Leeds United Red Card Helps Town To Victory

Cole Skuse, Joe Garner and Martyn Waghorn come back into the starting line-up, replacing Luke Hyam, Kevin Bru and Freddie Sears who were all benched.

The other change was in goal, where Bartosz Bialkowski was out with a light calf strain and it meant that Dean Gerken was our keeper for the first time this season.

Also on the Town subs bench was young Chris Smith who was recalled from his loan spell with Chelmsford and our new Irish striker from Waterford Aaron Drinan.

Also raring to get some first team involvement was another Irishman in Adam McDonnell who had been recalled from time with Aldershot such was the dire injury crisis at Town which meant that manager Mick McCarthy had just sixteen fit players to choose from.

The game started with Town very much on the front foot and they must have been reminded that anything less than victory at home to Leeds United would end their playoff hopes. As the game kicked off, the Yorkshiremen were in sixth place in the table and here was a chance for the Blues to close the gap again with a win.

Before kick-off at Portman Road there was a minute`s applause in tribute to Ipswich Town legend Ted Phillips, who passed away earlier in the week aged eighty four.

Referee Robert Jones refused Town a penalty after just five minutes of play when Joe Garner went down in the box.

After fifteen minutes the Whites had a chance when Gaetano Berardi crossed from the Leeds right wing and Gerken collided with Kemar Roofe as he attempted to punch the ball clear. The loose ball fell to Ezgjan Alioski, but he shot wide.

Leeds were forced into a substitution after twenty nine minutes with Hadi Sacko replacing Cibicki, who had undergone a few minutes of treatment earlier following a heavy tackle by Iorfa.

Chances were few and far between in the first half but everything changed when Eunan O’Kane was given a direct red for when he elbowed Jonas Knudsen in the face.

After that incident Town were in the ascendancy and came closest to scoring when Bersant Celina was inches away from opening the scoring. The Kosovan international curled a brilliant 25-yard strike past Wiedwald but sadly too off his left post.

The interval could not come quickly enough for The Whites who had to regroup quickly for the second half when they would have to play all of it with just ten men.

And perhaps deservedly it was Bersant Celina who broke the deadlock after sixty seven minutes with a sublime strike from fully thirty yards, which curled into the roof of the net with Leeds keeper Felix Wiedwald helpless.

But Ipswich appeared to lack the quality to kill the game and the longer the match went on, the more you felt that the visitors could strike back and in the end after a series of anxious moments, the final whistle blew and now the gap between sixth and Ipswich Town 12th is four points again.

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich