Birmingham were beaten by a 38th minute goal from Ipswich`s Murphy and were unable to find a reply against a physical Ipswich team at Portman Road.
Ipswich hardly had a sniff first half other than the goal as Randolph had a quiet game. Second half they also were very limited by an impressive Blues backline, only getting in when Blues were stretched pushing forward.
Both Spector and Zigic picked up bookings for their troubles. Caddis was replaced by Jordan Ibe at half time. Lee Novak was subbed due to a pulled hamstring on 79` but Lee Clark revealed after the game that the staff are confident he will shake it off comfortably.
Clark also introduced Chris Burke on 59` for Macheda but he failed to help Birmingham find that final third quality to get back into the game.
Blues had enough of the ball and plenty of set pieces near the end but in truth they never really troubled Ipswich who comfortably dealt with Blues for most of the afternoon.
Another defensive error cost Birmingham this week as a miskick failed to clear the ball, once it fell to the edge of the box Murphy just slotted it home. Other that than the defence stood up to the challenge of the game as evidenced by Spector`s black-eye. Spector did hint the poor condition of the pitch had a part to play in the goal.
Blues really lacked that final pass as they missed a few opportunities to hurt Ipswich, a clear lack of quality meant Blues just could not get back into the game like they did against Blackpool.
Lee Novak had a few chances to put Birmingham back into the game but he was not on his game today, despite working hard as always.
All in all Blues failed to do enough to get into the game and made a mistake that allowed Ipswich to get the lead and then sit tight without putting in a much better performance than the visitors.
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