Ipswich Town 3-2 Swansea City: Taylor, Chaplin and Hirst goals fire Ipswich to win

Jack Taylor (right) has scored two goals in his past two games for Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town moved level on points with Championship leaders Leicester City as they recovered from an early setback to beat Swansea City.

Jay Fulton headed the Swans in front seven minutes into a breathless first half dominated by Ipswich, who equalised with Jack Taylor's spectacular long-range strike before Conor Chaplin fired them into the lead.

The home side would have been out of sight by half-time were it not for a series of saves by Swansea goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, but he could not stop George Hirst extending Ipswich's advantage with a penalty after the break.

Swansea's Liam Cullen was then sent off after receiving a second yellow card and, although Jamal Lowe scored a fine individual goal for the visitors in added time, the result was never truly in doubt.

As well as now only trailing Leicester at the top of the table by goal difference, Kieran McKenna's team maintain their eight-point cushion over Leeds United in third place. Swansea, meanwhile, slip to 17th.

Ipswich have been one of the success stories of the Championship this season, soaring into the automatic promotion places after moving up from League One last term.

The division's top scorers' solitary league defeat of this campaign came at home by fellow high flyers Leeds in August, and Swansea threatened to inflict an unexpected second loss when they took a surprise lead in the seventh minute.

A free-kick floated beyond the back post found Lowe unmarked inside the Ipswich penalty area, and he dinked a delicate cross to Fulton, who glanced his header into the bottom corner.

Ipswich were not fazed by falling behind and were quick to get on top of their opponents, with Chaplin shooting over from a well-worked corner before Omari Hutchison had a curling effort saved by Rushworth.

The Swansea goalkeeper could do nothing about the equaliser as Taylor took aim from 25 yards and let fly with a thunderous right-footed shot which swerved away from Rushworth's reach into the top corner.

Rushworth was kept busy by a flurry of Ipswich chances, first repelling a Cameron Burgess header and then making an excellent close-range save from Hutchison, who appeared certain to score after dispossessing his fellow Chelsea loanee Bashir Humphreys.

The home side were not to be denied for long and, five minutes after Taylor's leveller, they were ahead as Chaplin hooked in at the near post after a nod-down from Hirst.

Ipswich continued to attack relentlessly. Hutchison found himself free in Swansea's box again, but played a square ball just beyond the sliding Nathan Broadhead, before Hirst had a powerful shot palmed away by Rushworth.

The second half was just as one-sided as the first. Harry Clarke had a goal disallowed for an apparent push by a team-mate as he headed in from a corner, before Taylor earned Ipswich a penalty when he fell under a challenge from Harrison Ashby.

Hirst fired his spot-kick low beyond Rushworth and, if Swansea were not completely beaten at that point, whatever faint hopes they may have had disappeared when Cullen - booked in the first half - picked up his second yellow card for bringing down Leif Davis as he raced towards the visitors' penalty area.

Chaplin curled the subsequent free-kick narrowly wide and he was one of the Ipswich players substituted in the closing stages as the home side looked to conserve energy.

In the fifth of nine minutes added on, Lowe dribbled his way from the left wing, past two Ipswich defenders and around goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky to score Swansea's second in some style, but that was too little too late for Michael Duff's men, who finished a second successive game with 10 men.

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna: "It was another game where we've conceded an early goal and we don't want that to happen, but our response was really good.

"It was a great goal by Jack to get us off and running and we were relentless for the rest of the first half. We could have scored any number of goals.

"We were a threat all game. Swansea were brave and played a high line but it was up to the boys to exploit that space and I thought we did that really well."

Swansea boss Michael Duff: "You could sense and feel the anxiety in the stadium (after Lowe scored).

"I thought we were excellent until we scored. We had a mad 10 minutes where to be fair to Jack Taylor, he scored an absolute worldie from our mistake.

"The second goal's not good enough, people not doing their jobs. You can't come to a place like this and gift them a goal like that.

"After half time I thought we wrestled the momentum back and I thought we were good.

"But it was a frustrating day because you're pleased with the character and some of the quality, but frustrated that we gave away poor goals."