IT will be feet up and rest this week for a shattered Ipswich Town as their October exploits finally catch up with them.After five wins and a draw in a month, the Blues are feeling the pace and are grateful not to have a Carling Cup game to worry about this week so they can be mentally and physically ready to entertain Gillingham at home on Saturday.

IT will be feet up and rest this week for a shattered Ipswich Town as their October exploits finally catch up with them, writes Derek Davis.

After five wins and a draw in a month, the Blues are feeling the pace and are grateful not to have a Carling Cup game to worry about this week so they can be mentally and physically ready to entertain Gillingham at home on Saturday.

Blues boss Joe Royle explained away their sluggish start against Preston by claiming battle and travel fatigue with a third of the season now played.

For the second time in a week away from home, Town fell behind only to dig deep and salvage and Royle says his side are simply wiped out.

He said: "We were so tired. We looked mentally and physically jaded after all the travelling this week.

"We started slowly down to fatigue. It is a valid point that the travelling Ipswich do is a factor in that we are slow coming out of the blocks. It is also down to individuals who don't start well.

"We will certainly be glad off a full week off. This is virtually the same team all month with the exception of Mahon and they are tired."

Royle explained that by taking the game to Preston in the second half they were able to gain control.

He said: "We pushed players on and stopped them playing, but people were supposed to be doing that first half. At half-time I would have settled for a point. But it shows we have great sprit.

"In many ways it was as impressive as any of our recent wins because we did rouse ourselves and get back in the game and in the end if anyone was going to win it would be us."

Royle was especially pleased with the way his defence coped but singled out Jermaine Wright for special praise. He said; "He was our only threat first half. Jermaine has been our most consistent player for some weeks now."

And the Town manager revealed he had options for when one game bans for Richard Naylor and Bart-Williams kick in.

He said: "Chris did not have the best of games and he was leggy so I put Tommy Miller on. We planned to use Tommy in half-hour bursts anyway, with the suspensions coming up."