Forster enjoys role reversal

Ipswich manager Joe Royle jokes that he would have signed striker Nicky Forster just to prevent him scoring against his team, but the arrival at Portman Road of Ipswich's ritual torturer is having a positive effect as he marked his debut with the winning goal.

"I think I scored four for Reading against Ipswich and one for Birmingham," recalled Forster, whose partnership with Sam Parkin has a lot to live up to after the exit of last season's 40-goal duo of Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi.

"Although we have effectively replaced them I think we're very different," he continued. "The team itself will be slightly different. We scored a huge amount of goals last year but we conceded a huge amount and one conscious effort from us all is that we're going to try and leak less goals."

The approach worked in a dour game, as Forster forced home Darren Currie's free-kick in the 64th minute. Parkin then wasted a string of decent openings and at the death Ipswich goalkeeper Lewis Price made an astonishing reflex save from Alan Lee.

Cardiff manager Dave Jones said: "The team haven't been together for very long and they need to gel quickly. We've brought in nine new players, seven of them on duty here. One lapse in concentration and we paid."

Simon Goodley (Daily Telegraph)