Derby 0 Ipswich 1

IPSWICH boss Mick McCarthy admitted it was daylight robbery after his captain Carlos Edwards snatched a stoppage-time winner.

Victory lifted the Tractor Boys six points above the relegation zone.

A sheepish McCarthy admitted: “We burgled it.

“I thought I heard the sirens coming and I thought, ‘Shut the doors because the police are on their way’ because a robbery was going on.

“Did we deserve those three points? No, not on that performance, they were better than us.”

Derby should have got something out of the game.

But Jamie Ward’s first-half penalty miss after Tommy Smith’s foul on Rams skipper Richard Keogh proved vital.

Amazingly it was the fourth successive spot-kick failure — three in the last three games — by Nigel Clough’s team.

Frustrated boss Clough said: “It’s a highly unusual stat to miss four penalties on the spin — incredible.

“One miss you don’t mind, then you miss two consecutively and you start thinking of other takers — I’ll be fighting over the next one myself!”

Ward’s 44th-minute spot-kick was kept out by goalkeeper Scott Loach, who was Ipswich’s hero with a string of fine saves.

The former England Under-21 keeper superbly denied Ward and Craig Bryson.

And even when he was beaten by Conor Sammon’s 29th-minute strike, the woodwork came to his rescue.

Ipswich seemed happy to settle for a point.

But in the fourth minute of stoppage time Edwards ran from inside his own half to smash a 20-yard shot home.

Malcolm Carlisle (The Sun)