Boothroyd hails resilient Hornets

ADRIAN BOOTHROYD hailed the resilience of his side after they returned to the top of the Championship with a 2-1 win at Ipswich on Saturday, ending the East Anglian side’s 19-match unbeaten run at Portman Road in the process.

The Hornets are back in pole position courtesy of the victory, with previous leaders West Brom losing by the same score at Barnsley.

“Ipswich is a tough place to come,” said Boothroyd. “Jim Magilton (Town’s manager) is a great lad who’s doing really well and they have got a wonderful record at home.

“He’s at a good club with a fantastic philosophy and it was always going to be extremely hard.”

Boothroyd admitted the home side had not made it easy for his players.

“We had to defend for long periods and be resilient and, thankfully, we managed to hang on,” he added. “We scored at the right time and it was important that when we had decent spells in the game we used them well.

“The players I’ve got here have got fantastic strengths and work exceptionally hard for each other. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing.

“In terms of winning, this was a 10 out of 10 effort. In terms of style, it was probably a five.”

Third-placed Bristol City kept up the pressure on second-placed West Bromwich Albion with a 2-1 win over strugglers Sheffield Wednesday, with goals from Dele Adebola and Bradley Orr.

Robins boss Gary Johnson was pleased with the response to a disappointing defeat to QPR, saying: “We had enough chances to have won 5-2 but I was delighted with the lads because they worked hard throughout and we got our football back together after a bad result.”

Elsewhere, Plymouth moved to the fringe of the play-offs with an impressive victory at Leicester, a result which would have tasted particularly sweet to chairman Paul Stapleton, who has been threatened with legal action by City manager Ian Holloway. The pair are at loggerheads over Holloway’s conduct during the end of his spell as Pilgrims manager but Stapleton had the last laugh on Saturday, as Peter Halmosi scored a first-half winner.

Preston moved out of the bottom three with a win against Coventry, while Southampton fell further into trouble after a 3-2 home defeat to Queens Park Rangers. Colchester earned a useful point at Burnley, while Hull recovered from 2-0 down to snatch a draw against Blackpool.