Town’s home game against second-bottom Northampton remains 0-0 at half-time with the visitors having had the better of the chances.

Josh Harrop was handed his full debut as Blues boss Paul Lambert made five changes from the team which lost 2-1 at Peterborough a week ago.

Luke Matheson and Myles Kenlock returned as the full-backs with Stephen Ward and Luke Chambers dropping to the bench. Luke Woolfenden and Mark McGuinness continued at centre-half with Tomas Holy in goal.

Flynn Downes skippered from the deeper midfield role with Andre Dozzell and debutant Harrop, one of five loan players in the starting XI, ahead of him with Teddy Bishop and Alan Judge subs having started at London Road.

Troy Parrott was the lone central striker with Freddie Sears on the left and Luke Thomas on the right. James Norwood was on the bench.

Northampton made two changes from the team which lost 2-0 at home to Burton Albion on Saturday with Jack Sowerby and Fraser Horsfall replacing Ryan Watson and Cian Bolger.

The Cobblers made the brighter start with Sam Hoskins hitting a second minute shot straight at Holy from the left of the box.

Northampton, without a goal in their last five games and having scored only one in their last eight, continued to see most of the ball with the Blues struggling to get going.

On 11 a stray Parrott pass was picked up on halfway by Mark Marshall, who played the ball a long way ahead of him as he looked to beat McGuinness in a foot race but Holy was out quickly to clear.

In the 17th minute Sowerby was sent away down the left by Danny Rose and brought the ball into the area before hitting a weak shot which Holy grabbed at the second attempt.

As the game passed the 20-minute mark the Blues finally started to show signs of getting going, Dozzell trying a clever ball into the path of Parrott’s run which was cut out by a Northampton toe on the edge of the box.

In the 26th minute Parrott was caught with a high boot 30 yards out and wasted the free-kick, hitting a shot a long way wide with little power with a cross a better option.

Two minutes later, Bryn Morris got first view of referee Darren Drysdale’s yellow card for a late tackle on Thomas midway inside the visitors’ half towards the right. Harrop curled over a cross and the ball eventually fell to Sears, who looped an effort over the bar.

The Cobblers weren’t too far away from ending their long search for a goal in the 34th minute when Marshall crossed from the right and Sowerby played back to Hoskins breaking into the box but his low strike was blocked by Matheson. The ball was looped back in but McGuinness was fouled.

A minute later following a Northampton corner which Holy had punched clear under pressure, Marshall struck a low 20-yard shot which was also blocked. Town were again leaving their front three across the halfway line from opposition corners with Harrop also outside the area.

The Cobblers, with caretaker-manager Jon Brady periodically shouting instructions loudly from the press box, went even closer in the 42nd minute when Marshall fed Peter Kioso on the right of the box from where the overlapping full-back struck a powerful effort at Holy’s near post which the keeper palmed on to the post and across the face of goal to relative safety.

Two minutes later, Marshall, whose pace had caused Town problems all half, was found breaking away on the Northampton right following a Town corner but chose to shoot when a cross was the better option and dragged well wide.

As the game moved into a single minute of additional time, Woolfenden was booked for a foul on Rose.

The visitors will have left the field feeling that they should have ended their goal drought and claimed the lead having had all the half’s chances, two of which might well have been put away, Kioso’s late shot which hit the woodwork and Hoskins’s effort which was blocked by Matheson.

Town had shown little all half aside from winning a handful of free-kicks in dangerous areas but which came to very little, as has so often been the case of late, and once again went a full 45 minutes without registering a shot on target.

There's little doubt had fans been present that the Blues would have been booed off as they made their way to the tunnel.

Ipswich: Holy, Matheson, Woolfenden, McGuinness, Kenlock, Dozzell, Downes (c), Harrop, Thomas, Sears, Parrott. Subs: Cornell, Chambers, Ward, Bishop, Judge, Lankester, Norwood.

Northampton: Mitchell, Kioso, Horsfall, Jones, Mills (c), McWilliams, Sowerby, Morris, Hoskins, Marshall, Rose. Subs: Arnold, Bolger, Harriman, Watson, Ashley-Seal, Edmondson, Chukwuemeka. Referee: Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire).

Photo: Matchday Images

Fansince72 added 20:35 - Feb 16 Christ! This is so difficult to watch .... we are awful in every position and on every part of the pitch. When is this going to end ?
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bluedispare added 20:39 - Feb 16 One upfront at home. What a joke!
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moggasnotebook added 20:44 - Feb 16 BeattiesBP - in hindsight sacking Jim M could have been a mistake BUT I think there was close to zero percent of our fans disappointed with the appointment of a born winner in Roy Keane (I don't like Man U at all but he was a winner and had high standards) Funnily enough Keane said certain things needed to change at the club (Keane played under Clough and Ferguson for 15 years so assume he knows a little about what it takes to have a winning environment) and I have a little feeling that those things he was talking about may still be to our detriment on the pitch. However ITFC our club is more than just what happens on the pitch so we wouldn't want to change the club just to win and rightly so. ME appointed five managers is correct AND he has backed each of those five managers very strongly, of that there is little doubt? I will say it again, you really think going top Boxing Day at Brentford meant ME didn't want to invest with a sniff of Prem £100 million in the air? He couldn't get the player MM wanted and MM didn't want another signing for the sake of it...... There is so little that us plebs get told we don't know everything that happens. ME was hardly going to come out and say at the end of the season ‘bloody Mick, could have had another player to help promotion bid and he wouldn't have it.......)

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WalkRules added 20:50 - Feb 16 Against 23rd in league First shot on goal on 75 mins 0-0 Put your 'journalistic slant on that' MoggasNotebook
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Essexipswichboy added 20:53 - Feb 16 I hate it Lambert out
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Len_Brennan added 20:54 - Feb 16 Moggasnotebook You are very wrong if you think there was close to no disappointment with Keane's appointment; there was quite a few of us. I think I posted something along the lines of 'Make no mistake, this is the worst thing that could have happened our club' - little did I know just how prophetic that would be.
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moggasnotebook added 20:54 - Feb 16 herobobby - good to exchange opinions and I'm not upset or offended to receive a down arrow. My post can't be the first one you've disagreed with but I would rather have a down arrow than flares lobbed in to my front garden! We are all hurting. I guess we are the same generation and have seen a lot over the years but all this negativity is doing nothing but harm to our club + will force some of the better younger players to ask to move on + makes us a little unattractive to new personnel

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moggasnotebook added 20:59 - Feb 16 WalkRules (WarkRules ?) I'm not asking for anyone to ignore match facts! It is what it is and I'm well aware we are no Barca of the past or similar - it's the reason we are all fed up! However, negativity rarely solves a problem and now of all times in the world we don't want to put negative spin on everything ITFC x
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moggasnotebook added 21:07 - Feb 16 Disappointed not to get three points..... very disappointed. However 20 games to go and we are four points off a play off spot with a game in hand. Not exactly what we should be aiming for in L1 but our players are out on the pitch so hoping they are capable of much better
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Dear_oh_Dear added 21:08 - Feb 16 Lambert Out
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jonju11 added 21:09 - Feb 16 Absolute farce. Even the ref enjoyed his time showboating!! Forget losing to the top 6 we can't even beat the bottom 6. Gutless performance & they are not playing for the Manager any more. He's lost the dressing room. The Club have become the laughing stock of Div 1. Forget the pay off., Evans, sack him of underperformance If You managed to remember that tool that should be in his Contract. The Cobbolds must be turning in their g****s

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marinersmullett added 21:12 - Feb 16 We really need to move on with a new manager. We look clueless.
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Fatboy added 21:13 - Feb 16 Like it or not, when the players stop playing for a manager, it's time for him to go. Personally, I don't see how Butcher/Dyer as caretakers until the end of the season could do any worse.
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BeattiesBackPocket added 21:20 - Feb 16 Moggasnotebook he back Keane no one can deny that but mick had the 5th lowest wage budget his last two seasons. Tell me How Brentford, Bournemouth, Norwich manage their clubs without that kind of debts stay competitive keep improving and challenge? In Brentford they bought a new ground they get the going rate for their players why we take pittance webster in case I'm point 5 million a season later 25 million plus. Don't try and tell me he's done a good job and he's had buyers offers as well so there are people out there. Why's he here? Chelsea fan for starters he only bought us as failed to get the mirror newspaper. I never wanted millions spent on players in the championship just a decent wage budget. Here's the comparison magilton in charge finishing 8th our team when he before he came in Sito, Cornago, David Wright, Bruce, Walters, De Vos, Legwinski, Wilnis, Naylor, Garvan, Norris, Kuqiand 30 million debt losing approx 2.7 million a season. Now look at our team I wouldn't have one of our players in that team? I wouldn't have the manager. How are we losing the amount he says we are a season compared to those clubs or our old team where the quality was a hundred times better? Answers on a postcard. I admire your positivity but enoughs enough. Listen to ex players people near the club like Mills Bent etc

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jonju11 added 21:25 - Feb 16 It looked as though the ref was attempting a headbut on Judge. Check the photos. Absolute disgrace.
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moggasnotebook added 21:35 - Feb 16 BeattiesBP Chelsea fan and business man - never been denied by anyone? Find me a Jack Walker please - you do the looking and I will love you for ever if you find ITFC a ‘Jack Walker' Players go where the money is and we are not (and were not the past few seasons) paying top Championship wages hence attract lesser quality players..... that said Walters and Willis did not arrive as big signings BUT THEIR WORK RATE, APPLICATION AND PROFESSIONALISM made them good players. NOTHING stopping any of the current squad who are given minutes on the pitch to better themselves and use work rate and application to better themselves each week to get a big move for triple money or earn themselves a pay rise as a valuable commodity to the club. The players don't have it in them though currently ......

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BeattiesBackPocket added 21:42 - Feb 16 Moggasnotebook but that's the pint we don't have that quality anymore because our owner HAS sold poorly or let go for nothing that's also why our debt is bigger than it should be. Not one of our team Now would ever get in that magilton team. That's how far we've fallen. You fill a team with league one and two players that's the quality you get. As I say there have been offers for the club evans said this in an interview two years ago plus two others who wanted to buy the club at the same time as he did. Who would've thought two Hollywood multi millionaires would buy Wrexham!? As I say you don't go to someone's house and offer to buy it unless it's up for sale so he needs to put it up for sale then we'll see

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