IPSWICH Town star Finidi George today insisted: "The Leeds defeat has not dented our morale."The Blues gave a sparkling first-half show at Portman Road yesterday in front of the live Sky Sports audience to lead through striker Marcus Stewart's third goal of the season.

By Dave Allard

IPSWICH Town star Finidi George today insisted: "The Leeds defeat has not dented our morale."

The Blues gave a sparkling first-half show at Portman Road yesterday in front of the live Sky Sports audience to lead through striker Marcus Stewart's third goal of the season.

But David O'Leary's Yorkshiremen returned to the top of the Premiership as they fought back to win 2-1 with a Robbie Keane strike and a Mark Venus own goal.

George, who had opened the scoring in last Thursday night's 2-1 UEFA Cup success in Russia against Torpedo Moscow, said: "We played quite a bit of good football against Leeds and were unlucky not to get at least a point. They were very strong over the last 20 minutes or so and put us under a lot of pressure, but we feel so hard done by to lose as we gave everything."

The Blues' joint top-scorer with three goals, signed from Real Mallorca for just over £3 million in August, added: "This result is so very disappointing, especially as the spirit was so high after the UEFA Cup success in Moscow.

"We really felt we could win this game against Leeds, but we didn't and we are determined that we will not let it dent our morale. Last Thursday in Russia we showed that we are back to the sort of form we are capable of showing and we continued it in the first half against Leeds.

"Everyone in our team deserved better, I really believe that. We must keep the spirits up and look forward to the next game with every confidence."

Town – fourth-from-bottom of the table – are without a game next weekend due to internationals.

Town Reserves make their long-awaited return to action on Wednesday night in the Premier Reserve League against West Ham at Portman Road. Several first-team squad players will be in action in a match that kicks-off at 7pm.

Meanwhile, Wayne Brown, the 24-year-old Ipswich defender on loan at First Division Wimbledon, continues to go from strength to strength.

In Brown's five games for the Dons they have won three times and drawn twice, keeping three clean sheets. And a 4-0 weekend win for Terry Burton's side at Manchester City was the Nationwide League result of the day.

"I've been getting regular first-team football and I wouldn't have missed this experience for the world," said Brown.

Burton took Brown on loan with a view to a permanent move and may soon begin negotiations over a possible fee.