Ipswich Town 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Daryl Murphy (left) now has 10 league goals for the season

Daryl Murphy struck twice as Ipswich overcame an in-form Wolves side to move into the Championship play-off places.

The Republic of Ireland striker curled in the opener from an angle after robbing Kevin McDonald of possession.

Wolves, beaten just once since August, levelled when James Henry's cross went straight in, but Murphy raced clear to lob in his 10th of the season.

Mick McCarthy's side have now only lost once in 13 outings and sit just three points behind new leaders Bournemouth.

The Ipswich boss was without five key players from their 2-0 victory at Blackpool on Saturday, but his replacements helped deliver a deserved victory against a side who have impressed following promotion from League One.

A run of one defeat in 13 games before kick-off had catapulted Kenny Jackett's side to fourth.

McCarthy led Wolves to the top tier in 2009, but his current side looked more impressive on the night and should have led early on when Jay Tabb rounded off a superb team move with a tame finish.

Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy spent more than five years as Wolves manager

Wolves - who wore black armbands in memory of their former defender Eddie Stuart, who died on Tuesday at the age of 83 - lost Dave Edwards to injury before falling behind to Murphy's classy finish.

He gave his side a half-time lead after McDonald's error near the Ipswich penalty box and keeper Carl Ikeme kept the score at 1-0 moments later, denying David McGoldrick's low effort.

Ipswich are now in their 13th consecutive season in the second tier, and with nine clubs within six points of top spot, the competitive nature of the division is evident.

Wolves levelled fortuitously after the break when Henry's whipped delivery evaded everyone to nestle in the net, but their parity was short-lived.

Murphy's second - a lofted finish over the onrushing Ikeme - was expertly judged and Town comfortably saw out proceedings to end Wolves' run of six away games without defeat.

Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy:

"It was a fabulous performance and Daryl Murphy has been great.

"I was delighted, we played well and I think we deserved the win - it is better still when you deserve the win.

"It was a confident performance and one of our better ones this season. We didn't let Wolves play. They are a good team who play some good football but we didn't allow them to.

"It was a really good competitive Championship game with some quality between two sides near the top of the league."

Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Kenny Jackett:

"I have no complaints, Ipswich worked our goalkeeper more than we worked their goalkeeper.

"You look at the nature of their goals, they were two quite glaring individual mistakes from Kevin McDonald and Lee Evans.

"But both have been good players for us.

"You can look at other incidents - we might have had a penalty in the first half on Michael Jacobs and sometimes they are given.

"But Ipswich put pressure on us physically and we never exploited the spaces that were out there."