Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna says there are things for his side to improve on following this afternoon's 3-2 home win against Plymouth Argyle.

The Blues recovered from Morgan Whittaker's superb early opener to lead 2-1 thanks to a scruffy Bali Mumba own goal and cool George Hirst one-on-one finish.

Home keeper Vaclav Hladky produced a string of big saves after that though and even after substitute Marcus Harness made it 3-1 in the 86th minute, the Pilgrims pulled one back through Joe Edwards to set up a slightly nervy finish. 

"They pushed us all the way and that's what I expected," said McKenna. "You could see why both teams did so well last year - two of the best teams, maybe statistically, in League One ever. 

"It was a hard fought game. It's a big challenge for us when they score such a wonderful goal early in the game. To come back from that position and be 3-1 up on 90 minutes means we did a lot of things well. But of course there were other bits to improve and that's natural.

"I'm really happy to have come out on top against them having not managed to do it last season."

He continued: "I didn't love our out of possession game today in any phase really. That's certainly something to improve on. We've got six clean sheets in the league this season, so we can defend well individually and as a team, but we gave up too many chances today.

"We needed our goalkeeper. Also, we can't be happy with the second goal, we can't accept it. We were tired out there, but at 3-1 up we should do better. There are so many phases of that goal that I didn't like. 

"There are certainly things to learn from and improve on, but that's natural. We're a newly-promoted team and we're winning most of our games. If we didn't have things to improve on then there would no point coming in on Monday - we may as well just turn up for Fulham (a home tie in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Wednesday night).

"That's a positive. We'll take a lot from today, facing a good team who tested us in a lot of ways off the back of a tough midweek game (winning 1-0 at Bristol City). We're not going to deliver perfect performances every week. It's important to have things we can get our teeth into."