sport

Ugly win delights McCarthy

Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy saluted his team's gritty show after they battled to a shock 1-0 win over Blackpool.

Michael Chopra's second-half strike was his fifth of the season and helped ease their relegation fears in the Championship.

"It was a horrible, scrappy, scruffy, ugly, magnificent 1-0 win," McCarthy said. "I'm not bothered how we get them as long as we get the points to keep us in this league. We need everyone scrapping and they we're all doing that."

Chopra's winner came when he raced onto a superb, lofted through-ball from Guirane N'Daw, shrugged off the challenge of Alex Baptiste and coolly slotted a low shot past keeper Matt Gilks.

Regarding Chopra's match-winner and holding on to the striker in the January transfer window, McCarthy added: "Some clubs asked about him but I made the decision we needed him and needed his goals.

"His winner was the one bit of real quality in the whole game. From the time he made his run to the time he got across the defender and held him off to the minute he finished with his weaker left foot.

"The defender was all over him and the keeper narrowed his angle, so it was real quality. He showed a bit of class. He's got something about him. He scores his goals but it was the way he went about his job and worked hard.

"He stopped them playing from the back, as best he could. I thought he was excellent."