It all began so well in front of 22,672 supporters at Portman Road yesterday and I point the finger of blame on our manager who decided that one goal was enough, even though it clearly wasn’t!
Cole Skuse found Daryl Murphy with a delightful left wing cross and as the Irishman ghosted further into the penalty area with some subtle skills, he was able to feed an unmarked Freddie Sears who had ghosted in unattended and he had the relatively simple task of tapping home from close range for his fifth goal in an Ipswich shirt.
If we wanted our fans to get onside then we could not have started this game much better but our lack of nerve cost us dearly in the end and it all but ends those slim automatic promotion hopes.
This was the perfect start for the Tractor Boys and their home supporters but from that moment on we seemed to lose our way and Bournemouth were not deterred in their ultimate goal of playing for all three points.
That early set-back certainly did not unruffle their feathers.
On the contrary, the longer the game went on the less that Town were in the ascendancy and the more that The Cherries got a grip on the game.
In terms of possession and goal chances it was our keeper Bartosz Bialkowski who was by far the busier and we started to play like an away side under the cosh!
Mick McCarthy had started with the team I had predicted he would, with the notable exception of Luke Varney being preferred to Richard Chaplow and he also included Chris Wood on the bench which was a bit of a surprise after his involvement with New Zealand.
As expected, the Town bench looked strong with Jonny Williams and David McGoldrick returning to the fold.
In the end though, Ipswich were hanging on for dear life for all the points and playing the Italian way was destined not to reap the rewards our manager had hoped for.
Two clean sheets in a row in this league is good but it is not good enough against the league leaders, who had quality in abundance in all departments and almost inevitably The Cherries got back into it with a goal on 82 minutes which they thoroughly deserved, as they dominated the game after we had scored.
Their manager Eddie Howe had said before kick off that it was unlikely that leading scorer Callum Wilson would play any part in the Easter proceedings but Mick the Man would have none of it and so it was to prove, as their centre forward was cleared as fit to play from the outset and interestingly played the full 90 minutes!
He was not responsible for the goal though and Bournemouth have to thank new on-loan Premier signing Kenwyne Jones for a superb header, when Matt Ritchie delivered a delightful cross after a corner had been defended well by the blues.
Tommy Smith got as close as he could to him but his power and strength and wonderful leaping skills got the better of Smith.
I think Terry Connor should have tied McCarthy to a chair at the interval and taken over because if he had, then perhaps the blues may have tried with greater conviction to seek out another goal.
If this had have been the case then I feel sure that either David McGoldrick or Jonny Williams would have come on and not Chris Wood who added nothing to our attacking options when Freddie Sears was strangely substituted with eleven minutes on the clock.
The old adage that one goal is never enough was made blatantly apparent here and Bournemouth were the better team for the bulk of the game simply because we stopped playing!
Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich
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