Full back Matt Richards hit an unstoppable shot into the top corner with just a few seconds left of normal time and things could have been worse as the home side came frighteningly close to hitting a winner.
There’ll be much debate about the leveller with Mo Camara down in the box. The
But the fact is Camara continued afterwards and didn’t need treatment –
Maybe the referee could have stopped it but there again he didn’t do us any favours all afternoon and it was no surprise to see virtually all the decisions go the way of the home side and all the bookings go our way. This is one downright bad referee, it is the third time I have seen him and he has been appalling on all three occasions.
Earlier in the afternoon things were going well and after an opening burst from
The impressive Micah Hyde won the ball and got it to Ian Moore who then played it forward for Hyde to run on to. He in turn squared the ball for Robbie Blake who was free on the left hand side of the box. He made no mistake placing the ball into the bottom corner for our second away goal of the season.
And it could have been even better just a couple of minutes later.
The home side were still having plenty of possession but they weren’t creating anything. Dean Bowditch was proving to be a handful but Michael Duff was dealing with him well. They did go up for a penalty for handball against Frank Sinclair but this homer of a referee said no which tells you that it wasn’t even close.
Long Ball Joe apparently saw it clearly from about eighty yards away and claimed it was a spot kick (is he a relative of Craig Brown?) but my view was clearer and nearer and it was not a penalty.
The half ended with Lewis Price saving from Ian Moore and that just about summed it up, they had a lot of possession but we had the shots on goal, the chances and we thoroughly deserved the half time lead.
The opinion amongst the fans was that we would need to keep it tight for the first ten minutes of the second half but it almost all went wrong when Frank Sinclair conceded a needless free kick on the edge of our own box.
Former KKMC midfielder Kevin Horlock hammered his free kick against the bar and we feared the onslaught.
It didn’t come and in fact in a spell midway through that second half we created ourselves three good chances with keeper Price saving well from Chappy, Branch and Blake. Had any one of them gone in we would surely have been returning from
None of them did and
Steve Cotterill was forced to make on change, Michael Duff was replaced by Richard Duffy after going down with what looked like cramp. He then made two others as he introduced Lee Roche and Jean-Louis Valois.
Then came that late equaliser followed by the save of the match. As the equaliser went in the fourth official held up the board for five extra minutes, all of which had come from
And we feared the worst as
The last five minutes were long as we were put under enormous pressure but we survived it and at least claimed a point to bring home. It could though have been all three and having kept
Man of the Match is a difficult one with Coyne coming right into the equation with those late saves, but I’ll stick with my initial thoughts and give it to Micah who had his best game yet in a Claret & Blue shirt.
The home fans cried, “Boring, boring,
Despite the late goal this was still a good day and a good result for the Clarets – make no mistake about that.
The teams were,
Ipswich: Lewis Price, Drissa Diallo, Richard Naylor, Jason De Vos, Matt Richards, Tommy Miller, Jim Magilton, Kevin Horlock, Ian Westlake, Shefki Kuqi, Dean Bowditch (Pablo Counago 50). Subs not used: Shane Supple, Aidan Collins, Scott Mitchell, Antonio Murray.
Referee: Brian Curson (
Attendance: 23,183.