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Ipswich Town 2-2 Sheffield Wednesday - Match Report
Wednesday, 22nd Nov 2017 22:02

Sheffield Wednesday sub Atdhe Nuhiu headed an equaliser four minutes into injury time to grab a 2-2 draw with the Blues at Portman Road. Joe Garner put Town ahead on 48, Gary Hooper levelled via a 64th minute penalty after Jordan Spence had handballed, then Martyn Waghorn’s header on 70 looked to have won it for the Blues until Nuhiu’s late goal stole an undeserved point for the visitors.

Myles Kenlock replaced the suspended Jonas Knudsen at left-back in what was otherwise an unchanged Town team.

The Blues again started in their increasingly familiar 4-2-3-1 system with lone out-and-out striker Garner ahead of David McGoldrick, Waghorn and Bersant Celina. Emyr Huws was on the bench for the first time this season.

Sheffield Wednesday named the same team that drew 0-0 at home to Bristol City at the weekend with ex-Blue Jordan Rhodes in the XI, while Nuhiu replaced Lucas Joao on the bench.

Town immediately went on the attack, Kenlock sending in a dangerous cross from the left which Wednesday did well to clear.

In the fourth minute Owls skipper Glenn Loovens was extremely fortunate not to be sent off after catching McGoldrick in the groin with a high, studs-up boot.

The Town striker unsurprisingly spent some time on the ground and received treatment before continuing. Referee Keith Stroud - who had seen the incident but had played on with the Blues in possession and breaking forward - subsequently spoke to Loovens but failed to issue a card of either colour.

While McGoldrick was off the field, the Blues threatened from a well-worked freekick on the right, Celina playing the ball to Cole Skuse on the edge of the box but the midfielder’s shot was blocked.

The Blues continued to look the more dangerous side and on eight Callum Connolly played in McGoldrick on the right with only one defender ahead of him but the Town number 10 shot over.

Wednesday went close for the first time in the 16th minute, one-time Town schoolboy Morgan Fox sending over a cross from the right which ex-Blues striker Rhodes headed not too far wide of Bartosz Bialkowski’s right post.

The game meandered a touch as it passed the quarter hour mark with further stoppages for injuries and freekicks.

But in the 23rd minute Kenlock played a superb cross-field ball to McGoldrick, who fed Connolly and the on-loan Everton man took a couple of touches before hitting a powerful shot which was too close to Owls keeper Keiren Westwood.

Moments later, Celina cut in from the left and hit a right-footed shot which Westwood claimed low.

Town forced the Wednesday keeper into another save in the 26th minute when Garner was sent away in space on the right and crossed deep to Celina, but the Kosovan international’s diving header was too close to Westwood who palmed away.

Seconds later, McGoldrick scuffed a 20-yard effort which his Irish international team-mate easily claimed low to his left.

Ross Wallace shot wide from distance for the Owls, then on 33 the Scottish international curled a freekick over from 25 yards after he had been fouled by Kenlock.


But the Blues continued to have the upper hand as half-time approach and the swirling wind grew stronger.

And they should have claimed the lead their first-half display deserved in injury time. Garner sent over a cross from the right towards Celina at the far post, Jack Hunt cut it out but presented the ball to Waghorn on the edge of the box.

However, the Blues’ eight-goal joint-top scorer scraped a rather hurried effort which Westwood saved when he could have taken his time. Referee Stroud ended the half soon afterwards.

Town will feel their first-half display ought to have yielded a goal with Westwood by far the busier keeper. But while the Ireland international had made stops, he hadn’t been forced to make any outstanding saves to keep his side on terms.

At the other end, Rhodes’s header had been the Owls’ only real chance, while Wednesday skipper Loovens will know he got away with what should have been a red card for his early challenge on McGoldrick.

Perhaps as a result of that challenge McGoldrick was replaced by Freddie Sears ahead of the start of the second half.

The former West Ham man was quickly into the action, teeing-up Waghorn for a shot on the left of the area, which was deflected just wide.

And from the corner, the Blues went in front. Celina sent the ball over, Spence flicked on at the near post and Garner volleyed into the roof of the net at the far post. It was the 29-year-old’s fifth goal of the season and his first in eight games.

At the other end, Spence then did well to hold off Rhodes as a cross came in for the right and the Blues withstood a brief flurry of Owls pressure following the goal.

Town might have added to their lead in the 56th minute when Adam Webster nodded a Waghorn freekick from the right over at the near post.

A minute later, Waghorn won the ball off Tom Lees on the Town left and tried an audacious 35-yard chip which looped well wide when the breaking Celina clearly wanted it played inside to him.

Skuse was booked for a foul on Barry Bannan in the 59th minute, then Wednesday swapped Fox for Steven Fletcher.

The Blues should have doubled their lead in the 61st minute when Waghorn sent Sears away in the clear. The sub rounded Westwood at pace but took the ball too wide and should have squared to the unmarked Celina but instead shot against the keeper who had retreated.

The Owls switched Wallace for Kieran Lee on 62 and two minutes later they were handed an equaliser they didn’t deserve in slightly freakish circumstances.

A deep cross was sent over from the Wednesday right and Spence looked to flick the ball beyond Fletcher behind him. However, the right-back missed his header and the ball subsequently hit his outstretched left arm - the wind may have been a factor - and referee Stroud pointed to the spot.

Ex-Norwich striker Gary Hooper took the spot-kick - Wednesday’s first for 34 games -and lashed the ball to Bialkowski’s left to level.

Wednesday briefly looked like getting on top but without testing the Blues’ keeper further, the penalty having been their first shot on target.

On 67 Huws came off the bench to make his first appearance of the season after signing on a permanent basis from Cardiff in the summer following his loan last season. Celina made way.

And the Welshman made an immediate impact, helping to create Town’s second goal with his first touch of the campaign.

Sears crossed from the left and found Huws beyond the far post from where he sent the ball back in towards Waghorn, who headed his ninth goal of the season across Westwood and into the corner of the net.

Wednesday sub Lee was booked for rather cynical challenge on Garner on 77, then a minute later Grant Ward replaced Waghorn. On 81 Hunt was booked for a foul on Garner.

Town were looking more likely to increase their lead than the Owls were to pull on back and on 84 a Sears cross from the right was deflected out to Spence in the box but the full-back’s first touch let him down and he was crowded out.

Rhodes was replaced by Nuhui in the 87th minute, seconds after appealing for a penalty but the Town academy product appeared to have tripped over the Blues midfielder rather than been felled.

In the final minute of scheduled time Fletcher headed over for Wednesday and Town looked to be seeing the game out comfortably until the fourth of five additional minutes.

After Town had lost the ball in the far corner, Wednesday broke, Adam Reach crossed from the left and sub Nuhiu rose above Webster to nod past Bialkowski from close range.

It was an equaliser the Owls didn’t deserve but one which claimed them a point with referee Stroud bringing the evening to a close soon afterwards.

Town would thoroughly have deserved which was theirs until the final moments having been much the better team throughout against a poor Owls side.

Having got their noses in front, the Blues were then able to get themselves ahead for a second time after the penalty and had had further chances to score prior to conceding the last-gasp equaliser.

The draw - Town’s second in two games having gone 25 matches without recording any - sees the Blues stay in ninth where they were prior to the midweek games, three points from the play-offs, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Aston Villa.

Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Webster, Chambers (c), Kenlock, Skuse, Connolly, Waghorn (Ward 78), McGoldrick (Sears 46), Celina (Huws 67), Garner. Unused: Gerken, Iorfa, Ward, Nydam, Bru, Huws.

Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood, Hunt, Fox (Fletcher 60), Rhodes, Butterfield, Bannan, Loovens (c), Hooper, Lees, Reach, Wallace (Lee 62). Unused: Wildsmith, Jones, Van Aken, Palmer, Nuhiu. Referee: Keith Stroud (Hampshire). Att: 15,702 (Owls: 1,158).


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dirtydingusmagee added 08:14 - Nov 23
could and should have been 3 points, but finished with one. I DONT think Sears should be slated, he is a decent player that has been screwed.He was on fire when he joined town ,then was reprogrammed by McCarthy,and taken out of his natural game.He has lost his confidence and as a result he is not so sharp. But he is a worker and people shouldn't crucify him for what happened last night .
16

budgieplucker added 08:23 - Nov 23
As always interesting to read conflicting views on some of the players. Up until the last ten/fifteen minutes team performance was very encouraging other than the squandered chances. Generally speaking strikers have. A gready disposition and whilst we have improved with the quality in this area the decision making in the final third needs to improve - that's the main reason we lost the game tonight.

Having said that I thought the system worked very well and nobody failed to put in a good shift work wise and we closed down superbly for most of the match and the interchangeability of the three behind the striker looked fluid.

Connolly was my man of the match and the experience he gained on loan with the likes of Wigan last season gives him the edge over Downes and Nydam.

I saw Myles kenlock in the u23 recently and he has seemed to have lost his sharpness but that sometimes has to be expected of young players. I am not a great Jonas Knudsen fan but I do think he is improving and Myles has some catching up to do if he is seriously going to threaten to hold down that position. I still feel our overall threat from full backs overlapping and providing telling balls into the box has been severly diminished since losing Cress or and Tyrone Mings.

Like others I detest blatant time wasting tactics, more subtle ones perhaps and has been mentioned we started to create a gap last night in the last ten minutes with the defence lying deep where as for 80 minutes we were highly effective in compressing this space.

Final word on Freddie, he did at times look a little bit of a lost soul last night but I am not sure we should look to make him the scapegoat. Mick has to take some of the blame with not encouraging his team to try and maintain the same philosophy for 95 minutes.
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SheptonMalletBlue added 08:30 - Nov 23
Well said dirty
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RoyalAscotBlue added 08:32 - Nov 23
Perhaps Kenlock has lost his sharpness because he never plays budgieplucker. Would he improve if he was given a proper run of games? We will never know. For me Knudsen hasn't improved much, if any, and he's been given plenty of opportunity.
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Crawfordsboot added 09:29 - Nov 23
Ironic isn't it that Wednesday grab a draw by hoofing a ball into a lump of a centre forward. Very frustrating but with such a big guy up front there is always a chance of loosing a goal like that. It was a last and desperate throw of the dice by the Wednesday manager.

On the whole I thought we played quite well and certainly deserved a win.
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Pants3 added 09:30 - Nov 23
Enjoyed the game very positive performance and light years away from some of the dross earlier in the season. Don't agree with the comments on Kenlock however I thought he done well. Bart has had all the plaudits this season but unless he comes off his line occasionally we will always be susceptible for the big lump up front, always stays rooted to the line.
Disappointing of course at the end but so many positives last night COYB
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tractorboybig added 09:38 - Nov 23
swin 98. The game was better than the five previous I have seen this season
by a mile, But we are so far off and I believe we have the personnel, but team selection is not our perogative
0

rugbytomc added 09:47 - Nov 23
I'm sorry but whilst we put a decent number of efforts in on goal, we didn't play well - how can you when we only had about 36% possession?! I felt for Celina - should have been put it twice and the one time he was, he headed straight at the keeper. Sears - yeah he's quick but he's so out of form! Either sell him (as he isn't going to play him down the middle) or convert him to a winger - so he looks up to find a pass. Rowe looks better at this role at the moment and he's free to go on loan. Where is ward supposed to play? Surely he is a winger and should have come on before Sears? Why take Celina off for Huws? Leaving us with no width - Huws should have come on for Skuse or Connoly as he's a centre mid and on last night's performance alone i would have taken Skuse off. Waghorn took his goal brilliantly and muscled his way around the game excellently, but he missed a couple of sitters and didn't bring his shooting boots (but did bring his excellent head - what a goal!).
I agree we're not far off a decent side - and by that i mean the group of players. But Mick has just no tactical nous left and we look lost and anything good we do is a result of having some half decent players do their own thing, not because of how he's got us playing or how he's set us up.
I liked Connolly in th emiddle, but with Huws back, Bishop on his way back and we still have Downes and Skuse, i would say play him at right back as i'm not convinced by Spence as a right back (i'd prefer him to Chambers in the middle though!)
Sorry bit ranty!
5

Hegansheroes added 09:49 - Nov 23
jdtractor, Tommy Smith when fit is probably our best defender but he isn't a MM fave. How Chambers gets in the team is beyond me, he is a liability & a very average Championship player. At least Smith has played against some of the best players in the world when on international duty.
very disappointing result due to negativity, MM's time really must up or let's hope so
8

rugbytomc added 10:57 - Nov 23
budgieplucker - couldn't agree more on your comment regarding missing a left back who used to get balls into the box like Cresswell and Mings. I didn't think Kenlock looked so sharp either last night and could be part confidence and part rustiness. and yes Jonas has his moments, but long term isn't ever going to make runs up the left. If MM is going with him at LB and Spence at RB then 4 at the back is deffo the right move, but then he needs width further forwards and he took Celina off and he keeps playing one of Garner/Waghorn/McGoldrick on the right which is none of their best positions and i'd rather see Ward, Nydam or Rowe out there to give us balance. Then we'd have a traditional MM team and he'd be playing to his strengths as a manager. He shouldn't make the players be something they're not and he shouldn't try and be something he isn't - or we get this very confused team we've seen all season
3

portmanteau added 11:33 - Nov 23
We will be a contender when we get some of the basics right. I lost count of the times this happened:
1. our first touch lost us the ball.
2. We won the defensive headers and then headed straight to SW.
3. We hoofed it out of defence straight to SW.

Then there was our long throw specialist throwing it to their keeper and later waving both arms in the air in the box with the inevitable result.

I just do not understand this tactic of letting the opposition keep possession. It simply means they are in control most of the time.

3

Lightningboy added 11:37 - Nov 23
The sort of performance I expect from a McCarthy team - not always pretty but plenty of effort and more than enough shots at goal to have been out of sight.

Ref and Linesman were abysmal - how on earth they missed that challenge on McGoldrick is shocking plus where the hell did the pillock get 5 mins from?

Great to see Huws back.
3

vanmunt added 12:36 - Nov 23
I cannot see where all these we played well comments are coming from, if kicking the ball away to the opposition on a constant basis is playing well then I am singing off the wrong hymn sheet.

Also, pathetic to try and kill 5 mins with time wasting.. had plenty of opportunities to put the ball in the box in those 5 mins.
3

Tessah added 13:01 - Nov 23
The problem is that Freddie Sears is played on the left but has no confidence to use his left foot much. He made an excellent run and was put through by Waghorn but having gone by the keeper he should have immediately shot at goal with his left foot. If I was his coach I would insist that he practice and practice with his left until he was confident to shoot and pass with that foot. The benefits of being two footed are plain to see with Huws. He used his right foot to cross for Waghorn's header and against Newcastle last season he steamed in to score his goal with his left foot.
3

DiamondGezzer added 13:17 - Nov 23
MickCuresInsomnia;_
Sorry fat fingers and all that , should have hit the up button.
0

cat added 13:29 - Nov 23
Watched the game in a local so my memory of the game in general is sketchy to say the least. Disappointed about conceding so late but based on us doing this on a few occasions this season, what comes around goes around and all that. The stat what's very concerning is 31.6% possession for a home game FFS! which sums up MM's tactics to a tee and suggests nothing other than hoof ball and the inability to retain possession. Remember from my playing days the saying of “let the ball do the work” which clearly don't apply to our overworked, knackered and injury prone squad.
4

Warky81 added 14:00 - Nov 23
Having watched and read many comments on here today, there hardly seems to be any anger directed at a very incompetent ref.

Regards the penalty the ball has to deliberately or intentionally hit the payers hand/arm. No way did Spence deliberately head the ball onto his shoulder, for that decision alone the ref should be struck off, let alone the two sendings off he missed which was Loovens on McGoldrick & Hunts second blatant trip on Garner while he was in the corner heading for penalty area. The ref was awful last night and definitely has contributed to our 2pts dropped tonight. Absolute CLOWN.
6

blueboy1981 added 14:58 - Nov 23
..... 'no such thing as a bad point' ..... !! Rollocks - could, and should have been THREE. Attack will always be the best form of defence, come what may.
1

blueboy1981 added 14:59 - Nov 23
..... 'no such thing as a bad point' ..... !! Rollocks - could, and should have been THREE. Attack will always be the best form of defence, come what may.
0

blueboy1981 added 15:07 - Nov 23
..... never one for looking for excuses - but the standard of Officials I have seen this season has to be the worst ever. With the so called improved link between them now - the standard, theoretically, should have improved .... !! Whatever happened to that ... ???
0

Swn98 added 15:12 - Nov 23
.....!!!!...???
0

midastouch added 15:51 - Nov 23
1 think I just remembered, what was that weak chip shot from Huws all about!!? Good to see him set up the goal though, really glad to see him back. I'm afraid we are never going to win any prizes for keeping the ball as that's just not our style under the current regime, but sometimes we create more chances then teams that have a lot more possession. Personally I'd like to see a better balance between possession and chances created but some teams that go more down the possession path go almost pedestrian in trying to play it out and it becomes boring and almost predictable. 2 examples spring to mind LVG at Man Utd and Daniel Farker at Naaaaaaaaridge this season. So possession is good but at some point somebody has to try and play a riskier offensive ball rather than playing it sideways and backwards. It's tough to try and get the right balance. It might be more effective for us to use speed (Celina and Sears) and counter attack like Leicester did to such great effect when winning the league, but of course to do that effectively you need to be solid at the back and unfortunately we're just not that rock solid in that department right now.
3

TimmyH added 19:07 - Nov 23
Strikes me as Mick wants us to play on the break at home!!...same was against Norwich, majority of our best chances is when we get the ball up to McG or Waghorn quickly and that's by means of a fairly long ball be it in the air or near the the ground. As mentioned by and large our possession stats are not great we still struggle to play good pass and move football but saying that so did Wednesday!
2

brittaniaman added 20:50 - Nov 23
No draws all season, then 2 come along in just a few days !!!!
3

Swn98 added 07:41 - Nov 24
Royal Ascot in lots of fans opinion Knudsen is one of the most improved player in the team wouldn't surprised if of few clubs come in for him in the Jan windows.
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