City Battle Hard (Again) – Imps 1-1 Ipswich

City battled hard to a point against promotion contenders Ipswich Town in a hard-fought game at Sincil Bank on a cold Monday afternoon.

Mark Kennedy made one change to the side that drew with Bolton Wanderers on Friday night. Adam Jackson came into the side replacing the suspended Joe Walsh after he got sent off for two yellow card offences against Bolton. Jordon Garrick also returned to the squad, but there was no place for fellow loanee Tashan Oakley-Boothe. The Stoke City midfielder hasn’t made the last two matchday squads and there is no confirmation of any injury.

When we play these top sides, I feel like I am repeating this every time but the quality that Ipswich possess is incredible. They have an entire squad of top-quality players and they are able to bring on players such as Cameron Humphreys, Freddie Ladapo and Conor Chaplin. With no disrespect to our current crop of players, we would probably have all of the Ipswich substitutes that came on today in our starting eleven. I’m not saying this to make excuses, they have a bigger budget but they are a bigger club and one that shouldn’t be in League One, so I have no complaints about them doing all they can to get out of this division.

The first half was controlled by Ipswich, but similarly to Friday night, we looked dangerous on the break and we caused Ipswich a few problems through Jack Diamond and Danny Mandroiu. Ben House also looked dangerous and had a good chance on goal but his effort went just wide of the post, House had another moment later in the half too. He was played through and goal, and taken down by an Ipswich man. For me, it was a stonewall penalty and even with the replays I still believe that, if it was given it would have been soft, but with a decision that was made later in the half this one has to be a penalty.

The decision later in the half I’m talking about was the Adam Jackson red card. I thought it wasn’t a red when I saw it as he wasn’t the last man and I still stand by that now. He doesn’t get the ball but he is in a line of three defenders, and Paudie O’Connor has a very good chance of getting across to the Ipswich man. I think a red card is very harsh and if you want to manage a game and not ruin it as a referee, you have to give that as a yellow card.

We made it to half-time at 0-0, which was a big achievement considering Ipswich tried everything to get the killer goal but we held out well considering we had ten men. The second half was always going to be tough being a man down and Mark made a change to help us deal with the pressure. Tom Hopper replaced Mandroiu and we went to a 4-2-3 with House moving out wide.

We couldn’t have made a better start for the second half, we looked defensively solid and we nullified Ipswich really well. Our half just got better when we won a rare corner. The referee warned an Ipswich player about pulling in the box and when the corner was taken, he did the exact same thing and the referee awarded the penalty to City. Jack Diamond confidently stepped and did what Jack does every time we get a penalty and stuck it away past the goalkeeper sending over 8,000 City fans into celebration.

We had our goal and against the odds, we were leading against Ipswich with ten men. We still had a job on our hands though and despite really digging in we did crack to the side with the biggest budget in the division. An Ipswich ball in the area was clever, and one of the four Ipswich attacking substitutes Cameron Humphreys headed home to bring the Tractor Boys level. It was unfortunate but I had a feeling that Ipswich would get a goal but we also had ours and we had to battle hard for the point.

We made an important substitution and, similarly to Friday, bought on Jamie Robson on the left-hand side to help out Roughan. Sean was excellent for ninety minutes again and I have to say that he might just be our first one-million-pound player, while I might be overreacting, he has played over 1,700 minutes in League One and he hasn’t had one bad game. He has been exceptional in the last two games, but his whole season has been consistent and to see that from someone that age is rare.

While Sean was excellent, I have to give the AllLincoln MOTM to TJ Eyoma again. The way he has played in the last two games is what we have been wanting to see from him since he signed permanently in the summer of 2021. This is the best I’ve seen him play since 20/21 and long may it continue. He can be a real asset to our football club, and despite having over 100 appearances for the club, he is still only twenty-two years old, so he is still so young and has so much time to reach his full potential.