Jon Walters is a firm believer in the power of positive thinking.

And the Ipswich Town attacker feels his strong mental approach helped him inspire the Blues to victory against Bristol City on Wednesday.

Walters had been left kicking himself after missing a gilt-edged one-on-one chance during Sunday’s dismal East Anglian derby defeat at Norwich City.

It came before the goals and could, just maybe, have led to a very different outcome at Carrow Road.

But rather than dwell on his error, Walters vowed to put it behind him and he duly came up trumps with a much-improved performance against the Robins.

“Obviously I thought about it a fair bit afterwards but you reach a point where you have to dismiss it and move on,” he told the Gazette.

“It’s important to be mentally strong and if I’d gone out in midweek in a negative frame of mind it would have shown.

“The training ground was like a morgue the day after the Norwich match but we always knew that by having a midweek game we had a great chance to bounce back and show our character.”

Walters was relieved to help his side get back on the victory trail after a turgid team display at Carrow Road.

The performance was almost as disappointing as the result and he said: “It was a very bad weekend for everyone connected with the club and the players certainly felt it.

“Emotions run high on derby day and it means so much to the supporters, in terms of bragging rights, but there was a lot of negativity afterwards.

“People were saying the manager was under pressure but it’s only one game and we’d been on a decent run before it.

“Certainly the lads are still very much behind the boss and you have to remember that the result could have been very different, had I taken my chance before the first goal.”