Early Connelly Strike Sets Town On Their way

This win was dedicated to Dick Parker, the Ipswich kit man, and the Portman Road crowd observed a minute’s applause in respect of his efforts for over 20 years with the Blues after 67 minutes.

Town made the perfect start when on loan Everton man Callum Connelly scored his third goal since he moved from wing back into midfield and it was another very important strike for the Town.

Reading must have felt aggrieved with their first half performance which produced very little, other than a large chunk of possession but as we know possession does not get you goals alone and Town keeper Bartosz Bialkowski was hardly troubled in the Town goal.

Ipswich increased their lead on 27 minutes, when a clever Martyn Waghorn corner fell onto the head of Adam Webster who stooped to loop the ball through to Joe Garner who did the rest with a point blank range header to give the Blues a 2-0 lead at the break.

After the interval Kevin Bru replaced Cole Skuse and there was no great surprise here, as he needed prolonged treatment in the first half for what appeared to be a serious knock.

Town began the second half on the front foot and engineered an early corner but there was always the fear that the next goal would be decisive – especially if the home side were to score it!

But the second half were full of half chances and very little else, and the longer the game went on the more you felt that this was going to be a victory for the hosts.

If there is an underlying criticism of the way that Town play these days is that they sit on leads far too frequently. OK it worked today but it is a very risky strategy in my view.

And so it was to prove. Town continued to press but with little effect and the same applied to The Royals.

The result however is a good one again for the Blues and now we sit in eighth place in the Championship table – just two points off the top six and there is still real hope that we could be there just in time for Christmas!


Referee:
Peter Bankes

Attendance:
13,832

Teams:

Ipswich Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers (captain), Webster, Knudsen, Skuse (Bru 46), Connolly, Ward, Waghorn, Celina (Iorfa 89), Garner (Sears 90). Unused: M Crowe, T Smith, Bishop, McGoldrick.

Reading: Mannone, Gunter, McShane (c), Moore, Blackett (Kelly 74), Van den Berg, Edwards,, Bacuna, Barrow, Aluko (Bodvarsson 77), Kermorgant. Unused: Jaakkola, Beerens, Ilori, Clement, Richards.