MISERLY MICK STICKS TO HIS GUNS
ACOMFORTABLE victory lifted Ipswich to within two points of the play-off places and ended Reading’s five-game unbeaten run.
Callum Connolly’s thirdminute opener put the Blues in a strong position before they came under heavy pressure, with Joe Garner’s header coming against the run of play just before the half-hour mark.
Ipswich sat back and manager Mick McCarthy defended his side’s robust playing style against the possession-based passing of Reading.
He said: “I’m pleased with the performance and absolutely delighted with the result.
“There’s a section of people who would want us to go that way, and we’ve never played that way and we’ve finished sixth and seventh and we are doing particularly well. That’s what they want to do – we do what we want to do.
“No style of play guarantees you winning. What guarantees you results is people who play well and work hard and are solid, and do all the jobs and do all the dirty stuff. We’ve had a real solid performance today.”
A highintensity start quickly paid off for Ipswich as Connolly claimed possession just inside his own half and quickly offloaded to Bersant Celina, who linked with Martyn Waghorn. The striker played the ball back to Connolly who approached the edge of the box and hit a precise right-footed shot into the left corner.
Reading took control of possession after the early setback and the chances soon came. A vital sliding block from Jordan Spence was required to prevent David Edward’s shot from finding its target, and Adam Webster had to produce a similar block to prevent the ball going into the path of Yann Kermorgant in the box.
Ipswich made the visitors pay for their missed chances just before the half-hour, with a whipped Waghorn corner flicked on by Webster for Garner to head in from the middle of the sixyard box.
The striker had a volley blocked by Chris Gunter just after the break, and Modou Barrow retaliated for the visitors with their only shot on target, but his low cross was confidently pushed away by Bartosz Bialkowski.
A training-ground set-piece almost got a third for Ipswich, with Celina running over the ball and into the box to receive a pass from Waghorn. Celina’s shot looked to be heading in, but Liam Moore swung a leg and cleared away from danger.
Reading boss Jaap Stam took a similar stance to McCarthy when asked about changing his team’s philosophy, but the Dutchman is resolute in his playing style despite watching their unbeaten run come to an end. “I wouldn’t change my philosophy,” Stam said. “Sometimes you see the opposition change, we’ve seen Ipswich play a lot more in certain games than what they’ve done here, but in this game they got the result.
“If you concede an easy goal that early then it’s difficult to get back into the game. After that we did well and created opportunities, and should have scored.
“If you create five or six opportunities to score in the first half and you don’t score you’re going to be disappointed about that. If the opposition go forward twice and score two times then it’s very good what they’ve done.”