Emergency defender wins it for Clarets

Chris McCann at centre-half, yes it was a shock to me too, but on consideration I'd seen him play there on numerous occasions during his first season at Burnley alongside Neal Trotman in the youth team. For some time during that season I thought that was his position until he moved into midfield when Ryan Townsend was fit.

I certainly wasn't expecting him to play there for the first team, pre-match discussions had already decided that Frank Sinclair would partner Michael Duff and our biggest poser was who would play full back.

Steve Cotterill's logic was sound, this way there was no need to be switching too many players and upsetting the balance of the side and so McCann for the suspended Stephen Foster was one of two changes, the other seeing Gifton Noel-Williams back in place of Kyle Lafferty who reverted to the bench.

There was one other late change, that of referee Paul Robinson who was replaced by Phil Joslin who was taking charge of his third game between these two clubs. Joslin had something of a disastrous afternoon, and it is fair to say turned in a performance that was nothing short of incompetent. I still don't understand how on earth he decided on those yellow cards for Micah Hyde and James O'Connor in the first half, one of which was to prove critical at the end of the game.

Ipswich got off to a good start against us and were the better side for the first twenty minutes. We struggled to find our rhythm at all but we were defending well and restricted the visitors to very little in terms of chances or even half chances.

It was further up the field where we were having no luck, Ipswich were the more progressive in midfield and so we weren't able to get our wide men into the game as much as we would have liked. But it was the Clarets who came closest to taking the lead midway through the half.

Frank got in a cross from the right hand side and the Ipswich keeper Supple wasn't able to get hold of it. The ball dropped for McCann who hit it first time on the volley with some power from just a few yards out. It looked a goal all the way but a defender got across to block it.

This was the signal for Burnley to up their game and we started to put Ipswich under some pressure. We were now getting the ball into their box, causing them problems, and Supple did well to keep out a shot from Steve Jones after he cut in from the left wing.

We weren't able to turn it into a goal and by half time the game had become something of a stalemate, and the teams went in level before Ipswich returned about three minutes ahead of the Clarets, something becoming a regular feature now in our games.

This time it was us out of the starting blocks the quickest. Andy Gray had a chance as he tried to lob the ball over Supple, only to see it cleared, and Jones, again cutting inside, saw his cross shot go just wide of the post.

We were the better side now by far but again the goal didn't come and again the game dropped into something of a stalemate. Ipswich looked content with what they had, they continued to be over physical and Gary Roberts again showed us, as he had done in the friendly at Accrington, that he is very good at going down when no one has touched him.

Only in the last ten minutes did Ipswich look as though they might try and win the game and they thought they had done it when Roberts scored from the left hand side of the box only for the assistant referee to flag him offside. If the assistant got the decision correct then well done to him, if he got it wrong then it serves you right Roberts, you got what you deserved.

We made substitutions, three of them, but we didn't look as though we would break the deadlock. A late goal had won it for us against Preston in the last home game but this time it didn't look as though it would come.

We won a corner on the right hand side and as Duff, yes centre half Duff, went to take it, the fourth official held up the board to indicate there would be three minutes of stoppage time to play.

Duff put the ball down, played it short to Alan Mahon, the first of the three subs, who crossed to the far post. And there was McCann to get on the end of it and head home, his first home goal since we beat the same team last season. There was no way back for Ipswich, there was just long enough for referee Joslin to complete a dreadful afternoon by sending off Hyde for a second yellow card.

He did his best to ruin the game, he certainly spoiled it with his nit picking, his ridiculous yellow cards, and basically his total incompetence. I'm sure the fans of both sides must have been leaving with the same opinion of him.

Ipswich, well I never thought I'd see a physical Ipswich side, but they were at times over physical and it is no wonder they have the worst disciplinary record in the league this season.

As for us, this was the sort of result you need if you are going to achieve anything. No team plays well every game, the ones who are successful are the ones who get results when they are not at their best. It was nice to win at home again, it was Boxing Day last year the last time we won successive home games.

A young player, playing out of position, scoring the winner, surely he's going to get my man of the match vote. He was in the running but sorry Chris it is going elsewhere, not far away, it is going to your central defensive partner Michael Duff. It was an outstanding performance from our Northern Ireland international, he's getting a different partner every game at the moment but he's been in excellent form for weeks now.

But well done to everyone, there were some players out there not at their best after suffering from the flu symptoms that kept Gifton out at Luton. We weren't at our best, but we kept going, and going, and going – and finally got our rewards. Freeze that Teletext again Steve.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Michael Duff, Chris McCann, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Alan Mahon 78), James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Steve Jones (John Spicer 84), Gifton Noel-Williams (Kyle Lafferty 87), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Wayne Thomas.

Ipswich: Shane Supple, Alex Bruce (Luis Castro Sito 58), Jason De Vos, Richard Naylor, Dan Harding, Mark Noble, Simon Walton, Sylvain Legwinski, Matt Richards, Gary Roberts, Alan Lee. Subs not used: Jaroslav Drobny, Jaime Peters, Darren Currie, Danny Haynes.

Referee: Phil Joslin (Newark).

Attendance: 11,709.