Resilient Leeds finally taste victory at Ipswich
Ross McCormack (File Photo)
Brian McDermott brought Noel Hunt back into the starting eleven in place of Dominic Poleon, a slightly puzzling call in my book. Other than that, it was the same team that started against Wednesday with new signing Wootton having to make do with a spot on the bench.
The large away support lifted the decibel levels as the game got under way on a pristine playing surface. The wet weather made for a slick surface as the Tractor Boys grabbed the early initiative with both hands and put Leeds to the sword in the opening quarter. Ipswich, utilising acres of space down their left flank, tore into a hesitant Leeds side like a boxer trying to finish a fight in the first round. Jay Tabb, who’s 3rd rib caught Lees’s boot last year, thought he’d opened the scoring after just 7 minutes when he tapped in from a yard after Kenny had turned a Cresswell shot into the path of McGoldrick, but the linesman’s flag saved Leeds from what seemed like a good goal.
Cresswell was crucifying the Leeds flank with intelligent attacking play exposing Peltier time and again, and we hadn’t even played 10 minutes. The inevitable goal came on 11 minutes though as the unmarked McGoldrick picked up a flick around 30 yards out before clinically striking the ball unchallenged past Kenny in the Leeds goal. 1-0 Ipswich. Tom Lees held his head in his hands. He knew he should have done better in preventing the Ipswich striker from getting his shot away.
The goal just inspired the home team and Leeds were in danger of losing the game in the first 30 minutes as Mick McCarthy’s high pressing game unsettled the men in gold. Lees made amends for his slip by heading the ball over from deep inside his own 6-yard box with Ipswich players waiting to pounce, and then the impressive Cresswell beat Kenny from 25 yards with a sublime curling shot that thumped against the bar. “We could be 3 down already,” I mused. This had a distinct taste of deja vu at a ground where we hadn’t sampled victory for 12 years. Things were not looking good. The midfield looked at sixes and sevens and Ipswich’s high defensive line frequently caught Varney on the wrong side of the linesman’s flag.
What we needed was a slice of good old fashioned luck and on 22 minutes that’s exactly what we got. Ross McCormack latched onto a loose ball on the edge of the box and smashed it goalwards. The ball bounced off a defender straight into the path of Luke Varney, he sent a searing left foot shot past Scott Loach in the home goal. 1-1 and the noise cranked up another level from the travelling support. Leeds were now back in the game with a bang and settled into a more confident mode of football.
Ipswich were still a significant threat though as Kenny’s goal survived first an over ambitious header back from an under pressure Pearce and then a succession of corners as the Blues sort to reinstate the lead. At the other end, Austin split the home defence only to be let down by his final touch, whilst moments later McCormack found space but over hit a teasing cross into the Ipswich box. Premier League referee, Mike Dean, brought an entertaining half to an end with the scores level at 1-1.
Brian McDermott needed the break to reorganise the shape of the Mighty Whites. Too many times in the first half, Cresswell exposed our right flank defences as neither Paul Green or Austin seemed to be clear who was supposed to be providing cover on the right hand side. The half time entertainment saw the Leeds fan win the inflatable ball race so at least we had finally won something at Portman Road. I wasn’t that confident we could push on and rather glumly predicted we need another two goals to win this. Nobody disagreed.