Leeds recovered from a dreadful start to the game to secure our first away win over Ipswich Town since 2001.
After the dullness of our last two games I wondered whether the BBC would find enough highlights for the main game on the Football League show, and what the fans watching it live on TV in Scandinavia would make of it all, but this turned to be a quite eventful encounter with enough goalmouth action to keep everyone happy.
As it was a bank holiday weekend we had to expect that the weather would be bad enough to cause some flooding in parts of the south-east, but Ipswich managed to escape the worst of it. There was a particularly vicious downpour shortly before kick-off, but thankfully that finished just in time for us to get from the pub to the turnstiles.
There was only one change from the Wednesday game, with Hunt back in the side to replace Poleon, but it was the defence who could have done with some re-enforcements, as they were all over the place during the opening half hour. Ipswich had the ball in the net within the first ten minutes, but this was ruled out for offside after Tabb touched a shot from McGoldrick that might have being going in anyway.
But that was only a temporary respite, and Mc.Goldrick did put Ipswich in front in the 11th minute. He was given far too much space to run down though the centre as the defence backed off, though Lees might have lost his footing due to the conditions, which could be an excuse for his feeble challenge. Mc.Goldrick greatfully accepted the invitation to shoot from outside the box, to add to the two goals he scored against us in the same fixture last season.
By now I was getting irritated by Peltier getting sucked into the middle and allowing Creswell the freedom to do what he wanted on Ipswich’s left. Though to be fair he was getting no cover from Green, who was supposed to be playing on that flank further forward, but clearly prefers a more central midfield role. We could have gone further behind when Cresswell was allowed to cut inside and hit a curling shot against the bar, with Tabb putting the rebound into the side netting.
At this stage I thought we were going to get absolutely hammered, but we managed to tighten up at the back and start to get a foothold in the game. Pearce got his head to a couple of set pieces, sending one over and the other wide, before the equaliser arrived in the 28th minute. A shot from McCormack fell kindly to Varney, who was completely untroubled by the Ipswich defence and took the opportunity to hammer the ball past Loach. Well worth the bang on the head I got as the drunks behind me celebrated wildly.
We nearly messed it up again before the break, as Pearce and Kenny had a complete misunderstanding over a backpass on the edge of the box, but for once I was glad that Peltier was playing a bit centrally, as he was on hand to whack the ball clear. At half time I thought we were a bit lucky to be on level terms, but things got even better only three minutes after the break.
McCormack tried a shot from outside the box that didn’t seem to have the power to trouble the keeper, but it took a deflection off Skuse and bounced past the Loach into the net. After the game Mick McCarthy said his keeper should have saved it and he’s probably right, as the deflection didn’t change the direction of the ball and if anything took a bit of pace off the shot.
For the rest of the game Ipswich had plenty of possession, but now their attacks lacked the potency they had at the start of the game. They did force a few too many corners for my liking, and from one there was a shout for handball when Hunt cleared off the line, but mostly from the fans behind the goal who couldn’t possibly have seen if he’d handled it or not!
Of course with our misfortune with red cards at this venue in recent years we really needed to keep eleven men on the pitch, and there was one anxious moment after a hefty challenge by Austin, but thankfully the ref thought that a yellow card would suffice. We could also have done with another goal to put the issue beyond doubt, but Green fired our best chance into the side netting.
Towards the end a limping Varney was replaced by Poleon, who produced his usual lively performance as Leeds though a couple of times he might have done better getting a shot in, as a couple of times he gave their defence the chance to recover and block the shot when it finally came. By the time we got to 85 minutes Hunt had run out of puff and was replaced by Tonge, with the extra man in midfield helping to shore things up and keep Ipswich out in the final stages.
More than a few Ipswich fans were leaving before we even got to 90 minutes, and the attendance was announced as a rather paltry 18,322, so it’s a good job we came. That figure included the official away allocation of 2,100, plus at least one Leeds fan who was ejected from the stand to our left after our first goal. We seemed to provide most of the atmosphere throughout the game and I dread to think how much of a morgue the place must be for most matches, so it’s time the Ipswich board had a think about their sky-high ticket prices.
There were three minutes of injury time to survive but some determined defending saw us through to the final whistle and a win that takes us up to the dizzy heights of fifth in the table. You could say we were a bit fortunate to take all three points from this game, but after the way things went in our previous two visits to Portman Road we were due a little bit of luck. Bring on the QPR game!