Town have a mountain to climb in 2019 if they are to avoid relegation to the third tier for the first time in 62 years with the gap to safety now 10 points following a 3-2 New Year's Day defeat to Millwall at Portman Road. Jack Lankester’s first senior goal had given the Blues a deserved 1-0 lead and Town might have been further ahead at the break, but in the second half a Shane Ferguson penalty and goals from Jake Cooper and Tom Elliott put the Lions 3-1 up before Kayden Jackson’s fourth of the season gave the Blues late hope of claiming a draw.

Lankester, Teddy Bishop and Ellis Harrison returned to a young Town side with an average age of 24.6 otherwise unchanged from the one which lost 2-0 at Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Bishop, making his second start of the season, came into midfield for Jon Nolan, who was left out of the 18, while Lankester was wide on the right, with Gwion Edwards among the subs, and Harrison the central striker. Kayden Jackson also dropped to the bench.

Myles Kenlock continued at left-back with the set-to-depart Jonas Knudsen among the subs and with Callum Elder’s loan from Leicester being formalised tomorrow.

Millwall were forced into two changes with defender Shaun Hutchinson and striker Lee Gregory missing due to injury with Murray Wallace and Aiden O’Brien coming into the team. In Hutchinson’s absence Ryan Leonard skippered, while ex-Blues loanee Ryan Tunnicliffe started.

Town’s 2019 was only two minutes old when they took the lead. Freddie Sears was clattered by Jake Cooper midway inside the Millwall half as he played the ball wide to Jack Lankester on the right.

Referee Stephen Martin played a good advantage and Lankester cut in and curled a low shot beyond Jordan Archer and into the net before celebrating his first senior goal with his team-mates. The 18-year-old becomes the first player born in the 2000s to net a first-team goal for the Blues.

The early goal unsurprisingly boosted the Blues’ confidence and they continued to take the game to the visitors and in the ninth minute they went close to doubling their lead.

Bishop found Harrison on the right and, with the Lions defence hesitant, his cross deflected into the path of Sears, whose effort at goal was blocked by Archer.

The Blues threatened again in the 11th minute, a Spence cross from the right reaching Sears at the far post but the ex-West Ham man’s shot was diverted behind by Mahlon Romeo.

The early stages had been all Town but as the match moved past the 15-minute mark Millwall began to see more of the ball, however, the Blues backline prevented them from creating an opportunity.

On 19 Jed Wallace blazed over from distance, then two minutes later Matthew Pennington did well to get across to dispose Millwall skipper Leonard as he looked to get on to a ball played ahead of him into the area. At the other end, Harrison headed a Bishop freekick from deep on the right over the bar.

In the 26th minute, a quick break involving Downes, Sears and Kenlock led to Harrison deftly controlling the left-back’s cross and hammering a shot against a Millwall defender from just inside the area.

Town almost netted a brilliant second in the 28th minute after a superb passing exchange on the right involving Lankester, Bishop and Downes led to the one-time Luton loanee finding Sears in acres of space in the middle. The striker looked set to net his fifth of the season until Tunnicliffe blocked his goalbound effort.

From the resultant corner, which like several earlier set pieces had been wasted by the Blues, Millwall broke and Jed Wallace burst through on goal with only Gerken to beat. However, the keeper was out quickly to block and Downes cleared the loose ball.

On 41 Bishop found Lankester on the right and the youngster tried to trick his way past two defenders as he broke into the box but was eventually dispossessed.

Neither side threatened again before referee Martin brought the half to a close to warm applause from the Blues support pleased with their side’s first-half display and their deserved lead.

Lankester’s excellent early strike settled Town’s early nerves and the Lions couldn’t have complained if the Blues had gone in with a greater advantage, Sears having gone close on a number of occasions.

Town keeper Gerken had only been seriously tested once with the home backline having remained resolute for the most part despite Millwall having seen more of the ball as the half wore on but with the Blues still looking the more threatening of the teams on the counter-attack.

After their largely lacklustre first half, Millwall swapped James Meredith for veteran frontman and club captain Steve Morison ahead of the second period.

The Blues began the second period on the front foot with Sears shooting high and wide having cut in from the left in the 49th minute.

Two minutes later, Jed Wallace whipped over a cross under Gerken’s bar and the keeper was forced to tip over.

In the aftermath of the corner, the ball was sent back in from the left but Murray Wallace headed well wide when he will feel he should have done better.

The Blues carved out another well-worked chance in the 56th minute, after involvement from Lankester and Downes, Bishop eventually fed Spence on the right and the full-back sent over a cross which Harrison diverted wide at the near post.

Town were increasingly looking a threat on the break and in the 58th minute, after Downes had been crowded out as he took the ball into the box, Trevoh Chalobah hit a low effort from distance Archer claimed with ease.

Millwall had shown no signs of getting back on terms but right on the hour they were awarded a penalty.

Morison nodded down for Elliott and he and Chambers tangled as they chased the ball, the Blues skipper sending the striker to ground. Referee Martin took his time before pointing to the spot, much to Chambers’s frustration. It had looked more a tangle of legs than either player fouling the other. Shane Ferguson blasted the penalty past Gerken to level.

Town boss Lambert was shown the yellow card for arguing about a freekick, before Andre Dozzell took over from Bishop, who had shown glimpses of his best before tiring. On 65 Morison was booked for a wild challenge on Chalobah.

In the 68th minute the visitors took the lead. Spence allowed the ball to run out for what Town thought would be a goalkick, however, referee Martin gave a corner. After it was initially cleared, Morison hooked it back into the box from the right, Elliott nodded back across and Cooper headed home from close range.

Chalobah made way for Jackson in the 76th minute as the Blues moved to 4-4-2. But before the switch could make an impact Town found themselves 3-1 behind.

Pennington underhit a backpass to Gerken, Elliott seized on it and stabbed towards goal. Chambers forced it away but not out of play and O’Brien backheeled it back to Elliott who found the net.

Harrison hit a deflected shot through to Archer as the Blues looked to regain a foothold in a game which had so swiftly run away from them.

And with just under two minutes remaining, they pulled a goal back. Harrison was thwarted as he broke into the area on the left but sub Jackson picked up the loose ball, brought it inside and smashed home from the edge of the box off the inside of the post.

The late goal and the fourth official’s board indicating six additional minutes got the Town crowd vociferously behind their side.

The Blues won late corners with keeper Dean Gerken going upfield to assist his team-mates and following the second flag-kick Lankester teed-up Harrison on the edge of the box. His low shot flew through a crowd of players but Archer was able to claim down to his left.

However, Millwall eventually saw out the final minutes to claim their first away win of the season and to deal Town’s already fading hopes of survival a very serious blow.

It was a game which Town, whose players were warmly applauded off the field at the end, ultimately needed to win to maintain the previous seven-point gap with Rotherham winning 2-1 at home to Preston.

And it was a match they ought to have had won in the first half having had a number of opportunities to extend the lead gained via Lankester’s goal.

Millwall hadn’t looked like getting back into the match until the penalty which was one you’d feel you should have be awarded if you’re a striker but seems harsh if you’re the defender.

From there, the Lions grew in stature, while the Blues wilted and gifted goals via the type of errors which have become all too familiar over the season.

Even with the planned January addition of experienced Championship players to the squad, 10 points - plus goal difference - looks too much of a gap to be bridged.

The Blues are next in action at Accrington Stanley next Saturday in the third round of the FA Cup with Rotherham visiting Portman Road in the league the following weekend.

Town: Gerken, Spence, Pennington, Chambers (c), Kenlock, Chalobah (Jackson 75), Downes, Bishop (Dozzell 65), Lankester, Sears, Harrison. Unused: Bialkowski, Knudsen, Edwards, Roberts, Nsiala.

Millwall: Archer, Cooper, M Wallace, Romeo, Leonard, J Wallace (Karacan 90), Tunnicliffe, Meredith (Morison 46), Ferguson, O’Brien, Elliott (Webster 82). Unused: Amos, Skalak, Brown, White. Referee: Stephen Martin (Staffordshire). Att: 16,957 (Millwall: 985).

Photo: TWTD

Marinersnose added 21:44 - Jan 1 Sadly too many posters fail to understand what Evans has done for this club. I'm no supporter of him, far from it, but he has ploughed in a lot of money in order to manage the debt. I dread to think where we'd be without his investment however paltry . Wise up folks we won't be getting a rich person fighting to take on our rising debts any time soon. If we go down our prized assets will be sold. Harsh reality and I for one hope we can remain a Championship club.

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Bluearmy_81 added 21:51 - Jan 1 If we go down our prized assets will be sold. Yep, nailed on. Every chance we would go down to league 2 pretty quickly. Let me get this right, that wouldn't be Evans fault either?! Riiiiggghhht!!! 😂
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shakytown added 22:06 - Jan 1 Buearmy. Halfwits as you so politely call us can see that's it's not just lack of investment it's also poor investment. Just look at the no hopers Hurst brought in and the fact that we have needed a right back for about six years. Evans main problem is that he does not know anything about building a squad and also listens far to much to his so called advisors.
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RegencyBlue added 22:09 - Jan 1 Evans is responsible for this mess. If he is unable to sell then he needs to change his way of operating because all he is doing is running the club into the ground. League 2 looks a more likely destination than a return to the Championship if we carry on like this.
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Kikapu added 22:14 - Jan 1 Oh dear. Now many are saying get rid of Evans. Surely the lesson of last year, when some urged us to get rid of MM, is that yelling ''get rid of...'' can cut both ways. Whatever you think of MM you can be certain that we wouldn't be facing this mess if he'd stayed on and given more dosh to buy a few decent attacking players. To force Evans out might see us jumping from the frying pan into the proverbial fire. Our club is not a very attractive proposition as we don't own our own stadium. Might be different if it did. And there aren't many rich supporters out there with deep enough pockets to give away £6 million plus a year, so please don't bringing banners to the game and force him to leave. He might just take the hint and leave us where he found us - deep in debt. As seems likely (still hoping for a miracle) if we are demoted we'll just have to work hard to bring stability back into the club that we lost (or threw away) in 2018. Happy New Year to all.

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davidsc1971 added 22:22 - Jan 1 I am not an Evans fan, but this club would have been in this position earlier if not for his earlier investments in the club. This position has been a long time coming, and I wonder when money was available if it had been spent better then there would have been more available now. Who throws good money after bad? These are the darkest of dark days. But we're not down yet. COYB

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Kirbmeister added 22:24 - Jan 1 Some are saying ‘if' we go down. We have 20 games left and need to win 10 at least. Where are we gonna get 10 wins from? We have played several decent halves of football this season, just not two together in the same match.
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Minneapolis_ITFC added 22:57 - Jan 1 I'd like to provide certain positives but it's easier said than done. Not going to claim we're a relegation club side until it's actually confirmed but after today I'd give it 50 / 50. So many areas of the team need restructure. Caught game highlights and the defense was shambolic on certain occasion. Sure we got a lead but yet again were unable to claim further strikers to increase it and allowed the opposition back into it - with some needless assists from our own playing personnel. Simply don't possess the collective attributes to get out of this mess. The transfer window in a short time offers some salvation but who feasibly are we going to bring in that can radically alter the slump the club finds itself in. Happy New Year to other participants although in truth it's something of a total misnomer.

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BrettenhamBlue added 23:03 - Jan 1 1 day in and we have lost our 100% undefeated record for 2019. We have won 1 game in 12 under PL. That includes 8 losses. Dismal times for our club.
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hancockingoal added 23:14 - Jan 1 Having had time to reflect on the game and dampen the emotion, I feel that we dominated for the first 20 minutes and with bit better finishing and luck could have been 3 up? Millwall came back into the game and a good one on one save from Gerkin kept the score level. The general consencious at half time was 'wow, are we really this good? are Millwall this bad?' Obviously harsh words were delivered in the visiting dressing room at half time! despite all their goals had an element of good fortune about them, we were never really at the races and apart from our second goal which came out of nothing, we never troubled them at all. Sadly we are not good enough and despite the rhetoric I am beginning to wonder about the manager? We all want him to be the saviour but his previous later jobs have not exactly covered him in glory and despite talking a good game in the last few weeks it has not produced results on the pitch? Sad times!

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FrankMarshall added 23:39 - Jan 1 I've said this before and I'll say it again. Hurst isn't the only one to blame for the situation we are in. A number of key decisions were made in-between the McCarthy era and the point Hurst took over. Some players who would be extremely useful now (Crowe, Bru, Hyam and Carayol) were allowed to leave the club during this period. With those 4 right now things would be substantially different. PL did make a number of poor signings but he's not the only reason we are where we are. It has also been a long time since Hurst left and results haven't got better. Looking at win percentages: Keane 34 Jewell 34 McCarthy 37 I can't find the stats for PH and PL but I guess about 10 each?

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blueconscience added 00:04 - Jan 2 See The Church of Evans disciples are out in force in this comments section.
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GiveusaWave added 01:56 - Jan 2 "Going down with the Ipswich" is being sung in stadiums across the country. We need to accept that truth and move forward. Hopefully get a draw at Carrow Road (which will throw a spanner in their works) and try out a few different formations before the end of the season. A few of the u23 team deserve game time.... Looking forward to next August....COYB!!
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TonyHumesIpswich added 06:37 - Jan 2 Looks like the team has decided to sit this relegation battle out. Never thought we would go down without even a whimper but oh well, life goes on. Featherweight team punching it out with light heavyweights all season. We get in a few early blows but when the bigger teams start swinging, it's nightie night Vienna. Shame the fans are up for the battle but the team is not.

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shakytown added 07:59 - Jan 2 Tonyhumes. All most of these third rate no hopers care about is their pay check. They don't even seem to care about getting tonked every week but they need to realise most of them will not be wanted by any other club and will end up on the free agent list which is where most of them belong.
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dirtydingusmagee added 08:01 - Jan 2 RIP ITFC RSVP ME.
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dirtydingusmagee added 08:10 - Jan 2 Noticing the growing number of ''stato's'' on here comparing win ratio's of managers, Watch out P L the knives are coming out , just waiting to see who is the first to ''come out'' and bleat for a new manager , .Paul Lambert has at least improved the style of our game ,unfortunately he has not got ''his'' players to make anything from it .
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brendenward35 added 08:29 - Jan 2 https://www-derbytelegraph-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.derbytelegraph.co.uk
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brendenward35 added 08:31 - Jan 2 Sorry thought that was new storyline
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richardpaul added 08:46 - Jan 2 I am saddened and frustrated at the current state of Ipswich Town Football Club.Born in Ipswich during the last war it became my team to support courtesy of my father who born in Claydon supported them My two brothers were also given the option to support the town but the elder of the two just to be awkward chose Norwich City maybe because in our childhood games we needed an opponent In two tours abroad with HMF one to Singapore and the other to Cyprus required Sunday morning reading was the football scores in the local English printed papers this was way before the instant news now available on social media I moved away from Ipswich at the age of three years and have settled in Lincolnshire after travelling around the country and abroad for many years In all that time I have rejoiced in the successes and been saddened by the setbacks of the club I was immensely proud to of the fact that our so called backwater rural club had produced two England managers and to beat the mighty Arsenal in the FA cup was a special day Ipswich town have given me many highs and now as they seem to be on the brink of a drop into the lower division it is not a pleasant experience to hear another loss I respect the fact that the management team know far more about their job than I do and can only hope that all the positive input from them will bear fruit if not this current season but in the near furure I will remain a supporter until I can no longer make sense of anything I don't bleed blue but after over 70 years I don't intend to stop my armchair support sometime soon

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juniorblue added 08:55 - Jan 2 What a sad state of affairs. I understand that emotions are running high, but I still believe that we should stick together, rather than insult each other. Our club has been run badly for 10 years and ME seems to have listened to the wrong 'football people'. Who advised him that not investing in the playing squad is a good idea? Losing proven Championship players and bringing in endless loans and lower league players has proved to be a disaster. I still have hope that we can avoid the drop, but it is now a massive ask of the Manager and players.

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BeattiesBackPocket added 09:38 - Jan 2 @blueboy1981 Our debt has risen from 30 to 90 million and we have recouped 50 in transfers fees in the ten years Evans has been here so you could say our losses total 110 million in ten years!! On what exactly? That's an average of 11 million a season on what?? Not the team?? Past 3 years we have had a budget comparable to burton Albion last season when our gates are twice that of theirs so again where?? I have no doubt he came in initially with good intentions but those intentions were to get us up early and make money he's a businessman after all and successful in everything he does except here strange!? He hired Clegg let's not just talk about mistakes of management Clegg was responsible for player contracts so the players we signed on multi million pound assets of leadbitter, Norris etc were allowed to leave for zero don't tell me he'd allow that in any other of his businesses!?? Expensive assets allowed to leave for nothing really exactly how is that not his fault?? Charging us interest on his debt is not his fault?? Come on anyone that doesn't see Evans is the culprit needs to wake up he's taken us down somewhere single handedly and now yes we are screwed and so is he as no one would buy that debt HE HAS MADE! A successful businessman yes he is so question But happy to keep a club he's losing money on and for what purpose! We need to speak up at games he has been getting away with it for two years it started with sacking Magilton when we had only lost one home game that season! Clegg Keane etc later and look!

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warktheline added 09:53 - Jan 2 Division one football has been patiently awaiting the arrival of Ipswich Town, nobody can deny the club has been toying with relegation campaign after campaign and without exceptional goal scoring from the likes of Murphy and Waghorn it would have happened before now, even McCarthy spoke of 'relegation scraps' throughout his laborious but 'safe hands' tenure! If you play with fire you are going to get burnt! What the club needs is a manager 'hell bent' on resurrecting the club's woeful reputation! A club with a very soft underbelly and a loser mentality! Take a look at Jack Marriott, a poor attitude and lack of professionalism at Ipswich but now a totally reformed character now playing 'football' with Derby! A mass clear out is undoubtedly required, and maybe not just the 'old guard',Lambert has touched upon it already, 'kids with potential' have to at some point break that tag! Whether it's Lambert or not, the 'comfortable zone' under a 'canny' McCarthy has long since vanished, and if the present man in charge doesn't deal with this 'sharply' he'll be soon vanishing himself along with a club situated in sleepy Suffolk that's been slowly but surely vanishing from higher league football!

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runningout added 10:20 - Jan 2 Glad those that seem glum and already relegated don't play in my team. Plenty to play for. Not just hard work needed. Got to be canny and go out to beat teams well, not get a nose bleed at 1 2 or 3 nil
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blueboy1981 added 11:23 - Jan 2 Money, and open purse strings - don't invariably mean success. There are other means of achieving success in this game. It has been proved many, many times before - and will continue to be. This is all I will add to this ridiculous, hypothetical, and pointless debate. It will forever be easy to spend someone else's money. However Evans needs to be more transparent, and up front with the supporters - in my opinion.

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