A late Luke Chambers strike denies Rovers at Portman Road
Saturday, 12th April 2014 at Portman, Road, Ipswich
Skybet League Championship
Ipswich Town 2 Doncaster Rovers 1
Referee – Mr Graham Scott
Attendance – 19,496 (398 visitors)
Fine, warm weather welcomed Rovers in Suffolk at Portman Road.
Ipswich are battling to get into the Play-Off positions whilst Rovers, following two successive home defeats, need points to enhance the gap between them and the bottom three.
For the Rovers, Gabriel Tamas, in a face-mask, replaced the injured Lucas Neill at right back and Dean Furman started the game in place of Richie Wellens, who has a foot injury.
The match kicked off at seven minutes past three and a perfectly observed minute’s silence was held in commemoration of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough Disaster twenty five years ago.
Rovers kicked off and won a corner in the second minute when a Cotterill free kick was headed down by Brown at the far post for Sharp but it was put out by a defender,
It was seven minutes before the home team got going, with a free kick on their left going across the face of goal without any of the four waiting Ipswich players getting a touch to it.
Minutes later and Anderson put high and wide from 25yards following good work by Hunt.
Then Mings hit a low fierce drive from the home left that had Johnstone diving to his left to push away for his defenders to clear.
A free kick to Ipswich in the 16th minute on their left was squared to Anderson on the right but he swept it high and wide from 20yards.
Then three minutes later Anderson went down the home right to the byline before hitting a low cross into the si-yard box where Hunt put it wide from four yards.
The Rovers hit back to win successive corners but nothing came from them.
Then a low cross from Husband on the Rovers left had Brown battling it out with two defenders in the six yard box. They all fell down but Brown managed to lift the ball into the goalkeeper’s hands,
On the half hour Chambers chipped to the six-yard line where Skuse headed over the bar.
Successive corners to the home team came to nothing.
Then, a corner to the Rovers in the 35th minute was placed by Cotterill to the far post where Tamas got in a good header, which was going in until Gerken got to it and beat it out for another corner.
Successive corners for the Rovers followed but nothing came from them.
As time ran down a cross from Mings, on the home left, was headed wide by Murphy from a good central position.
A free kick on the stroke of half time to Ipswich was placed into the middle of the penalty area where Smith, running in, got a glancing header to it. It was going just inside the far post but Johnstone, diving full length to his right, pushed it away.
Half Time – Ipswich Town 0 Doncaster Rovers 0
Ipswich made a double substitution at the start of the second half.
From the kick off the home team attacked. A cross from the left by Mings caused problems for Rovers and MURPHY headed into an empty net.
Ipswich continued to press but only won three corners before the hour.
Rovers then got into the game and won a corner but Meite put wide of the near post.
The second half, after the goal, was mostly made up of corner kicks as far as goalmouth incident was concerned, with the home team winning 5-2 on that score by the 70th minute.
Rovers brought Duffy on for Furman and then husband had to be substituted in the 78minute when he suffered a hamstring problem after taking a free kick.
In the 81 minute Duffy was brought down by Williams in the penalty area, with the referee instantly pointing to the penalty spot.
BROWN took the kick and put the ball into the bottom corner, with Gerken going the wrong way.
Then, in the 84th minute, as Tamas lay injured, the referee allowed play to go on. Ipswich put the ball out to the right where Chambers came in and fired across Johnstone into the far bottom corner of the net.
Cotterill, for Rovers, got in a good cross from the right to the far post where Keegan headed just wide.
Into added time and Duffy came in from the left and rifled a low shot to the near post but Gerken got to it and pushed it away.
Result – Ipswich Town 2 (Murphy 46Chambers84)Doncaster Rovers 1 (Brown pen 81)
Teams – Ipswich Town – Dean Gerken; Luke Chambers ©, Tommy Smith, Christophe Berra, Cole Skuse, Daryl Murphy, Paul Anderson, Stephen Hunt, Tyrone Mings, Luke Hyam, Jonny Williams
Subs used – Frank Nouble for Hunt 46 mins; Sylvan Ebanks-Blake for Anderson 46 mins; Frazer Richardson for Williams 90+4 mins;
Subs not used – Anthony Wordsworth, Paul Green, Jay Tabb, Scott Loach gk
Cautions – Berra 38 mins;
Doncaster Rovers – Sam Johnstone; Gabriel Tamas, Paul Quinn, Abdoulaye Meite, James Husband; James Coppinger, Paul Keegan ©, Dean Furman, David Cotterill; Chris Brown, Billy Sharp
Subs used – Mark Duffy for Furman75 mins; Enda Stevens for Husband 78 mins; Theo Robinson for Meite 89 mins;
Subs not used – Luke McCulloch, Marc De Val, Harry Middleton, Jon Maxted gk
Cautions – Brown 14 mins; Sharp 15 mins; Meite 42 mins;