was kicked out of his hand.

“You don't often see our players animated around referees. We are no bother to referees but that showed how annoyed they were by a decision like that.”

Royle again praised Price. “It is hard for a keeper here where there is a lot of aerial pressure but he handled it superbly. He made a couple of terrific saves.”