Town find themselves 2-0 down at Blackburn Rovers at half-time with former Blue Jordan Rhodes inevitably the scorer of both goals, the first from the penalty spot.

Manager Mick McCarthy was forced into two changes with Jonny Parr and Larsen Touré coming into the side for Jonas Knudsen, who was ill, and Ryan Fraser, who picked up a minor knock in training on Thursday.

Parr was handed his first league start of the season at left-back with Touré’s inclusion seeing Ainsley Maitland-Niles switch to the left of midfield. Daryl Murphy and Freddie Sears continued up front with David McGoldrick and Brett Pitman on the bench.

For Rovers, midfielder Danny Guthrie missed out due to a thigh injury and was replaced by Hope Akpan.

The home side started on top but without threatening Dean Gerken’s goal and on five Sears’s cross to Touré was cut out by a defender.

Shortly afterwards the Guinean international won a corner but Maitland-Niles was unable to create an opportunity, then on nine Murphy headed the on-loan Arsenal man’s right-wing freekick over.

Despite the Blues having had a decent spell it was the home side who would go in front from the penalty spot in the 12th minute.

Referee Andre Marriner first denied Rovers a spot-kick when Ben Marshall’s shot struck Christophe Berra on the arm, but when Hope Akpan burst past Cole Skuse and Luke Chambers and into the area on the left Larsen Touré was adjudged to have tripped the midfielder. Rhodes confidently beat Gerken to register his fifth goal in six games against his old club.

It took only another four minutes for Rhodes to make it six in six. Craig Conway whipped over a corner from the left and the Town academy product got ahead of Chambers to nod past Gerken.

Town, who had conceded two goals in quick succession for the second week running, looked to get back into the game via a freekick not far outside the area on 19 but Maitland-Niles stuck his shot into the wall.

A minute later a frustrated Touré picked up the game’s first yellow card for a foul on right-back Adam Henley.

Rovers continued to look the more dangerous side and on 23 left-back Markus Olsson had the ball in the net but having strayed into an offside position.

As the half moved towards its final 10 minutes the Blues were having a lot of the ball but without creating any serious chances. Rovers were defending determinedly - Maitland-Niles saw two threaded passes cut out - and then on 36 Jonathan Douglas screwed a shot wide from distance.

Chambers dived in to block from Conwaya minute later after the winger had been fed in space on the left of the area by Marshall, then from the corner Grant Hanley beat his Scotland team-mate Christophe Berra at the far post but headed wide.

On 40 Conway shot wide from distance with the home side continuing to look more likely to add to their lead than the Blues were to reduce it.

However, in the 44th minute Murphy wasn’t too far away from opening his account for the season when he tested Rovers keeper Jason Steele for the first time with a 25-yard strike which the former England U21 international pushed around his left post. From the corner, Tommy Smith got away from his man but failed to connect with his header.

Town couldn’t complain about the scoreline at the break, the home side having been on top for the most part, aside from the spell just before the penalty.

Whether it was Touré’s challenge which caused Akpan to go to ground was probably debatable, the Blackburn man looked to have lost his chance to shoot when he went down, but Rhodes netted the kick with his usual confidence.

The striker’s second from the corner soon afterwards is likely to frustrate manager McCarthy more with the Blues having conceded too many preventable goals in recent weeks.

From there, Town huffed and puffed but never really looked like getting back into the game with Murphy’s late shot from distance keeper Steele’s only save.

Blackburn: Steele, Henley, Duffy, Hanley (c), Olsson, Marshall, Evans, Akpan, Conway, Lawrence, Rhodes. Subs: Raya, Spurr, Delfouneso, Williamson, Taylor, Petshi, Lenihan.

Town: Gerken, Chambers (c), Parr, Berra, Smith, Skuse, Douglas, Touré, Maitland-Niles, Murphy, Sears. Subs: Bialkowski, Malarczyk, Emmanuel, Bru, Oar, Pitman, McGoldrick. Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).

Photo: Action Images

GeorgeITFC24 added 16:05 - Oct 3 Embarrassing.
1

jas0999 added 16:08 - Oct 3 Not good enough. 45 minutes to get something out of this. Need creativity in that midfield.
1

kilkmilk added 16:19 - Oct 3 On paper we look like top two contenders... But this just isn't good enough!
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DannyITFC added 16:26 - Oct 3 Pathetic.....I don't see what this mangement can do to take Ipswich forward? They were playing better last season with average players hoofing it up to Murphy! Unfortunately Mick continues to pick out of form players and changes his team constantly instead of sticking with your best team! The pressure will build for Mick to produce results fast otherwise we all know what happens in this business. The bottom line is this is not good enough and has n't been for a few games now, drawing at home to Birmingham was not great and losing at home to Brighton was poor too but that draw last week to the worst team in the league Bristol was disgraceful! With this result today (looking like another loss) surely Mick will drop Douglas and bring in Bru? Murphy is out of form play Mcgoldrick! And Berra is awful atm.....it says something when Smith is playing miles better than him. Berra needs dropping to the bench and Chambo should come into centre back with Parr at RB. We all know Bart needs to play too, I am starting lose faith tbh.....we have a strong squad just poorly managed.

2

Lightningboy added 16:52 - Oct 3 Good job we rested all those players vs Man Utd,it's worked wonders. Sort it out McCarthy.
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cartman1972 added 16:54 - Oct 3 Playing plain awful at the moment it's an embarrassment... I thought we had a better team this year it's considerably worse....sack McCarthy let o'connor run it.
0

marshallmania added 16:56 - Oct 3 Well I didn't dare listen to the game and I was proved right. I honestly think we have a squad/team to get promoted this season but without knowing the match facts I am thinking what a load of poop! When are we gonna mark Rhodes out of the game as a game plan, so ridiculous he keeps scoring against us! Anyway Mick I am sure u can;t be remotely happy and nor are your fans so up your game!!

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Blue_Moses added 17:04 - Oct 3 2015 record; Played 32 Won 13 Drawn 7 Lost 12 For: 46 Against: 49 Can't see this improving if we keep playing the same team each week.
2

Wickets added 17:06 - Oct 3 It could have been Reading all over again!!
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cats_whiskers added 17:08 - Oct 3 It's becoming painfully clear that McCarthy has taken the club as far as he can He's appears clearly happy to play a unbalanced defence and yet again retains Gerken who has been there in all that dismal run, conceding an almighty amount of goals which really compare to relegation form statistics.
1

Norwichbeater added 17:09 - Oct 3 Pathetic. End of.
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