Emyr Huws gave Town a 26th minute lead and Nico Yennaris equalised a minute before half-time for Brentford as the Blues and Bees drew 1-1 at Portman Road. The visitors came closest to winning it in the second half when Myles Kenlock cleared a Sergi Canos effort off the line, while Cole Skuse had the Blues’ best chance.

Top scorer Tom Lawrence returned after his two-match ban to an otherwise unchanged Town side with Freddie Sears dropping to the bench.

For Brentford, Lasse Vibe was back from injury and came into the attack for Konstantin Kerschbaumer, who was on the bench with Romaine Sawyers switching to midfield, while Canos took over from Florian Jozefzoon.

Fans were late getting into the ground after a suspected gas leak delayed the opening of the turnstiles by half and hour until 2pm, however, the match itself kicked-off on time.

The Bees started very brightly, Yennaris finding Canos with a raking pass in the opening minute but Blues skipper Luke Chambers got a cross to block.

The corner came to nothing but the visitors continued to make the early running and soon afterwards Chambers was forced to turn the ball behind as Canos sought to cut back from the byline. ""From the flag-kick Jordan Spence blocked Maxime Colin’s strike, then a subsequent Jota effort also found a Town defender in the way.

The Blues threatened for the first time in the seventh minute when Christophe Berra and Jonas Knudsen both rose high but the ball was diverted the wrong side of the post.

On 10 Lawrence was fed through on goal but Bees keeper Daniel Bentley saved and the flag had been raised in any case. Soon after, the on-loan Leicester man hit a cross-shot from the left which flew wide.

After Brentford’s early pressure Town had got more into the game and were looking the more dangerous side, although without having forced Bentley into a serious save by that stage.

In the 19th minute Lawrence cut in and hit a shot from the left which was blocked, then a defender took the loose ball away from Spence just inside the box.

But on 26 the Blues went in front and as against Norwich last week following a long spell of passing.

Eventually Huws tapped the ball wide to Lawrence on the right from where the Leicester loanee looked to cross deep into the area. However, he hit it straight at the on-loan Cardiff man, who took it down and hooked his second goal for the club past Brentford keeper Bentley, who had been caught unawares.

There was a big scare for the Blues in the 35th minute when Chambers was caught in possession on halfway by Canos and the Bees broke through Vibe. However, Berra did superbly to block the Dane’s first strike and then Sawyers’s subsequent effort from the edge of the box.

As half-time approached the visitors put the Blues under a sustained spell of pressure and in the 44th minute they levelled when Sawyers played a clever ball in behind the Town defence for Yennaris, who burst into the box and beat the advancing Bartosz Bialkowski.

The Blues had one opportunity to restore their lead in the moments before the break but Berra headed Lawrence’s freekick from the right wide.

The Bees had deserved their equaliser shortly before half-time having been in charge and probing for an opening for a number of minutes prior to Yennaris’s goal.

Having repelled the visitors’ early pressure, Town had got themselves into the game and had got on top by the time Huws got his goal, although while rarely playing particularly fluid football, before allowing Brentford to get back in charge in the spell in which they scored their goal.

The Blues created their first opportunity of the second period in the 51st minute when Lawrence and McGoldrick exchanged passes on the right before the Welshman teed up the Irish international. However, the Blues number 10’s shot was mishit and struck a defender.

Brentford went close on 54 Chambers when was caught in possession and Canos brought the ball forward down the Bees left before cutting in and hitting a shot which Berra diverted wide.

Soon after, the visitors brought on Yoann Barbet for the injured Andreas Bjelland, then Town swapped Grant Ward for Toumani Diagouraga.

Just before the hour mark Canos hit a shot from distance, which flew not too far over Bialkowski’s cross-bar.

Brentford had been comfortably the better side in the second half and in the 68th minute they were inches from going in front. Canos exchanged a one-two with Vibe and broke into the box on the left. Bialkowski took the sting out of his shot but the ball was still going to cross the line until Kenlock hooked it away ahead of Yennaris.

The Bees swapped Canos for Florian Jozefzoon, then Town withdrew Huws in favour of Kevin Bru, before the visitors switched Vibe for Justin Shaibu.

On 73 Lawrence fed McGoldrick inside the area on the right but John Egan blocked his shot from a tight angle. Four minutes later, Jota played in Jozefzoon but Chambers stuck in a foot to send the ball into Bialkowski’s arms off the Brentford sub.

With nine minutes remaining Kieffer Moore replaced an increasingly Lawrence, who never looked like hitting the heights of his performances prior to his enforced two-match break.

Town came close to winning it in the 87th minute when Skuse, Bru and sub Moore exchanged passes on the edge of the area and the Bristolian, who had been Town’s best player on the day, found himself in unfamiliar territory, in on goal inside the box. However, Bentley was able to claim his low effort at goal as he stretched.

Neither side threatened in four minutes of injury time and Town’s fourth match in succession ended 1-1. The Blues last drew four games in a row during a run which eventually reached five early in the 1992/93 season.

On the balance on the second half, which the Bees dominated, Town will have been happier a not overly exciting game ended level.

The Blues, who surrendered a lead for the fifth time in the last six games, never hit the heights of the performances against Reading and Leeds.

Town are now without a defeat in their last six games but have won only once in their last 10 in all competitions.

There were few chances at either end with both sides really having one serious chance in the second half, the Canos opportunity cleared off the line by Kenlock for the Bees and the Skuse's for Town.

The result sees Town climb one place to 15th, still nine points from the relegation zone, ahead of Tuesday’s home game against Wolves.

Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers (c), Berra, Knudsen, Kenlock, Skuse, Ward (Diagouraga 57), Huws (Bru 71), Lawrence (Moore 81), McGoldrick. Unused: Gerken, T Smith, Pitman, Sears.

Brentford: Bentley, Colin, Bjelland (c) (Barbet 56), Yennaris, Egan, Woods, Sawyers, Vibe (Shaibu 72), Henry, Jota, Canos (Jozefzoon 69). Unused: Bonham, Kerschbaumer, Clarke, Cole. Referee: Scott Duncan (Northumberland). Att: 15,863.

Photo: TWTD

Hoofball added 19:45 - Mar 4 One win in Ten games ! Need i say anymore.
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Geddis78 added 19:51 - Mar 4 Er, you can't really push for ME to be out. You need to have a buyer. Of course, if you have £6m to spunk away each year, please let us know. Otherwise, be grateful as without him, there is no ITFC. And no ITFC, no TWTD for you to share you rather weird posts.
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dirtydingusmagee added 19:57 - Mar 4 another bore draw.Highlight of the afternoon was the thrashing of Narrich .That is as good as it gets for town fans these days,
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cat added 20:01 - Mar 4 Mzt, welcome back, your humour has been sorely missed
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grumpyoldman added 20:05 - Mar 4 Oh well the feel good factor for some has soon departed, as I keep saying don't judge MM or the team on one or two results or performances, there will always be ups and downs in football so unless there is a complete change of philosophy for the rest of the season I will nothing will change a lot of people's opinion.
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warktheline added 20:11 - Mar 4 @geddis78, what a load of ruddy crap! Marcus Evans is a massive part of the problem! I shall not be grateful to someone who has no idea about football and has been truly instrumental in ripping the soul out of MY BLOODY FOOTBALL CLUB! People like you don't deserve to be part of this club, bowing down to capitalism! How much more of this do we have to put up with?
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Swn98 added 20:14 - Mar 4 Surgery?
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jas0999 added 20:17 - Mar 4 Geddis78 - please don't believe the spin! Season before last Evans made a huge PROFIT. last year a loss, but offset by player sales and taxes elsewhere. It's been several season since Evans put anything into this club.
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Geddis78 added 20:18 - Mar 4 Warktheline, welcome to 2017. We are massively in debt. We are a loss making company. We rely on a benefactor to keep us solvent. That isn't crap, that is fact. And as for ripping the soul out of the club, perhaps you set your expectations too high. Not sure I understand your comment re capitalism. ME runs the club as a business. Do you think he should be spending millions on players, i.e., capitalism, or should he be getting freebies? Please enlighten me.

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Geddis78 added 20:20 - Mar 4 Jas0999, is he not allowed to make a profit once every now and again? Would you invest your money in a negative ISA?
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TimmyH added 20:20 - Mar 4 On another note, also underlines that Norwich are not the team they use to be with their 5-1 humbling against Sheffield Wednesday (as proof of Sunday and their performance against us, although STILL the better team) - so that really puts in perspective what state we're in!
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Lightningboy added 20:25 - Mar 4 Far too much has been made of a few recent draws against "top" teams..said yesterday that we'd come back down to earth again today..we have become such a boring team to follow and if it wasn't for the likes of Lawrence (and now Huws) we'd be in the relegation places. 1 win in 10 is pathetic for a club of our stature in this division.
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TimmyH added 20:26 - Mar 4 Just to add: too many people last weekend on this forum jumping for joy and 'thanking' Mick on a meagre draw ( 1 post got an unbelievable 90 odd votes) - come on folks get a grip!!!
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cat added 20:54 - Mar 4 ME is not part of the problem for me, how can a man who's pumped in millions to our club be so condemned and unappreciated??. Look at the venki idiots at Blackburn or that tw@t Cellini at Leeds, I'm grateful we have not got a chairmen like them. MM's predecessors wasted millions, who can blame him for reining in his spending. Money was made available during the last window and I expect it will be again come May.

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bobble added 21:08 - Mar 4 we are treading water but slowly sinking.
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warktheline added 21:29 - Mar 4 @geddis78, Evans is just another in a long line of business men who believed stepping into the world of football would be an easy transition. Unfortunately for him, and most certainly unfortunately for us supporters, he didn't have a scooby doo about the game. Chucked cash at his latest adventure and was no doubt highly bemused when his fingers got burnt! He's lost interest, and obviously hasn't got any plan in place for the future, although he lets others lead us to believe he does! Where's the man's passion for the club, where's his drive? He belongs in the grubbing world of high flying business men, where money is the only motivation, and all else is secondary. Jeez, we've even got opposition moaning about our once perfect playing surface! No doubt another ploy to bring teams down to our poor level of football!

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Geddis78 added 22:09 - Mar 4 Warktheline, what is your alternative? Him selling to another businessman that you clearly loath, or do you have a more radical solution? I guess as we usually lose money, money isn't his only motivation? And what a load of tosh re your suggestion there is a conspiracy to have a poor playing surface. I assume you are a fan and attend games, in which you will have noticed a real attempt by the team to play the ball on the deck.

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Keith01062 added 22:39 - Mar 4 I have sat in south stand and supported my beloved town for years but I plus my wife will not renew our tickets next season if MCCARTHY or the moaning, negative, mccarthy loving idiot in front of me decide to stick around. MM and GS out
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runaround added 00:03 - Mar 5 Not good enough. Sounds like performances are dropping. Massive match Tuesday, really need to win that
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budgieplucker added 00:54 - Mar 5 All credit to Brentford, how can a team with a stadium 12000 seem to confound the odds and play good attractive football, just googled each of their players and got to £10 million spend without counting a few of the undisclosed fees, Canos being one of them who not long ago signed for the budgies for 2.5 million. So now I can understand how they can compete. They may have sold 3 high profile players in the last few years for very large sums but looks like they have reinvested wisely. No disrespect to Brentford but it does stick in my throat a little that minnow clubs can compete better than us when it comes to signing players. Ironically Skuse was probably the pick of our midfield today but the last person you wanted to turn up on the penalty spot with only the keeper to beat.

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Minneapolis_ITFC added 02:56 - Mar 5 Took in game report from the pages and post-match reaction with it. On top of an apparent overall lackluster and disappointing game, what you got here is essentially two club sides that are playing out a round of fixtures until end of season that are utimately immaterial. No hope of a promotion, little chance of falling into League One, just the prospect of a mid-league finish and absolutely zero else with it. Caught up with last weekends neighborhood clash with the unmentionables and while a drawn game both home and away is perhaps encouraging, am able to see below the surface in that we were perhaps quite fortunate to leave with something, let alone we have been unable to even beat this opposition in some seven or eight years at time of writing. Doutbless there were those getting carried away or even euphoric that we held the mighty Norwich City to a drawn game, but as before, you can't easiy discount the prpblems that have been consistent throughout this season. Like it don't like it, we're an average team at best that while may find a performance or score on occasion that provides a level of encouragement, we are far far behind any real hope of ever returning to the EPL any time soon, so long as it stays as it is. The breaking point with both Evans and McCarthy (particularly the latter) was the Lincoln City cup debale, and made a vow there and then to divorce myself from their continued involvement. Seems today was just another instance of a game to forget and the crowd may well have wished for some reimbursement if the previous responses and game report are anything to go by. Talk of season ticket renewal have come to the fore once again it would seem, (and) in all truth (and taking everything into consideration) I'm almost grateful I don't possess that option.

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Matthew_Crush added 04:07 - Mar 5 Everyone saying Mick needs to go , NO , what people should be saying is MICK NEEDS TO BE GIVEN DECENT FUNDS END OF SEASON , if Mick had decent funds then we would be up there , guarantee it , If we kept Murphy and got a couple of decent midfielders in at the start of the season then we all know we would of been closer to the playoffs if not in them so it just shows he only needs some money to work with and he would be the best manager we've had for years and years

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MicksZzzTactics added 06:06 - Mar 5 Much obliged for your more than kind words @cat .... HUMOR IS NOT ONLY FUNDAMENTALLY ESSENTIAL TO ESPECIALLY 21th CENTURY MANKIND IMHO, BUT CAN BE ONE OF OUR VERY BEST EVERYDAY 'SURVIVAL TOOLS'! Obviously I personally adhere to literally eons old Aristotle's take on this particular subject btw: "Wit is educated insolence!" .... and is it for ever, for yours truly anyway! lol .... or if you rather prefer the perspective of highly accoladed 19th century US social reformer etc. Henry Ward Beecer: "A person without a sense of humor, is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every single pebble on the road!" .... or finally if anyone out there in fairly uninspiring sleepy Suffolk are sort of really belonging in the 'Neo-Hippie' fold :-) lol, well then you should be able to find some solace in Larry Harvey's [co-founder of the annual immaculate "Burning Man" festival in the Nevada desert] famous words here: "The moral person contemplates evil, the evil person commits it! And a person without a sense of humor can't distinguish between the two!!! .... I know a lot of people who live in Marin County [San Francisco] who contemplate spirituality and never get out of the hot tub!". lmao Anyhow, to those people & fans who more or less unconditionally keep on defending ME and/or think of him as our exclusively knight-like NOBLE & GOOD-HEARTED annual savior, gracefully saving us from utter and complete bankruptcy etc. and enforced demotion to say the "Women over 40's senior version of the Ryman League" or what have you!, SOLELY from the sheer goodness of his media-shy and golf-fixated heart :-) .... I have this rather lengthy bit to say before I curl-up in my Igloo-exile 'indefinitely' once again: There can be very little doubt in my E.T. advanced mind that when in 2007 Evans took ownership and as part of that somewhat shady deal bought the then outstanding £ 32 mill debt (and arranged for the labelled 'Debt of ITFC' to forthright & onward being owed to "himself" or another jaw-droppingly "transparent" company registered is his name rather!) it was to put it short in all likelihood clearly ADVANTAGEOUS for him doing so, basically since ITFC's debt then being hugely **Tax-deductible** on his "business empire's overall corporate tax bill"!!! Now whether that is still quite the case in this here sad & uninspiring day & age i.e. up and until April 17 2017, but more on this specific date below .... where of course the total 'Debt of ITFC' nowadays have more than doubled in value to at least £ 67 mill! (all the while we not only having gained that "quick" promotion Evans probably also bargained for , still yet, but much more alarmingly imho now appears utterly & unmistakably unambitious as a club!), is not really for me to say or even begin to fully deduce ---- probably need to exhume & bring back to life someone like say Al Capone's über creative accountant & later-turned-goverment-witness Leslie Shumway or perhaps the much more notorious Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik the trusted Treasurer & Financial Wizard of the entire glorious 'Chicago Outfit' days and era all the way up through the mid 50's!, to get an ehmmm STRAIGHT (SCAR)FACED answer to that one :-) lol :-) ---- although I personally find it feasible actually! all the while bearing in mind that there simply almost "HAVE TO" be some form of cooperate finance related reasons, officially unknown-to-the-public, as to why Marcus Evans: 1) Has for quite long now completely stopped in-principal to back his own handpicked ITFC manager economically!, and 2) Why he in clear extension of 1) no longer REALISTICALLY thus seems remotely interested in ITFC being promoted to the 'Promised Land' and all the beyond silly but ever sooooo lovely many many Pesos to be picked up by the now apparently turned "Ebenezer Scrooge" like ME, by playing just 1 single freakin' year in the PL! (not to mention the both skewed & insanely lofty so-called 'Parachute Payment' to be cashed in on later. i.e. once we get EMPHATICALLY clobbered back to the Championship!) hasn't there??? **smile** Well as I actually have alluded to in an earlier post of mine this winter: taking effect on April 1, 2017, the UK Government invokes a brand new set of special UK Tax Laws seemingly finally having had ENOUGH! of especially quote: "Groups that have engaged in aggressive tax planning using debt to reduce their tax bill" for the underlying purpose of for example quote: "Limit the amount of interest that may be deductible for corporation tax purposes" etc. etc.. See more here for instance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corporation-tax-tax-deductibility-of- It is thus at least within the 'Realm of Possibility' and thus reasonable conceivable, to Skeptical-by-Nature & just slightly Hercule-Poirot-wannabe Zzzilly me at least :-) LOL, that from April 1, 2017 and onward, the alleged crooked (various wildly mind-boggling alleged "ticket scams" in connection with several 'Big Sports Events' springs to mind!) Mr. Evans will EFFECTIVELY no longer be remotely the "Happy Camper" financially speaking at least he once was at Portman Road to begin with ..... and thus a good part of the answers to 1) + 2) above MAY, repeat MAY, concisely put lie in him and his shady Empire / "Group" having been well aware of these upcoming Tax Law changes for quite some time and IF said new Tax Laws changes indeed will have a notable & sizable adverse effect on ME's overall cooperate tax bill and thus of course eventually his total income, then proactively they have simply planned accordingly in recent seasons and transfer Windows (Read: Basically slammed shut their mythical ITFC "treasure trunk" in the stunned faces of both MM as well as the almost perennial (15+ loooong years in this here division!!!) and generally just screwed-over-feeling fans!).... Bottom-line: Whatever the current financial truth really is in sheer regard to whether his empire really nowadays seriously loses or still makes noteworthy amounts of money by way of his i ownership of ITFC and the aforementioned tax-deductibility of his debt, I'm quite ready to literally 'Bet The Igloo' :-) on that the unfathomable Football CLUELESS & extremely Football INDIFFERENT Mr. Marcus "5 point Plan" Evans isn't -- and never really was even from Day 1 here -- the aweinspiring Ipswich loving "Saint" he appears to be in the eyes of some!

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Swn98 added 07:40 - Mar 5 Mickszzzzzposts why don't you post your long winded and irrelevant posts on the forum they like to pick over the bones of something more substantial.
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warkthelint added 08:22 - Mar 5 After watching MOTD and seeing Watford vs Southampton, I think McCarthy must be on another planet as the style of football played in that game just to take an example to be a protagonist team has moved on and is all about forward play, and movement, creating chances, speed o the ball, movement up field and players comfortable on the ball....these are qualities that we don't have. On the contrary we have a manager who can only play one way...sideways passing, long hopeful punts anywhere, and a rigid system which plays to safeguarding a point and never taking the initiative, even against world beaters like Lincoln City, Rotherham and Brentford. Football has evolved but McCarthy is still stuck in his turgid play it safe way. Football has most definitely moved on and we are sinking fast make no mistake. Fans go on that he does have the funds but I recall Joe Royle had even LESS funds and played with an attacking verve which was a joy to watch and respectful of the Ipswich tradition of playing good and enterprising football. Our youngsters are not given a chance and never will be under him...where has Emmanuel gone and why does he drop him for loanees when we should be building for the future and Bishop seems to have dropped off the radar. It is time for a BIG change and it starts with a new manager..and quick.

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