For the second season running Leeds had the better of the game while we had eleven men on the pitch, but lost to Ipswich Town after a contentious sending off.
The day began well enough despite the freezing cold and occasional flurries of snow, and we enjoyed a lively sing-son in a crowded ‘Riverside Hotel’, the packed official away fans pub opposite the station. They helped us warm up for the game by playing ‘Leeds, Leeds, Leeds’ on a continuous loop, but this year we were spared the patronising ‘I love Leeds’ t-shirts the bar staff wore for us last time.
Once we’d made it through the lengthy queues for the inadequate number of turnstiles and actually got inside Portman Road, we found that Morison was restored to the starting line-up in place of Habibou, while Michael Brown was preferred to Randy Austin. We had Green on the right and Varney on the left, with Tonge and Norris joining Brown in central midfield.
We withstood some Ipswich pressure in the opening minutes, but then seemed to be taking control of the game as we started to carve Ipswich open and create some decent chances. As usual we were hoofing the ball forward from the back, but we did play one or two decent passes in the final third of the field.
Our first opportunity came from a corner from Warnock that swung in and hit the post, but nobody could get the vital touch in the ensuing goalmouth scramble. Another chance came from a Norris shot that Loach failed to hold, but the rebound fell kindly for the Ipswich defence and they were able to scramble it clear.
As we kept up the pressure Varney and Morison had shots scrambled away, but the turning point of the game came when Lees was harshly sent off. A mix-up on the halfway line gave Tabb the chance to break down the Ipswich left, only for Lees to cynically step in front of him to block his run. It was certainly worth a booking, but for me there's no way it was a straight red card. I can only assume the challenge looked a lot worse from the view the referee would have had, from behind the two players.
Warnock could have brought Pearce on to shore up the defence as we faced the rest of the game with ten men, but opted to keep the side as it was while we seemed to be on top. Now we really needed to score and when Varney found Morison in space it would have been lovely for the former Norwich man to score in front of the North Stand at Portman Road. So it’s rather a shame that he got right underneath it and sent it over the bar from six yards.
At this point the referee made partial amends when he declined to give Ipswich a penalty when I thought Green had pulled his man down after an Ipswich player had gone past him into the box, but Mr. Adcock waved their appeals away when I expected to see him pointing to the spot.
But our luck didn’t last and the home side scored on the stroke of half time, when Hyam’s header came back on the bar and McGoldrick raced in to head home, a goal we probably wouldn’t have conceded if we’d still had two central defenders on the pitch. During the break we saw a rather tubby Ipswich fan get thrown out from the lower tier of the Churchmans stand below us, quite unjustifiably in my opinion, as he’d been engaging in banter with the Leeds end throughout the half but not doing anything offensive or dangerous.
Pearce replaced Green for the second half, but five minutes into it we were two down, as Hyam went past Pelties rather too easily and McGoldrick fired home. Still Leeds didn’t give the game up and kept going forward, with Byram having two shots blocked from corners and Morison having another effort scrambled away from a narrow angle.
But as we pressed forward we were bound to leave gaps at the back, and Kenny made a fine save to deny McGoldrick his hat-trick, before Ipswich got the third goal on 68 minutes, as Cresswell set up Emanuel-Thomas. Warnock made a couple of changes, with McCormack and White replacing Varney and Tonge, though by now it was too late to get back into the game.
That didn’t stop us trying to get forward, yet Emanuel-Thomas nearly made the scoreline even more embarrassing on the break, but Kenny did well to get back and smother his shot. By now the Leeds end were aiming plenty of “time to go” chants in Warnock’s direction, but I thought that was harsh on a day when the team played with plenty of spirit, but had no luck at either end of the field.
We did have one more header from Morison which looped onto the bar, but we weren’t even going to get a consolation from this game and eventually the ref put the Leeds contingent out of our misery with the final whistle. One day we’ll get the luck we deserve and record our first win at Portman Road since 2001, but it didn’t happen today.
The result was a much needed win for Ipswich on a day when most of the teams beneath them picked up points, and those same scorelines have left us only seven points above the drop zone. At least we’ve still got something to play for to give us some interest in the rest of the season. Happy days.