A familiar story at Portman Road

As promised, Kyle Lafferty was given the opportunity to lead the line in place of Gray, with fellow youngster Chris McCann ousting Micah Hyde from central midfield.

Ipswich carved out the opening chance in the second minute, with former claret Alan Lee heading wide from a Gary Roberts right wing cross. This sparked Burnley into action - Steve Jones crossed to Gifton Noel-Williams, whose header was blocked on the line. We were causing them problems down the flanks with Jones and Wade Elliott supplying crosses and cutbacks.

Efforts from Lafferty and John McGreal were comfortably saved, before Jones fired over from 20 yards following Lafferty's perseverance down the right. The Clarets' purple patch continued as Lafferty saw his shot kept out by another goal-line clearance, and McCann fired a 20 yarder just wide of the post.

Ipswich started to claw their way back into the game on the half hour mark, Danny Coyne producing an acrobatic save to deny Billy Clarke. A scrappy period followed with the deterioration of the playing surface hampering the passing of both teams. On the stroke of half time Lafferty picked up a soft caution for an innocuous trip - a bizarre decision following what had up to that point been a decent performance from referee Keith Hill.

A goalless, but action packed first half left us wondering if we would be made to pay for not pressing home our early advantage.

The home side came flying out of the blocks in the second period, with Coyne producing another acrobatic stop, this time at point blank range from Sylvain Legwinski's header. Lee broke the offside trap only to screw his shot horribly wide, and Gavin Williams fired over from 30 yards as Ipswich began to press.
With the bobbly nature of the pitch making passing increasingly difficult, the better chances began to come from set pieces. A well worked deep corner from Jones was headed back in by McGreal for Noel-Williams to flick just over the bar. Legwinski nodded wide from an Ipswich free kick, before the first change of the game saw the lively Peters replace Clarke. The Clarets picked up two yellows in quick succession, McGreal and Thomas deservedly going into the book for a trip and a scything challenge.

With Ipswich building pressure, Steve Cotterill shuffled his pack with 20 minutes to go. Micah Hyde replaced Wade Elliott, with Jones pushed forward, and Lafferty and McCann now operating in wide roles. The game began to open up again, with a looping McGreal header cleared off the line. James O'Connor's weighted pass played Jones in behind the defence only for the chipped shot to fall into the grateful arms of Lewis Price. Peters twice went close for Town at the other end, before Burnley snatched the lead with

86 minutes on the clock. Noel-Williams flicked on to Jones and the ball was played inside to the tireless O'Connor who found Lafferty in space on the right. Lafferty cut inside the fullback before unleashing a 20 yard left foot drive into the bottom corner, sending the travelling fans wild.

Could we hang on for that long awaited win at Portman Road? Alas no - we were to be thwarted in all too familiar fashion. Frank Sinclair replaced Jones to shore up the defence but we were soon on the back foot. A scramble in the Burnley goalmouth was eventually hacked away for a corner, but from the resulting cross a penalty was awarded. The exact offence was unclear from our vantage point, but Noel-Williams earned a caution with referee Hill spotting a handball amongst the crowd of bodies. Lee sent Coyne the wrong way, coolly rolling the ball home from the spot. 5 minutes of added time passed with little in the way of goalmouth incident, and we were left slightly deflated at the final whistle despite a strong first half performance.

So the wait for a victory at Portman Road goes on - on the balance of play a draw was probably about fair with our bright start countered by a stronger second half showing from Ipswich. However, with the last two seasons having seen us denied by a last minute equaliser and a disputed penalty, it was perhaps a little frustrating that this year we were hit by them both at once.