Mick McCarthy was delighted but surprised after new signing Grant Ward scored a remarkable hat-trick on his debut as Ipswich Town kicked off the Championship season with a 4-2 win over Barnsley.
The 21-year-old winger, who only signed from Tottenham Hotspur on Monday, took just 39 seconds to open the scoring with his first touch after being introduced by McCarthy at half-time.
After Conor Hourihane equalised for Barnsley, Ward restored Ipswich’s lead before David McGoldrick made it three from the penalty spot.
Marley Watkins threatened a comeback with a strong header in the 74th minute before Ward made the points safe and complete a dream debut with a low shot from the edge of the area with six minutes remaining.
McCarthy said: “After last season, I wanted my midfielders to score more and I thought Grant had a goal in him – I didn’t know he had three in 45 minutes.
“They were three great strikes and we are all delighted for Grant. He has impressed everyone since he arrived.”
After a lacklustre first half, with Ipswich indebted to Bartosz Bialkowski for a brilliant point-blank save to deny Tom Bradshaw, McCarthy admitted: “It didn’t look like we would win after the first 45 minutes when they were the better team and deserved to be in front.
“We have brought in fresh blood and hopefully the crowd feel entertained – though at the end of the first half, they might have thought about leaving.”
After a remarkable second half of last season which saw Barnsley catapult from the bottom of League One to victory in the play-offs, manager Paul Heckingbottom admitted there was a big difference between the second and third tiers of English football.
He said: “You have seen the difference there. There were lots of positives we can take from the game when we review it, but they have had six shots and scored four times.
“The message in the dressing room is that we have to learn from that, both in terms of the goals we conceded and the clinical nature of Ipswich.
“The goals we conceded were disappointing, we were slow to get out and stop shots, and we wouldn’t normally concede like that. I can guarantee we won’t as the season goes on.
“But there were positives. The players know they can cope at this level and that they belong here, while we had more than 1,000 fans who were fantastic. They know they have a team who give everything.”
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