Ipswich Town 1-0 Scunthorpe United
Report from Portman Road

For the second consecutive away game, Scunthorpe United were defeated by a margin of one goal when they went down 1-0 at Ipswich Town this afternoon.

A draw had looked to be on the cards all afternoon in a match that saw two dismissals, but Connor Wickham had other ideas - firing Scunthorpe into the relegation zone for the time since the season's opening day in stoppage time.

Ahead of their game in the character-enriched surroundings of Portman Road, their first game there since December 2007, Scunthorpe United made two alterations from the team which started the discomforting defeat at Coventry City two weeks ago. Into the side came Grant McCann and Garry Thompson. Out went Josh Wright for tactical reasons and Gary Hooper because of a groin injury. In an additional development, record signing Rob Jones had to make do with a place on the bench, despite recovering from a broken nose.

By contrast, Ipswich Town buoyantly headed into the game on the back of an impressive victory over Cardiff City. Consequently, their objective against this Scunthorpe well was crystal clear: to assemble back-to-back victories for the first time this season. Speaking ahead of the game in his programme notes, Tractor Boys manager Roy Keane stated that if there was ever a time to do that, 'it's now'.

The afternoon itself in which the match commenced was overcast but not cold. United were away that the wrong result would almost certainly send them into the relegation zone though, an occurrence that would administer a chill down the spines of the travelling Scunthorpe contingent, whose nerves cannot have been done much good when Ipswich carved open the visiting defence with only seconds on the clock. Jonathan Walters, once an Iron himself, found the ball and found space. Luckily, the final part of his master plan, finding the net, didn't come off quite as spectacularly when he charged his eighteen-yard attempt over the crossbar.

Over the subsequent ten minutes, the team wearing blue continued to flood upfield in search of an early goal. Resilience is not a trait that Scunthorpe always exhibit, but at least for that period of time, they did - mopping up all that their opponents threw at them, before eventually Paul Hayes got a chance himself. In the area he controlled the ball around his marker before hitting a shot - only to see it stubbornly blocked.

From there it ebbed and flowed. Ipswich, Scunthorpe, Ipswich, Scunthorpe. The next serious chance came when a corner was won and wasted - and 'wasted' is an understatement. McCann curled it into the box, but the only person who had eyes for it was the goalie, Brian Murphy. Scunthorpe had nine men forwards, with only Williams left behind, but Town 'keeper Murphy glided to meet it mid-air before anyone else even attempted to edge towards it. The ground, which had been silenced, chugged back into life.

But if that was a wasted chance, then it's hard to know how to label the one that Sparrow had in the twenty-third minute. From the middle of the park the ball was sprayed forwards allowing Scunthorpe to break with Paul Hayes - a textbook counter-attack. He bided his time, then rolled it across for Sparrow, but somehow, his placed left-footed shot was saved by the fingertips of Brian Murphy, before a defender brushed it away. No disrespect to Sparrow there mind you; he did no wrong - Murphy just did splendidly.

At this point, it's worth pointing out that Scunthorpe were certainly not the only team in the game. They were, however, much more actively involved than they had been in any previous away game since they managed to sneak a win at QPR. Resultantly, the referee, Paul Miller, was coming under increasing criticism from the crowd, who were behaving in a manner that suggested they'd been expecting to see their Ipswich side steamroll this game. They perceived that Mr. Miller, and not Scunthorpe's tactics, was stopping them from finding themselves ahead.

Pablo Counargo provided a moment of respite from the barrage of referee-related abuse ten minutes prior to the interval. He spun on the egde of the box and bent a shot through the box at goal - one of those which looks like it's flying in to most in the ground - which triggering a series of laboured exhales when it became apparent that in-fact Murphy had gathered the ball.

In the last exciting event of a goalless first period, Jack Colback, Ipswich's militant midfielder, played his way into the book. As you can imagine, this hardly endeared Mr. Miller to the crowd anymore, even if his decision was an easy one to make. Byrne and Colback had been antagonising each other all half, and when Colback lost his cool and reacted via a zealous challenge, there was only even going to be one outcome.

When the whistle got the second period going, Scunthorpe really did start to take the game to their opponents. Passes across the midfield were finding their targets and moving the team forwards, and opportunity number one of the half surfaced as a result. Grant McCann was fed the ball, he played the ball out of his feet, played on when he fouled, and flashed a long-range effort which had the goalkeeper beaten wide of the goal. It must have acted as a wakeup call. Within minutes, Jonathan Walters steered the ball wide after a corner - constituting what was quite possibly Ipswich's most dangerous attack of the match.

The home team continued to get better from there on. On the hour mark, striker Pablo Counargo was left with no excuse for not managing to score the opener when he missed a critical opportunity. He got the ball in the area, turned Joe Murphy, stuttered, turned the other way - eventually seeing his shot blocked by Byrne just as United were managing to get more people back.

Nigel Adkins made a change soon afterwards. He looked to utilise Jonathan Forte's rapid pace by playing him alone at the top of the park. Paul Hayes, who had worked hard, was brought off. Unfortunately though, the new tactical strategy was scuppered immediately.

Twenty minutes remained when Cliff Byrne was dismissed for the third time this season. Jack Colback, who as I mentioned earlier had been at odds with Byrne all day, sprinted around the Irishman and was taken down. For the first time in the match the home fans seemed pleased with the decision that Mr. Miller made. Sam Togwell shuffled to right-back.

To their immense credit, United dug deep. It took Ipswich a full five minutes to manufacture another attempt (five minutes during which United saw a fair deal of the ball), and when they did do it was poor. A deep cross was swung in, and despite standing unmarked in the area, David Norris nodded his header wide of the gaping target.

Duly, in the next passage of play, Scunthorpe were rewarded for their previous five minutes of valour. When Damien Delaney brought down Jonathan Forte, the numbers were levelled, as the referee brandished his card for the second time this afternoon, and United looked to be back on-track for a point. The tackle which drew the card was almost a carbon copy of Byrne's just minutes earlier - an eye for an eye.

Strangely enough, Scunthorpe's performance levels seemed to drop as a result. It took a saving interception from Michael Raynes five minutes from time to turn Carlos Edwards' particularly awkward cross away from danger, as Scunthorpe clung on into the ninety. Even so, a draw was seemingly imminent.

But the game had one last cruel twist. Josh Wright had been introduced to run the clock down just a little more when Connor Wickham grabbed the winner. The youngster showed maturity beyond his years to keep his cool, pick his spot and score when he seemed to have an eternity's worth of time inside the area.