How Phil Brown beamed with pleasure at full-time yesterday, his tanned glee probably visible from space. His team had won, won well, and the scorers were all men he has tempted to Hull in the past few months. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?

Following the slightly disappointing 0-4 midweek defeat in the League Cup by Chelsea, the City manager made four alterations to the side as the Tigers sought a second home win of the season, with Andy Dawson coming in for the stuttering Damien Delaney at left-back, Deano returning to fitness, Marney coming in for Livermore and Garcia replacing Elliott as we lined up: Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Brown, Dawson; Garcia, Ashbee (c), Marney, Pedersen; Okocha, Windass.

A stupidly early kick-off forced upon us by the intransigent wish of Sky Sports to televise a minority sport later in the day made for a tepid atmosphere at the Circle – a reasonable number of Ipswich fans had made the trip north, but they seemed as affected by the lunchtime commencement as their hosts, and the game was not played amid a particularly thunderous backdrop of noise.

This was also because Ipswich had made a very lively start attacking the South Stand, and Roberts should have given them the lead after just five minutes when being fed into space in the City area, but his low shot was smartly repelled by Boaz Myhill’s trailing leg, and City survived.

Indeed, our visitors were comfortably in the ascendancy, Tommy Miller coming close with a shot from distance that walloped Myhill’s right-hand post to bring memories of the horrific 2-5 loss last season briefly surfacing…and then being quickly put to one side as City took the lead after ten minutes. Jay Jay Okocha and Dean Marney combined from a City corner on our left and the Nigerian’s whipped cross found Henrik Pedersen in a huge amount of space that he used to neatly head past the helpless Neil Alexander – shit marking, great cross, superb header, and a remarkable instance of a short corner actually working.

Ipswich came back, looking commendably unruffled by this unmerited setback, and nearly levelled when Pablo Counago’s shot brought a desperate save from Myhill, the ball appearing to have taken an awkward deflection en route to goal.

And again came Ipswich, Garvan’s deflected shot hitting Myhill’s other post and going wide, and the Tigers were hanging on to their lead by a very narrow margin.

Happily, as the half drawing to a close and Ipswich’s threat beginning to abate, City doubled the lead when Deano’s flighted through ball evading Alex Bruce’s inept attempts to intercept it and put Henrik Pedersen clean through. His low hard shot flashed past Alexander at the near post and made it 2-0 to City after 40 minutes, a harsh scoreline on Ipswich.

Ipswich were now looking a broken side, and Pedersen nearly assumed permanent possession of the match ball after Okocha produced some implausible act of skill on the left, but his shot flew wide via a deflection from a static and bewildered man in blue.

From the resulting corner, Ipswich’s bad day got worse, as another short corner routine on the left involving Okocha and Deano saw a curling cross from our fleet-flooted magician glanced on by Wayne Brown at the far post. Your correspondent, from his view in the East Stand, was just about to exclaim “ooooooh” in acknowledgement of a chance gone begging with no-one on hand to finish it, but Brown’s header had not robbed the ball of its vicious spin and it bounced in off the post to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead with the half almost finished.

There was still time for another goal before referee Lee Probert indicated it was time to go battle the beer queues, when a loose ball fell to Ipswich full-back Harding in stoppage time, and he crashed home a fine shot past the possibly unsighted Myhill to make it 3-1 at half-time – a breathless opening forty-five, an extraordinary array of schoolgirl defending by Ipswich, ruthless finishing by City and no little ill luck for the visitors up front.

But if they could count themselves unlucky to be a couple of goals down at the break, the next 45 was a mess entirely of their own making. City came out with the evident intention of closing the game down, and succeeded with considerable ease.

Our greatest failing against Chelsea in midweek was in allowing goals early in the second half to put the game beyond us. Had we kept it tight then, the game would have remained in reach for much longer. This time, the imperative was to gradually take it away from them. Not that this was made difficult – the opening flurry from the visitors we might have expected simply did not materialise.

In fact, one struggles to recall a single instance of them testing Myhill, remarkable given the busy opening to the afternoon he’d seen. City looked by far the likelier to score, with Okocha a constant source of torment for his leaden-footed would-be markers, and his delivery from out wide probably the best we’ve seen in some years.

Garcia had a chance to make it 4-1, but he blazed over from about twelve yards after good work Pedersen, while some outstanding play from Ricketts gave Windass an opening he was unable to capitalise upon.

However, the game was gently expiring, with the tireless and quite excellent Ashbee cheerfully destroying all attempts at midfield creation, while TurnerBrown – it’s growing difficult to think of them as being anything but a single entity of awesomeness – were borrowing from the Justin Whittle doctrine of They Shall Not Pass.

Windass, quiet once more, was replaced by Stephen McPhee with 25 minutes remaining, while shortly after Pedersen was afforded a standing ovation as he made way for Bryan Hughes.

The game plodded on, Ipswich totally incapable of creating anything noteworthy and the Tigers content to observe their inadequate endeavours with a detached amusement. Jay Jay Okocha was withdrawn for David Livermore as Phil Brown opted – probably unnecessarily – to bulk up his midfield, although keeping the wizardry of Okocha as fresh as possible with two more games in the next six days is sensible management. Credit to his team for affording their boss with such luxuries.

Hughes nearly nabbed a fourth for City with ten minutes left after bundling a shot into the side-netting after a deep cross was missed by the wilting Ipswich side, but no further action of note occurred with both sides recognising the inevitability of a home win, and referee Probert brought a satisfying afternoon to an end.

After the frustration of Sheffield Wednesday last season, this was a very heartening return to form. Granted, Ipswich probably ought to have led, and certainly had the chances to give themselves a very solid first half platform, but failed to do so. We took our chances, made the most of generous marking and when called upon to do so, clinically took the match beyond Ipswich with a composed second half display – to my mind, the most encouraging thing of all.

Controlling a game is not an easy thing at this level. It requires discipline, focus and determination, not always attributes one has associated with City since our return to this level. But with Ian Ashbee’s inspirational leadership in midfield – and how welcome it is to be able to report upon that once more – added to a resolute application throughout the side, we were able to make the most of our first half gifts and record very good win.

We now sit 11^th, with more points separating us from the bottom three than the top two, and only a couple outside the play-offs. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. A final placing of 11^th would be a terrific season’s work after the traumas of 2006/7. We probably lack the consistency and class just yet to make a serious assault on the upper reaches of the table, though at least we appear to have enough to make a grim relegation struggle look unlikely. A season of midtable consolidation? Yes please.

Next up, Charlton at the Circle on Tuesday evening. They lie second, eyeing a swift return to the Premier League, and will present a very stern test – and a very useful indication of just realistic our top-half aspirations are. (AD)