Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Ipswich Town: Rovers denied at the death in replayed clash

Sinde Walle Egeli scored deep into stoppage time as Ipswich Town denied Blackburn Rovers a much-needed victory with the replay of their Championship fixture ending in a 1-1 draw.

Egeli stroked home his first goal for the Tractor Boys with almost the last kick of the game, cancelling out Andri Gudjohnsen’s 76th-minute header, which looked to have given Blackburn only their second home win of the season.

Back in September, this fixture was abandoned in the 80th minute with Blackburn winning 1-0 against 10 men after a sudden downpour caused a waterlogged pitch, but for much of the night the replay looked like ending in a damp squib before it came alive late on.

Todd Cantwell, who scored the Blackburn goal in the abandoned fixture, made his return from injury as a 71st-minute substitute, and five minutes later, his corner was flicked on by George Pratt to leave Gudjohnsen with an easy finish.

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Disgraceful

But in the dying seconds of four minutes of added time, Leif Davis drove Ipswich forward and Jack Clarke laid the ball off for teenager Egeli to find the bottom corner with a composed finish.

Blackburn boss Valerien Ismael had called it “disgraceful” that this match was to be replayed in full after the abandonment, and his mood will have been little better after seeing his side concede a stoppage-time equaliser for a second consecutive game.

Two more crucial points in their battle near the foot of the table slipped through their fingers to leave them in 18th, four points clear of the drop.

Ipswich, who saw a six-game unbeaten run end in defeat at Oxford on Friday, had offered little attacking threat, but Blackburn have not kept a clean sheet at home since February – a run of 15 games – winning here only once all season, and they could not hang on.

Match action

Blackburn had shaded a poor-quality game in the first half, aided by plenty of sloppy play from Ipswich in front of their own goal.

More than once, Town goalkeeper Christian Walton gave the ball away, but Ryan Alebiosu wasted the first opportunity, and from the second, Cedric Kipre was forced to bring down Yuki Ohashi on the edge of the box, earning a booking before Taylor Gardner-Hickman sent the free-kick into the wall.

Blackburn fans wanted a 39th-minute penalty when Ohashi went down as he tried to break into the box, but there was little in the contact.

And supporters’ fury poured down on Oliver Langford at half-time after the referee showed only a yellow card to Azor Matusiwa after he tripped Morishita when the Japan forward was through on goal, with Langford pointing to Davis as a covering defender.

Cantwell’s introduction spurred Blackburn as they took the lead and it was one they looked like holding as Kipre’s well-struck volley was blocked, but Egeli dampened the celebrations at the death.

Furious

Afterwards, a furious Ismael appeared to accuse referee Langford of favouring Ipswich, venting his anger at a string of decisions he felt went against his side.

“Enough is enough,” Ismael added. “We can put a list for all the decisions against us this season.

“The (decision not to give a) red card is a disgrace, it’s terrible. I can’t accept that. It’s a penalty on Yuki.

“The last situation is a corner for us again. The standard from the referee(s) in the Championship is terrible.

“The teams fighting to get promoted invest a lot of money to keep a very nice Championship, to play football, and every game every three days it’s always the same with the decisions, the standard is really, really poor and it’s unacceptable when I see the list of decision-making against us.

“At some point, it can happen, one or two decisions I didn’t say anything. But now the red card is obvious.

“Maybe it’s because it’s…a former Premier League club, he wanted to help them, because nobody can understand.”

Frustration

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna admitted he could understand Ismael’s frustration when it came to Matusiwa’s booking, but denied it was a clear-cut decision.

“I think from my eyes on the sidelines it could have gone either way,” the Northern Irishman said.

“(Morishita) is ahead of Azor and he’s got a really quick player (Leif Davis) chasing him down on an angle.

“I’d normally want the referee not to send a player off if it’s borderline in the first half. But I’m sure if I was on their side, I’d want the red card as well. It went our way tonight.”

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