Macauley Bonne scored twice but the Blues were pegged back twice by the MK Dons in an entertaining 2-2 draw at Portman Road. Bonne netted an excellent opener in the 16th minute but the visitors levelled on 58 through Scott Twine. Bonne put the Blues back in front on 72 before Town gave Matt O’Riley a helping hand to level again three minutes later.

Hayden Coulson was handed his Town debut at left-back as Blues boss Paul Cook made three changes.

The on-loan Middlesbrough man came in for Matt Penney, who dropped to the bench, while Kane Vincent-Young returned in place of Janoi Donacien at right-back with the former Accrington man also among the subs.

Wes Burns was back from injury and started on the right with former Don Scott Fraser moving into the middle behind Bonne with Joe Pigott dropping to the bench.

Centre-half Cameron Burgess and left winger Kyle Edwards were making their home debuts for the Blues.

The mystery player manager Paul Cook had said was ill at his Friday press conference appeared to be Kayden Jackson, who is missing from the 18.

For MK, manager Liam Manning, returning to the club where he was an academy player and coach, made two changes from the team which beat Charlton 2-1 on Tuesday with Dean Lewington replacing Daniel Harvie, who was out with a concussion, and Aden Baldwin came in for Tennai Watson.

Former Town loanee Troy Parrott started for the Dons, while ex-Blues striker Charlie Brown was among the subs.

Prior to kick-off, both teams and staff took a knee to applause from around Portman Road with the Dons keeping possession in the early stages. In the second minute Mo Eisa shot at goal from distance but Vaclav Hladkey claimed confidently.

On four, Coulson sent Edwards away running at pace at the MK defence from deep his own half, skipping past one defender before being upended by Warren O’Hora, who was booked. The free-kick was underhit and headed away from the edge of the box.

A minute later, Matt O’Riley scraped a shot wide for the visitors, before Edwards drew another foul a third of the way inside the Dons’ half, this time from Tennai Watson.

Both teams were having spells on the ball, although with MK looking a little more practised, and opportunities. In the 13th minute, Parrott shot low to Hladky’s right and the keeper saved comfortably.

A minute later the Blues went closer when Burns whipped over a ball from the right and Bonne headed off a defender and over.

But the striker from Chantry didn’t have to wait too long for his first goal in front of the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand.

In the 16th minute Vincent-Young played a superb ball from deep on the right to the on-loan QPR man breaking towards the area on the left. O’Hora allowed it over his head and Bonne, who fluffed a gilt-edged opportunity to make it 2-0 at Cheltenham on Tuesday, deftly took it down before smashing a shot into the roof of the net.

The striker from Chantry gleefully celebrated behind the goal before eventually hugging kitman James Pullen in front of the tunnel.

MK were an inch or two away from an equaliser in the 26th minute when they broke quickly after Edwards had been dispossessed following a Town corner - although the former West Brom man appeared to have been fouled - and eventually Ethan Robson hit a well-struck shot from the left of the box which scraped the top of Hladky’s cross-bar.

A minute later, Vincent-Young tricked his way beyond his man on the right of the area and his low cross was deflected over by Zak Jules. From the corner on the right, the ball was played to Burns 25 yards out and the former Fleetwood man shot not too far over.

Town were very much on top by this stage and in the 31st minute Edwards brought the ball in from the left beating Harry Darling and back from the byline before his low cross was diverted behind.

A minute later, Fraser’s free-kick from the right was sent into the box ahead of his team-mates but after Lewington left it keeper Andrew Fisher was forced to dive to push past his post with the ball otherwise set to nestle in the corner of the net.

Evans tried an audacious effort from distance with Fisher off his line on 34 but the ball looped just over.

Three minutes later, Edwards tricked his way past a number of defenders before cutting in and hitting a 25-yard strike beyond Fisher’s left post.

The visitors began to get more into the game as the half passed the 40-minute mark, Twine’s snap-shot from 30 yards arcing past the post the Hladky’s left and into the side-netting with the Town keeper not panicking.

On 43 a Darling shot deflected through to Hladky from the edge of the box in the wake of a corner from the right.

As the half moved into one minute of added time, Bonne won the ball on the left of the box and fed Edwards to his right. The winger feinted away from a defender before hitting a shot which was blocked by Darling.

That was the last action of an entertaining half in which both sides had had spells on top and chances with the difference Bonne’s brilliantly executed goal.

The Blues had looked much better going forward than in previous games, although stil without creating many clear-cut opportunities, with Bonne the focal point up front, while Edwards and Burns had both looked a threat down the flanks and Fraser had been more comfortable in the role behind the main striker.

While MK had kept the ball for long periods at times, their best opportunities had come on the break as the Blues sought to get numbers back after their own attacks or corners.

Five minutes after the restart, Darling headed to Hladky following a Dons free-kick to the left of the box but again the keeper wasn’t particularly troubled.

"Almost immediately at the other end, Edwards tricked his way to the byline on the left and cut across the area but behind everyone in a blue shirt. Vincent-Young brought it back in from the right and played low into Fraser, who teed-up Bonne, whose shot deflected wide when the striker looked certain to claim his second of the game.

A minute later, Burns intercepted a loose MK pass not far outside the area and drove into the box on the right before hitting a shot which Fisher somehow managed to turn on to his far post, the ball managing to avoid Town players on its way out.

Evans scraped a shot wide from distance on 55 and two minutes later another Edwards ball flashed across the box without a Town player making the final contact.

The Blues having been on top and dangerous since the break but with MK having won a number of corners and free-kicks in threatening areas.

And in the 58th minute a set piece paid dividends for the visitors. After Woolfenden had fouled Twine 30 yards out and been booked as a result, the former Swindon man took the free-kick and Hladky was only able to palm his curling strike into the net to his right.

Portman Road is proving a happy hunting ground for Twine, who scored a long-distance strike for the Robins in their 3-2 victory in Suffolk last season.

Town swapped the tiring Coulson for Penney two minutes after the goal, before Twine hit another effort from distance, this time from open play, which Hladky did well to palm behind. On 67 Town switched Burns for Tom Carroll, who was making his home debut.

The Blues had struggled to get back in firm control following MK’s leveller and substitutions for both sides, but in the 72nd minute Bonne restored their lead.

Sub Penney fed Fraser on the left of the box with an incisive pass and the Scot crossed towards the far post where Bonne slid in to score his second of the game and his third of the season.

However, the lead lasted only three minutes with the Blues once again gifting their opposition a goal. Evans hesitated on the ball midway inside the Town half and was robbed by O’Riley, who took it into the area and confidently beat Hladky.

On 77 Eisa shot over for the Dons, whose tails were unsurprisingly up following their second equaliser.

Two minutes later, Armando Dobra replaced Fraser, who had picked up a knock and received a less than friendly send-off form his old fans. Ex-Blues youngster Brown took over from Eisa for MK.

Edwards sent Bonne away in space on the left in the 85th minute and the striker hit a shot from a tight angle which Fisher batted into the air and grabbed at the second attempt.

There was a big scare for the Blues a minute later when Twine, who had been a big threat with his shoot-on-sight policy in the second half, brought the ball to the edge of the box and played in the untracked Jules, whose effort at goal was blocked by the advancing Hladky. The MK defender will think he should have made more of the situation.

As the game moved into five minutes of injury time it was the visitors on top and looking for openings from which they would score the winner.

Town started to show more of a threat but seconds before the end the visitors almost won it when Twine teed-up sub Josh Martin to his right inside the area and his shot slammed against the bar and away. The final whistle was met by boos and then applause.

A second 2-2 home draw for the Blues in League One this season and as in virtually every match this season it was a game Town will feel they ought to have won having led 1-0 and then 2-1.

Too many set pieces had been given away prior to Twine’s first equaliser that it seemed inevitable a Dons goal would eventually come, while the second was another which stemmed from an individual error.

The Blues were again good in patches, playing their best football of the season at times, but again suffered for self-inflicted wounds at the back.

Town remain without a win after four league games - plus the cup defeat to Newport County - with AFC Wimbledon at Portman Road next Saturday.

Town: Hladky, Vincent-Young, Woolfenden, Burgess, Coulson (Penney 60), Evans (c), Harper, Edwards, Burns (Carroll 67), Fraser (Dobra 79), Bonne. Unused: Holy, Pigott, Barry, Donacien.

MK Dons: Fisher, Watson, Lewington (c), Jules (Baldwin 90), O’Hora, Darling, O’Riley, Twine, Eisa (Brown 79), Robson, Parrott (Martin 70). Unused: Ravizzoli, Baldwin, McEachran, Boateng, Ilunga. Referee: Josh Smith (Bedfordshire). Att: 18,622 (MK Dons: 501).

Photo: Matchday Images

Umros added 23:09 - Aug 21 A very predictable outcome when going 1-0 up, we just cannot put a game to bed. Too many comments on here to disagree with, it's probably facts you need to be looking at, 4 wins in 21 games, old and newly assembled team......tick tock!
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shakytown added 23:25 - Aug 21 What concerns me the most is that teams seem to be able to take us apart in the second half and Cook seems oblivious to it and cannot react with his own tactics.
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DavefromWatford added 23:32 - Aug 21 I see the knives are out for Hladky what a surprise, lets blame the keeper. The wall was supposed to be covering that side of the goal, Hladky did well to get to the ball. The woodwork has cost us again, our luck will change guaranteed.
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Rimsy added 23:52 - Aug 21 Just individual errors cost us again and these will be sorted. Apart from that, what a fantastic game to watch. We've dreamed of the Town playing like this for the last decade. Get behind the team.
3

Minneapolis_ITFC added 00:24 - Aug 22 Caught game commentary earlier, a point each was in truth a fair score. Both teams made a number of errors but for those who were there, they must have got their moneys worth and then some. Milton Keynes are a tough team that work hard at you. So we didn't win, it's disappointing and could or should have doubled our lead when Bonne struck his first but they too could just have easily stolen it by the end and left us with nothing. There's really no need for anyone to berate the manager today. OK it's only a point from it but when you look below the surface you'll know we tried today, at times played vigorous and adventure 'football', and most likely showed our best performance since last season.

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budgieplucker added 00:35 - Aug 22 Very entertaining match, especially for the neutrals. It looked like Stavros Flatley coming out just before kick off to do a Paul Cook impression of clapping the crowd. The ex Ipswich boys of Liam & Hoggy have inherited a good side and seem to have kept the momentum going created by Russell Martin. I think MK Dons are going to be the dark horses this year for a comfortable top six finish. Play a style nice and easy on the eye and have quite a large number of tall players and offer a threat at set pieces. Troy Parrot will blossom in playing in a front two. They overrun us in midfield and had Harper and Evans chasing shadows at times. On the Ipswich front we seem to like to keep it simple, which is not a bad thing compared to how we overcomplicated things last year. Evans and Harper are both good players, but Whilst easy to blame Evans for his poor performance today and the gift goal, he does have to stop playing too negatively - going backwards too many times and I could see that mistake before it happened. Team seems to loose it's compactness at times giving the opposition too many pockets of space to play in. However, Carroll gave us some glimpses today of how more agile we could be in midfield and I think before too long Cookie will have a choice of who to drop to accommodate Carroll (assuming he stays fit). KYV much off the pace and would like to see Burns drop to full back to accommodate Chaplin on the wing when he returns. For me Burns was guilty when he shot and hit the post of very poor decision making, a simple ball across the box should have been played to Bonne who would have tapped it in the net, we had a 2 on 1 and a golden chance to go 2 up. Hladky at the moment is not inspiring confidence in some of the goals he has let in including the free kick today, although he does continue to pull off some good saves as well. Fraser, occasionally plays a neat ball as he did for the second goal, but as yet isn't doing anywhere near enough for me . Didn't see enough of Coulson today tom suggest there is going to be much between him and Penney. Edwards and Bonne continue to excite and look as if they could both be game-changers for us this year, hope when we see more of him that Chaplin also falls into this category. Thought Woolfie had another decent game, yes he did give a way the foul that led to a goal, but did he have enough support from his deep midfielders. Hope the fans are not looking to make him the next scapegoat. Burgess looks solid and a really good signing. So today shouldn't really be about the manager, he picked a good team which suggested we could win this match, our football in spells (and we were never going to dominate play for 90 minutes against a good quality team like MK Dons - I fancy a bet on them for promotion) was blistering. Had we not had any of the other debacle performances we would taken today's result as bad luck. However, I don't think the issue is particularly about the team not gelling, I think it is about poor concentration and poor decision making. It is difficult for the manager to eradicate this apart from drop serial offenders. Of course Paul Cook is not a bad manager and to suggest he needs to go after a handful of games is ludicrous, but if the players don't apply themselves for 90 minutes then they could ultimately get the manager sacked, we have before had long spells where we continued to shoot ourselves in the foot and regularly undone other good work during a game. I am not an advocate of booing, but seriously was that an issue at the end, just a few people exercising their frustration in giving away two points again, the crowd then gave a generous warm applause at the end albeit a number of supporters headed for the exit gates before then. You know at many of clubs especially in the top flight, the players and manager would be under a lot more pressure now. Passions can run high, but we need passion to help lift the team.

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Irishblueboy99 added 00:47 - Aug 22 Sad to say but PC has a worse record than pl He can talk the talk but not sure can he walk the walk. I'd give him 10 games , another 6 to go and if results and Performance dont improve then its definitely time for the Fat lady to start singing for mr PC. Ffs this is league one 4 points out of 12!!!!!!!
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austractor added 01:12 - Aug 22 What a game that was. Never felt safe for us, credity to MK Dons. More positive showings from us in all areas of the pitch and at the end of the day, horrendous errors cost us and PC cannot be blamed for that. He wasnt in goal or in Evans position which is the only way he coud of infuenced those key moments. I think it was PCs best post match interview, he said as much as he could without unnecessarily burying anyone. I actually think some of the players are suffering from height of expectations and PC openly talking about promotion but I am sure they can get over that in time. All of them work their socks for the team and are playing the style of football we have wanted to see since Saint Matty Holland and co were with us. Its only 4 games gone, we will get there and I believe in the team and PC. COYB

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paris_mitchell_in_oz added 01:44 - Aug 22 Anyone with any kind of footballing nouse can see that this squad is slowly but surely starting to fire. Yes, we've had a less than perfect start to the season. But seriously, was it ever really going to be anything other than perfect, given the mass exodus and influx? IMO, it will be another ten or so games before we hit a solid groove. Be patient with them, folks. It's coming together!!

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Oldozblue added 02:12 - Aug 22 Early days - players to come in. Hope this is a lesson to Evans who should send less time arguing with ref, shouting at his team mates and more time concentrating on his game.
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Tractorboy58 added 09:48 - Aug 22 It was a decent game, and with high energy from both teams. Kyle Edwards will tear teams apart ! BUT 4 wins out of 20+ games is worrying. Also I am not that impressed with Lee Evans. There comes a point where so say that they have had long enough to 'gel' but how many games do you give ? 6, 10, till Christmas ??
1

Northstandveteran added 10:11 - Aug 22 Now I am usually very negative when it comes to all matters Ipswich town. Twenty years of slow but sure decline have made me and many others this way. Let's face it, these results so far have been nothing short of an embarrassment for a club of town's stature. I've lost count of the times I've said " At least it can't get any worse " only to be proved wrong time and time again. But my assessments so far are as follows, Forget Cook's record last season, all this 4 wins in 21 rubbish. We were never going to gain promotion with last season's squad. I'd been saying for the last 3 seasons, "We might have a big squad but none of them are any good, we can only swap poor players for poor" Cook saw this and thankfully got rid. We now have a complete new team made up of much more talented footballers. But complete strangers to each other. Of course these will take time to know each other's style of play, movements, positions. I do believe that this new team will come together and let's remember, in this poor league, a team can fly up or down the league in the blink of an eye. I firmly believe that in a few weeks time this team will click and we'll climb the table and be challenging the promotion places come December. I am however, quite prepared to look back at this post and tell myself, "They nearly fooled you again didn't they?" If nothing else, being a supporter of Ipswich town does toughen you up for the disappointment that life will often send your way.

7

BangaloreBlues added 10:32 - Aug 22 Already eight points from the top after just four games, and an average of two goals conceded per game. That's relegation form. This needs sorting out asap.
-1

IpswichT62OldBoy added 10:47 - Aug 22 I agree with NSV, last seasons results under Cook are irrelevant, other than making clear to him what a bunch of slackers he has inherited. My feeling is that no one really made any decisions regarding personnel, easier to just carry on with what you have than to actually have any sort of policy. The results this season are irrelevant until we see our best team out on the pitch. The style of play and the intent is there, we are loosing goals to errors and missing very good chances, this will change. We are being entertained, people at the ground were buzzing, a win for us was always possible, when was that last the case?

3

dirtydingusmagee added 12:16 - Aug 22 another two points lost, but thats entertainment!. Notice in previous posts the expections are changing now,' ''we'll survive'' '' should make playoffs'' . Anyway well done Macauley Bonne, Keep it up.
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dirtydingusmagee added 12:25 - Aug 22 euanTown, i'd rather we were bottom of Prem than Lge1 to be honest,
1

OldTractor added 18:11 - Aug 22 It is all very good and agree important to have an emphasis on fitness etc but whoever is in charge of defensive tactics and training needs to answer a few questions Monday morning. We keep making basic defensive errors - and I'm not talking about their second goal. From sitting up in the Upper Sir Bobby Robson stand you could see the goal coming before they took the free kick. Hladky was too far over to his left hand side relying on the wall to cover his right. Doesn't he realise that strikers practice non stop on free kicks from such distance ? If we are going to cover that way then we need a player to lie horizontally on the ground whilst the rest of the wall jump up together. Basics to me.

0

dirtydingusmagee added 20:22 - Aug 22 basics to Old Tractor [since Euro's] lol
0

istanblue added 21:13 - Aug 22 Fail to beat a club at home who didn't even exist 20 years ago: tick Captain makes a calamitous error that results in a goal: tick Go 5 games without a win in the 3rd tier of English football: tick New era, same old Ipswich.
3

ElephantintheRoom added 08:04 - Aug 23 Not sure there are any 'big teams' in this division -but there are a few minnows and Town have already played some of them and looked second best. Something slightly depressing about seeing MK Dons with yet another imaginative managerial, appointment, this time with Town provenance, while Town conitinually flag down the managerial gravy train and repeat all the same mistakes - time and time again. Going down the Hurst route Part 2 The Sequel would surely have been poionted out as a tad rash had there been any continuity whatsoever.. There is something even more depressing about seeing a Town team of strangers who probably didnt even know where Ipswich was three months ago, with the only one that probably did being a Town reject on loan from QPR. Still looking on the bright side the UK is still on a USA travel blacklist - so those gurning americans wont be turning up any time soon.

1

dirtydingusmagee added 08:44 - Aug 23 Cook unfortunately is looking like his predecessors '' all wind'' he needs to get this sorted and quick, we are still at our lowest point,nearer Lge2 than Championship.
1

Razor added 10:20 - Aug 23 For what its worth did not think it was a free kick for their first goal-----the player milked it and also got Woolfie a booking. How many of the 16 already signed are actually quality players and how long is the gelling process going to take?
0

dirtydingusmagee added 10:27 - Aug 23 nearly 10 30am Monday, nothing from the club on here, its going a bit quiet,from one extreem to the other ! can imagine the yanks are getting a bit edgy about the way things are going .
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Ebantiass added 15:33 - Aug 23 Jesus h christ everybody or shouldi write the mindless few...GIVE THE F ING TEAM TIME. I have no doubt that things will get much better in a short while. Cook is a good manager and the players here unlike the majority from previous seasons actually want to be here and will play for the club and their manager not forgetting us fans. This was always going to be a tough league to get out of as many clubs seeing us as a big scalp. I believe we will be pushing for the play offs come may. The real question is whether Cook is given the time if things dont improve soon. Onwards and upwards

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