Ipswich Town vs Reading. Sky Bet Championship.
Portman RoadAttendance13,832.
Saturday 16 December 2017 18:57, UK
Ipswich halted Reading's unbeaten five game run and moved up to eighth in the Sky Bet Championship table with a 2-0 victory.
The Suffolk side now sit two points off the play-off places on 35, two positions below Sheffield United who are sixth on 37. Goals came from Callum Connolly in the third minute and Joe Garner after 27 minutes but it was in front of the home side's lowest attendance of the season of 13,832.
Ipswich got off to the perfect start when Connolly won the ball in midfield. It was fed to Bersant Celina and then on to Martyn Waghorn who put it in the path of Connolly. He beat Reading goalkeeper Vito Mannone with a crisp shot into the left hand corner of the goal from just inside the penalty area.
Two minutes later the ball fell kindly to Waghorn on the edge of the Reading penalty area but his shot went narrowly past the right hand post. Then a free kick in the 11th minute for the visitors, following a foul by Cole Skuse, led to Sone Aluko firing narrowly past the left hand post.
Reading almost equalised in the 18th minute when Jordan Spence acrobatically cleared a goal-bound shot following a strike by Reading midfielder David Edwards.
Another attack by the visitors four minutes later led to Modou Barrow crossing into the penalty area for Yann Kermorgant but the ball was deflected out of play for a corner by Town defender Adam Webster.
Town stretched their lead in the 27th minute when a corner by Waghorn was headed on at the near post by Webster and Garner was on hand to plant the ball into the net with a close range header.
Ipswich were dominating the game as Spence made a long run up field in the 42nd minute from the left back position and, following interplay involving Waghorn, Celina and Grant Ward, the ball fell to Garner who won a corner which was eventually cleared by Reading.
Then a training ground free kick routine in the 58th minute by Waghorn freed up Celina on the right hand side of the penalty area but his shot was cleared for a corner by Liam Moore.
And in the 69th minute a dazzling run by Spence saw him beat three Reading defenders only for his shot to be blocked by Mannone.
Six minutes later Celina picked up the ball from outside the penalty area and danced past two Reading defenders only to fire his shot high over the bar.
Mick McCarthy: "Callum (Connolly) has been having a great season, he's helped bolster that central midfield, he's been very good and I keep saying to him, 'Have you got a goal', and he keeps shooting in training, either foot. He's proving my theory right which is nice.
"We have had a real solid performance today and they are enjoying playing, they are enjoying training and it's always been the same, but it's a lot nicer when you're winning. You all feel a lot better. They are all enjoying it."
Jaap Stam: "If you concede an easy goal that early in the game it's difficult to get back. When its 2-0 down it difficult to get back into the game because you know what the opposition is going to do.
"A lot of teams in the league play a similar way as we do and certain teams play like Ipswich play today as well and today they have done it well and they have got the result and, at the end of the day, it's all about the results."
