Loan ranger Hutch delivers late blow to promotion rivals
OMARI HUTCHINSON’S late Ipswich leveller was a double heartbreak for promotion rivals West Brom.
The visitors twice went ahead through Tom Fellows and John Swift but could not hold out for the points.
And Carlos Corberan’s side are also hoping an injury to Daryl Dike is not another career-halter for the American.
Dike, five games into his comeback from an eightmonth lay-off caused by a ruptured Achilles, lasted only 10 minutes as a second-half sub.
Corberan said: “The injury is to the left foot, the same place as his Achilles injury.
“We don’t know if it is as serious as the previous injury.
“You can imagine how he feels.”
Fellows fired Albion into an 18th-minute lead after Andreas Weimann sent him sprinting away from inside his own half.
The winger got the better of Luke Woolfenden and Tom Clarke before beating keeper Vaclav Hladky at his near post.
Nathan Broadhead levelled less than a minute into the second half, slotting across keeper Alex Palmer from close range after George Edmundson had headed down.
The ball appeared to have hit Edmundson’s hand before his head but the goal stood.
Not so when Weimann converted a nod on from
Broadhead 46, Hutchinson 90
Fellows 18, Swift 76
Dike at the other end as the striker bizarrely opted to use hand instead of head and was booked.
Then came Dike’s sad moment which saw him hide his tears in his shirt before he was taken away on a golf buggy.
Swift replaced him and smashed a 25-yard drive beyond Hladky to make it 2-1 – but the Tractor Boys would not be denied. Chelsea loanee Hutchinson seized on to a deflected drive from skipper Sam Morsy in the third minute of stoppagetime and thumped a shot through a crowd of Albion players.
A point apiece meant Ipswich stayed in fourth, with the Baggies just a place below.
Ipswich manager Kieran Mckenna said: “I thought we deserved three points to be honest.”
IPSWICH: Hladky 6; Clarke 6, Woolfenden 6, Edmundson 7, Davis 6 (Humphreys (90) 5); Morsy 8, Luongo 7 (Al-hamadi (83) 3); Burns 6 (Hutchinson (74) 6), Chaplin 7 (Harness (74) 4), Broadhead 7 (Sarmiento (83) 3); Moore 6 WEST BROM: Palmer 7; Furlong 6, Kipre 7, Bartley 6 (Chalobah (46) 5), Townsend 7; Yokuslu 7, Mowatt 6; Wallace 7, Weimann 7 (Gordon (83) 3), Fellows 7 (Johnston (56) 5); Thomas-asante 5 ((Dike (56) 5 (Swift (65) 7)) STAR MAN: Sam Morsy – Ipswich skipper’s performance personified Town’s refusal to accept defeat. REF: David Coote 6