Town CAN do this – but Ipswich never do things the easy way

Pre-match preamble

Middlesbrough, which I have often misspelled as Middlesborough, are nicknamed the Boro. I think I'll stick with that. The club was formed in 1876, is the 12th oldest football league club in England and Wales, and was one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992.

Everyone is nervously saying this game is a big one – I do hope this doesn't affect the psyche of the players; we need them to play with confidence. But I get where they're coming from – I'm certainly not feeling relaxed today…and it's only 6am. I think it's everyone's dread that our final position in the table will go to the wire. Staring at a must-win game on the last day of competition against QPR, for example, to earn the automatic spot (or the play-offs even). Well done to Coventry for getting the job done.

• I believe Boro will draw level on 75 points with Town if they win today (though it changes very quickly with games coming thick and fast)
• Town are unbeaten at home since October
• Boro are on a six-game winless run
• Past head-to-head encounters have seen Ipswich win 32, draw 17 and lose 24 games

So on paper all is looking good, but we know that means rock all on the pitch – it's a funny old game, but not funny ha ha.

I wonder if we will see Ed at the ground this year? To appear at a home game it will need to be today, or our last game (QPR). It's hard to believe the season is nearly over.

On the train

I made the journey in the company of Robert Newman – no, not the comedian, someone I met earlier in the season on the home run. We talked about football and comedians (and cabbages and kings). I think we were both too nervous to contemplate what we expected from the oncoming battle.

First half

The first half very much belonged to Ipswich, or so we thought.

Azon was lively and missed by a whisker twice, and a shot from Furlong was gathered by Brynn.

Very much against the run of play on 24 minutes, Browne found himself in space and teed up Strelec beautifully for an easy tuck away, which Walton stood no chance of reaching. It was their first shot at goal of the match thus far, but it was precise and neatly executed.

To everyone's relief, a few minutes later Town responded with a great goal of their own when Azon's clever, back-flicked pass saw McAteer send the ball low into the right-hand corner of the net. I was particularly impressed by the fact that, as a right-footed player, he netted it with his left, without any hesitation.

Town continued to dominate play.

Halftime: Town 1-1 Boro

Second half

The second half was a much more uneven affair, with Boro on the attack and Strelec busy again making life hard for Town, joined in his efforts by Sarmiento and Targett.

His cross to Brittain, knocked on to the waiting Conway, produced Boro's second goal of the match. Fortunately, Walton then had a purple patch and saved several shots that were goal bound to keep us in the match. Town seemed slow to push forward at times, but for the last 15 minutes they did up the tempo, spurred on by the crowd. With several close calls it felt frustratingly like it just wasn't going to fall for them, though another shot from Azon came very close but for Brynn's fingertips.

Then, in the 86th minute, Hirst was given a penalty for a pull that caused him to stumble right in front of the goal mouth. Up stepped Jack Clarke and, with seemingly not a care in the world, he sent the keeper the wrong way and evened up the score.

There were eight added minutes which became a mad scramble for both sides, but the score remained the same.

Fulltime: Ipswich Town 2-2 Middlesbrough

Men of the match

Ivan Azon – his clever back-flick to set up Kasey McAteer was inspired and he had several nearly goals. He never stops trying.

Jack Clarke's work rate is never in doubt for me, and the cool way he bangs in penalties is unerring, not unnerving.

Walton pulled out some wonderful saves as always.

It was good to see Egeli play in a more ranging way. I think he will be a very good player ultimately – he's fast, he's strong, he's talented, and hopefully he's ours.

Man of the match: Kasey McAteer. Great goal, great passing and non-stop chasing/defending too. He is fast becoming one of my favourite players. It is a growing list this year, I admit. Which reminds me – why no Cedric Kipre today?

Post-match pondering

It was strange to hear the Sarmiento "magic song" sung by the Boro fans, bringing back the memory of that incredible night when he slipped but still managed to push in the winning goal for us in the dying seconds at home to Southampton in April 2024. Anyone who was there that night will never forget the elation. It would be nice if you could bottle that feeling and imbibe a little whenever you needed a lift. One crazy night.

Interestingly, this match had shades of the reverse fixture in October for me. Slightly chaotic. We were awarded a penalty (which Hirst failed to convert) and their winning goal was an own goal by a devastated Kipre. Relieved we managed to draw this time!

On the train

I sat next to Adrian, a friendly Boro fan, on the train home. As a driver, he was very knowledgeable about East Anglia considering he lives up near Whitby. He didn't seem unhappy about the game, but he did ask me to honestly say whether I thought it was a penalty or not. I had to say I thought it was a soft one, but I didn't tell him I thought their first goal was offside. I also didn't say it felt a little like karma for us, balancing up some of the perceived "less easy" to swallow incidents we had experienced throughout the season. That would be absolutely no consolation to Boro at all.

A draw is not a win and three points, admittedly, but in this instance it was so much better than a loss, as that would have put Boro level with us in second place.

The general feeling amongst the fans is that we CAN do this…finish the season in second to gain automatic promotion, even though we are running out of games and we still have the resurgent Southampton to play, at St Mary's. But there is also a quiet undercurrent of fans saying they don't care if we don't go up, and in fact some profess they would prefer it. Whether this is real or just noise I suppose we cannot know until "the fat lady sings", as the saying goes. It's a tough one – I think of course we want to go up and play the big teams in the best league in the world. To attract world-class players and to play on the European stage. I know that's a wild leap at the moment, and the chasm is wide, but that's what dreams are made of, isn't it?

As for all sportsmen and women, if you don't have an aspiration and a goal to aim for (hypothetically and literally speaking) – why would you bother?

I'm not even going to think about the play-offs. That's called displacement therapy, I believe. Hah.

We CAN do this. But don't forget – Ipswich Town F.C. never does things the easy way.

Don't forget: If you enjoy our content, please add Ipswich.co.uk as a "preferred source" on Google so you can easily find more of the content you value.

This article is free for you to read thanks to the generous support of our partners. Please support us by supporting them.