With his winner against Birmingham, Kasey McAteer gave Ipswich supporters something to talk about other than Nigel Farage – namely the growing prospect of a return to the Premier League at the first attempt. At the ground where the Reform UK leader had been allowed two weeks before to parade with a “Farage 10” Ipswich shirt, the hosts moved into the automatic promotion places, albeit thanks to a controversially disallowed goal that left their opponents furious.
“I’ve never been as frustrated in my time in football at a decision. We’ve been robbed today,” said Birmingham’s head coach, Chris Davies. A second-half equaliser was chalked off when Ibrahim Osman was ruled to have run the ball out of play before his pullback from which Dara O’Shea turned into his own net, yet replays showed the ball never crossed the line. Davies said: “I asked [the official] after the game: ‘Why did you make that decision?’ and he said: ‘I can assure you the ball was out of play.’ And he was wrong.”
This will sting for Birmingham, whose hopes of doing an Ipswich and winning back-to-back promotions to the Premier League from League One have faded. They have now lost six in eight and are adrift of the playoffs.
A win lifts the mood at Ipswich after what the chair, Mark Ashton, described as “a challenging international break off the pitch” in his programme notes. This was the first time the men’s team have been in action since Farage’s visit to Portman Road on 23 March as they did not play on Good Friday owing to Southampton’s involvement in the FA Cup.
Farage’s political stunt has divided the fans, even driving some of them away. Ashton has apologised “for any hurt, pain or distress that’s been caused”, while the club said it “remains apolitical and does not support any individual party”. A handful of club officials are understood to have known about Farage’s visit before he arrived for a stadium tour but Ipswich deny he was invited. Supporters have been left to make up their own minds and some say they do not know what to believe.
The elephant in the room was forgotten by kick-off, the home crowd given a perhaps reluctant boost after Norwich beat Millwall, promotion rivals, in a lunchtime game. An up-for-it Ipswich were almost ahead inside a minute as Marcelino Núñez fed the ball to McAteer, whose shot from the edge of the box flashed over the bar.
McAteer should have scored on the half-hour and Ipswich were punished immediately. The on-loan Leicester forward ran on to a flick-on and was clean through, but his low shot was kept out by James Beadle. Birmingham raced up the other end through Jay Stansfield, whose low ball into the box was toed on but not away by O’Shea. Carlos Vicente hit a sweet first-time finish low into the far corner.
Ipswich were level when Darnell Furlong’s cross from the right landed at the feet of Ben Johnson, whose scuffed volley bounced over Beadle and crossed the line before Phil Neumann could hack it away. A flowing move that involved Jack Clarke and George Hirst then set up McAteer, who shot low again but this time the ball slipped under Beadle.
This was McAteer’s first goal since joining the club last summer. After a spell out of the team, Kieran McKenna has shown faith in the 24-year-old: this was his second successive start. “Brilliant day for him,” said McKenna, who admitted Wes Burns was going to start in McAteer’s place before he was ruled out late on by injury.
Birmingham were braver in the second half and Osman made a difference off the bench. The winger was perplexed by the decision to disallow the equaliser, with no video assistant referee in the Championship to overrule it, and also drew a fine save from Christian Walton, who tipped his late drive on to a post.
McAteer, his drought over, was given a standing ovation when replaced with a couple of minutes to go. To the relief of most at Portman Road, it is his name that will make the headlines. Ipswich go second on goal difference. A trip to Norwich is next.
