CUE for celebration - Ipswich Town are out of the bottom three!

Carl Marston

CUE for celebration - Ipswich Town are out of the bottom three!

But one person who is not in the mood to celebrate is Town boss Roy Keane. For him, Town's escape from the relegation zone, thanks to Saturday's 3-1 home win over Blackpool, is merely a small stepping stone.

"It's nothing to be proud of," insisted Keane.

"We're out of the bottom three, but that's nothing to celebrate at this football club.

"We should be eight or nine points better off, and I wonder why, although I know that's because of giving away some bad goals.

"We had been in the bottom three for a long time, because of our very poor start to the season and dropping so many points," added Keane.

Town are now unbeaten in 10 games, thanks to three wins and seven draws, although many of those draws could have been three-pointers due to fluffed chances in front of goal.

Countless opportunities went begging again against Blackpool, but they were not costly this time.

Keane confirmed: "We might be unbeaten in 10 games, but it's victories that we need.

"We missed chances again today, but fortunately the press has got something a little different to write about.

"When Blackpool pulled it back to 2-1, I thought we were in for a difficult last 20 minutes. But fortunately we got the third goal straight away, and that killed the game.

"I don't know if this was our best performance. I don't tend to look back at previous games, and there have been other performances where we have done reasonably well, without taking our chances.

"I didn't think we were that wonderful today.

"But I thought it was a good game. Blackpool are a good team and they had a lot of possession, with the extra man in midfield. Yet they didn't really hurt us.

"We played like the away team at times, hitting them on the break. We scored three goals, but we should have scored six.

"We could have won 5-1 or 6-1. That would have been a nice boost for us, and would have sent out a message to the rest of the division.

"But we'll take the three goals and move on to next weekend," added Keane.

The Irishman also revealed that he had a sneaking suspicion that Jon Stead would score - and the striker obliged after just 29 seconds.

"I always encourage my players to shoot. If they see the goal their eyes should light up," said Keane.

"I had a feeling for Steady today. I thought he'd score and he took his early chance well. That's four goals in the last eight games for him now.

"I thought that Steady and Jon Walters were a real handful up front."