Counago stops the Swans flying off

Ipswich Town 1 Swansea City 1

(pa)

Roy Keane insists progress is being made at Ipswich Town, even if results don't back him up. Failure to beat Swansea at home means Ipswich have yet to win this season after a dozen attempts, although Keane is convinced his side should have taken all three points despite having gone behind to an early Craig Beattie goal.

Although they remain winless, Pablo Counago rescued a point, while Paulo Sousa's Swans stretched their unbeaten record to six in a row.

Keane said: "We are making progress but we need results. We need that final ball or someone to put the ball in the net.

"You would not have thought we were bottom of the League with our spirit, supporters and the pace of the game. It is something to build on, it is not doom and gloom in the sense of the players being afraid to go on to the pitch. They are training well and we believe it will turn."

The seriousness of the situation was underlined in midweek when the club's owner, Marcus Evans, a man so secretive he has yet to have his picture published, arrived at the training ground by helicopter for a meeting with Keane and the chief executive, Simon Clegg. The manager and his staff had used the recent break for clear-the-air meetings with those players not on international duty.

Sousa was happy to get a point, but insists his side need to find their own killer touch. "In the first half we could have scored more goals," he said. "We had more possession in the second half but we were not as direct as I would have liked."

The direct approach worked for Swansea when a long ball from full-back Angel Rangel went over the centre-halves and Craig Beattie ran on to score his first goal for the Welsh side since his £800,000 summer move from West Bromwich. The Spaniard Counago, who turned down a move to Swansea in the summer, equalised after good interplay with Jaime Peters.

Dorus de Vries made good saves from Jon Walters and Tommy Smith and late on his outstretched leg denied the 16-year-old Connor Wickham, and along with it Ipswich's hopes of that elusive first win.