Town looking like the form team of the Championship following victory over Stoke City

Back to back victories over two leading candidates in the Championship bidding to make the top six come the end of the season.

First there was table topping Coventry at the weekend who suffered a 3-0 defeat which was followed last night (Wednesday, December 10) by the 1-0 downing of Stoke City.

Ipswich are now looking like one of the form teams in the league and a win at Leicester this coming weekend will certainly confirm that.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Town after Jaden Philogene’s exquisite strike from just outside the penalty area   100 seconds into the game against the Potters.

Although it set the stadium alight Stoke were the better of the two outfits but just did not have their vital cutting edge.

The Tractor Boys goalkeeper Christian Walton had to pull out a couple of fine saves to keep them ahead while centre back Dara O’Shea also weighed in with two last minute tackles.

But that’s the difference between Ipswich and the rest of the league at the moment.

They can cash in with their chances and have now kept two clean sheets on the trot.

Pity for Stoke and their fans who made the long trip south as they play attractive attacking football which was recognised by Town manager Kieran McKenna.

After the game he said he “really enjoyed” the match saying: “I thought it was a really, really good game. A really good night’s work.

“We scored a brilliant team and individual goal to start the game off.

“I thought Stoke played well in the first half and had a real, real go at it, and I think they came here and had a real swing at it.

“We almost got through a lot but we also probably rushed it too often because there was so much space we went for the goal every time and gave the ball back to them.

“I thought we played well with the ball, made some extra passes, played through the pressure, defended well and had chances to counter and the only thing was not getting the second goal that keeps the game alive.

“The crowd were outstanding and really gave us the push that we needed so it was a good night’s work.”

Now it’s on to Leicester followed by a home game against basement dwellers Sheffield Wednesday before the Boxing Day clash against third placed Millwall, followed by a trip to Coventry, then Oxford at Portman Road on New Year’s Day before the clash at Portsmouth … all within a busy 23 days.