| Ipswich Town 0 v 2 Everton FA Premier League Saturday, 19th October 2024 Kick-off 15:00 |  |
Ipswich Town 0-2 Everton - Match Report Saturday, 19th Oct 2024 17:23 First-half goals from Iliman Ndiaye and Michael Keane saw Everton to a 2-0 victory over the Blues at Portman Road. The Toffees netted on 17 and 40 as Town, who had a penalty awarded but denied following a VAR check, put in their poorest home display of the season and never looked like getting back into the game. Town made two changes from the 4-1 defeat at West Ham a fortnight ago with Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess coming into the side for Jacob Greaves and Ben Johnson. Both Greaves and Johnson were absent from the matchday 20 with the central defender understood to have picked up a knock. Dara O’Shea, who was subbed with a back problem while playing for the Republic of Ireland in midweek, was OK to start and moved to right-back with Woolfenden, making his 200th appearance for the club, and Burgess, making his Premier League debut, renewing their central defensive partnership, with Leif Davis at left-back. Former Toffees youngster Nathan Broadhead was in the Town matchday squad for the first time this season having come on as a sub for Wales in midweek. Everton made two changes from the team which drew 0-0 at home to Newcastle before the international break. Left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko returned from a knock and replaced James Garner, who has a back problem, with Ashley Young moving to right-back. In midfield, Idrissa Gueye came in for Orel Mangala, who dropped to the bench. England centre-half Jarrad Branthwaite remained absent due to a thigh injury with Keane, twin brother of former Blues striker Will, starting in his place. Ex-Town loan keeper Asmir Begovic was one of two glovesmen on the Toffees bench. The game kicked off at 3.15pm following IT-related turnstile issues, Everton winning the toss and switching ends so the Blues attacked the Sir Bobby Robson Stand in the first half. Before the start, both teams took a knee in support of the Premier League’s No Room For Racism campaign. From the kick-off, Davis landed awkwardly on his hip after challenging for a high ball, but was OK after brief treatment. Town created the first chance of the game in the fifth minute, Omari Hutchinson sending Wes Burns away on the right as the Blues broke quickly. The Wales international cut back from the right of the box to Jack Clarke, but the former Sunderland man mishit his shot high and wide when he really should at least have made Jordan Pickford make a save. Two minutes later, Kalvin Phillips sold Woolfenden short with a pass five yards outside the penalty area and Dominic Calvert-Lewin was in on goal. Fortunately for the on-loan Manchester City man, Aro Muric was quickly off his line and the Kosovan international was able to force Calvert-Lewin’s shot wide. Three minutes later, Clarke made a big challenge inside the Town box to take the ball away from Dwight McNeil, who had been found in space and was about to shoot. On 11, moments after Pickford had come well out of his goal to reach a Hutchinson diagonal ball for Davis and Everton had inexplicably played the ball back towards their own area, Liam Delap threatened for the first time, squeezing a shot across the face and wide from the edge of the area. Both sides had made frequent errors in a scruffy, defensively nervy start to the game and just before the quarter-hour mark Muric scuffed a Woolfenden back-pass out for a corner when under little pressure. Fortunately the flag-kick came to nothing. And three minutes later, another mistake led to the visitors taking the lead. O’Shea headed a deep Jack Harrison cross from the right only as far as Burns at the back of the box. The wideman chested it down but scuffed his second touch, allowing Ndiaye to get on it and smash a shot past Muric and into the net. It was another poor goal for the Blues to concede, following on from several similarly disappointing at West Ham, once again illustrating that errors tend to be punished more clinically by Premier League attacks than Championship strikers. On 21, Everton had another opportunity, Calvert-Lewin turning away and hitting a shot which Muric saved sharply and then cleared after the loose ball had been tapped back to him. Having gone in front, the visitors began to take control but on 24 Hutchinson made a direct run towards the penalty area and was felled by Keane, who was shown the game’s first yellow card. Hutchinson took the free-kick but it hit the wall and eventually the ball was worked back to the former Chelsea man on the right, from where he won a corner. In the aftermath of the flag-kick, Clarke did well to dribble his way into the box, riding a couple of tackles and looked to be felled by McNeil and referee Michael Oliver initially awarded his first spot-kick of the season. However, following the VAR check, Oliver was called over to the VAR screen on the Cobbold Stand side of the ground and having looked at the incident again, reversed his decision.
On 37, McNeil struck a shot from just outside the area, which Calvert-Lewin diverted wide of Muric’s goal. But three minutes later, the Toffees did make it 2-0. Following a corner, unnecessarily conceded by Burgess with Muric ready to claim behind him, Everton skipper James Tarkowski headed a deep ball into the box across goal. Burgess nodded away to McNeil on the edge of the area. The former Burnley man started to dribble into the box but then fed Keane to his left and the central defender slammed a shot from a tight angle past Muric. Soon after the goal, another Town will feel they ought to have been able to prevent, Delap headed over from Davis’s free-kick on the left, then just before the fourth official announced six additional minutes, Phillips curled a free-kick from not far outside the area over. In the third minute of time added on, Ashley Young curled a 25-yard free-kick past the wall but straight into Muric’s arms. That was the last action of probably Town’s worst half of the season so far, certainly their poorest at Portman Road. As at West Ham, the Blues made far too many errors in all areas of the pitch and had been made to pay in their final third. Town’s big opportunity had been Clarke’s early chance which he had failed to take, while Everton had made defensive mistakes of their own but with the Blues unable to profit from them. The second half began with Everton looking for a third and on 52 Doucoure caught Clarke on his heels, stole the ball, brought it forward and found Calvert-Lewin, who shot wide not too far wide. Town’s second half hadn’t started much better than their first had ended and in the 55th minute O’Shea’s poor touch allowed Ndiaye a run in on goal but Muric was equal to the Senegal international’s shot. On the hour, the impressive McNeil cut in from the right following a corner and hit a low shot which was too close to Muric. Town had shown little sign of getting back into it and on 63rd minute manager Kieran McKenna swapped Burns and O’Shea for Conor Chaplin and Harry Clarke, who was making his Premier League debut. Hutchinson moved wide with Chaplin in the middle behind Delap. On 71, having been unable to threaten Pickford’s goal, although having got into one or two promising situations, the Blues swapped Jack Clarke and Phillips for Sammie Szmodics and Jack Taylor. Four minutes later, following a quick break forward from Hutchinson, Szmodics laid Taylor’s pass back to Delap just outside the area but the ex-Manchester City striker’s shot flew over. Hutchinson was an increasing threat down the right and in the 77th minute, the England U21 international cut in from the right and hit a shot across the face which deflected behind for a corner. Soon after the flag-kick, Szmodics crossed from the left and Burgess rose high to flick a header just over the bar. On 79, George Hirst replaced Delap. A minute later, Town hit their first shot on target of the afternoon in a manner familiar from League One and the Championship. Davis played a low corner from the left to Chaplin just ahead of the penalty spot but the forward’s shot was into the ground and too close to Pickford. Ahead of the restart, Everton switched Ndaiye was switched for Mangala. With the game in its final 10 minutes, Everton were happy to sit back on their lead with the Blues camped in the around their area and with Burgess providing an additional aerial threat up front. But the Toffees backline were strong enough to prevent Town from forcing Pickford into a save and on 87 Calvert-Lewin ought to have done better with a cross from the right but headed the ball very wide. As the game moved into its final scheduled minute, ahead of four added on, Taylor hit a low effort from distance which Pickford saved down to his right and claimed at the second attempt. In the second minute of additional time, Taylor looped a header well over from a cross from the right with Szmodics behind him better placed to add a final touch. A minute from the end, Taylor was booked for a foul, then seconds before the whistle Calvert-Lewin was played in on goal but as earlier in the game Muric was able to block. A thoroughly disappointing afternoon for the Blues, who went into the afternoon hoping to end their winless start to the season against another side in the division’s lower reaches. A run of eight matches without a victory at the start of a top-flight season is a new club record. However, hopes of claiming three points were all but extinguished following an uncharacteristically disjointed first-half display in particular, the worst at Portman Road this season and among the poorest of the McKenna era at home. Town were made to pay for that mistake-ridden performance and in the second half showed few signs of getting back into the game until the latter stages after the substitutions when Hutchinson provided a greater threat from out wide, but with Pickford never seriously tested, while the visitors might well have added to their lead with Muric the busier keeper. While there were plenty of positives to be taken from Town’s first six games of the season, the last two have mainly raised concerns, however the Blues remain 17th - although with Wolves and Crystal Palace below them in action on Sunday and Monday respectively - ahead of next week’s difficult trip to 12th-placed Brentford. Town: Muric, O’Shea (H Clarke 63), Woolfenden, Burgess, Davis, Morsy (c), Phillips (Taylor 71), Burns (Chaplin 63), Hutchinson, J Clarke (Szmodics 71), Delap (Hirst 79). Unused: Walton, Townsend, Ogbene, Broadhead. Everton: Pickford, Young, Tarkowski (c), Keane, Mykolenko, Gana, Doucoure, Ndiaye (Mangala 82), Harrison, McNeil, Calvert-Lewin. Unused: Virginia, Begovic, Patterson, Beto, O’Brien, Coleman, Armstrong, Dixon. Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland). VAR official: Graham Scott. Att: 29,862 (Everton: 2,977).
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