How the Irish fared: Tractor Boys coming unstuck

Daryl Murphy continued the season of his life on Saturday but there’s now a real danger his goals — 23 and counting — will count for little at the end of the campaign.

Murphy’s close-range effort hauled Ipswich level in Saturday’s Championship clash at Middlesbrough but the hosts hit back to romp to a 4-1 win. The result means third-placed Boro are now one of three teams eight points clear of Mick McCarthy’s men.

And the manager conceded Ipswich’s hopes of automatic promotion are all but over: “I don’t see there’s any chance we’re going to win three games more than all of them.”