Mixed reaction by Town fans following last gasp equaliser against Blackburn

There was mixed reaction by fans coming away from Ewood Park last night (Tuesday, December 2) following Town’s last gasp equaliser against Blackburn.

Pleasure, and some elation, lingered with the reality that the team are underperforming in the Championship with many expecting them to be beating sides like Rovers who still have only recorded one home win of the season.

It could have been their second victory if not for substitute Sindre Walle Egeli’s last minute equaliser, and his first goal for Ipswich, snatching an unlikely point for the Tractor Boys in the 1-1 draw.

It was a similar story to last Friday’s 2-1 defeat at lowly Oxford … lots of effort and possession but no end result.

That’s just one point from a possible six against two teams sitting in 18th and 20th spot in the league.

Justifiably we are not half way through the season but things needs to improve on the pitch if Town want to challenge at the top of the league with both high flying Coventry and fourth placed Stoke the visitors to Portman Road over the next eight days.

Victories over those two teams will completely change the outlook for seventh placed Ipswich. But they need to be a lot sharper than their previous two outings.

Last night’s rearranged match, after the initial one was abandoned in September, was dour to say the least with Town once again having the majority of possession (54.8 per cent) but Rovers recorded more shots on goal (14) compared to Town’s (11) and the Lancastrians having three on target with Ipswich having two.

The match on September 20 was abandoned after 79 minutes because of a waterlogged pitch with Blackburn leading 10 man Town 1-0 after Jacob Greaves had been sent off.

The EFL later said the fixture would have to be replayed in full, much to the displeasure of Rover’s manager Valerien Ismael who described it as “a disgrace”.

And he was further infuriated when referee Oliver Langford issued a yellow card to Azor Matusiwa who brought down Ryoya Morishita as he chased a long ball forward when it looked as if it should have been red.

Blackburn shaded the match which was ultimately low on quality, and their players sunk to the turf as the final whistle sounded after taking the lead in the 76th minute through Andri Gudjohnsen.

Speaking to the Town’s website manager Kieran McKenna said the team need to be “much, much” better and “didn’t deserve” to come away with a point.

He said: “I thought it was a really poor performance no two ways about it.

“We weren’t good enough tonight in any aspects of the game really.

“Happy for Sindre in the moment at the end. The team showed good composure at that moment to get the goal but our general performance we didn’t deserve it.

“There’s been lot of cases the other way round this season where our performance has deserved more but not tonight.

“We take the point and the outcome was probably more than we deserved in the performance but we need to be much, much better than that and there’s things we need to rectify and we need to be much, much stronger than that and we’ve got to do it quickly.”