Lynden Gooch struck twenty minutes into the second half to make sure Sunderland took a point against Ipswich Town at Portman Road in front of a decent crowd of over 24,000 in their SkyBet League One encounter.
This was the 11th anniversary of my beloved father’s passing, and with his Sunderland connections this was always going to be an emotional day for me, oh and a tense one too as always is the case with watching the Black Cats!!!
I was also spending it with one of my best mates too, who was an Ipswich fan, and also his sister’s boyfriend, who was also an Ipswich fan. And we also had tickets in the Bobby Robson upper, so in the heart of the Ipswich fans too, so this was going to be an interesting day. It was nice to spend it with such good company though.
Anyway, to the game and Ipswich had won their first game of the season last weekend at Burton Albion, whilst Sunderland had only managed to draw at home to Oxford United, a result which led to some fans calling for manager Jack Ross’s head. Both these sides will be under pressure this season for sure to gain promotion back to the Championship you feel, although I reckon Sunderland will be under the most pressure after failure to gain it last season.
Roared on by a vocal home crowd it has to be said, the hosts got off to a dream start on the quarter hour mark when Danny Rowe’s touch found Luke Garbutt who managed to finish from an acute angle into the far corner and send the home fans into raptures (yes I did stand up and applaud the goal, to be fair it was a good finish).
If the atmosphere wasn’t already good, it had gone up several notches now, and Ipswich were playing with confidence and almost doubled their lead when Garbutt saw his effort saved by Jon McLaughlin eight minutes before the break, although a blow for the hosts then came when Garbutt had to come off injured shortly after.
Ipswich had further chances to extend their lead before the break, firstly when Cole Skuse saw an effort cleared off the line, and then secondly when James Norwood hooked a volley wide of the Sunderland goal. But the hosts had dominated the first period and deservedly went into the break ahead.
Half Time Ipswich Town 1 Sunderland 0
After some frank discussion’s in the away dressing room at half time Sunderland did improve in the second period, having a lot more of the ball, however for the opening fifteen minutes of the half they weren’t really creating anything as Ipswich looked fairly comfortable with the 1-0 lead, and I turned to my mates and said ‘next goal’s crucial’ although the visitors just did not look like scoring.
That was until the 64th minute when they were gifted an equaliser by the hosts, as a ball behind Luke Chambers, the Ipswich centre half who had been having a good game up till this point, and Sunderland attacker Marc McNulty, saw the defender attempt to let the ball run out for a goal-kick.
But McNulty managed to get around the defender a nick the ball off him and suddenly he was into the penalty area with the keeper to beat, albeit from an acute angle. But intelligently he rolled the ball across the box into the path of the incoming Gooch who duly side footed home and send the almost 2,000 away fans (and me inside at least!!) wild with delight.
It was such a poor goal to give away from the hosts, sadly their downfall in last season’s relegation from the Championship, and from being in control of this contest they now had a Sunderland side with their tails well and truly up, and for the next five or ten minutes you felt the Black Cats could maybe go on and grab an unexpected lead.
This didn’t materialise though and Ipswich soon began to grab back the initiative and try and force a winner, but the Sunderland defence held firm to keep the men in blue out. The closest the hosts came to finding a winner was in stoppage time when substitute Alan Judge saw a shot saved by McLaughlin. It meant the game ended a draw, meaning both sides remain unbeaten after their two league games so far.
Ipswich will be annoyed at not winning that game after conceding such a poor goal, whilst the Black Cats should be delighted that they managed to take a point from this. Draws though are what cost them promotion last season so having drawn their first two it seems this ‘draw specialists’ tag hasn’t gone away just yet.
I feel Ipswich will be a force in this league this season, and Sunderland hopefully will follow suit. The return game is on February 8th, my dad’s birthday, so me and the step mum will be travelling up to the north east for that one, and if both sides have the season’s they should, then that could be a pretty big game!!!
Full Time Ipswich Town 1 Sunderland 1
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