The Lads went to Portman Road for a potentially tricky fixture and battled back from conceding in first-half stoppage time to claim a point. To be fair, either side could have nicked all three in a well-contested affair, but a point's a point.
With the tickets only being £7.50, and yesterday being Black Eye Friday, a fair few tickets were either moved on or unused. I had the luxury of a full English at Expressos before the 08:26 from Bishop, and an uneventful journey to Peterborough. The revolving door at the Great North Eastern hotel was a bit tricky, but we negotiated it and managed a couple of nerve -settlers before the train to Ipswich. We were stuck at March for a while as the driver asked the guard " did the wheelchair get off?" and we sang "three wheels on my wagon" (ask yer dad.... or grandad).
As games across the land fell victim to Covid, we planned ahead and worked out how to spend five hours in Peterborough, then heard that Villa's game was off - which irritated Villa Dave a bit, as he'd driven from Bishop. I've telt him before, wrong team. Thankfully, our game survived.
The away fans' pub opposite the station was packed, as expected, but most left well before the usual 2:45 departure time as we weren't sure how the Covid passport thingy would work. It went well, and we were inside, along with over 2,000 others, with forty minutes to spare.
A full house was expected, as their American investors were due in town (hence the cheap tickets) for the unveiling of the Kevin Beattie statue. Some player he was.
There seemed to be an inordinately large number of polis, probably because of the Covid protocol, but nothing happened to spoil their overtime. There were also loads of free plaggy flags and scarves, presumably in a effort to impress the overseas investors. A "hi ho silver lining" atmosphere, if you like. So they did Hey Jude... very plastic, very St Jameses's, but we out sang them anyway. There's nowt like a bit of plasticity to bring the best out of our travelling fans, and that was as corny and plastic as you can get.
Hoffmann
Wright Flanagan Doyle Gooch
Neil Winchester
Pritchard
Broadhead Stewart
...and a bench of Patterson, Alves, Hume, Embleton, O'Brien, Kimpioka, and Younger.
Attacked the end to our right, as I was in a similar position to home games, and we set things away . The opening exchanges were fairly frantic and end to end, with Ipswich winning a handful of corners in the first fifteen minutes. They had a couple of shots, but one was sliced for a throw and the other put over the top. When we did get forward, our players several times showed why those new-fangled studs are rubbish by falling over - I'm looking at you, Pritch and Broadhead. Get some proper boots, man! We didn't help ourselves by persisting with the "play it out" philosophy when a good old hoof over halfway would have relieved the pressure a bit and given Dajaku and Stewart something to chase.
Hoff then decided that calming things down was a good idea, so he had a word with the ref and received attention...or a breather. Either way, it was a good chance to draw breath and work out what to do next. LJ duly held an impromptu coaching session, which almost certainly included the words "our left" and "tighten up", as Ipswich had been charging down that side in several occasions.
Dajaku went off on 32 after catching one while defending neat our box and spending several minutes on the deck before departing on a golf buggy. Gooch went to right wing and Hume came on at left back, which seemed a good idea. Fancy having a specialist fullback in the side!
After a couple of minutes, whatever LJ had said began to have an effect as we started to pester the home defence, which lifted the visiting fans. I was quite looking forward to going in level at the break when seven added minutes were announced, and only a couple of them had elapsed when Burn, the pesky number 7, was at it down their right again. When his cross came in, Norwood was able to rise unchallenged to thump a header from the edge of the goal area off the bar and in. Bugger. Not a good end to the half, and enough to kill the mood for a while. Perhaps Ipswich deserved the lead based on the opening exchanges, but having weathered that storm we really should have built on that.
We made no changes for the second half, and came out of the blocks in determined mood, pushing the Tractor Boys back and almost setting Stewart and then Broadhead in on goal with clever little balls into the box by Pritch and Neil. Five minutes in, one such ball fromm Neil sent Broadhead clear, and he swept home the equaliser. Having watched it twenty times on Rob's phone, I'm sort of convinced it went past the keeper's left foot, while Rob reckons it went through his legs. It's of no consequence, and it went in, sparking the inevitable mayhem in our section.
An Ipswich break soon after was ended when Winch "took one for the team" on halfway, getting a costly yellow and immediately throwing a radgie at the bench. It was a strange reaction, as it was Wright who'd left the gap and not anyone in the dugout, but it saved the opposition getting through on goal.
Not to be put off, we played Stewart in down the inside right channel, and their keeper did well to smother Ross's effort before it was hacked clear. In quick succession, he and Flan were carded, which doesn't bode well for our selection options after Christmas, but we were in a proper battle out there in which cards were an inevitability.
Pritch, who'd had a decent game, was replaced by Embo on 62 which was a bit if a surprise, but he helped us press forward and took a succession of corners which had the home defence pinned back for a while.
Ipswich battled back into things, surprisingly taking off Norwood, a shame it wasn't Burn, as he was still giving Hume, and the left side of our defence, a hard time. Stewart was played through the middle, but when he tried to turn, his backheel hit his leg and he was crowded out.
O'Brien came on for Broadhead for the last few minutes, and almost helped us grab a winner, but after four added minutes, in which we'd defended like demons, the whistle went and we had a point which it looked like Ipswich were more than happy with.
Man of the Match? A generally energetic and thoughtful afternoon by Broadhead, topped off with a smart finish, means that he gets my vote.
Rather strangely, The Station Hotel was closed after the game, their loss - to "encourage visiting fans to depart swiftly." Some still missed the 17:58, waving, distraught, at the departing train and no doubt worried at the prospect of an unplanned night in Ipswich. Oops.
