Swansea 1-4 Ipswich: Ipswich Flip The Switch
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The Tractor Boys have finally slept off their relegation headache and are back firing on all cylinders. Another emphatic win this weekend in Wales has edged them that bit closer to a Premier League return at the first time of asking.
Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich came into the season as heavy favourites for the title, and it’s clear to see why. Despite having the usual exodus of star players that you expect when a side is relegated, they kept hold of the strong core of their team and reinvested smartly, utilising the loan market to patch any perceived holes in the squad with some top talent for this level. It was a surprise when they started the season in stuttering form. They didn’t taste victory for four games before winning the lottery by playing Sheffield United when they still had Ruben Selles at the helm. They beat them 5-0 and many thought that would be the moment they kick on and start to shoot up the table, and they sort of have. Losses at Middlesbrough and at home to Charlton have dampened spirits slightly, but they’re now on a run of 3 wins and a draw in their last 4 outings and looking much better value for those victories than they had previously. After back-to-back 4-1 wins on the road, is there anyone that can stand in between Ipswich and promotion?
One man who struggled in his first season in blue was winger Jack Clarke. He joined Ipswich from Sunderland for a substantial fee after impressing for the Black Cats in the Championship to help keep his new side in the top tier, he found it hard to adapt to the new level and failed to score in the Premier League as they were relegated. So far this season, however, he has six goals in fourteen league games and looks like the player we all knew he could be at Sunderland. The latest edition to his collection was one of his best yet. He latched on to a loose ball in the middle of the park, held off his man and whipped his shot across goal into the bottom corner from 25 yards to give Ipswich the lead after a cagey opening half an hour.
Swansea City are an interesting team. On the surface, it seems like they’re doing fine. Maybe a little disappointing, but they’re seven points clear of the bottom three and only eight off the play-offs down in 18th position. Their only four wins of the season, however, have come against the abysmal bottom three and Blackburn, who sit a place below the Swans in 19th. Their inability to eek out a result against the better, or even mid-table, teams could come back to bite them as the season progresses. You can only play the rubbish teams twice, and if they slip up against one or two of those they could find themselves tied up in a relegation battle come the latter stages of the campaign. Since their relegation from the Premier League in 2018, the Swans have finished in the play-offs twice and missed out by a few points on most other occasions. At their worst, they have found themselves marooned in mid-table with nothing to play for in the final weeks of the season. Never have they faced the prospect of a drop to the third tier for the first time since 2008, a relegation that would be particularly bitter if Cardiff leapfrog them back into the Championship. With their squad, they should be fine, but Alan Sheehan needs to get his side firing against better teams if they’re to avoid being dragged into a fight at the bottom. Their equaliser came against the run of play just after the half-time break. Left-back Josh Tymon put in a dangerous cross from the near the corner flag and caught the Ipswich defence napping as Goncalo Franco waltzed into the area unchallenged and had all the time in the world to calmly slot the ball beyond Christian Walton in the Ipswich goal. If they want to seriously challenge at the sharp end of the league, they’ll need to defend better than that. Not everyone will let you score four goals to make up for your lax marking.
Cameron Burgess left Ipswich after four seasons, two brilliant promotions and 127 appearances in summer. He joined Swansea on the expiry of his contract to keep playing regular football at Championship level, a great signing for the Welsh side. Across his Ipswich career the centre-half managed five goals, he upped that tally to seven today as he turned two into his own net to gift the points to his former side.
The first was unfortunate, Leif Davis was given the freedom of the pitch down the left-hand side as nobody in white opted to track his run. He burst into the box and shot towards the bottom corner, Burgess threw his body on the line to try and block the attempt at goal and ended up wrong-footing his own ‘keeper and diverting the ball into the opposite corner. Lead restored for Ipswich.
In between the own goals, Christian Walton made a fantastic save to deny Swans defender Ben Cabango, turning his close-range header onto the post with an acrobatic dive. Swansea goalie Lawrence Vigouroux tried to equal his opposite number, using his great reflexes to stop Dara O’Shea’s header from a corner but only diverting the ball into the path of Iván Azon. The Spaniard headed the ball in from a yard out to open his account for Ipswich after he joined on loan from Como in summer. I’m sure living in East Anglia is practically identical to Lake Como this time of year. At 3-1, any dregs of hope the home fans had of a comeback had been washed away.
To top off the day, Cameron Burgess completed a brace, and this one was less excusable than the last. Ipswich again came flying down their left-hand side unchallenged. Jens Cajuste had plenty of time to pick out his cross, whipping the ball across the face of goal with a late-arriving Marcelino Nunez the target at the back post. Before the ball could reach the Ipswich man, however, Burgess stuck a leg out and dinked it perfectly beyond his ‘keeper into the bottom corner. 4-1. A great day out for the Ipswich fans, a horrid day to be Cameron Burgess.
Ipswich ran out deserved winners, though the scoreline probably flattered them slightly. With their disparity between the level of the players Ipswich have in comparison to the rest of the league, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them turn up and play relatively average and still turn teams over with brute force. It’ll be tough to stop their rise, if they win their game in hand they’ll move up to fourth, three points off the automatic spots, without even playing that well. If everything starts to click and they get into full flow, Coventry will be peering over their shoulders in fear.
Swansea need to turn it around to avoid an unnecessary and unwanted relegation battle. The fact they haven’t been down there before is concerning, should they be pulled into a scrap at the bottom you worry that they haven’t got the know-how and experience to dig themselves out of that mess. For their sakes they’ll hope that the teams below them continue to perform as badly as they have been to keep a healthy gap between them and the relegation zone.
After this weekend, both of these sides will have eyes on different ends of the table. Will the Swans quack under the pressure? And are Ipswich stuck in a tractor beam dragging them straight to the Premier League?