"I’m pleased and I can sleep tonight, which will make a change," said Charlton's relieved manager, Alan Pardew. Having scored with Nicky Bailey’s spectacular free kick after just six minutes, only to lose him six minutes after that, and having conceded a surely superfluous equaliser, Charlton eventually squeezed through with an own goal. It was a particular blow to lose young Bailey, something of a bargain transfer from Southend United, so soon, with a pulled hamstring. In Charlton’s previous home game, a loss to Sheffield Wednesday, he had scored another dramatic goal with a volley.

Now, Pardew says he will be glad of the two-week hiatus during which he hopes to get Bailey fit. ”I thought we lost our way in the first half," he said. “Fear entered our game and we were hanging on in that period. In the second half, we lost that fear factor.”

For a manager whose team so narrowly lost, Jim Magilton seemed surprisingly satisfied. He had praise for that celebrated Spanish veteran, Ivan Campo, who bounced a free kick off the Charlton bar late in the first half, having earlier tested their defence with a splendid long ball to his right flank. It could well have been a goal as the Charlton left-back Kelly Youga missed his header but when Norris shot hard, the ball flew just outside the far post.

On 81 minutes, however, Norris was fortunate not to be sent off, knocking over Hameur Bouazza when the ball had plainly gone beyond both of them. Pardew felt the foul deserved a red card and also had a strong case when saying the referee had made a “a ridiculous decision” when he failed on 51 minutes to give Charlton a penalty after Richard Naylor had brought down the industrious Luke Varney. All Charlton and Varney got for their pains was a free kick fractionally outside the box. Each side scored from an own goal. On 33 minutes, when Jonathan Walters, by turns striker and busy right flanker, drove the ball in from the right, Martin Cranie, the Charlton right-back, managed to steer the ball past his own goalkeeper.

Early in the second half, Varney cut in from the left and his shot was turned round the post by Richard Wright. Magilton said: “I'll have to have a look at Bailey’s free kick. I don’t think the goalkeeper should have been beaten.” But it was quite a feat by the Charlton midfielder to keep the ball hard, low and just inside the right-hand post from 25 yards. Magilton's apparent pleasure with his team’s solitary goal seemed a little excessive given its nature. It came on 33 minutes and was avoidable. Some 11 minutes later, Pablo Counago, an Ipswich substitute, had his cross from the right deflected to Alan Quinn, who struck it hard and well, but Nicky Weaver dived in his turn to turn the ball round the post. Pardew was delighted with the performance of centre-back Mark Hudson, who was a perpetual stumbling block for Ipswich. “He’s been outstanding all year," he said.

"His leadership was very, very important to us today.”

Since Charlton have been making a habit of losing home games after taking the lead, this was a significant result for them, but you did wonder why Magilton took Campo off, after he had been so influential, with 71 minutes gone. “I’ve got another real footballer in Owen Garvan,” was the reply. He felt Campo had not yet had time to achieve full fitness. “Ivan didn’t dominate as much of the ball in the second half as the first half, so it was a tactical change," he said. "You can see that he’s real class and he’s going to be a real asset to us."

He certainly was yesterday.