Report: WHU
By Aston
May 14 2005
Ipswich Town battled back from 2-0 down to earn a 2-2 draw against West Ham in the play-off semi final first leg earlier today.
Marlon
Harewood gave the hammers the lead after 7 minutes Bobby Zamora doubled their
lead on 13 minutes, Town hit back on 45 thanks to a Jimmy Walker own goal and
completed the fight back on 74 minutes when Shefki Kuqi volleyed home.
West
Ham started the better side but Town did some how manage to get the ball into
the back of the net after 4 minutes, Ian Westlake finding the target only for it
to be ruled out for an offside against him.
West
Ham walked all over Town for most of the first half and were perhaps unlucky to
go in at half time just 2-1 up, but then again they may have been a shade lucky
to get their first goal as Harewood may have taken Richard Naylor down on route
to converting Matthew Etherington’s cross to give the hammers the
lead.
If
the east Londoners got lucky with the first goal they showed their skill with
the second, Etherington left Diallo for dust before crossing to
The
hammers had chances to make it 3-0 before the break with
Town
halved the deficit on the stroke of half time, referee Uriah Rennie gave a foul
against Thomas Repka which Repka was not happy about so the kick was moved
forward to the edge of the area, Tommy Miller took the kick which found its way
though the bodies in the box before hitting the post and going in off the back
of Jimmy Walker in the Hammers goal.
At
the restart Joe Royle replaced Drissa Diallo and Kevin Horlock with Darren
Currie and Matt Richards.
The
first half was mostly dominated by West Ham but the second half was much more
even affair with both sides having chances to get another goal or two
each.
Shefki
Kuqi failed to get good contact on Jim Magilton’s corner. Etherington went close
for the Hammers from a free kick and Anton Ferdinand was denied by simply
sublime save by
Kuqi
made up for his poor header earlier in the half by volleying the ball home 14
minutes before the end after Ferdinand and Walker went for the same ball and
missed it leaving Kuqi with the entire goal to aim for from just four yards out.
West
Ham:
Subs:
Bywater, Fletcher, Dailly, Noble Rebrov.
Ipswich
Squad: Kelvin Davis, Fabian Wilnis, Jason De Vos, Drissa Diallo, Richard Naylor,
Jim Magilton, Tommy Miller, Kevin Horlock, Ian Westlake, Darren Bent, Shefki
Kuqi.
Subs: Lewis Price, Dean Bowditch, Pablo Couñago, Darren Currie, Matt Richards.
| West Han 2 | Town 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow Cards | Etherington (72) | Naylor (85) |
| Red Cards | Goals | Zamora (13) | Kuqi (74) |
| Subs | Newton replaced by Rebrov (86) | |
| Possession | ||
| Shots | | |
| Corners | ||
| Fouls | ||
| Attendance: 33,723 | ||
So the team that progresses to Cardiff will be decided on Wednesday night at Portman Road, tickets for the second leg go on general sale on Monday and can be brought by either visiting the ticket office or calling the new ticket office number 0870 111 0 555.