Manager Mick McCarthy knew that his usual mantra of a point away is always a good point, would not hold water here.
Town were facing a team with the worst defence in the Championship and sitting uncomfortably at the bottom of the pack.
He knew, in his heart of hearts, that the blues had to take all three points yesterday to compensate for a string of draws and put his players in the right frame of mind for the forthcoming international break, which kicked in when the final whistle blew at the New York Stadium.
It was disappointing to see Ainsley Maitland-Niles over his foot injury but only sitting on the bench. That said, it was probably a sensible decision as his deputy Jonathan Douglas, fired in a delightful second to put the Tractor Boys in command.
Brett Pitman too got on the score sheet again with an early strike after Town had had a number of half chances earlier. The goal when it came after just eight minutes, would set the tone for the rest of the match and where goals have been hard to come by before, yesterday there were goals galore!
Ipswich Town were three goals to the good before half-time, when Murphy took advantage of some slack marking and he was to replicate his sharpness in front of goal after 48 minutes, when he put another one past the helpless Lee Camp in The Millers goal.
It’s a long time since last time that a blues side had a four goal lead away from home. I remember seeing them once do it at Goodison Park in the days of under-fire Everton boss Gordon Lee, when the seat cushioned rained down on the home team. I am sure there have probably been more since but they are indeed a rare occurrence.
But all good things must come to and end and even with a four nil lead Town reverted to their usual script and somehow let Rotherham back into the game.
You could argue that Dean Gerken was blameless for both wonder strikes from Barker and Derbyshire but the defence was not. From 0-4 it had gone to 2-4 in what seemed like a blink of an eye and many of us feared that it was a case of here we go again with still a half hour or so to play!
Thankfully Daryl Murphy had other ideas and when he ghosted into the penalty area from a quickly taken throw in and blasted the ball into the corner of the net for his remarkable hat-trick we knew it was all over bar the shouting now!
Town have now gone four games unbeaten but even better news is the fact that we are picking up three points again!
It must be a great relief too for Daryl Murphy to be back among the goals after so long and this might be the catalyst for a change in his fortunes too.
He will certainly be in much better spirits when he joins up with the Republic of Ireland squad for their crucial play-off encounters with Bosnia Herzegovina which begins on Friday.
Let us make no mistake here. This was an important win for Town. We may still be four points adrift of the top six but we now have momentum again and although we remain in tenth place in the table the signs are encouraging for a good run in to Christmas.
Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich
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