Adrian Boothroyd hailed the resilience of his Watford side after they returned to the top of the Championship with a 2-1 win at Ipswich.The Hornets ended the East Anglian side's unbeaten league run at Portman Road in the process, and are back in pole position as previous leaders West Brom lost by the same score at Barnsley on Saturday.

Boothroyd said: "Ipswich is a tough place to come to.

"Jim Magilton (Town's manager) is a great lad who's doing really well and they've got a wonderful record at home.

"He's at a good club with a fantastic philosophy and it was always going to be extremely hard."

Boothroyd admitted the home side had not made it easy for his players.

"We had to defend for long periods and be resilient and, thankfully, we managed to hang on," he added.

"We scored at the right time and it was important that when we had decent spells in the game we used them well.

"The players I've got here have got fantastic strengths and work exceptionally hard for each other. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing.

"In terms of winning, this was a 10 out of 10 effort. In terms of style, it was probably a five."

Of going back to the top of the table, Boothroyd added: "It gives other teams someone to shoot at and in the past we haven't coped especially well with that. Hopefully it will different this time."

Ipswich manager Jim Magilton saw his side hit back to score but it proved to be a consolation.

Magilton admitted: "The best team won. They started better than us, dominated us physically and didn't allow us to play.

"We were second best all afternoon. Watford are a good side and any team that finishes above them in the table will get promoted.

"The did a very professional job and we didn't have enough courage in our conviction.

"We didn't have enough people believing we could win the game or wanting to get on the ball. I was so disappointed with our tempo, quality and passing.

"We were sloppy and played against a resilient, dogged team that capitalised on it. To lose our home record like that was very disappointing."

Watford took the lead late on in a first half which contained little decent football.

Mathew Sadler's corner was headed in by an unchallenged Tommy Smith for the midfielder's fifth goal of the season and third in two games, following his double strike against Wolves last Saturday.

Ipswich added more fight to their game after the break and hit the bar through Alan Lee.

But the hosts were soon left reeling when Jordan Stewart's volleyed cross-shot at the far post was mis-kicked by Darius Henderson and fell inviting for Nathan Ellington, who lashed home past Town goalkeeper Stephen Bywater.

Ipswich rallied and pulled one back in the latter stages when David Wright's free-kick was headed back across goal by Jason De Vos.

Jon Walters was on hand to steer the ball inside the near post for his 11th Championship goal.

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