A very rare away win and clean sheet saw an extremely welcome three point for Town, which will all but extinguish any lingering fears of relegation. Luton on the other hand, having lost their manager Mike Newell in midweek now find themselves in the bottom three and staring at the trap door. Notably we managed to break the hoo-doo of having to play a team with a new manager at the helm yet again, this time another caretaker-manager situation.

Luton were rarely in this one-sided battle, and most of the fans' focus seemed to be their anger towards the Luton board of directors for long spells in the game. Town were in command throughout, easily weathered a spell with only ten men when Jason De Vos had to leave the field for stitches, and took the lead ten minutes before half time.

The goal came from a Gary Roberts free kick out wide and not far into the Luton half. The ball soared over the box to Owen Garvan who, with his back to goal curled the ball goalwards back across the box. His disappointment at seeing his tricky effort come back off the bar would have been short lived as Alan Lee poached in to nod home the rebound. Town came close to scoring several times before and after the opener, and the only surprise at half time was that we were only a single goal in front.

It was around the hour mark when Ipswich got the second goal to settle nerves a bit for the visiting fans. Fabian Wilnis did the hard work to get in a very good cross from a very advanced position, and it was Jon Walters who climbed to head the ball under challenge from the Luton goalie, and although he appeared to be fouled the ball cannoned back off his head to an unmarked Matt Richards, who rifled the ball home from six yards. Richards had come on in the first half for Sylvain Legwinski who had picked up an injury.

From this point the game was won, with a few more good chances coming our way and little in reply from Luton. This was a good performance all round, and of course three very important points. Alan Lee seemed to show more discipline today, perhaps with Jim's angry words still wringing in his ears from his sending off. It was great to see Matt Richards get a goal and put in a good game too, a real confidence booster.

Maybe we can relax a little in out remaining games and play similar football and hopefully get a few more results like this to finish the season on a higher note, and drag ourselves up into a slightly more respectable league position.

An away defeat at promotion challenging Preston, but all in all a better performance. Unfortunately another early goal proved to be our undoing, and although Town had their chances we never got the equaliser and made the long journey home with zero points.

Dan Harding managed to pick up his umpteenth yellow of the season and will now sit out two games for his troubles. This will probably give Fabian Wilnis a chance to slip back into the starting line up.

Town could not make it three wins on the trot, and after the excellent thumping of Hull midweek, the local derby with Southend finished with the visitors taking revenge for their home defeat earlier in the season. Southend proved a far more hungry team today, fighting for their lives at the wrong end of the table.

It was end to end stuff from the off, and Southend set out their stall early on with their man of the season Freddie Eastwood wasting a good chance when he found himself away on the right, but the striker composed himself and shot wide. Eastwood looked a threat throughout but never took the chances that came to him.

A great chance for Ipswich went begging when unusually, loanee Francis Jeffers performed an airshot on a ball from Alan Lee. This would be one of Jeffers last kicks in the game, he started limping and left the field with what turned out to be a hamstring problem which will see the end of his spell at Portman Road. Danny Haynes replaced him on the day and looked up for it, chasing well and getting stuck in.

All seemed to be going well for Town, weathering the odd break forward but generally pushing Southend. Alan Lee broke into the box, beat and completely wrong footed the defender who tripped Lee as he shaped up to shoot. A clear penalty, everyone in the ground except the referee thought, much to the disgust of the home fans. This set the tone of the officials afternoon really, some abysmal decisions from all three of them.

And wouldn't you just know it, with the our lot still bemoaning their luck and remonstrating with the ref, Southend went up the other end of the pitch and scored. A pretty lame goal too for us defensively, a bouncer of a cross coming in from the left was watched by all including Lewis Price as it just sneaked in at the far post. Most of the Town back line protested for offside, presumably against Sodje who let the ball run through his legs on its way goalwards. It’s hard to say whether he was offside, although I did think so at the time. Notably Alan Lee's anger towards the ref earned him a yellow.

Ipswich continued to push, they appeared to kick it up a gear maybe spurred on by the injustice before. Danny Haynes looked to have won a penalty as he raced into the box on the right but, although the foul was given the ref insisted the offence was outside the area. Another dubious non-penalty decision. The free kick from Gary Roberts cannoned into the wall and a shot went wide.

Southend were still giving Town trouble on the break, and before half time doubled their lead although again it was in controversial circumstances. Dan Harding was adjudged to have brought down a player right on the byline outside the box, when from where I was sitting it looked as though he dived. Harding was harshly booked, but at least we had a chance to defend the set piece, or should have. The ball in found an unmarked Clarke at the back post who rifled home - no excuses for such poor marking.

The second half was always going to be hard given Southend's determination and hunger for points, on top of a two goal advantage. We pushed as before the break, but Southend stood fast and things became more and more frustrating. This was not helped by the fact that Shrimpers 'keeper Flahavan was having an absolute pearler of a game. He made some first class stops, the only shots beating him hit the post anyway. Apart from one that ended up in the net, but unfortunately Alan Lee clearly handled the ball in a high challenge with the goalie, a bit Maradonna-esque. The ref was having none of it though, and being in a card-happy vein of form showed Lee his second yellow and off he trudged. That was it from thereon in.

This was a poor performance on the whole, although we showed early spirit going forward, it was not matched by any class or commitment at the back. This was our undoing as a team in Southend's position is always going to defend a lead to the death. Those two wins earlier in the week now seem so much more important as we'd be staring the likes of Southend right in the face now with the table being tight. Preston away is a game we can realistically expect nothing from, although they managed to slip up in similar fashion this weekend, David Nugent getting crocked along the way, so you never know. Luton will be fighting as hard as Southend to get upstream from the whirlpool down into League One. Ulp.