Birmingham City 0 Ipswich Town 1

On a day when four new managers were unveiled in the Championship, Mick McCarthy’s impact at Ipswich arguably carried the greatest weight.

By going back to basics, and setting out his new team in his favoured 4-4-2 formation, McCarthy was able to engineer a first league win in 12 games for the bottom club.

His cause was undoubtedly helped by another inspid home performance from Birmingham, yet there was no doubt his presence on the touchline gave Ipswich a lift.

“You can’t ask for better than a result like that to end a losing streak for the team and a losing streak for me,” said McCarthy, referring to the end of his previous tenure at Wolves.

“I went to give them a pat on the back afterwards and a little bit of my usual caustic soda. I said to them they should be embarrassed they are bottom. If they had played like that all season I would not be doing the job.”

McCarthy could not have wished for a better start, with on-loan DJ Campbell scoring his third goal in five starts from Lee Martin’s pass after eight minutes.

Ipswich might have extended their lead through Martin before Marlon King went close from a free-kick for the home side.

It wasn’t until manager Lee Clark introduced Nikola Zigic into the action that Birmingham began to unsettle their visitors. The Serb should have scored within four minutes of replacing Leroy Lita when he was put clear by King, but poked his shot too close to Henderson.

Clark lamented: “We ahad chances to win the game 3-1 and I thought Nikola (Zigic) was excellent after he came on.”

Ian Bayley (Daily Telegraph)