Ipswich Town 0-0 Gillingham - Half-Time Saturday, 5th Feb 2022 15:55 The Blues’ home game against Gillingham remains 0-0 at half-time. Joe Pigott, Lee Evans, Tom Carroll and James Norwood returned to the Town starting line-up. Pigott was making his first start since Kieran McKenna took over with Macauley Bonne dropping to the bench. Norwood played off central striker Pigott to the left with Chaplin to the right with Bersant Celina on the bench and Sone Aluko not in the squad. Evans was in central midfield after returning from a groin injury alongside Carroll, who missed last week’s 1-0 loss at Sheffield Wednesday after his partner gave birth. Tyreeq Bakinson was among the subs and Idris El Mizouni wasn’t in the 18, while Dominic Thompson was handed his home debut at left wing-back. For the Gills under new manager Neil Harris, Gislingham-born Stuart O’Keefe, a one-time Town academy player, skippered. The visitors struck the game’s first shot in the third minute, Danny Lloyd hitting a low free-kick from 25 yards which Christian Walton bundled away to his right. But Town, with Ed Sheeran watching from his box in the Cobbold Stand, soon took over, dominating possession but without threatening in the final third. On 12, David Tutonda was shown the game’s first yellow card for a foul on Janoi Donacien as the right-sided centre-half ran onto a return pass. From the free-kick, Evans whipped a curling ball into the area just beyond Norwood and stand-in skipper George Edmundson was unable to direct it goalwards. Town went closer two minutes later when Carroll sent over a corner from the right, Luke Woolfenden battled hard to nod back across goal and Pigott looped a header over when the striker, a former Gillingham loanee, will feel he ought to have done better. As the game reached the 20-minute mark, the Blues had a couple of sloppy moments with Lloyd finding himself in a good position from the first before handling the ball. Soon after Lloyd under-hit a back pass towards Aaron Chapman but the keeper was out quickly to clear ahead of Pigott. Town began to regain their earlier composure and might have gone ahead in the 27th minute. Wes Burns hit a low shot from the right which Chapman unconvincingly palmed into the path of Thompson breaking into the box at pace, but the on-loan Brentford man was unable to keep his first-time shot down. The Blues were starting to look more threatening and on 29 Evans clipped a looping ball into the area which a defender diverted away from Norwood and Thompson at the far post. From the resultant corner, Edmundson headed over. However, Town were far from in total control and on 34 Gillingham debutant Ben Thompson screwed a shot from 20 yards wide. The Blues continued to have sloppy moments, giving the ball away in their own half too regularly but with Gillingham unable to force a serious chance. On 43 the ball was cleverly worked in from the Town right but Carroll turned the ball in front of Norwood with the striker not expecting it. The Blues were seeing plenty of the ball as the whistle blew for half-time but still without finding a way through a Gillingham side more organised and determined than they had been in the 4-0 Town win at the Priestfield Stadium last month. Town had had the lion’s share of the possession - 71-29 according to the stats - but had been too sloppy, particularly in their own half with passes having gone astray in potentially dangerous areas. However, neither Walton nor Gills keeper Chapman had had a particularly busy half. Town: Walton, Donacien, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Burns, Evans (c), Carroll, Thompson, Chaplin, Norwood, Pigott. Subs: Hladky, Burgess, Bakinson, Celina, Edwards, Bonne, Jackson. Gillingham: Chapman, Tutonda, O'Keefe (c), Ehmer, Tucker, Lee, McKenzie, Masterson, Lloyd, Oliver, Thompson. Subs: Dahlberg, Jackson, Dickson-Peters, Phillips, Sithole, Maghoma, Kelman. Referee Stephen Martin (Staffordshire).
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