Town suffer eighth straight defeat on home soil with 1-0 loss to European chasing Brentford

A thrice taken corner by Brentford resulted in the only goal of the game between the European-chasing West Londoners and already relegated Ipswich Town.

There was a VAR penalty check prior to the strike by Kevin Schade who rose high to head home after 18 minutes.

But the goal infuriated the Town fans who felt that they should have been awarded a free kick for pushing and tugging inside the penalty area.

In truth it was another frustrating afternoon for the Town faithful who saw their team suffer their eighth straight defeat on home soil despite hitting the post, Liam Delap’s first half header and substitute George Hirst both firing straight at Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken along with a header into the keeper’s arms in stoppage time.

Town made just one change to the team that started last weekend’s 2-2 draw at Everton with Axel Tuanzebe coming in for Luke Woolfenden while the visitors were unchanged following last weekend’s 4-3 home win against Manchester United.

The first opening of the game came after just two minutes when Axel Tuanzebe linked up with Omari Hutchinson down the right and the wing man’s cross found Delap who climbed high to head towards goal but his effort was safely gathered by the Brentford goalkeeper.

It was a breathless opening 15 minutes to an encounter between the team third from bottom of the Premier League and The Bees.

Play was held up following a VAR cheque for a penalty following a clash in the Ipswich 18 yard area between Town defender Jacob Greaves and Brentford’s Sepp Van Den Berg. And from the third retaken set play Schade rose high to send a looping header home from Bryan Mbeumo’s cross.

It was a blow to the Tractor Boys’ hopes of getting their noses in front but they pressed and probed for an equaliser as referee Sam Barrett became a focal point of the Town fans’ anger for a series of decisions favouring The Bees.

Mbeumo got down the side of Town’s box but his clipped, angled effort on the run lacked power and was claimed by Town goalkeeper Alex Palmer. 

And then Schade tried to turn in the Town box and went down in a heap appealing for a penalty but the referee was unmoved.

Moments later a speculative shot from 25 yards out by Ipswich midfielder Jack Taylor went narrowly wide and in added time in the first half Danish international Mikkel Damsgaard’s shot across the Ipswich goal just missed the target.

A misplaced pass in midfield by Conor Chaplin led to Damsgaard threading a through ball to Yoane Wissa whose toe-poked effort was beaten away by Palmer and Hutchinson produced some trickery on the right, exchanged passes with Tuanzebe and sent in a teasing deep cross that almost crept in at the far post and just evaded Delap and Greaves.

There was a mighty scramble in the Ipswich penalty area with the ball falling loose for a Brentford attacker to put the ball into the net but Town managed to eventually clear their lines with Palmer clinching onto the ball.

It was all Brentford mid way through the second period and another VAR penalty check following a corner after a clash between Brentford’s Christian Norgaard and Ipswich defender Tuanzebe was turned down.

Palmer came to the rescue for Ipswich when he blocked a shot from  Mbeuma and Wissa was booked for a high challenged on Greaves.

There was more pushing and shoving in the Brentford penalty area this time with Yehor Yarmoliuk clashing with Greaves but the referee turned down appeals for a spot kick.

It was the turn of Ipswich to add pressure on the visitors penalty area with under 15 minutes left of the game and skipper Sam Morsy had a good effort to level  with a shot from the edge off the penalty area but his effort went just over the bar.

And substitue George Hirst failed to find the back of the net when Van Den Berg missed his header and the striker stumbled and scuffed his shot as he tried to beat the Brentford goalkeeper.

With time running out Hutchinson darted down the right side of the box and hit a crisp angled shot which came off a Brentford defender and struck the near post.

From the resultant corner kick Hutchinson’s in-swinging set piece was flicked on by Ipswich substitute Jens Cajuste and just evaded the far post. 

Hirst fired straight at Flekken and a headed into the keeper’s arms in stoppage time.

Attendance: 29,511 including 2,953 visiting fans.