Ipswich Town 3-1 Birmingham City: Conor Chaplin sets Tractor Boys on way to victory
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Blues players showed their support for boss Tony Mowbray before kick-off at Portman Road
Conor Chaplin's audacious first-half strike set Ipswich Town on their way to victory over a spirited Birmingham City at Portman Road and moved them back level on points with second-placed Leeds United in the Championship promotion race.
Chaplin's clever flicked finish seemed like the minimum reward Town deserved for a dominant first-half display.
But Blues, with Mark Venus in control while fellow former Ipswich defender Tony Mowbray is temporarily absent as he undergoes medical treatment for an unnamed illness, were level by the break thanks to a lovely first-time strike by Jordan James after a fine run and cutback by Koji Miyoshi.
An increasingly open game hung in the balance until the final 10 minutes when substitute Jeremy Sarmiento scored from close range after a slick move to put Ipswich 2-1 ahead.
And fellow sub Omari Hutchinson rounded off a fourth win in four league games with a cool one-on-one finish in injury time.
Leeds scored three late goals to beat leaders Leicester City on Friday and Ipswich also needed late goals to keep in touch in the race for automatic promotion.
A Blues side, who had taken 10 points from 18 and climbed to 15th in the table since Mowbray was appointed before arriving in Suffolk, provided stubborn opposition befitting of their boss.
But a third consecutive win - or avoiding a 12th away league loss in 15 - proved beyond them despite showing impressive resilience after a one-sided first half.
The Tractor Boys dominated from the off, with Wes Burns outstanding on the right flank before injury forced his early exit.
Burns almost teed up Kieffer Moore, who then blasted an effort over after good work by Chaplin. But Chaplin then took centre-stage as the hosts controlled possession and piled forward at will.
The midfielder miscued when well placed, headed narrowly wide and also tested visiting keeper John Ruddy with a decent curling effort.
Chaplin was not to be denied for long though, grabbing his 11th goal of a productive season with a brilliant mid-air back-flick to divert Sam Morsy's 20-yard strike into the net following some neat approach play from Hutchinson.
Blues had been second best but levelled in first-half stoppage time when James found the net with a simple shot in the area - his eighth goal of the season.
A triple substitution that saw Siriki Dembele, Juninho Bacuna and Ivan Sunjic introduced increased Birmingham's threat as the game became stretched.
But it was Ipswich who took advantage of the visitors' growing attacking belief, Sarmiento tapping home and Hutchinson running on to Moore's flick from a throw-in to score the third.
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk:
"It was an excellent performance in all aspects. I liked us on the ball, off the ball and I liked us physically.
"We looked fresh and really fit and our mentality was outstanding in how we approached the game and how we responded to the setback just before half-time.
"We did really well in the second half because we were so dominant in the first half and should been a couple of goals ahead. It would be easy for us to let the blow of the goal before half-time rock us but it didn't.
"Birmingham made some good chances at half-time, but it was a case of patience and the goal would come. The belief was always there on the pitch and on the sidelines."
Birmingham assistant boss Mark Venus told BBC WM:
"We have to hold our hands up and respect how well Ipswich played.
"We tried to compete and the lads have given everything, but it just it wasn't enough. They had more quality and they played very well.
"Every time we broke forward we looked like we could create. But we didn't break forward enough, we didn't run forward enough and we didn't pass forward enough. And we were punished for that. There weren't enough moments from us and there needs to be more.
"We know what we are trying to get out of the team. When you look at Ipswich, that is where we want to be as a football team and a football club, but we know that there is a lot of hard work in front of that.
"Tony [Mowbray] hasn't been in touch today. He is still recovering from his surgery."