Ipswich Town drew 2-2 at Portsmouth last night. STUART WATSON reflects on the action.
MENTAL STRENGTH
A theme of this season has been Town losing leads. That’s happened on 12 different occasions.
But we’ve not had a great sample size to judge their mental strength regarding chasing games.
That’s because, over the course of Kieran McKenna’s first 46 league games in charge, the Blues had only trailed for 348 minutes (just eight per cent of game time).
Despite twice going behind, that number only went up by 34 last night.
Portsmouth players, struggling for wins, were clearly fired up by under-pressure manager Danny Cowley.
The hosts burst out of the blocks and took a fourth minute lead through Marlon Pack’s perfectly-placed free-kick.
Operation ‘turn the crowd against their side’ had gone out the window. Fratton Park was bouncing.
“When we conceded that first goal it was a big moment where we had to show belief in ourselves,” said McKenna.
“When the crowd get on top of you here that could easily have turned to two or three nil. But we kept playing our football.”
Cameron Burgess’ 11th minute equaliser killed the atmosphere and allowed Ipswich to settle into their game, but then Colby Bishop restored Pompey’s lead against the run of play on the hour mark.
Did another equaliser look like it was coming? Not really. For all the possession, the Blues appeared to be running out of ideas against an increasingly low block.
But a slightly-jaded looking Town stuck to their principles, kept probing and eventually got their reward late on.
Portsmouth desperately wanted this win. They needed this win. And twice they got their noses in front.
For Ipswich to not be at their fluid best and still come away with a point shows great resilience.
SET-PIECE KINGS
Back in April, McKenna addressed the fact his team had gone 16 games without scoring from a set-piece.
“I would say it’s borderline impossible to get out of this division with that record,” he said.
“Around 25% of goals usually come from set plays and I believe in this division it’s even higher.
“If we can add that to our artillery then I think we can be a different threat as a team. It’s something we need to work on.”
Fast forward to the end of the year and Ipswich find themselves the league’s leading set-piece scorers with 13 of their 46 goals (28%) have come from dead balls.
The latest one came courtesy of Lee Evans’ delicious wide delivery. The ball flashed past Freddie Ladapo’s head and was turned in from close-range by Burgess.
Had the Scot strayed marginally offside? Possibly. But Town were well overdue something like that going their way.
“It’s nice to score from a wide free-kick, to be fair,” said McKenna afterwards.
“Our corners have been really good now for a good few months and we've been consistently scoring from them, but wide free-kicks haven't been as good and that's something we've been speaking about and working to improve on.
“I think Lee Evans coming back gives us such a big boost on that because he's such a good crosser from those deep positions.
“Set-pieces are a big thing in the game. They scored a fantastic free-kick and that can take the game in one direction, but we get one back from a set-play to take control of the game.
“It's so important we keep doing well at them.”
ACHILLES HEEL
Now for a couple of negatives.
Following the 4-4 draw at Charlton at the end of October, McKenna said: “If there's a common theme (of goals against) then it is dealing with high balls into our box.
“There’s no point shying away from that. Teams are going to target us on that from here on in.”
Frankie Kent scored a back post header for Peterborough at Portman Road recently and the Achilles’ heel was exposed again last night.
This time Denver Hume’s lofted cross came down with snow on it and Sean Raggett was able to jump above static duo Leif Davis and Marcus Harness to head the ball on for Bishop to score.
“There's no secret recipe how to defend it,” said McKenna.
“If it's (Sean) Raggett at the back post, who is six foot five, and the ball's coming out of the clouds then it's not that easy.
“We can certainly do better, but for me the main bits will be how we gave the free-kick away and then didn't stop the ball coming into the box.
“To be fair, that's something that we did well tonight overall. They've got three massive centre-halves and a very big centre-forward who's powerful in the air.
“This is something that people maybe don't understand. The fact that we've come here and had 70% possession has limited them to so few opportunities to put balls into our box and limited those type of moments we had to defend.
“Of course it's something we need to keep working on, but the best way to avoid those goals is to avoid the situations in the first place.”
CUTTING EDGE
Another slight knock on Town’s display was a lack of cutting edge.
The Blues finished the game with 70% possession. They coolly and crisply played through the press.
Portsmouth, as a mark of huge respect, ended up camping deep as the home side.
But for all that dominance, Ipswich weren’t able to carve out many clear cut chances.
Portsmouth’s giant centre-halves headed away high crosses. Low cut-backs weren’t quite on the money. Through balls were often overcooked. Play lacked zip once the ball reached the final third.
Freddie Ladapo pulling an angled shot across the face of goal following Marcus Harness’ well-weighted pass was the best opportunity created in open play.
In the end, it was a speculative 25-yard shot from Sam Morsy which led to the late leveller.
With a similar rebound goal having been scored against Oxford, and Evans having tested the keeper in the first half of this game from outside the box, it’s a reminder that sometimes there’s value in simply having a pop from range.
CONOR STRIKES AGAIN
Who was there when Morsy’s shot was spilled? Conor Chaplin of course.
For the second season in a row he had scored back on his old stomping ground.
That takes him on to 12 goals (10 in the league) this season. It’s now an impressive 23 in 51 starts and 23 appearances over his first season-and-a-half for the Blues.
Those are impressive numbers for someone not playing as an out-and-out striker.
A REAL RARITY
Pre-match, Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley had outlined just how many of his players were struggling with illness.
McKenna responded by revealing that seven of his squad were also feeling under the weather and that he was unsure whether Lee Evans and Marcus Harness would be ready to go again.
It was a surprise, therefore, to see the Blues boss name an unchanged team for the first time since early January.
Mind games? McKenna insists his players recovered well and were keen to build on the rhythm of their second half display against Oxford on Boxing Day.
Having several players not at 100% fitness probably contributed to a slightly below-par display.
It’s important, I think, to remind ourselves that if this is what a ‘poor’ performance looks like these days then things are going pretty well.
The sight of Chaplin racing back to the halfway line to restart the game at 2-2 in the 87th minute was in stark contrast to the Portsmouth fans booing their keeper for slowing things down at the death.
Being disappointed with a draw at Fratton Park is a sign of how far Town have come in the last year.
TIGHT AT THE TOP
Plymouth keep rattling out the wins, especially at Home Park. Their 1-0 win against Wycombe has opened up a four-point lead at the top.
Town remain second but are now only clear of third-placed Sheffield Wednesday on goals scored. The Owls beat Port Vale 2-0 at Hillsborough last night.
A three-horse race at the top? Barnsley might yet have something to say about that. They are now nine points behind the automatic places with two games in hand.
Bolton and a Derby have got a couple of extra games to make up ground with too.
Ipswich are undoubtedly in a good place heading into 2023, but there’s still a lot of hard work ahead.
Up next is a trip to Lincoln on Monday. A win there would make it a very healthy seven points from nine over the festive period.
After that it's an FA Cup third round home tie against Championship strugglers Rotherham. That's winnable.
Then it's a mouth-watering clash with Plymouth at home...
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