Ipswich Town 3-1 Cardiff City: Report
By Aston
August 21 2004
Ipswich Town racked up their 700th league victory at Portman road today, beating Cardiff City 3-1, with Darren Bent, Tommy Miller and Ian Westlake getting the goals.
Cardiff Report
Ipswich Town racked up their 700th league victory at Portman road today, beating Cardiff City 3-1, with Darren Bent, Tommy Miller and Ian Westlake getting the goals.
The week of adverse weather had not taken its toll on the Portman Road pitch as it continued to look great in the late august sunshine while Alan Ferguson and his grounds team were presented with their best pitch award for last season.
Niceties aside they was a football match to be played and it was played well in front of nearly 22,000 fans. Nothing less than a win would do for town boss Joe Royle after last weeks 3-2 at Derby County’s pride park and winning seemed like a realistic target Darren Bent went close after 13 minutes after using his pace to elude Tony Vidmar although Tony Warner did manage to stop the shot, using his feet.
Only eight minutes later and Darren did give Town a 1-0 lead, his effort going under Tony Warner, who making his debut for Cardiff.
Cardiff didn’t provide many real threats on goal in the opening 45 but did threaten the health of Richard Naylor who may of suffered a broken nose after colliding with a Cardiff player and Kevin Horlock had to leave the field for treatment on a cut on his face, both players also had to change shirts inline with a new FA rule.
Drissa Diallo was the first player of the afternoon to find himself in the referee’s book for a mis-timed foul on John Robinson in the 25th minute. Ten minutes later Ian Westlake found him self booked as well for a foul of Cardiff city captain Graham Kavanagh.
Dean Bowditch could of extended Town’s lead just before the end of the first half, his effort going wide. Leaving town 1-0 up with Cardiff yet to have a shot on target.
The other side of the break town again nearly doubled their lead just a minute into the second half, Kevin Horlock’s corner being headed towards goal by Jason De Vos for Tony Warner to parry allowing Richard Naylor to head over.
Cardiff found them selves on level terms in the 55th minute, Alan Lee latching on to Naylor’s back pass and firing the ball into the top of the net.
Pablo Couñago got his 30 minute run out after Replacing Shefki Kuqi, Couñago was an integral part of town’s second goal it was his pass that allowed Dean Bowditch to cross to Tommy Miller who placed the ball into the top left hand corner of the goal.
Couñago and Bent caused the Cardiff defence a lot of problems for the remaining 25 minutes, supporting each other well in the 80th minute when Pablo fired the ball well over the bar with the goal mouth unguarded.
Pablo was again denied a goal, this time only by the finger tips of Tony Warner, who got enough on Pablo’s chip to divert it off target.
Ian Westlake wrapped up all three points with Town’s third goal of the after noon in the 85th minute, sending Darren Bent’s pass in off the far post.
Ipswich Town squad: Scott Barron, Darren Bent, Dean Bowditch, Pablo Couñago, Kelvin Davis, Jason De Vos, Drissa Diallo, Tony Dinning, Shefki Kuqi, Kevin Horlock, Jim Magilton, Tommy Miller, Richard Naylor, Lewis Price, Matt Richards, Ian Westlake, Fabian Wilnis.
Cardiff City Squad: Warner, Gabbidon, Collins, Page, Vidmar, McAnuff, Kavanagh, Langley, Robinson, Earnshaw, Lee, Campbell, Bullock, Parry, Weston, Margetson.
| Ipswich Town 3 | Cardiff City 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow cards | Daillo,Lee | |
| Red Cards | None | None |
| Goals | Bent(21), Miller (67), Westlake (87) |
Lee (55) |
| Substitutions | Couñago on for Kuqi (63) Dinning on for Bowditch (75) |
Parry and Campbell on for McAnuff and Earnshaw (75) Weston on for Gabbidon |
| Attendance: 21,828 |
Talk about Town on our message board.