Ipswich Town drew 1-1 with Leicester City at Portman Road yesterday. Stuart Watson reflects on the action.
MUCH BETTER!
The many positives from the performance at Brentford were carried forwards. This was a display miles better than the flat showing against Everton the previous time out on Suffolk soil.
The Portman Road crowd was raucous come kick-off. Sammie Szmodics smashed into Ricardo Pereira in the second minute. The tone was set.
Leicester had a couple of threatening moments during a frenetic opening 15 minutes, but it wasn’t long before Town’s players were harnessing the energy from the stands.
Given there were five enforced absentees (Harry Clarke, Axel Tuanzebe, Jacob Greaves, Jack Taylor and Chiedozie Ogbene), the team played with remarkable chemistry.
Omari Hutchinson’s trickery looked far more effective back in the wide right role he so often played in the Championship. Conor Chaplin’s movement and energy in the No.10 pocket helped knit things. Liam Delap once again proved a real handful with his power and purpose. Sam Morsy, back in the team following a hamstring injury, provided some composure and control. I’ll highlight a couple more individuals in a moment.
Szmodics headed a Hutchinson cross narrowly over in the 10th minute. Dara O’Shea headed an even bigger chance off target, after getting on the end of a Leif Davis corner, just after the half hour. Chaplin then arrowed a fine effort inches wide towards the end of the half. Town’s players were deservedly cheered off the field come the break.
REPUTATIONS ENHANCED
Two summer signings, Aro Muric and Ben Johnson, have come in for some heavy criticism from Town fans over recent weeks. A lot of it, in my opinion, has been way over the top. The duo therefore showed a lot of character with the way they played in this game.
Muric, knowing that many wanted to see him dropped following his costly late error at Brentford, could easily have played with tension. But the big Kosovan pushed a curling Abdul Fatawu shot around the post early on and then plucked the resultant corner out the sky. He went on to make smart stops from Facunda Buonanotte (twice) and Harry Winks. There are undoubtedly still things for him to improve on, but it’s important to celebrate the good with the same energy as the bad.
Even more impressive for me was the display of right-back Ben Johnson. He made his full debut at Man City playing in a bespoke, inverted right-wing role to try and deal with Kevin De Bruyne. Not easy. His next league start didn’t come until six weeks later at West Ham. That wasn’t a good day at the office, but it was nowhere near as bad as many made out. He certainly should have been cut more slack for rustiness and some added emotion back at his boyhood club.
A thigh injury subsequently kept him sidelined for the Everton and Brentford games. It was uncouth that some celebrated that on social media. Those that did should now eat some humble pie after what I thought was a MOTM display. The 24-year-old kept Foxes dangerman Stephy Mavididi quiet, read danger, stayed cool under pressure and consistently contributed to the attack.
WHAT A GOAL!
My nagging doubt, at half-time, was that Ipswich hadn’t taken their chances when on top and that might come back to bite them. But the Blues showed they too can also ruthlessly punish errors when taking the lead with a fantastic goal in the 55th minute.
It all started with keeper Mads Hermansen kicking the ball into touch under zero pressure. A quick throw-in led to Morsy drifting an inch-perfect cross to the far post and there was Leif Davis to execute the perfect volley back across goal beyond the angle of the six-yard box. He watched it all the way and caressed a side-footed shot just inside the far post. It really was a thing of beauty.
Without exaggeration, Town have graced the top-flight with some world class goals. This one, to use a cliche, was worthy of winning any game. It didn’t though...
TERRIBLE TIM
Most of the time, I think 'the referee was biased' shout from football fans often comes through the prism of their own tinted specs. Officials are human, they make mistakes, you hope it evens out over time. End of.
However, for the first time in more than a decade of football reporting I’m going to unload here. Tim Robinson, that was an utterly incompetent display.
When Delap and Wout Faes crashed into a each other in a competitive 50/50 between striker and centre-back, a foul was given to the visitors. When the linesman award Town a throw-in, Robinson overturned it. When Hutchinson was given a clear two-handed shove off the ball by Victor Kristiansen, nothing was given. When Chaplin had to go off with an injury, Robinson took an unnecessary age to wave him back on. Which brings us to the big talking points.
Chaplin clearly gets barged into by Fatawu in the box. The Foxes man has no eyes for the ball when throwing his body into a man about to shoot. It looked stonewall on first showing. It looks more and more blatant with each replay.
Why is it not given? I’ve got a feeling that referees are reluctant to give decisions on instinct now because of the fear of VAR making them look silly. That’s not good, because you can always find a foul if you look long enough at multi-angle, slow-mo replays. And that's not football.
If that's why it doesn't get given initially, then why does VAR not step in to indicate a clear and obvious error has been made? Robinson doesn’t even get sent to the monitor. That’s baffling given how the boys at Stockley Park have been quick to meddle in far more subjective shouts involving Town in the previous nine games.
At the Etihad, VAR helped award Man City a penalty for Leif Davis’ foul on Savinho (correct call, fair enough), but then wasn’t consulted when Davis had a big shout under the challenge of Savinho at the other end.
Against Everton, VAR meddled to take away a penalty that had been awarded after Jack Clarke weaved towards goal. Was it ‘clear and obvious’ that Dwight McNeil didn’t mean to prevent the trigger being pulled? Nope, that’s still very much debatable. So why the overturn?
At Brentford, the referee decides that Harry Clarke’s foul on Keane Lewis-Potter started outside the box. That’s still subjective when looking at various slow-mo replays. Far from a ‘clear and obvious’ error. Yet VAR intervenes.
Poll 1,000 football fans about whether Chaplin should get a penalty and I think you’d struggle to find one that says no. Even Norwich fans are voicing their sympathy. But VAR were happy to go with the referee’s call on this one. It’s a joke. Where’s the consistency?
To compound matters, Kalvin Phillips is shown a second yellow card just seconds later. I don’t buy the ‘it’s a naive tackle, he shouldn’t give the referee a decision to make’ talk. Kieran McKenna’s right. It’s a bouncing ball on the edge of the box in a chaotic moment. Both players have a right to go for it. Phillips is slightly late, but he’s not reckless. Most wouldn't have batted an eyelid had a simple free-kick been awarded. Where was the common sense? The best referees are invisible. Mr Robinson was certainly not that.
THE LATE LEVELLER
Town went into a 4-4-1 deep block in an attempt to see the game out and it looked like the 10 men were going to ride out the inevitable storm.
Cameron Burgess clearing a goal bound effort after Muric had been beaten was celebrated like a goal in the 87th minute. Jens Cajuste flung himself in the way of a shot. Town players were putting their bodies on the line.
When Morsy charged the ball down on the edge of the Town box in stoppage-time, a vast space opened up in front of him and a roar went up. Some wanted him to shoot with Hermansen off his line. I think his initial instinct was to carry the ball as far towards the corner as possible in an attempt to run down the clock. In the end though, sensing he was being chased down, he tried to check back and was muscled off the ball near the touchline.
The bigger error, for me, was substitute Wes Burns putting in a powderpuff challenge as the counter was being countered. From there, to be fair, it’s a brilliant one-two between the experienced strike duo of Jordan Ayew and Jamie Vardy.
Town twice scored last-gasp goals to salvage 1-1 draws against Leicester last season. This time, frustratingly, the boot was on the other foot.
10 GAMES IN
A red card in successive weeks. Stoppage-time heartbreak in successive weeks. It hurts.
Town could have leapfrogged Crystal Palace, climbed out of the relegation zone and moved to within a point of the Foxes and Everton. Instead, they remain 18th and have Southampton hot on the heels. No newly-promoted team in Premier League history has ever survived after failing to record a victory in any of their opening 10 games.
The injuries have stacked up, referees have not been kind, while mistakes have been punished. When you play so well for so long in back-to-back games and end up with just a point to show for it, then it does begin to feel like things are just not meant to be.
Come on though, let’s not start saying ‘I can’t wait til we’re out of this league’. We can’t ask the players to run towards adversity in one breath and then voice such a defeatist attitude with the next.
This is the best league in the world and Ipswich are not looking out of their depth at all. They’ve got a result in half of the games and been competitive in the vast majority of them. There have been only two games, West Ham and Everton, that I’ve come away from feeling really flat.
Leicester were Premier League champions in 2016, Champions League quarter-finalists in 2017, FA Cup winners in 2021 and Europa Conference League semi-finalists in 2022. Stop and think about what Ipswich were doing during that period.
Given the circumstances of a lengthy top-flight absence, rapid ascent, big squad changes, late signings and key injuries, there is so much to be proud of.
Stop fretting about the final destination and enjoy the ride. This is a club that’s evolving when not so long ago it was dissolving.
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