21 December 2024
Ipswich Town 0 Newcastle 4
Ipswich Town welcomed Newcastle to Portman Road, still looking to get that elusive first home win of the season. Things needed to change for Kieran McKenna’s side at home, it was making the task of staying in the Premier League almost impossible with that form. The Magpies were looking to put pressure on the sides above them with victory.
The Tractor Boys made the worst possible start to this game. A long ball downfield from the visitors picked out Murphy out wide. He crossed into the box and Ipswich struggled to clear their lines. Isak arrived to drill the ball past Muric, with only 30 seconds of the game gone. Fortunately the assistant raised her flag for offside to deny The Magpies an early goal.
Of course, we cannot have decisions as simple as this, it requires the subsequent five minute VAR review. All those Ipswich fans who celebrated the goal being disallowed like their team had scored themselves were soon to have egg on their face. As the replay showed, Murphy was easily onside and The Magpies had broken the deadlock.
Some of the seediest hotels in the world can still boast more clean sheets than Ipswich Town. It is making life in the Premier League very difficult. Newcastle should have doubled their lead when Murphy picked out Gordon in the box. His header was poor as he directed it straight into the ground, bouncing high over the crossbar. The visitors were looking in positive mood.
The home fans finally had something to get excited about when Chaplin threaded a ball into the path of Szmodics. He began a footrace with Livramento to get there as Dubravka raced off his line. The keeper seemed to make a good block with his legs from the Ipswich man but it was in fact his own defender who had almost poked it past him.
Murphy was pulling all the strings for the visitors. Ironic that a former Norwich player was orchestrating the downfall of the Tractor Boys. He found Isak with a neat pass but the Swede could not sort his feet out quickly enough and his effort was straight at Muric in the Ipswich goal. The Magpies could have already put this game to bed by now.
Newcastle’s attacking play was looking brighter than Jason Tindall’s teeth and it only seemed a matter of time before they scored again. Gordon went on a mazy run before laying it off to Murphy. He thundered his shot off the underside of the crossbar and into the back of the net to double the visitors’ lead. Portman Road fell silent like they had heard Ed Sheeran had passed away.
The rain continued to pour down, a fitting metaphor for the mindset of the home fans. Then came another instalment of the modern day self-destruct button. As they tried to play out from the back, Muric gifted the ball to Guimaraes. He passed it to Isak who had probably the easiest chance of his career as he tucked it past the luckless keeper from a couple of yards out.
Those who had made the trip from the North East were loving life, with their tops off in the torrential East Anglia rain. By the time the second half started, the weather had let up but The Magpies did not. Guimaraes got his head to a cross, only to see his effort clip the outside of the post and go wide of the target.
Eddie Howe’s side did not have to wait long for another opportunity. Murphy was involved again as he backheeled it into the path of Isak. The striker slotted home to bag his first ever Premier League hat-trick for The Magpies. It was no more than the visitors deserved, this encounter seemed a complete mis-match at Portman Road.
Willock should have added another when he seemed to have done all of the hard work, with the goal at his mercy. Sadly for the visitors he shanked his effort well wide of the target. With so long of the game remaining, Ipswich’s fans were worried about what the final score would be in this one. They could ill-afford their goal difference to be ruined at this point of the campaign.
Burn then came forward and as the hosts tried to frantically keep The Magpies at bay, they were struggling to clear their lines. It broke to the back post, where the centre-back cut inside before slotting into the far corner. He ran off towards the away fans to celebrate a rare goal. Sadly the big man was to be denied as the assistant raised their flag once again.
This was an emphatic win for Eddie Howe’s side and it could have been even more convincing. Ipswich Town’s plight is getting more depressing with each week and it is hard to see them getting out of the bottom three. When you are not scoring a lot of goals, you cannot afford to gift your opponents gilt-edged chances as they do each game.
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