Ipswich Town 1 -0 Hull City

By: Craig | May 4th, 2008

Good, But Not Good Enought

Town kept their part of the bargain for a play-off place after earning a deserved three points over promotion hopefuls Hull City this afternoon thanks to an Alan Lee header, but as expected; results went against us, meaning it’ll be the Championship again for another season.

For a side battling for an automatic place, Hull rarely threatened the Ipswich goal and the tone was set after just two minutes when returning hero Shefki Kuqi had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside.

What followed was a series of spurned chances for Town that should have had this game wrapped up before half time. Town pushed forward throughout with extreme confidence, passing the ball briskly and neatly in a manner that would have a neutral scratching their head as to why it wasn’t Ipswich who were pushing for the top two this afternoon.

Referee Andre Marriner wisely allowed play to go following an awful foul by ex-Blue Wayne Brown, which led to Tommy Miller smacking the post after 19 minutes. Moments later, some excellent work inside the 18 yard box from Counago set up Alan Quinn beautifully for him to shoot wide, before the former Sheffield United midfielder saw another effort almost skim the crossbar.

Hull came out looking more enthusiastic at the start of the second half, but were quickly surpressed by Town, who continued their unrelenting assault on the Tigers’ goal.

Counago wasted a chance from just 10 yards out following a superb Owen Garvan pass, before Quinn wasted a further two efforts. When a last ditch Andy Dawson tackle denied a golden Counago opportunity five minutes later, it felt as though Town would never find their deserved breakthrough.

Enter substitute Alan Lee who replaced the wasteful Quinn. With twenty minutes remaining, the Irish international delicately headed to Jon Walters to the left of the goal, who crossed the ball back in for Lee to head the ball into the back of the Hull net.

Other than a long range Marney effort in the final 20 minutes, Town held their 1-0 lead with great comfort.

With Wolves bagging a winner late on, Palace thrashing Burnley and ten man Watford equalising around the time of Lee’s winner, the final whistle was met with muted cheers, with players, staff and fans finding it hard to hide the disappointment of missing out on the play-offs.

Town finish the season as the best home team in the league, with four of the top six defeated at Portman Road, but it is our dreadful away form that has denied us promotion. If Town had managed the away form of Leicester who were relegated today, we would have finished third. If we’d replicated the away form of contemporaries outside the play-offs such as Wolves and Sheffield United, Ipswich Town would be a Premiership side. However, we can all go into the 2008-09 with supreme confidence compared to this time last year. An exciting summer of transfers awaits.