Town Denied Victory Again By Officials.

They say lightning doesn’t strike twice but at Portman Road today it did! Once again the blues were denied an early lead when Jonathan Douglas struck home from close range, only for the linesman’s flag to be raised suggesting he was offside.

As video evidence proved later, this was not the case and for the second time in less than a week, Ipswich Town had a perfectly good goal wiped off because of incompetent officiating.

This rather poor decision did not seem to dampen the blues determination to control the game and for the first 25 minutes that was exactly what they did – although getting that all important first goal was becoming the greatest challenge.

In the end it was the away side who snatched it with a well worked move, which saw Daniel Ivo Pinto ride a Freddie Sears tackle on the right and then cut the ball across to Wes Hoolahan before Jonathan Howson laid it back to Cameron Jerome, who struck home cleanly off a post with just 25 minutes of the first half gone.

After the goal the momentum swung and the Canaries were in the ascendency for much of the rest of the first half.

Possession was 60/40 in their favour and they stroked the ball around with guile and no little skill. It was however deemed to be justice finally done when just before the break the Tractor Boys equalised – largely against the run of play.

Daryl Murphy picked up the ball inside the area and elegantly swivelled away from Norwich defenders before passing inside to Freddie Sears. He immediately played the ball back to Jonas Knudsen who took no time in weighing up his options before cutting inside and hitting a low right-foot shot into the corner of the net and beyond the outstretched fingers of keeper McGovern to the delight of the Portman Road faithful.

The home fans went in at the break in a much better frame of mind understandably and the team was cheered off at the interval.

The second half was a bit of a stalemate but the blues will feel that over the ninety minutes they were worthy of all three points.

That said, after our recent history against our neighbours from Norfolk, this will be seen by most as a satisfactory result.

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich