Nathan Broadhead believes that Ipswich Town will see their 2-2 draw against West Brom as a good result, highlighting the spirit in the squad to come from behind twice and earn a point at Portman Road.
The Blues fell behind to a goal from Tom Fellows in the 18th minute before Broadhead ended his goal drought with an equaliser less than a minute into the second half.
Kieran McKenna’s men looked the more likely to go on and win it in the latter stages, but John Swift’s long-range strike put them on the back-foot once again. In the end, it was substitute Omari Hutchinson who salvaged a result, scoring in stoppage time to prevent his side from falling to consecutive league defeats.
“It’s a good draw, at the end of the day, going down 2-1 just before the 80th minute,” Broadhead argued. “I think we’ll take it. Obviously we wanted to win. We had a few more chances than them, but it was one of those days.
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“We’ve done it all season, really. It shows the togetherness, the character and the willingness to keep on going and play football until the end.
Broadhead’s goal ends an eight-match run where he hadn’t found the back of the net, leading to him dropping out of the team against Leicester City and Preston North End.
He’s adamant that his confidence never changed in that spell, but he worked extra hard on the training ground to get back to his best, hoping that he can kick on ahead of a busy run of fixtures.
“All players have the same, not scoring for a few games or whatever,” the Wales international argued. “I’m happy to score today.
“Obviously not scoring makes me feel frustrated, but I’ve worked hard in training, working on my finishing every day. Thankfully, today it paid off.
“It was a tough finish, to be fair. I didn’t know whether to head it, knee it or what. It was that kind of height.
“I had self-belief, really, that the chance would come. Obviously you can get dropped from today and come back in.
“With the fixtures coming up, everyone needs to have an impact.”
In terms of Ipswich’s current run, one win in nine games doesn’t tell the full story, especially considering that the only defeats they’ve had in that time were a 4-0 thrashing at Leeds United, a shock FA Cup exit to Maidstone United and the controversial 3-2 loss to Preston North End.
The real concern comes from their run of conceding first, which they’ve done in the last five matches. While Broadhead knows that their record needs to improve, he believes that misfortune has played a big part, which is hard to deny.
“Obviously we’ve conceded first in the last few games,” he admitted. “Every team goes through it. A ball just drops randomly to their player and he scores. It’s happened more often in the last few games, but we’ve kept on going and got a draw in the end today.
“We know that everything happens for a reason and we’re happy to get a draw at the end of the day.
“With the way that we play, it leaves us a bit exposed at the back sometimes. The manager wants us to play that way and I love playing that way.
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“For the forwards, it’s great. We get chances. Today, I don’t know how many shots they had on target, but we need to keep on going.”
As for the promotion battle, Broadhead still believes that his side can achieve a top-two finish, but the immediate focus is on improving this run of form instead of the league table.
“I just think everyone wants to win, really, to get three points on the board,” he explained. “That’s the main thing for the next game. Hopefully we can do that.”
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