MIGHTY MARTY IS THE MAN FOR MCCARTHY
IPSWICH boss Mick McCarthy was elated with the performance of Martyn Waghorn after he scored one and created two in the Blues’ win over Nottingham Forest.
Forest drew level twice in the first-half with Ipswich unable to hold a lead, but goals after the break from Waghorn and Bersant Celina continued the Suffolk side’s rise up the table.
McCarthy said of Waghorn’s display: “He’s epitomised the performance today after five games in 15 days. He’s been a real thorn in their side and he was fabulous.
“He’s got great awareness and he’s clever. His pass to Celina for the fourth was terrific. He was on his right foot and he didn’t lash at it or blaze it wide. He’s put it right on a plate.
“He’s better than I thought he was. Isn’t that nice to be able to say when you sign players?
“It was a particularly pleasing performance, especially scoring four goals, and the way we defended after their second goal.”
Ipswich started brightly and their early pressure paid off. Waghorn’s low driven freekick was pushed back into danger by Jordan Smith into the path of Callum Connolly, who made no mistake when finishing into an empty net.
Forest almost had a way back into the game ten minutes later, but Bartosz Bialkowski was alert to deny Daryl Murphy low to his left, before scrambling back towards the goalline to claw Tyler Walker’s resulting shot away from danger.
Despite his goalkeeping display, Bialkowski was finally beaten just before the half-hour mark. Kieran Dowell lifted a precise left-footed freekick over the Ipswich wall from 25 yards, with the ball dropping into the bottom left sidenetting inside the goal.
The scores were only level for eight minutes before Dominic Iorfa started a flowing Ipswich counter-attack that had Celina take the ball down the left and make space for the run of Jonas Knudsen, whose back-post cross was met by the head of Iorfa for the goal.
Ipswich could only hold their lead for six minutes before being unlocked by Liam Bridcutt’s pass. The lofted ball over the top was met in the box by Walker, who ran between the two centrebacks and drove the ball in high at the near post.
Forest’s poor defensive showing was compounded by Michael Mancienne gifting the ball to Waghorn, who homed in on goal and calmly slid the ball passed Smith into the left corner.
The home side finally managed to create a two-goal cushion as Emyr Huws picked out Waghorn’s run into box, with the striker guiding the ball across goal into the path of Celina.
Forest have struggled for consistency this season, and manager Mark Warburton put this latest slip down to secondhalf defensive errors.
“We’ve given two soft goals away and come back,” he said. “We said at half-time when we moved the ball we were very dangerous, and I thought we started the second half really well.
“Daryl Murphy drops his shoulder and gets onto his right side and a good save from the goalkeeper.
“There were a couple good chances that we missed and I thought we were in control and looking dangerous.
“I was aware Ipswich had a game in midweek and had a couple of players missing, but we made calamitous mistakes. Simple as that.”