Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna said his team produced a 'top performance' in this afternoon's 2-0 home win against Stoke City.

Luke Woolfenden headed the Blues into a first half lead, with sub Kayden Jackson finishing off a slick team move to wrap up a fully deserved victory late on.

It means Ipswich sit top of the early Championship table after a perfect opening week which saw them win 2-1 at Sunderland last Sunday and progress in the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 home win against Bristol Rovers on Wednesady night.

"I thought it was a top performance, no doubt about it," said McKenna.

"I loved the way that we stuck to our identity on and off the ball. We were brave in how we played - we had the intensity, the quality, the spirit, the resilience and the threat that we want to have. I thought it was an excellent performance in so many ways.

"Of course there are areas to improve. We're learning from every game at the moment. We learnt an awful lot from Sunderland last week and we'll learn from this one too and look to improve."

Stoke were largely on the back foot in this game, with Potters boss Alex Neil admitting his side were second best, but the visitors did have a spell of pressure early in the second period.

"I've said it already, there are going to be spells like that every week because the level of the opponents is so high and we're having to work so hard," said McKenna.

"We're not going to be able to dominate games throughout the whole 90 minutes as we were, at times, last season. There are going to be spells where we have to dig in and put our bodies on the line.

"I thought what was really important about that phase was the way we kept playing to be honest. It wasn't just about digging in and defending. For me, the way we stayed brave on the ball turned the game.

"We hadn't had a foothold at all at the start of the second half, but around 60 minutes Vas (Hladky) was under pressure, Sam (Morsy) dropped down, took the ball with (Daniel) Johnson right on his back in a really tight situation and got us up and through the pitch. That was probably the first time in the second half that we got any territory and foothold in the game.

"From there, the momentum of the game changed. It shows the importance of why we try and play the way we play. Credit to the lads for being brave and sticking to the plan against one of the best pressing teams in the league. We got rewarded for that with the second goal."

On his side's opener, Woolfenden jumping above everyone at the back post to head in Morsy's free-kick delivery, McKenna said: "Look, if we can have a few more instances of Luke Woolfenden getting above defenders in the box and heading it in that would be a bonus. That was really good to see. One of the next steps in his development is to go and do that more.

"That was big for us. When you're playing so well and building the pressure, getting set play after set play, you need to convert one. That was our reward for a good start."

Town had two players harshly booked for 'time wasting' in this game - keeper Haldky and defender Janoi Donacien - while referee Josh Smith repeatedly opted against cautioning Stoke players following fouls.

"First of all, I think Josh has got a really good manner about him," said McKenna.

"He was the one who came to our training ground to explain the new rules. He has a good manner and the potential to do really well. 

"I think it's more about the guidelines. I think the time-wasting guidelines have obviously gone way too extreme. Anyone with any semblance of common sense can see that. There was 13 minutes added on last weekend. 

"Of course there needs to be a big effort to stamp out time-wasting, but I don't think any of those instances were time-wasting today. If you looked at it I think you'd see that their set-pieces were taking just as long.

"It's football, not basketball, it's not on a clock. If players are working really hard in hot conditions and are tired they can't necesarrily take a goal kick in eight seconds. We want them to assess the picture and assess where the pressure is coming from and set up a move. 

"It is what it is. I know everyone has the same feelings at the moment. I'm sure it will die down, but we can't get those yellow cards back. I'm sure they'll address the balance of it because at the moment the balance isn't right. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later."

There was a collective sound of surprise from a packed Portman Road crowd when Marcus Harness and Jackson were selected to replace Nathan Broadhead and George Hirst in the 68th minute of this gane, but Harness' fine pass led to Jackson sealing the victory with a cool finish.

"Look, we've spoken about how subs are going to be important to us," said McKenna,

"The players are well versed in it. Having a big squad was a really big part of getting us to this point and it will be a big part of any success that we may have this year.

"I think every win that we earn this year is going to be earned off the bench. I don't think we're going to be three or four-nil ahead too often and hopefullty we won't be three or four-nil down, so the games are going to come down to the impact of the substitutes a lot of weeks.

"Today was a great example of that. We were tiring at that stage and we definitely needed fresh legs. The role that we needed at that stage was to get big pressure to (Ben) Wilmot. George had done a really good job on that, but he was tired and there was lots of space on the counter-attack to run into. There's probably not many better strikers in the league in that scenario than Kayden to be honest and I thought he showed that when he came on.

"Marcus did again what he does for the team - he gives great energy, great discipline tactically, is fantastic on second balls, got us up the pitch and played a really big part.

"Of course we were able to get Omari (Hutchinson) and Jack (Taylor) on for their first league minutes at Portman Road as well.

"Look, it's going to take different substitutes every week to get a goal or defend a lead, whatever the scenario requires. They've all bought into that. It's the strength of the squad that will help us this season."

Norwich City conceding a late goal to draw 4-4 at Southampton means Town top the early Championship table on goal difference.

"It's a good start, but we didn't look at the table last year when we were hoping and expecting to be top so we're not going to bother looking at it this year," said McKenna. 

"We know the step up is a really, really big one. You can look at two wins and think that maybe we've taken to this league easily and taken the step up comfortably - but that's not been the case.

"This has been the two toughest games that I've had with this group. Last week was a completely different challenge to anything we've faced and probably the biggest and most difficult game of the large majority of the players' careers. Today was a big step up as well.

"In the dressing room we know how hard we've had to work for these results and we know how hard we're going to have to keep working. We're going to have to improve on where we are at the moment just to be able to compete every week."