THERE are few more dispiriting things in the modern game than going into an international break on the back of a defeat.

Actually, thinking about it, there are plenty more dispiriting things than that in the modern game, but the fortnight ahead always seems a desperately long one if that final game ends in a loss.

Fortunately for Town fans, on this occasion, that’s not something they have to worry about with their last match before the hiatus ending in a 3-0 victory over Preston North End.

While not a steamrollering in the manner of the 5-2 defeat of Sunderland, it was still a very heartening afternoon.

The first half never really got going with stoppages for head injuries and free-kicks constantly interrupting the flow, to the extent it appeared a deliberate ploy by a Preston side hit by a severe injury crisis.

The game’s pivotal moment came in first-half injury time when Martyn Waghorn was fouled following Town’s best move of the period and the Blues’ number nine took his total for the campaign to eight with the free-kick, thanks in part to a poorly-arranged defensive wall.

Four minutes after the break, David McGoldrick headed his seventh of the season to give the Blues some breathing space and Town might have had more - Jonas Knudsen hit the bar - before Bersant Celina’s now familiar stunner, his sixth of his loan spell, sealed the three points.

Having battled their way through the first half, the Blues got the vital first goal and then made their advantage stick.

Not a classic but a confidence-building and, in the end, comfortable home win against a Lilywhites side which had gone into the match tenth, beating top-half sides previously having been the Blues’ Achilles’ heel.

Town ended the weekend in eighth, only two points off the play-offs, a situation significantly beyond most pre-season expectations, particularly after the 6-1 walloping at Charlton in the final friendly.

Despite that, had Waghorn not scored the goal just before the break the half-time whistle would undoubtedly have been greeted with a chorus of boos directed towards manager Mick McCarthy. Fine margins, as they say.

But the result and league position going into the break have greatly improved the prevailing mood and rather less of this week has been spent discussing the merits or otherwise of McCarthy, his future or his potential successors.

However, it will probably only take one or two adverse results for a return to last week’s discontent.

But for the moment all is comparatively well in the world of Ipswich Town with signs that an established system and core of an XI are beginning to emerge after an early season of fluctuating line-ups, formations and fortunes.

The 4-2-3-1 utilised against Preston, Sunderland and on a couple of other less successful occasions appears to be the system which enables McCarthy to field most of his attacking players, so far this season his most effective.

While Joe Garner seems to relish putting in the hard graft as the lone out-and-out striker, Waghorn, McGoldrick and new fans’ favourite Celina are hitting the net with great regularity.

On-loan Manchester City man Celina seems to be growing into the Championship with every game that passes with McCarthy’s trust in the 21-year-old Kosovo international similarly increasing.

The illness and injury situation in midfield and defence which had such an impact in the first couple of months is abating and the back four which recorded a clean sheet on Saturday - full-backs Jordan Spence and Jonas Knudsen and centre-halves Luke Chambers and Adam Webster - should now be given time to establish themselves as a regular quartet ahead of keeper Bartosz Bialkowski.

Behind the four attacking players the system requires a hard-working central midfield pairing with on-loan Everton man Callum Connolly putting in an admirable display in an unfamiliar role alongside regular holding midfielder Cole Skuse against Preston.

However, McCarthy will probably look to bring in Tom Adeyemi or Emyr Huws, who both should be over their injuries and available after the break.

The recent returns from injury - and with Teddy Bishop’s long-awaited latest comeback expected in the weeks to come - mean the Town boss has a deeper squad with which to augment or tweak that core when November’s fixtures resume after the break which, for once, doesn’t feel quite so long.