Ipswich Town 3-0 Hull City: Kieran McKenna's side return to top of Championship
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Conor Chaplin curled home his fourth goal of the season for Ipswich
Ipswich continued their exhilarating start to the season with victory over Hull City at Portman Road as they returned to the top of the Championship table.
In a match-up of two in-form sides, Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin scored first-half goals from outside the box to put the Tractor Boys in control.
The Tigers had won their three previous away games, and were unbeaten in eight, but skipper Lewie Coyle had to go off with a facial injury after the break and they fell further behind when Marcus Harness sidefooted the third.
Scott Twine was just too high with a free-kick as Hull sought to spark a revival, and Ipswich keeper Vaclav Hladky had to make a series of late saves to deny them a consolation, but his side held out for their eighth win in 10 games.
It put them one point ahead of Leicester, who play Preston North End on Wednesday.
Ipswich had skipper Sam Morsy back from suspension as they looked to return to winning ways following Saturday's 1-1 draw at Huddersfield.
And they only had to wait five minutes for the opening goal as Chaplin allowed Leif Davis' crossfield ball to run on to Burns and the Wales international drilled a low shot past Ryan Allsop.
Harness forced a save from Allsop at his near post and Massimo Luongo shot just wide before Davis turned creator again as Kieran McKenna's side doubled their lead.
He cut the ball back to Chaplin from the left side of the box and the striker - who contributed 26 league goals to last season's promotion campaign - was given far too much space by the Hull defence as he curled into the top corner from 20 yards.
Hull had won on their last six league visits to Ipswich - between 2011 and 2020 - and Aaron Connolly had a chance to reduce the deficit early in the second half as he spun in the box but shot the wrong side of the post.
But a long clearance from Hladky found George Hirst in space on the left and he laid it into Harness' path for an easy finish.
Cyrus Christie, Twine, Jadon Philogene and Liam Delap all tested Hladky. The Czech keeper kept his place despite last season's first-choice Christian Walton being fit again and ensured a fifth clean sheet in the league as Hull suffered a defeat which saw them slip three places to eighth.
Ipswich head coach Kieran McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk:
"From the first minute, tactically the players showed an outstanding understanding of the game and the execution was top notch - a night to be proud of.
"It's a great reinforcement for the players and supporters of the work we're doing, but it's only one game. We've got to be ready for the next opponent.
"We had a lead to defend but we stayed on the front foot and at 2-0, we pushed and pushed for the third goal and we got that.
"We've had some high-scoring affairs here which have been exciting but it's nice to win a game with a bit more of a margin."
Hull boss Liam Rosenior told BBC Radio Humberside:
"We played a team who we gave the first goal to - it was a great strike but we have to deal with the initial ball better.
"They got in a flow and everything they tried, every flick and every backheel, was coming off and the basics of our game, simple passes going astray, meant it was one of those days for us.
"What's going to be interesting for me is to see how we respond on Saturday, because that is what the Championship is about - we have to take out medicine and make sure it doesn't happen again.
"It was a really technical game, a really tactical game - there were so many times it went up to Hirst, he set it up, they got wide and got a cross in the box; it was going up to our strikers and it wasn't sticking."