Another away defeat for Clarets

From my vantage point, some considerable distance away, the decision looked harsh, and having seen it again from closer quarters via television pictures I would now say that the referee without any doubt got the decision wrong.

It was no surprise given the antics of the otherwise impressive former Claret Alan Lee, and he was involved in an incident later in the game that should have seen us reduced to nine men when goalkeeper Brian Jensen raised his hand to him. Thankfully, neither the incompetent Darren Deadman, nor his assistants bothered to notice it.

Lee had been winding the Beast up all afternoon and was himself lucky to be on the field given two incidents when he raised his feet at Jensen, both of which should have seen him get yellow cards. But we know Lee, we know he plays like that.

We lost, we certainly didn’t play particularly well, but I’m not convinced Ipswich deserved the points, apart from a spell early in the second half they hardly threatened to get through us and were, for most of the game, restricted to shooting from distances of about thirty yards, something they seemed very keen to do. So there’s no doubt the shot count is very misleading.

With Wayne Thomas as expected in for the suspended Frank Sinclair, there was one further change with John Spicer returning for his first start since the defeat at Norwich in December, with Garreth O’Connor dropping to the bench.

I hope our Chief Executive wasn’t there yesterday, he gets his ideas from other clubs and he might have been interesting in the dreadful home crowd sing-a-long just before kick off. Yes the dancing and clapping sheep syndrome is very active in Suffolk.

I wasn’t confident, but that was probably more to do with the fact that we were at Portman Road as anything else, but we started well and certainly in the first half hour we were the better side. We created more than they did, were unfortunate with a couple of somewhat dubious offside decisions, and Ipswich never once really threatened to get into our box.

We were level, with any luck would have been in front, and I started to believe we would get something from the game. But it changed in the last ten minutes of the first half as the home side finally got into dangerous positions and with one of them came so close to scoring.

Alan Lee got his head to a ball in from the right and hit Brian Jensen’s left hand post. The keeper had no chance but then jumped out of the way of the ball as it came back to avoid it hitting him and bouncing in. It was very alert keeping from the Beast, but then dropped a couple of balls to create some panic at the back.

Ipswich were now getting on top and I looked at my watch realising that half time couldn’t come soon enough, I was worried that we might concede but instead we went down the other end and took the lead.

Michael Ricketts and Gifton Noel-Williams linked up well. Ricketts won a header and found Gifton who laid it off to Spicer, who returned it for Gifton to flick on with his head and it dropped nicely for Ricketts to get clear and finish with ease from the left hand side.

His second goal in successive games but he paid the penalty for celebrating in front of the Ipswich fans with the by now erratic and difficult to understand Deadman reaching for his yellow card.

It all meant a very pleasant half time for the Burnley supporters who had made the journey down there, and hopes were high of us picking up all three points, but they were to be dashed in the second half as we conceded a lead and went on to lose for the first time away from home since the first away game of the 2003/04 season at West Brom.

Ipswich obviously had to push forward but it has to be said that we helped them by dropping deeper and deeper. The midfield, who had done well enough in the first half, were so deep that the front two became isolated, and as such that put us under even more pressure.

The equaliser did look inevitable but when it came it was somewhat unfortunate with scorer Lee ending any chance of Jon Harley defending the situation by grabbing his shorts and pulling him off balance. He took it well once he’d turned Harley and Jensen had no hope.

I feared the worst at this point, I thought we might be in for a very torrid last half hour, but it didn’t happen and we changed back to the way we were playing in the first half. Chris McCann came on for the very disappointing Graham Branch and played down the left and he came close to creating a chance following a good run and cross down the wing.

Ipswich were back to just trying hopeful shots from distance and they were not troubling us at the back. The clock moved on and I really could not see us losing the game, but then disaster struck with the penalty decision.

There’s no doubt that John McGreal made a bad mistake at his former home. No matter what he might or might not have heard, he should have played the ball. He didn’t and Lee got onto it as Michael Duff came across and Deadman pointed to the spot.

It was well over two minutes before it could be taken with Wayne Thomas receiving a second yellow card. He obviously did not swear at the referee, that is an automatic straight red, so we assumed it was for something he said without swearing. It may well be now that it is a case of mistaken identity and the referee thought he had committed the foul, it really would not surprise me.

Thomas wouldn’t go, there was a long delay, and when he finally did it took him an age as he made his way to the far end and the players’ tunnel via the pitch and not down the touchline. Eventually they put the spot kick away and we were staring defeat in the face.

We needed to push men forward so I really do not understand for the life of me why we brought on a defender for a forward and went 4-4-1 when we needed to get back into the game. Courtney came on, the poor lad looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights, and Michael Duff went to centre half where he will almost certainly line up on Tuesday against Wolves.

It was an awful last ten minutes, we could so easily have conceded another couple of goals and how Jensen stayed on the pitch after the late incident with Lee is anyone’s guess. It all led to yet another away defeat, and we really do need to bring to an end this awful run away from home.

We didn’t play well enough overall but could so easily have got something out of it, we really were the better side in the first half. Apart from the period either side of half time we never looked seriously threatened at the back but going forward we really didn’t create enough again.

Midfield were far too often much too deep during the key period after half time and we struggled down the flanks, especially down our left hand side where Branchy and Harley had miserable afternoons.

Man of the match for me was Micah Hyde who was involved in the best things we did, I thought he and James O’Connor were the pick for us.

The half time smiles had gone as we filed out after the game and the inquest lasted the whole way home – we don’t win often enough away from home and this has now been a problem for some four years or so. This was a game we could have gone on to win.

I have commented on referee Deadman previously, he is an official I won’t be in a rush to see again. He got it wrong right at the beginning with two unnecessary yellow cards, one each, and then at times seemed to lose the plot, and sadly he got the most crucial decision wrong. It would have helped at times if he had been somewhat closer to the action, something he struggled with for a lot of the afternoon.

Coventry is the next away game in two weeks, how we will go on I don’t know, but I will miss Highfield Road, a ground where we never found winning too difficult.

The teams were,

Ipswich: Shane Supple, Fabian Wilnis, Jason De Vos, Richard Naylor, Scott Barron, Ian Westlake (Carlos Sito 45), Jimmy Juan, Owen Garvan, Matt Richards, Alan Lee, Darren Currie. Subs not used: Lewis Price, Jim Magilton, Jaime Peters, Dean McDonald.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Jon Harley, John Spicer (Wade Elliott 89), Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Graham Branch (Chris McCann 67), Gifton Noel-Williams (Duane Courtney 83), Michael Ricketts. Subs not used: Garreth O’Connor, Danny Karbassiyoon.

Referee: Darren Deadman (Cheshunt).

Attendance: 24,482.