Town 1-2 Cardiff City

By Site Staff
October 17 2012

Ipswich Town gave up a one goal lead against Cardiff to lose this Npower League Championship clash by two goals to one with some poor defending once again costing Town.

There were debuts for two new loan signings, on loan QPR striker DJ Campbell making his bow for the club whilst Leicester City midfielder Richie Wellens also lined up for Town for the first time. Fellow recent loan signing Bilel Mohsni was named on the subs bench.

Town took the lead in highly disputable circumstances during first half injury time when former Manchester United trainee Lee Martin sent a cross into the box which was obviously pushed into the Sir Alf Ramsey stand end by the hands of DJ Campbell, a goal that reminded many of Diego Maradona's famous hand of good. Just like that time however, incredibly the officials failed to rule out the goal and much to both teams disbelief the goal stood to send Town 1-0 ahead at half time.

Just ten minutes after the restart Town had a golden chance to double their advantage with the impressive Martin sending former Arsenal man Jay Emmanuel-Thomas clear on goal. The 21 year old however lacked composure in front of goal and hit his short far too powerfully from the edge of the box, with the ball sailing into the upper tiers of the Sir Bobby Robson stand in a position where he should at least have hit the target.

Five minutes later Town were made to pay for their missed chance as Cardiff brought the scores back level. Craig Conway sent in an angled cross/shot from the left which the perhaps unsighted Scott Loach was unable to hold on to. The balls squirmed out to former Watford man Heidar Helguson who made no mistake, tucking the ball away to the delight of the few away fans that were in attendance.

After drawing level Cardiff then took control of the match and were by far the better side. Their superiority was rewarded when they scored what would prove to be the winning goal five minutes from time. Once again sloppy defending made Town pay, a theme that has been seen all too often this term.

Bluebirds left back Taylor sent a sweeping cross into the Town area with both Danny Higginbotham and Aaron Cresswell appearing to leave the ball to keeper Loach. Loach however was bound to his line and did not come to claim the ball allowing Helguson to double his own and his sides tally for the day by heading into the net.  It was another very soft goal to conceded.

Whilst for the first half Town played some encouraging football, they were very fortunate to goal in to the break being a goal ahead when Campbell's goal clearly should have been ruled out. However once again missed chances and poor defending contributed to Paul Jewell's sides downfall and after the first Cardiff goal, the Welsh side always looked like the team most likely to secure all three points.

Town side:
Loach, Edwards, Chambers, Higginbotham, Cresswell, Emmanuel-Thomas, Wellens (Luongo 74), Drury, Martin, Campbell (Scotland 59), Murphy (Mohsni 90).