Will we ever win at Ipswich again?

I've seen the home side get late winners, seen them win with a penalty that was nothing short of a shocking decision, and now twice I've seen them equalise in stoppage time. It matters not whether it was a fair result or not, the simple fact remains that we almost got there before things once again turned against us.

I'm not even sure the scorer should have been on the pitch, twice Alan Lee was pulled up by referee Keith Hill for diving, twice Hill decided to take no further action and so Lee left the field at the end without even his sixth yellow card of the season. It was hardly a surprise, this Ipswich side foul constantly throughout a game, but Hill was hoodwinked by Lee and his less than honest boys and incredibly only awarded six free kicks in our favour all afternoon.

In truth, a draw was probably a fair result, and it looked to be heading towards that, and without a goal, when Kyle Lafferty struck with just over four minutes remaining on the clock. It was an excellent strike by Kyle, who had played up front alongside Gifton Noel-Williams until the last twenty minutes when he went out onto the right hand side with Steve Jones moving up top after Micah Hyde's introduction, for Wade Elliott, brought about a reshuffle.

Kyle received the ball from the once again impressive James O'Connor, he moved forward, went inside his defender, and from about five yards outside the penalty box placed a left foot shot into the bottom corner out of the reach of goalkeeper Lewis Price.

It was a goal worthy of winning a match, and as the clock on the electric scoreboard counted down we felt sure this was the day. It reached 87, then 88, then 89 but with just seconds remaining of normal time Ipswich won a corner on the right. When it came in, up went an arm, it was Gifton's, and referee Hill pointed to the spot.

It was at the far end, and difficult to see, but there can be no complaints at the decision at all, it is a clear hand ball, and needless to say that Lee scored from the spot to earn the home side a point that in those last few minutes had seemed very unlikely.

Yes, it was probably fair, we had been the better side in the first half and Ipswich had in the second half. The two youngsters, Kyle and Chris McCann were the only changes from the side that beat Leeds, Kyle coming in for the injured Andy Gray and McCann replacing Micah Hyde who was on the bench.

It was clear very early that this couldn't be a classic. The pitch, usually in good nick at Portman Road, was a shocker. The ball would often take a bad bounce, sometimes it would just stick on the surface, it really was poor and you would have even backed Ashley Giles to take wickets on it.

We really took the game to Ipswich, after the dreadful Lee headed an early chance wide for the home side. For much of the first half it was all Burnley, but unfortunately we weren't able to convert any of our chances. Both strikers were guilty of misses, so was Steve Jones, Kyle had one effort cleared off the line and even Johnny Mac got in on the act against his old club, heading a set piece right into the arms of the keeper.

Jonah was causing them all sorts of problems with his probing down the left, poor Alex Bruce didn't know what day it was at times, but the defender who was to hit the Burnley fans with some choice expletives later in the game somehow survived and without his usual yellow card.

It wasn't all one way traffic and Danny Coyne had to be alert on one occasion, tipping a shot round his right hand post. It was an isolated attack though as we dominated play until about five minutes or so before half time when the home side finally started to put something together. When that half time whistle blew though it was the Clarets disappointed not to be going in to the dressing rooms with a lead.

We hoped to start brightly in the second half but it was Ipswich who grabbed the early initiative and twice they really should have gone in front. Former Fulham midfielder Sylvain Legwinski saw his header saved by Coyne, but he shouldn't have given him a chance to save, and then Lee also should have done better with a header.

The home side really were in the ascendancy now, but after those two early opportunities they didn't create a great deal in the way of chances. At the other end, we could have even gone in front. Gifton headed over from a couple of yards out, and we had an effort hacked away off the line, was it John McGreal again?

Steve Cotterill finally changed things with the introduction of Micah and this helped turn the game back our way. We started to get forward again and more than once we had a lot of possession and started to cause them problems, particularly down the left flank where McCann had the beating of Bruce.

As we moved into the closing minutes it did look as though neither side were going to be able to create anything, and that's when Kyle changed the game. If only we could have hung on.

It was a difficult game, not least because of the awful conditions; I cannot remember when I saw a pitch as bad as this so early in the season (probably Derby's in the 1970s). There were though some good individual performances.

Kyle did well, he'll get better with a run in the side, and again the two wide men in the first half were in excellent form. But my man of the match was James O'Connor who just got stronger and stronger as the game wore on. He's turning in good performances now on a regular basis, and again he was involved in so much of our good play.

Will we ever win at Ipswich again? I really do live in hope.

The teams were;

Ipswich: Lewis Price, Alex Bruce, Jason De Vos, Richard Naylor, Matt Richards, Gavin Williams (Danny Haynes 79), Sylvain Legwinski, Owen Garvan, Gary Roberts, Alan Lee, Billy Clarke (Jaime Peters 67). Subs not used: Shane Supple, Luis Castro Sito, Jonathan Macken.

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Micah Hyde 72), James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Steve Jones (Frank Sinclair 87), Gifton Noel-Williams, Kyle Lafferty. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Stephen Foster, Alan Mahon.

Referee: Keith Hill (Hertfordshire).

Attendance: 20,254.