Ipswich Town beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0 at Portman Road to move back up to fifth in the Championship table.

Rock-bottom Bolton, still without a league win following promotion from League One, posed the greater threat in a drab first half as the lively Craig Noone curled a shot over the bar (0.08).

The closest Town came was through Dominic Iorfa’s difficult far post header from a Grant Ward corner (0.17).

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The Blues broke the deadlock less than three minutes after the restart (0.26). Cole Skuse started the move with a raking pass into the left corner, David McGoldrick cut the ball back and Skuse’s shot took a major deflection off Josh Cullen in the ‘D’ to wrong-foot keeper Ben Alnwick.

McGoldrick started to really come alive in the second period and forced a smart save out of Alnwick following a driving run from deep (0.50).

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Half-time substitute Bersant Celina also provided the Blues with a spark and, after receiving a well-weighted pass from McGoldrick (1.03), he ran at the defence before seeing an angled shot deflected over.

Myles Kenlock’s block tackle (1.16) started another move, Celina drove forwards and McGoldrick, after dancing in between two defenders, blazed a golden chance well over.

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Town finally made the points safe in the 89th minute when Joe Garner flicked on Bartosz Bialkowski’s big kick (1.40). McGoldrick was quickest to the loose ball, again showed neat footwork in the box, before producing a clever outside of the boot finish.