Ipswich Town 1 Leicester City 1: Soumaré to the rescue
Winless Ipswich and a Leicester side whose record at Portman Road isn’t inspirational. The odds didn’t set this one up to be a thriller. Becky Taylor was in the sauna stands to see if this away day could offer any positives.
Saturday saw the second of 3 away games in a row with a 6 pointer in Suffolk against winless Ipswich. Whilst a point would favour Leicester, it still felt a must win for both sides in a bid for survival from relegation.
Pre match had most of the travelling contingent pile into the Station Hotel, busy but with a strong set up for an away pub was the general consensus. There were plenty of pubs not too far of a walk away, including our choice of Lord Nelson which had jelly beans as a random offering to enjoy.
The more old school feel of Portman Road was welcomed walking up to the ground, but that bit of nostalgia soon dissipated once inside.
The concourse was hotter than the surface of the sun, it felt more like you were in a kids soft play after 100 hyper kids had been running around. I struggled to appreciate the fast service or Ipswich branded cups from being so stuffy in November.
The game started and it felt a similar story to most of the season; what actually is our plan? Playing Maresca's inverted right-back role just feels like we are trying to copy his homework but without the rest of the principles.
Stephy Mavididi fluffed an early chance at the back post and other than a comfortable save from a classic cut inside and shoot attempt from Fatawu there wasn't much else to shout about from us.
Ipswich looked most likely in the first half but it really wasn't an advert for newly promoted teams in the Premier League. We are probably lucky that the home side’s best chances fell to O'Shea who really should have done better with his header from a corner.
It was a complete scrum for anyone attempting to get down for a half time beer or to the loos, back into the sweatbox. One block of seating in the away end can only be accessed by walking along a row of seats which was completely bizarre and added to the battle.
Our away end seemed quieter than usual, and it felt like we were almost waiting for something to happen on the pitch to get us going. The second half started with hope rather than expectation; our stat of scoring in every game something to cling on to.
It wasn't ideal then, when Leif Davis pinged a lovely sidefoot volley in (Lukey T Vs United style) to provide a moment of quality in a poor game.
Ipswich going ahead early in the second half felt inevitable that they were on their way to their first win of the season to an ever-obliging Leicester City. It didn't have the same feelings as the Southampton game where most of us believed we could get back into it.
At the time I didn't particularly think much of the shouts for a penalty on Chaplin but after seeing it back, it probably is isn't it? In the same breath, it's about time we got a bit of luck against Ipswich after last season!
Kalvin Phillips however, did deserve to see red in the other controversial moment of the game; he had been leaving one in on people all afternoon. It was silly from an experienced player like him, fair play to the referee for not bottling the decision.
As the clock ticked down our goalscoring stat looked in jeopardy. When Buonanotte linked with Ayew to have his shot blocked almost off the line, most of us thought that was THE chance to take something.
In the pub pre match there had been jokes about the reaction we'd give bringing Soumaré on at 1-0 down with 75 mins gone. The prediction was amusingly accurate, but we have to hold our hands up as big Boubs stepped up to save the day in the dying minutes.
He bullied Morsy off the ball at the halfway line, bounced another defender off him then rolled it to Ayew who played a lovely one-two with Vardy to send Leicester fans into bedlam. Ayew grabbing the headlines (again) but Soumaré the creator.
We have become a moments team, it's not ideal, but when you get one of those moments, they're really spectacular. Something felt extra sweet in doing it in stoppage time against Ipswich too.
I laughed out loud at some of the salty comments from Ipswich fans on social media after the game, some difficult to believe they were real. Maybe they should direct their anger at senior player Phillips for turning the game in that moment?
All in all, terrible game, we didn't test a poor goalkeeper in Muric enough, but 1-1 was probably fair. Now to a pretty horrid run of games.
Big up Jordan Ayew for giving us another stoppage time moment away from home, what a man!
