Noel Hunt scores on his debut to send Ipswich into second place
MICK MCCARTHY is certain Ipswich’s promotion charge will have to be taken seriously after new signing Noel Hunt’s lastgasp winner brought Charlton’s unbeaten home run to a juddering halt.
Hunt signed from Leeds on loan before Thursday’s deadline and made it a debut to remember after coming on with just seven minutes left on the clock.
And McCarthy is as delighted with his newest recruit’s flying start as he is with his team’s incredible progress this season, stretching their own unbeaten run to six games.
The Ipswich boss said: “I think it’s a misconception that people don’t take us seriously, but at the start of the season we weren’t one of the favourites.
“But after the games we’ve played and the manner we’ve gone about playing, people will certainly take us seriously now.
“It’s wonderfully rewarding that Noel Hunt got the goal as I’ve always admired him and the way he’s gone about his business. I think if we can get him going again we’ve got a good player.
“I can’t come here and say we’ve played Charlton off the park as that’s just not the case. I thought they were the better team in the first half and had plenty of chances, although we had some as well.
“In the second half we grew more into it and it says a lot about us that we weathered all that pressure. But in the last 15 minutes it was only us who were going to win it.”
Both sides looked to assert their authority on the game early on and both went close in the opening minutes. First Ipswich’s Daryl Murphy headed Stephen Hunt’s corner just wide, then Addicks midfielder Johann Gudmundsson shot over.
But it was Charlton who made the brighter start with Callum Harriott looking most likely do the damage, seeing two efforts saved by Bartosz Bialkowski before firing just wide midway through the first half.
Ipswich worked hard but created little until the half-hour mark when Murphy found some space and powered a strike from long range which was beaten away by Charlton keeper Nick Pope.
They could have gone in at the break with a surprise lead but Pope was alert to turn David McGoldrick’s header round the post.
The visitors returned for the second half with more urgency and almost went ahead after 50 minutes when Tyrone Mings shot wide after a driving run forward.
Harriott should have opened the scoring with 20 minutes to go but he completely missed his kick when clean through on goal.
And Charlton were made to pay as Hunt latched onto a loose ball on the edge of the box to fire into the bottom corner, leaving Addicks boss Bob Peeters fuming.
“We only have ourselves to blame,” he said. “We created enough chances to win two games but it’s about our finishing and at the end we lost it.
“If you get cocky they get you and we got a lesson. In every aspect we were the better team but it’s about putting the ball away and they did. That’s why they are up there and we are not.
“You can play good football and please the fans but we can only blame ourselves. We can’t say they didn’t deserve it because that’s not important. They put the ball in the net once and we didn’t.”