Report: Preston North End 1-1 Ipswich Town
By Aston
February 19 2005
Ipswich extended their lead at the top of the championship table to six points temporarily at least after a 1-1 draw against Preston.
Report: Preston
Ipswich extended their lead at the top of the championship table to six points temporarily at least after a 1-1 draw against Preston.
Tommy Miller ended his league goal drought when he scored Town’s equalising goal in the 69th minute after David Nugent had put the home side ahead in the 34th minute.
Preston were by far the better side in first half having more of the ball then Town and the front pair of Nugent and Cresswell simply far to speedy for Richard Naylor and Jason De Vos although they did a good job of keeping they did a good job of keeping them at bay until the 34th minute when Nugent was released by O’Neil, Nugent just passed the 6’ 4” De Vos like he wasn’t there before slightly out pacing Naylor and sliding the ball past the out stretched hand of Kelvin Davis.
Preston couldn’t make there dominance pay off with a second goal although they did come close on a number of occasions, Nugent came closest to extending the lead when his curling effort was kept out by the wrist of Kelvin Davis and out for a corner.
Joe Royle introduced Jim Magilton and Dean Bowditch at the restart in place of Kevin Horlock and Darren Currie.
The introduction of Magilton gave Town something they had been missing in the first half but what ever it was he brought to the pitch was not the stuff to stop David Nugent being a thorn in Town’s side.
Preston fans and players believed they should have had a penalty or two one after Richard Naylor caught the ball with his finger tips and Jason De Vos appeared to bundle over Nugent in the box but neither referee or lines man saw any problems
While Preston had been better by a long way in the first half Town gave a much better showing of them self nothing amazing but enough to get a goal and grind out a draw, Darren Bent who had been quite all night played the ball though to Tommy Miller whose first shot was blocked by Gavin Ward but Miller made no mistake with his follow up a second later 1-1.
Preston goalkeeper Gavin Ward had to be stretchered off the pitch after Ian Westlake’s foot stayed in and hit Ward in the head after a long stoppage the game was restarted with 19 year old Preston goalkeeper Neal make his debut he had nothing to much to do in the 5 minutes of normal time or the 5 minutes of stoppage time, 1-1 it ended Town had extended their lead at the top to 6 points but after Wigan’s 3-0 win over Leeds united it has been cut back to 3 points.
G Ward, G Alexander, C Lucketti, Y Mawene, C Davidson, C Sedgwick, B O'Neil,
P McKenna, M Hill, D Nugent, R Cresswell.
Subs: C Neal, C Davis, D Etuhu, P
Agyemang, A Smith
Ipswich Town Squad: Darren Bent, Dean Bowditch, Darren Currie, Kelvin Davis, Jason De Vos, Kevin Horlock, Daniel Karbassiyoon, Jim Magilton, Tommy Miller, Richard Naylor, Lewis Price, Matt Richards, James Scowcroft, David Unsworth, Ian Westlake, Fabian Wilnis.
| Preston North End 1 | Ipswich Town 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings | ||
| Red Cards | Goals | |
| Substitutions | Ward (GK) replaced by Neal (GK) (83) | |
| Possession | ||
| Shots | | |
| Corners | ||
| Fouls | ||
| Attendance: 14,418 |
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