Ipswich give chairman a reason to smile

By Elvin King

DAVID Sheepshanks was allowed a smile as he left Loftus Road last night.

The Ipswich Town chairman had just seen Jim Magilton's side crush Queens Park Rangers 3-1 to give the manager his first win in the Championship.

It was a welcome relief after the concern of the opening three weeks of the season, and Sheepshanks said: “This comes as a result of hard work, belief and perseverance.

“It is a turning point for us all, but most of all for Jim and his players.

“And to make the night complete I must praise our supporters, who were absolutely magnificent, giving the team and the manager their full support and creating a winning atmosphere for us.”

Magilton took the win - and the performance - in his stride.

He said: “If the penalty was a little fortunate, then we deserved some luck.

“I would not pick out a single player as I am chuffed with them all.

“We will enjoy the win and then it is back to doing the same things in training on Monday.

“We never lost our belief in the players and I am delighted for the staff, fans and the players.

“We got the ball down and played at tempo that we achieve in training.

“Our supporters have been very supportive and even at Peterborough they were different class.”

Magilton was in the north west today, believed to be looking at a player. With striker Sam Parkin's move to Luton for £300,000-plus, the manager has money to spend - plus wages to pay.

Two new players are due to be signed around the middle of the week, while loanee Simon Walton can play two more matches before returning to Charlton.

Rangers manager Gary Waddock said: “The penalty changed the game. It should not have affected our players, but it did.

“If we had had a decision like that we would have gone on to dominate the game. Ipswich did very well considering they played extra-time on Tuesday and then had the downer of losing on penalties.”