Chuba Akpom and Marcelino Nunez scored the goals in Ipswich Town’s 2-0 win at Hull City.
Ipswich Town won 2-0 at Hull City last night. Stuart Watson reflects on the action.
Jack Clarke on the ball for Ipswich.
YAWN…
These two clubs played out a 3-3 thriller the last time they went head-to-head at the MKM Stadium and everything pointed towards more entertainment in this meeting. Hull went into it as the division’s second top scorers, while Ipswich had bagged eight goals in their previous two away games.
Off the back of Saturday’s home stalemate with Wrexham, the general consensus was ‘well at least this one won’t be 0-0’. As the 70th minute mark approached, however, that looked very much on the cards.
Kieran McKenna made reference to a ‘difficult surface’ afterwards. How much that played in a scruffy affair full of enforced errors is hard to know. Hull keeper Ivor Pandur booting the ball all the way through to Christian Walton only for Dara O’Shea to soon kick back over everyone and out for a goal kick rather summed up the dire first half.
The referee having to stop the game early in the second period so that four orange cones that had been left out at half-time could be removed was about as exciting as things got.
Christian Walton makes a full-stretch save in the first half
STAYING SOLID
What gave Ipswich the platform to win this game was their solid base.
Kasey McAteer quickly dropped into a right-back role, creating a back five, whenever Ipswich didn’t have the ball. That, along with some excellent one-v-one defensive work from Darnell Furlong, helped shut down Hull’s creative left side.
Whenever passes went astray in the middle of the pitch, Azor Matusiwa always seemed to be in the right place at the right time to snuff out counter pressure moments before they could build. In goal, Walton made one smart save to his right. Up top, George Hirst and Marcelino Nunez pressed high and hard as a duo to stop the home side building from the back.
In possession, the Blues were well off it. Out of possession, however, they remained hard-working and concentrated. And it was that which gave a quality bench the chance to go and win it.
Chuba Akpom celebrates after making it 2-0.
Former Hull loanee Philogene was booed onto the field by the home crowd. There were cheers when his first involvement was to be shunted off the ball.
Moments later, however, his delicious right footed cross from deep was expertly headed into the bottom corner by an unmarked Nunez. A Town No.10 has finally scored from open play, but it was the finish of a traditional number nine.
Hull became more adventurous. Town’s confidence visibly grew. A flurry of Blues chances led to a killer second. Subs were, once again, involved.
Chuba Akpom, off the back of a frustrating afternoon against Wrexham, must have been starting to think that the footballing Gods weren’t on his side. He came on as a striker in this game, replacing Hirst, and was quickly involved. First, Nunez chose not to pass to him at the end of a glorious counter-attack opening that he’d created with a deft flick. Moments later, a lunging block from Charlie Hughes stopped his side-footed shot inside the box finding the net.
The Ajax loanee wasn’t to be denied though. After O’Shea’s downward header at a corner was saved, Jack Taylor poked forwards and Akpom was left with a close-range tap-in. In real time, he looked offside. Replays soon showed, however, that Giles, having been slow to come off the near post, had played him on. That, hopefully, will do wonders for his confidence.
Dara O’Shea celebrates at the end.
FUN FINISH
Two goals in five minutes clearly knocked the stuffing out of the hosts. The final 15-20 minutes of this match, in stark contrast to the first 70-odd, were actually quite fun to watch.
Philogene fired a shot against the post. Leif Davis got in down the left multiple times. More goals could easily have followed.
What I liked even more was that when Hull threw caution to the wind in search of a late consolation, Ipswich defended with real desire. O’Shea epitomised that. The Irishman flung his face in the way of a vicious shot and then, when being ushered off the field for a concussion check, made sure to organise his team-mates.
The lesser-spotted Ben Johnson could have gone through the motions during his late right wing cameo, but he did well to take the ball to the corner and win a dead ball when surrounded by three opponents.
Marcelino Nunez celebrates at the end.
Since those back-to-back defeats to Middlesbrough and Charlton, the Blues have gone back to basics. We’re still a way off this being a free-flowing team with incredible chemistry, but an improvement in focus and fight is enabling a talented group to consistently put points on the board.
Successful sides find a way to win when not at their best. The high-scoring thrillers may be the ones that stick in our mind from the 23/24 Championship promotion season, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that there were five 1-0 victories along the way, plus three 0-0 draws.
Six games unbeaten. Three straight away wins. Successive clean sheets. Town are up to fourth in the table and now just two points off the automatic promotion places with a game in hand to come.
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