Conor Chaplin’s second-half strike was enough to earn Ipswich maximum points from a 1-0 League One victory over relegation-threatened Gillingham.

The narrow win kept The Tractor Boys’ outside chances of moving into the top six places alive, while condemning their visitors to remain second-bottom and a long way from surviving the drop to the fourth tier of English football.

Ipswich goalkeeper Christian Walton was called into action after just three minutes when he had to push away a goal-bound 30-yard free-kick from Danny Lloyd, who was carried off on a stretcher in the second half with what looked like a serious injury.

A long-range shot by Lee Evans was parried by Gillingham goalkeeper Aaron Chapman and the ball fell to Dominic Thompson who skied it high over the crossbar and Ben Thompson’s 25-yard effort just flew past Walton’s upright.

Vadaine Oliver’s strike struck the post and – moments later – Walton diverted a shot around the post from Lloyd following a goalmouth scramble.

But Chaplin finally broke the deadlock with 16 minutes remaining when he hammered home an unerring low shot past Chapman after receiving a pass from George Edmundson to earn Town the win.