Town skipper Luke Chambers rated his rocket drive to open the scoring in Town’s 4-1 league win at Blackpool as the best in his entire career.

That was the after-match revelation from the man who set it up, winger Gwion Edwards, who also netted twice in a comfortable success that took them to the top of League One.

Edwards said: “I think we’ve got goals everywhere in the team because when I’m putting the ball into the box we’ve got people flooding in from midfield.

“Even the skipper is coming in at the far post to get in on the act — what a goal that was!

“He’s doing his job defensively and he’s helping out Judgey by backing him up down the wing. With Judgey getting into the box so often it gave Chambo the freedom to get in at the back post for the goal.

“He ran off to celebrate saying it’s the best goal he’s ever scored. It flew straight into the top corner and I’m sure we’ll have a few replays on the bus home.

“He also played a great ball for my second goal. I was hoping he would hit the diagonal and it was a great ball over to basically put it on my foot.

“My touch set me up because if I had taken a bad touch I probably wouldn’t have scored. The defender probably would have nicked the ball off me.

“It’s strange because on Thursday in training I was getting a bit of stick from the lads because I missed a few chances.

“You just have to forget about that and go into the game on the Saturday because that’s when it matters. Today, when the chances came along, I took them.”

For the record it was 35-year-old Chambers’s second goal this season after he also netted in the 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat of Bristol Rovers at Portman Road.

It was the 39th of his career and 17th for Town, to add to the one he scored for first club Northampton and his 21 for Nottingham Forest, where he spent five and a half years prior to joining Ipswich in July 2012.

Meanwhile, Edwards, who is just one game away from his 50th league start for the club, has a goals target in mind for the season — but he isn’t prepared to share it.

“I keep my targets to myself and set my own goals, and hopefully both me and the team can hit them,” he explained.

Last season’s 11-goal joint leading scorers, James Norwood and Kayden Jackson, have both been sidelined through injury this season, although the latter made his return to action as a second-half substitute at Bloomfield Road, replacing former Portsmouth striker Oli Hawkins, who was making his third successive league start.

Asked how big an impact the 6ft 5ins striker had made, Edwards laughed: “He’s big! He’s brilliant and he’s done well again. He’s good at holding the ball up, trying to win something or putting pressure on the opposition, but he runs in behind as well.

“He really puts a shift in. He chases the ball down, which he did a few times today, and he’s done really well.

“He also helped me with a clever dummy and it’s always good to have a striker with a bit of movement.

“You can either play him in or he frees up the space for you to cut inside or set someone up. All the way round the pitch everyone’s moving and looking to get on the ball, and if you don’t get it you move out and someone else moves in.”

Apart from his goals, Edwards has also caught the eye for his defensive awareness and he added: “We’re solid all over the pitch, which today was down to another good team performance. If we’re not scoring it doesn’t matter; we’ve got to go back and do a job and defend as well to keep the goals out.

“We were a bit unfortunate for the goal we did concede but we’re going to get little mistakes. We work on things on the training ground, looking to improve in the next game.”

Edwards also commented on how Lambert’s approach this season is in direct contrast to last, when his rotation policy meant that team selection lacked consistency from one game to another.

“The manager has made it clear that if you are in the team it is up to you to hold on to your place,” the winger said.

“We’re doing that now and if someone drops out through injury, or for whatever reason, there is someone there to replace them.

“If you don’t perform in training or on a match day you’re going to lose your place and someone is going to come in and try to keep it.

“It means you’ve got to be on your toes, whether you’re in the team or you’re the one who comes into the team. It’s good competition for places.

“It was different last season but I think at the back end of the season we did try to keep the same team.

“There is obviously healthy competition for places and that only pushes players to always look to do better. If players continue to improve individually, that can only improve us as a team as well.”

Photo: Pagepix

Gilesy added 11:01 - Oct 11 I actually thought his 2nd goal was better. Great afternoon all round.
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ArnieM added 16:57 - Oct 11 Doubt you'll see a better goal than Chambers strike for the rest of the season. That was a quality finish in anyone's book, and for a centre half, excellent!
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