Liam Delap at the double as Ipswich Town hold Aston Villa to 2-2 draw at Portman Road to extend unbeaten Premier League run
If there were any doubts Kieran McKenna’s side – off the back of successive promotions – are good enough to be in the Premier League, this 2-2 draw with Champions League outfit Aston Villa certainly spoke volumes.
It was far from the backs-to-the-wall display that had seen them ride their luck at Brighton nor the up-and-down display at Southampton’s St Marys where a late moment of magic from the skipper earned another point on the road.
Yes, the home game with Fulham, after a promising first half display against Liverpool quickly evaporated after Arne Slot’s side turned up the quality, had showed much promise for the rest of the campaign.
But this battling, entertaining 90 minutes of going toe-to-toe with a side who had won four of their opening five matches and got off the mark in the Champions League, was the one that really announced Ipswich Town as a bone fide Premier League outfit who mean business. Other teams will underestimate McKenna’s side at their peril.
On this pleasant but atumnal-feeling Sunday, Liam Delap opened the scoring in the eighth minute, meeting Jack Clarke’s low cut-back cross well at the near-post before Morgan Rogers levelled following a horribly misplaced clearance by Jacob Greaves on the quarter-of-an-hour mark.
Unai Emery’s side then got their noses in front just after the half-hour mark when England international Ollie Watkins nodded home a truly sumptuous cross from Leon Bailey.
Kalvin Phillips, one of three changes to McKena’s side after returning from a thigh injury, went mightily close to drawing Town level with a thumping half volley that Emiliano Martinez turned away before he also denied Delap with an outstretched foot in an entertaining 45 minutes.
The second period, while not containing as many clear-cut chances, saw an enthralling contest play out with Town pinning back Villa at both ends of it, with Delap angled finish drawing them level on 72 to lift the roof off Portman Road.
But neither side could find a late winner in a contest that the revered Dalian Atkinson, who represented both teams and appeared on the programme in a local artist’s half-and-half imagined kit alongside the pun on the famous boxing match with the words ‘the thriler with the Villa’, would surely have hugely enjoyed.
Club history also preceded the game with a thunderous minute’s applause for former long-serving Blues secretary David Rose (1975-2004) and later honorary vice president, who died at the age of 81 earlier this month, held ahead of kick-off.
The visitors had pinned the Blues inside their own half in the early stages, with Youri Tielemans firing over the crossbar from range, but it was McKenna’s side who took the lead in the eighth minute to the delight of another sellout home crowd.
Sam Morsy had a shot blocked in the area with the ball eventually worked back into the box via a cute flicked pass from Phillips finding Clarke down the left edge before Delap managed to turn his low cut-back cross in past Emiliano Martinez at his near post, despite the Argentina World Cup winner getting a hand to it.
There was a further minute’s applause which broke out around Portman Road as the clock ticked over 13 minutes for teenage crash victim Taylen Ireton, a Town fan who played for Wivenhoe Town Under-14s and died in the collision with a car in Colchester last weekend.
Villa got themselves on level terms in the 14th minute following a poor passage of defending from the hosts’ perspective.
Jacob Ramsey beat Tuanzebe down the left wing, before Greaves – the former Hull City man who has had such an impressive start to life at Portman Road – picked up the ball on the byline but saw his attempted clearance go straight to Rogers in the centre of the box. The England under-21s player exchanged passes smartly with senior international Watkins before firing the ball into the bottom left corner, with Muric diving the wrong way.
Looking for a quick response, Tuanzebe saw a header from a Leif Davis free kick land on the roof of the net against his former club before from a Davis cross soon after saw Clarke head over on the run at the near post. It was a real chance that the former Sunderland man probably should have at least hit the target with.
Town were soon forced back again but their next defensive lapse proved costly once again, as they fell 2-1 behind, for the first time, in the 32nd minute.
Villa moved the ball well in search of an opening before Bailey was fed down the right and he whipped in a sumptuous cross behind Davis which placed the ball perfectly for Watkins, who got inbetween Dara O’Shea and Tuanzebe in the six-yard box to nod it into the net, Muric having found it just out of his reach as its perfect heigh bypassed the Kosovo international.
Up the other end, Town went within a good save of going level again four minutes later when a free kick was headed out only as far as Phillips on the fringe of the area before the Manchester City loanee hit a wonderful half volley that thundered towards goal before Martinez managed to spring to his left to turn round his post. In any other level before the Premier League you feel that would have not been kept out.
Martinez then showed his quality again to rescue his side, turning away Delap’s attempt to squeeze the ball in at the near post, after being put clear by a great Davis throughball, with an outstretched foot at the expense of a corner.
During the second of four added minutes referee Stuart Atwell reached for his pocket for the first time following a Morsy pull back with Delap quickly also having his name taken for contesting it.
The second half got under way with Luca Digne being Villa’s first player to have his name taken, having kicked the ball away to prevent a quick free kick.
The game began to get bogged down with appeals for cards with Tuanzebebe the next to be shown yellow for tripping Tielemans on a breakaway.
Muric drew applause after flying off his line to head a long pass clear while at the other end Morsy fired a low shot wide from outside the box after the referee rightly waved away the crowd’s calls for a handball from Tuanzebe’s header.
With Town having enjoyed more control of the second half, Emery made a double substitution in the 64th minute with Jhon Duran and Town target Jaden Philogene replacing Rogers and Bailey.
After Davis screwed a shot wide after more good work from Clarke, McKenna introduced his first two subs with Jack Taylor coming on in place of Phillips while Chiedozie Ogebene was replaced by Burns with 21 minutes remaining.
And three minutes later they were celebrating the equaliser when Town turned defence into attack to devastating effect. Hutchinson's throghball found Delap in space down the left-hand side and he drove towards the box before turning Diego Carlos inside out before firing a low left-footed shot across goal to beat Martinez for the second time.
Town were suddenly flying to the beat of the home crowd’s roars of encouragement with Tuanzebe throwing himself at a Davis cross that was deflected out for a corner that saw Hutchinson pick up the second phase, firing over the bar from 25 yards out.
A breakaway move saw Clarke feed Burns on the right edge of the box but the Welshman’s first-time shot was deflected out for another corner as the Blues continued to press to go back in front.
Emery made a triple change that saw former Norwich midfielder Emiliano Buendia receive the expected reception from the home crowd who then cheered his first touch, a miss-measured chipped free kick from the edge of the box that went comfortably over.
Another of the subs, Ross Barkley, had a go from range with Muric beating away his effort before Davis swept up the loose ball as the visitors’ push for a late winner increased.
Greaves made a vital sliding challenge in the box to hook the ball away from the toes of super-sub specialist Duran.
Delap, who had been left sprawled on the floor as play went on, got a standing ovation as he was replaced by George Hirst, while Clarke and captain Morsy, who had done well not got let his frustrations with the referee’s inconsistencies boil over, were also roundly applauded as Szmodics and Luongo entered the action.
Five added minutes were signalled with the Blues the ones pressing for the winner as Taylor’s well-struck shot was held by Martinez while Luongo headed back in another last-gasp corner only for the offside flag to be raised against Szmodics as Martinez saved at his feet.
The final whistle was greeted as if claiming a victory by the home fans and McKenna himself, and really, in some ways, it was.
While it left Villa in fifth, ahead of hosting Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday, it saw Town rise out of the bottom three to 15th, now with four points from their opening six matches.
A first win may still have eluded the Suffolk side but this was a point that felt like a victory for the belief that this is the level that they can feel they belong.
One more game comes before the next international break, away to a Julen Lopetegui West Ham United side on Saturday (3pm) who have got that first victory on the board but only sit one place and one point above Town in the early table.
Ipswich Town: Muric, Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Greaves, Davis, Morsy (cpt) (Luongo 90+1’), Phillips (Taylor 69’), Ogbene (Burns 69’), Hutchinson, Clarke (Szmodics 90+1’), Delap (Hirst 90+1’).
Unused subs: Walton (gk), Johnson, Townsend, Chaplin.
Booked: Morsy (45+2), Delap (45+2), Tuanzebe (54’), Greaves (74’).
Aston Villa: Martinez, Konsa, Diego Carlos, Torres, Digne (Mattsen 84’), Tielemans (Barkley 84’), Onana, Ramsey, Rogers (Duran 64’), Bailey (Philogene 64’), Watkins (Buendia 84’).
Unused subs: Gauci (gk), Nedeljkovic, Bogarde, Swinkels.
Booked: Digne (46’)
Attendance: 29,943 (2,983 away)
SuffolkNews Man of the Match: Liam Delap. You couldn’t look past this man for the ward. Not only did he take his goals well but he ran himself into the ground for the course once again and showed his technique on many occasions with neat measured touches and smart hold-up play.
