Town drew level with Wigan on points in the Championship with a 5-1 trashing of Crewe at FPR yesterday, but remain third on goal difference, setting up a nerve-biting finale to the season next Sunday at Brighton. Wigan drew their televised lunchtime game at Preston 1-1, while Sunderland clinched the title with a 2-1 at play-off hopefuls West Ham.

Shefki Kuqi opened the scoring, as he did at Leeds last weekend, striking home Ian Westlake's excellent pass, but this time Town not only held on to the lead for more than sixty seconds, but extended it six minutes later when Jim Magilton fired home from the edge of the box. Tommy Miller made it three with a 20-yarder of his own soon after the restart and scored his second of the game with just under 10 minutes to play. Pablo Counago made it 5-0 a minute later on what could be his last appearance at FPR before his contract is up in the summer. Crewe, who have now gone 19 games without a win, scored a late consolation when Kelvin Davies miss-handled David Vaughan's cross-come-shot.

"For 20 minutes we were outstanding and won the game in that period," said BFJ. "Once we were two-up it was very difficult for Crewe to come back. We passed the ball and think we play the right way. There are 17,000 season ticket-holders who seem to agree with me. Only Luton have scored more goals than us so we must be doing something right. I make Wigan slight favourites for the second automatic promotion place because they have a home match and I have great respect for their manager (Paul Jewell). It has been looking for a long time as though the promotion issue would be a last-day event. I expect a hard game at Brighton because they need a result to stay up and we have not always been fluent in recent away games. I think the play-off system is flawed but if we have to deal with it we will. No-one is more positive than me."

Pablo Counago was delighted with his goal, his first since netting the equaliser at West Ham back in September. "It was great to go out there and score again and to feel the passion of the fans, it's incredible for me", he told the official site. "I've had some very good times here and, of course, this season has been very frustrating for me but in all the past few years have been really fantastic. We're now looking forward to the last game and anything is possible. When I eventually leave Ipswich I will have good memories of the Club, the players and the fans; they will be big memories for me. My goal today felt good, not just for myself and the team but for the fans."

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