In the end we had to be happy with a draw, after a game when Ipswich Town had most of the better chances.

A month or so ago I was hoping that the Ipswich board would ignore the Town fans calling for Mick McCarthy’s head, at least until this match had taken place, as he seemed to be doing a grand job of letting them slip down the table. But I was feeling a lot less confident by the time Saturday came around, after Ipswich’s mini-revival of the last few weeks.

By all accounts their main man in their good spell has been Toumani Diagouraga, the man written off by Garry Monk after only one game, but he was unable to play in this match against his ‘parent club’. Ipswich were also missing their leading scorer Tom Lawrence, in his case due to suspension.

As far as our line-up was concerned, Garry Monk made one chance to the starting line-up, with Dallas coming in for Roofe. Bridcutt was available again after his one match ban, but was surprisingly left on the bench. And even more off-putting was our kit, as we took to the field in a rather bizarre combination of yellow shirts and white shorts. I’ve always preferred the classic all yellow as our away strip.

We made a bright start, but the hosts were able to take advantage of some slack defending to take the lead in the ninth minute. After Hernandez lost possession in midfield, Huws was able to run past three players before finding Ward with a good ball out to the right. As the cross came in, Sears was able to get in front of Ayling to shoot past Green from six yards.

After that Leeds struggled to get back into the game, and Wood was being well shackled by the Ipswich defence. According to a Town fan I met in a bar after the game, this was all due to Wood’s loan spell at Ipswich, with Berra knowing his game inside out and able to predict his every move. Though the lone striker formation didn’t help, with no one else getting forward to support Wood.

And Sacko would later take to Twitter to criticise the pitch, which was rather cut up down the centre, perhaps trying to suggest that it suited the side with the more agricultural background. Whatever the reason, there was little cohesion from Leeds, with too many attacks breaking down as passes went astray.

Ipswich were looking more likely to get the next goal, and we needed a quick intervention from Vieira to deflect a close range shot from Knudsen over the bar. And they almost scored direct from the resulting corner, with Green having to be alert to tip the ball over. How bad would things have been if Ipswich hadn’t been missing two key players?

So our 42nd minute equaliser came as something of a surprise. For once Sacko delivered a decent cross from the right, Wood got a flick on, and Dallas was able to sneak in at the far post to guide the ball home. During the break Monk replaced Vieira with Bridcutt, though I would have removed O’Kane, who had looked a bit lightweight and as guilty as anyone else of wasting possession.

But Ipswich continued to carve out the better opportunities, most of which involved McGoldrick. First he hit the bar following a corner, and thankfully Green was in position to save from the rebound once the ball had come down to Berra. Then Bru put a dangerous ball across the Leeds six yard box, but McGoldrick just failed to get the touch he needed beyond the far post.

And McGoldrick started and finished their best move of the game, but when the return pass came from Sears, Green made a fine save to prevent his fierce drive reaching the corner of the net. A fitting repost by Green to the North Stand behind him, who booed him for having dared to start his career at Norwich, adding a few chants of “USA” to remind him of his error in the World Cup before last.

Ipswich began to tire as we moved into the last 15 minutes, and started to sit rather deep for a home side. Barrow came on for Sacko, and his first good run was rudely interrupted as Knusden pulled him to the floor, earning the Ipswich man the only booking of the game. I started to hope that with the possession we were enjoying late on we might be able to pinch the game, but it we never came close to creating another decent chance.

Our final substitution saw Doukara replacing Wood, which suggested that Monk was happy to settle for a draw rather than going for it with a second striker. So it all fizzled out, before the referee put us out of our misery with the final whistle. All in all a rather poor Leeds performance, but the damage was limited by Norwich’s defeat at Burton Albion.

So for now we remain securely in the top six, but you can’t help thinking that we need to improve on our form of the last few weeks.

Photo: Action Images

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