Ipswich Town 1-0 Stoke City: Jaden Philogene gives in-form Blues victory over Potters

Jaden Philogene’s exquisite curling finish gave Ipswich Town a narrow 1-0 victory over Stoke City at Portman Road.

His goal, in just the second minute of the game, moved Town up a place to fourth spot in the Championship as they recorded back-to-back victories.

Meanwhile, the Potters slipped to their third defeat on the trot, falling down to eighth.

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna said: “I really enjoyed the game. I thought it was a really, really good game. A really good night’s work.

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Outstanding

“We scored a brilliant team and individual goal to start the game off.

“I thought Stoke played well in the first half and had a real, real go at it and I think they came here and had a real swing at it, pressed high.

“That meant there was a lot of space and we almost got through a lot, but we also probably rushed it too often because there was so much space we went for the goal every time and gave the ball back to them.

“I thought we played well with the ball, made some extra passes, played through the pressure, defended well and had chances to counter and the only thing was not getting the second goal, that keeps the game alive.

“The crowd were outstanding and really gave us the push that we needed, so it was a good night’s work.”

Match action

Ipswich opened the scoring with their first attack of the game.

Leif Davis linked up with Philogene down the left, interchanged passes with Marcelino Nunez, who fed the Town winger who then fired an unstoppable shot from the edge of the penalty area into the top left-hand corner past a despairing Viktor Johansson in the Stoke goal.

But Stoke almost equalised through Bae Jun-Ho moments later, with Dara O’Shea coming to the rescue at the last minute to deflect the ball into the side netting.

Town goalkeeper Christian Walton was then alert to save a shot from the visitor’s leading scorer Sorba Thomas, as Stoke pressed for an equaliser.

Sindre Walle Egeli’s glorious cross-field pass had Johansson rushing out of his goal and Davis picked up the rebound to fire from 30 yards out but the goalkeeper beat the ball away straight into the path of Ivan Azon and, with the keeper out of his goal and two defenders on the line, he lashed the ball horribly high over the bar.

Philogene danced his way across the Stoke byline but was unable to find a team-mate and Nunez missed a great opportunity to make it 2-0 when well placed.

The hosts appealed for a penalty as the half drew to a close when Aaron Cresswell appeared to handle the ball, but referee Adam Herczeg turned it down.

Second half

Thomas created another chance for Stoke when he picked up a wayward pass from Azor Matusiwa, but O’Shea dived in to deflect his goalbound shot wide for a corner and Davis dragged a shot across the face of goal from Philogene’s pass.

Azon’s cross-field pass into the penalty area just failed to find Davis and from the resulting corner the Town striker headed the ball straight at Johansson.

Johansson then dived full length to deny Nunez following a quick break upfield and Walton denied Stoke at the death by parrying away an effort from Thomas as Ipswich hung on to pick up the three points.

Frustrated

Stoke boss Mark Robins was pleased with his team’s performance against a side which had beaten league leaders Coventry at the weekend.

He said: “We were brave and we took part in a game against a team that got relegated from the Premier League last season, lost some good players, made a lot of money, really invested it really well. It looks like a really improved club.

“The difference was the quality of the finish from Philogene after minute two and I think that was something I was frustrated with.

“I thought we were well into the game and I thought we created some really good moments for ourselves and we let ourselves down with either our final pass, final decision.

“We’ve had chances for us to go and make it exciting and make it a real game.”

Wednesday’s Championship results

Bristol City 2-2 Leicester City
Derby County 1-1 Millwall
Ipswich Town 1-0 Stoke City
Hull City 2-0 Wrexham

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