Chaplin sends Town to the summit

IPSWICH will host Southampton tomorrow as the new leaders of the Championship after scrapping to a narrow win over Blackburn Rovers.

- Craig Scotter

Head coach Kieran McKenna hailed the Tractor Boys' defensive display at Ewood Park after Conor Chaplin's ninth-minute goal was enough to see off Rovers, who had two goals chalked off.

He said: "Fantastic result, you have to enjoy every win you get in the Championship.

"The performance was mixed. I thought first half we started well. We gave the opposition problems and controlled most of the first half. Blackburn had a counter-threat and they set up to give us problems through the middle of the pitch so we didn't have it all our way.

"We came out at the start of the second half and did well. As the second half went on, it became tough.

"We knew there'd be tiredness in the group, and it became a challenging last 30 minutes.