Gary Speed spent the majority of Saturdays match standing on the edge of his technical area, bellowing instructions to his beleaguered team for ultimately no reward. Just a few yards behind him, the watching Roy Keane must have looked on and contemplated how familiar Speeds position seemed.
As Sheffield United slumped to their third successive defeat, so Ipswich Town recorded a third successive league victory. There are small margins between success and failure in the Championship, something which Roy Keane acknowledged to the BBC when reflecting on the difference between his last visit to Bramall Lane, where a fragile Ipswich Town threw away a two-goal lead in the last ten minutes.
“We have a slightly better mentality than last year, although we probably played better here last year when we were 3-1 up and coasting, but we never got in that position today so maybe the concentration levels are slightly higher. But as we all know in the Championship, youre going to have to hang in there sometimes and grind out results and I think we did that today without being spectacular.”
Ipswich Town named an unnamed side from that which started the previous match against Millwall, with the exception of Jake Livermore replacing the injured David Norris. It meant a continuation of the Priskin-Scotland forward pairing, something which has been relatively unusual away from home this season.
For the second match in succession, it was Town who started the quickest, with Tamas Priskin netting his 5th goal of the season in only the sixth minute. Town enjoyed their best period of the match, without managing to extend the lead, with Priskin proving to be particularly troublesome against a Blades side clearly missing their captain, Chris Morgan. Priskin came close to adding to the lead with some smart control and strength to hold off the defender, only to see his shot come back off the near post.
Sheffield United enjoyed greater possession through the middle period of the match, but it took two mistakes in the Town ranks for them to find an equaliser, as first Grant Leadbitter gave away possession and then the otherwise outstanding Gareth McAuley failed to clear a cross adequately. The result was a smart finish from Stephen Quinn, brother of Towns Alan.
Yet, Town regrouped and enjoyed the better of the latter stages of the half, eventually recording what proved to be the match winning goal, with McAuley atoning for his earlier error by slamming the ball into the net from close range.
After a bright start to the second half by Town, Sheffield United began to exert pressure on the Town goal. With Jason Scotland in particular struggling to offer an outlet for his defence, he was replaced by Connor Wickham as Town opted to play largely on the break as they looked to hold their lead.
Marton Fulop was required to save smartly from United centre-back Bartleys 30-yard effort, pushing the shot onto the post, but it was to prove the closest his side came to conceding an equaliser, despite some notable scares in and around the 6 yard box.
Keane admitted that his side had withstood some concerted pressure late in the game, although preventing the Blades from getting efforts on target.
“It wasn’t pretty, we were under a lot of pressure in the last 15-20 minutes. We probably rode our luck a little bit. But you have to take those results, you can’t try and come and overplay away from home. There were opportunities for us to be more clinical and finish the game off, but credit Sheffield United they put us under a lot of pressure. It was a good team performance without anyone being really outstanding”.
It was perhaps a knowing acknowledgement from Keane that, as with the Millwall match a week previously, his team aren’t equipped with the killer instinct to make a win comfortable. As a result, once in front, tactics have tended to revolve primarily around keeping the lead, rather than extending it. Certainly, it is evident that Keane is finding his defensive unit to be the most successful one and therefore relying on their strengths rather than those of his attacking elements.
The workrate and calmness in possession of stand-in captain Grant Leadbitter, provided a suitable outlet for Gareth McAuley and Damien Delaney, who again excelled, along with the dominant Marton Fulop. In the full-back positions, both Tommy Smith and Tom Eastman dealt with everything which was thrown at them, with Eastman once again coming in for praise from his manager, whilst Carlos Edwards and Jack Colback offered good protection for the relatively inexperienced full-backs behind them.
Up front, Tamas Priskin proved to be the key attacking threat for the third successive match. It was particularly notable that, on this occasion, Keane opted to withdraw the largely ineffective Jason Scotland instead of Priskin, something which will have no doubt pleased the Hungarian as much as his finish. With three matches in just over a week, Scotland may find himself dropping to the bench over the next week, particularly with Connor Wickham fit and ready for action.
Tuesday brings the visit of Derby County to Portman Road for a match which is now being contested by two sides who find themselves in the coveted play-off positions. Whilst changes are likely given the rush of matches, Keane may just surprise everyone and keep with the winning formula, particularly if he is reminded of how elusive Gary Speed is finding it.
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