Ipswich Town 0 Brentford 1 match report: Kevin Schade’s goal condemns Tractor Boys to record eighth straight Premier League defeat at Portman Road
Kevin Schade’s first-half header condemned Ipswich Town to a record eighth straight home defeat this afternoon with a 1-0 loss to Brentford at Portman Road.
The division’s best away side claimed their seventh win on the road in their last nine outings as the Blues remained with just one league victory on Suffolk soil this campaign.
Schade found the net from a succession of retaken corners, with Bryan Mbeumo’s delivery being expertly glanced on by the German for his 12th goal of the season.
That turned out to be the only goal of the game as Brentford’s push for a first ever taste of European football continued with three crucial points on their maiden top flight visit to Portman Road.
Tussling at set pieces is what the match will ultimately be remembered for, with no fewer than four incidents for referee Sam Barrott and VAR official Jarred Gillett to deal with.
Three confusing corners
Kieran McKenna warned in his pre-match press conference that Brentford were a threat from set pieces, and it took three in succession for the visitors to take the lead.
It turned out to be the same corner retaken twice after Jacob Greaves and Sepp van den Berg tussled, with VAR checking for a possible penalty against the Blues man.
The ball was deemed not to have been live, so the kick was subsequently taken again, where Jack Taylor and Christian Norgaard got involved in a similar fashion, which earned the pair a booking apiece.
Had the ball been in-play, Brentford would almost certainly have been awarded a spot kick.
With the corner kick still not taken by the time the second set of shenanigans occurred, the third attempt at the delivery was executed by the Bees and the deadlock was broken.
The Blues fans were incensed at the confusing nature of the decision, but the timing of the scuffles in relation to whether Mbeumo’s delivery had been taken proved crucial.
Brentford had scored 20 goals in five matches against the bottom three so far this season, so it seemed inevitable that one of the division’s most potent attacks would find the Portman Road net.
The VAR involvement did not stop in the first half, as a similar incident between Axel Tuanzebe and Nathan Collins at a long throw was checked during the second period, but the officials ultimately deemed it legal.
Bees inflict another sting
Town already had broken an unwanted record for consecutive home defeats and the history only grew further here as they marked their eighth home league game of the calendar year with yet another defeat.
In truth, the Blues never looked too threatening to get back in the game after falling behind until a sudden burst in the final 10 minutes.
Substitute George Hirst raced through after pouncing on a van den Berg mistake, then Omari Hutchinson forced Mark Flekken into a save at his near post with the crowd fully energised.
The resulting corner rolled agonisingly wide of the far post after making contact with a Brentford body in the box.
Perhaps the biggest moment of all came in stoppage time, as Hutchinson’s deep cross was met by the onrushing Cameron Burgess. Flekken making himself as big as he could prevented the Australian a first Premier League goal, with Hirst heading into his gloves moments later.
But the Bees could deem themselves unfortunate to not have led further prior to the late flurry, Mbeumo poking at Alex Palmer from Yoane Wissa’s pass through before the half-time interval which might have sealed the game as a contest.
The dynamic duo have been one of the Premier League’s great double acts with 18 goals each this term, but both will be disappointed not to leave Suffolk with another goal to their name.
Wissa and Schade forced another pair of good saves from Palmer, before the goalkeeper’s best moment was to deny Mbeumo after the Cameroon international cleanly struck a volley towards the Blues net.
Thomas Frank’s side held on to claim a fourth straight top flight victory for the first time since 1939, while Town have one more home match left this season before their return to the Championship.
Ipswich Town (4-2-3-1): Palmer; Greaves, Burgess, O’Shea, Tuanzebe (Johnson 85); Taylor (Cajuste 61), Morsy (c); Enciso, Chaplin (Clarke 56), Hutchinson; Delap (Hirst 61). Subs: Walton, Woolfenden, Luongo, Godfrey, Boniface.
Booked: Taylor, Hirst.
Brentford (4-2-3-1): Flekken; Lewis-Potter, van den Berg, Collins, Kayode; Yarmoliuk, Norgaard (c); Schade (Jensen 72), Damsgaard (Thiago 85), Mbeumo; Wissa (Konak 90). Subs: Valdimarsson, Henry, Pinnock, Mee, Maghoma, Nunes.
Booked: Norgaard, Wissa, Kayode, Yarmoliuk.
Referee: Sam Barrott (West Riding).
Attendance: 29,511 (2,953 Brentford).
Suffolk News Man of the Match – Omari Hutchinson: Deployed on the right of the attacking four, Hutchinson looked the most likely source to goal for Town on an afternoon where they offered little until the closing stages. Some of his left-footed crosses proved troubling, and had luck been on his side he could well have had a couple of assists to his name.
