Ipswich Town came back from a goal behind at home to second placed Brentford to secure a 1-1 draw on Tuesday night. The Tractor Boys produced a second half comeback, after they were dominated in the opening forty-five minutes, to preserve their unbeaten home record in the league so far this campaign.
The result leaves manager Paul Hurst still searching for his first victory in charge of Ipswich following his arrival from Shrewsbury Town in the summer. Ipswich went into the game rock bottom of the league with just three points from their opening seven fixtures, and off the back of a really poor performance in their 2-0 defeat at fellow early season strugglers Hull City.
Brentford riding a wave of early season optimism completely dominated the opening half at Portman Road. The Bees took a deserved lead through Neal Maupay, the divisions top scorer with eight goals so far this season, just after the half hour mark and created several opportunities to have game wrapped up by half time.
Hurst, still searching for his best system and starting eleven at Ipswich, made five changes from the side that lost at Hull, changing his system to three at the back for the start of the game. These changes seemed to have an adverse effect on the side, as Ipswich struggled to get to grips with the system and Brentford were able to control the match.
However, Hurst reverted to four at the back in the second half, brining on Gwion Edwards and Jon Nolan at half time. Those changes prompted a much improved second half display, as Ipswich started to ask questions of Brentford’s defence. First Jonas Knudsen went close before Kayden Jackson hit the woodwork with an overhead kick. Ipswich eventually got their equalising goal through Jackson, earning them a valuable point.
The much-improved performance and second half fightback could help provide a much-needed spring board to what has been a very difficult start to the season for the Suffolk club. Speaking to the club’s official website after the match Hurst said, “We tried something different first-half, was it brave or stupid – I’ll let others decide but it didn’t work. “In the end we gave it a real go and it was a great header from Kayden and just reward for his performance.”
“It could have gone either way after that but massive credit to the players. It was our most disappointing performance of the season at the weekend and then to go a goal down against a very good side, we could quite easily have gone under. I’ve seen it happen, but the players showed great character.”
