Ipswich have been back in the big time long enough now to appreciate just how fine the margins that decide games at this level can be.
There has been plenty to like about them from what we have seen so far. The fearlessness and intensity with which they play is infectious. Liam Delap has shown he’s got an eye for a goal too.
But at some stage, the results are going to have to follow. And if they make mistakes like they did on Saturday afternoon in defeat to Everton, Ipswich will be giving themselves a mountain to climb.
This was an Everton team, remember, who hadn’t won away from home in the league in 2024. A side so depleted that Sean Dyche had to stick two goalkeepers and three right backs on the bench. These are games, especially at Portman Road, Ipswich should be hoping to take advantage of. Instead it was Everton who profited from their mistakes.
All Wes Burns needed to do when the ball dropped at his feet inside his own box was to thump it upfield. Anywhere would have done. Instead, he delayed for so long that Iliman Ndiaye snatched possession from him and slammed the ball past goalkeeper Arijanet Muric.
An opportunity to get back into the game was then snatched away when VAR overturned Michael Oliver’s decision to award Ipswich a penalty. And shortly after, the hosts shot themselves in the foot again to all but put the game out of sight before half-time.
Dwight McNeil ghosted his way past four blue shirts before threading the ball through defender Michael Keane. It was a tight angle. Not one you’d back a defender from. But Keane produced a finish Erling Haaland would be proud of, firing the ball past Muric at his near post and into the roof of the net.
How different the entire afternoon could have been, though, had Jack Clarke seized his opportunity soon moments after the action finally commenced following a 15-minute delay to kick-off owing to IT issues at the turnstiles.
The hosts picked their way brilliantly through Everton’s press, showing off that fearless football, and Omari Hutchinson released Burns down the right. The Welshman had the awareness to spot that Clarke had delayed his run at the far post and found the former Sunderland man. But the ball clipped Clarke’s standing leg on the way through to his right foot, knocking his radar out of kilter. So much so that Clarke’s effort ballooned high and wide over Jordan Pickford’s goal.
Kalvin Phillips then had his goalkeeper to thank after Muric denied Dominic Calvert-Lewin with his legs after Phillips gifted the ball away inside his own half.
Up the other end, it looked as though Clarke’s dancing feet had made amends for his glaring miss after he won his side a penalty. A lengthy VAR check, however, deemed Clarke had kicked McNeil – rather than the other way around – and so referee Michael Oliver reversed his decision. To rub salt into the wounds, the afternoon got worse for the hosts before the break.
This time it was a short corner that proved their undoing. Sam Morsy’s clearance landed at the feet of McNeil and he glided past four Ipswich defenders before laying on Keane, who finished with aplomb.
Calvert-Lewin almost added a third late on but by then Ipswich had already paid a very heavy price.
