One player’s misfortune proved to be an enormous stroke of luck for his team at Selhurst Park last night. Ipswich Town consolidated their place in the play-offs zone thanks to a winning goal deflected in by Danny Haynes, the midfield player who was in the line-up only because Alan Quinn injured an ankle in the pre-match warm-up.
Having gone winless on their travels in the first six months of this season, Ipswich have now won back-to-back away matches and deserved any good fortune they had for a determined display that came after a first home defeat in 11 months at the weekend.
“A wonderful three points especially after Saturday, a big result for us,” Jim Magilton, the Ipswich manager, said. “Our work ethic was different class and we could have won by a greater margin.”
Palace were level on points with Ipswich before kick-off but they have dropped to tenth place after taking only a single point from their past four games. The 15-match unbeaten league run that catapulted them from the relegation places and into the play-offs picture is in danger of fading from memory.
“There isn’t much in this division, but we need a little bit more and it’s up to me to get it from the players,” Neil Warnock, the Palace manager, said. “We haven’t given up on the play-offs.”
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Palace’s best spell came in the 20 minutes before the interval and they seemed certain to take the lead six minutes before the break when Mark Hudson knocked the ball past Stephen Bywater, the goalkeeper, only for Richard Naylor to appear from nowhere and hack it clear.
Naylor was also the key figure when Ipswich broke the deadlock in first-half injury time. After a corner was half-cleared, his full-blooded volley hit Haynes and looped in.
“The shot was going for a throw-in until it hit him on the back and it gave them a massive lift,” Warnock said, but it could have been worse for his team had Clive Penton, the referee, shown Julian Speroni, the Palace goalkeeper, a red card for hacking down Jonathan Walters as Ipswich’s top scorer ran clear on to Alan Lee’s pass.
Ipswich would have been rightly aggrieved had Palace equalised, but Clinton Morrison miskicked in front of goal after the forward was set up by Hudson ten minutes from time. “The referee was very lenient on the goalkeeper, to say the least,” Magilton said. “But we got our just deserts.”
Crystal Palace (4-3-3): J Speroni – D Butterfield, M Lawrence, M Hudson, L Hills – S Derry (sub: D Freedman, 65min), B Watson (sub: C Fletcher, 46), N Danns – S Scannell, J Scowcroft (sub: S Kuqi, 56), C Morrison. Substitutes not used: P Ifill, J Fonte. Booked: Speroni, Danns.
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Ipswich Town (4-4-2): S Bywater – A Bruce (sub: D Wright, 86), J De Vos, R Naylor, D Harding – V Simulikoski, D Norris, T Miller, D Haynes – J Walters, A Lee (sub: P Counago, 82). Substitutes not used: O Garvan, N Colgan, A Quinn. Booked: Haynes, Bywater.
Referee: C Penton.