Match Report: Ipswich Town 0 Middlesbrough 0 (Abandoned after 37 minutes) (From The Northern Echo)

Mowbray happy with reprieve

1:12pm Monday 13th February 2012 in Middlesbrough FC Match Reports By Paul Fraser, Chief Football Writer

THERE was a collective feeling of sympathy for referee Dean Whitestone from the managers of Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town at Portman Road, even if the abandonment suited one more than the other.

In the build-up, even though he may not have admitted it, Tony Mowbray would have been more than happy for the fixture to have fallen foul of the freezing conditions in Suffolk.

Without key men such as Nicky Bailey, Barry Robson, Matthew Bates and Faris Haroun, who are all edging closer to recoveries, there was also the matter of an FA Cup replay with Sunderland in midweek, which went to extra-time.

A few more days’ rest would have helped before tomorrow’s visit of Nottingham Forest to the Riverside Stadium.

After witnessing back-toback wins for the second time this season, Ipswich boss Paul Jewell could have cited all of the above as reasons why he would have preferred the game to have gone ahead.

But in the end it was the safety of the players which prevented the match from finishing, even if the pitch was deemed playable a little more than 90 minutes earlier. It survived 11am and 2pm pitch inspections, which quite rightly infuriated supporters.

Even with the giant dome heating system that had protected the surface during overnight temperatures which had dropped to as low as -13, there was an expectancy that the pitch would harden as soon as the covers came off. It did.

“It was probably the right decision,” said Mowbray, whose side now sit ninth in the Championship.

“The pitch looked lovely under the hot air bubble at 11am. When we got off the bus there were a few concerns, but we were happy to start it because we had come so far.”

The Middlesbrough squad had travelled down on Friday.

Despite the unkind weather forecast suggesting conditions would be poor for football, and for the supporters travelling to the game, it somehow survived. Or at least it did until eight minutes before half-time.

By then Ipswich had threatened plenty, with former Sunderland striker Daryl Murphy crashing a drive against the crossbar, and Middlesbrough had to stay strong defensively.

But the sight of big Ipswich defender Ibrahima Sonko falling to the floor with suspected broken ribs following an awkward tumble was enough to speed up discussions between Mowbray, Jewell and the officials. Minutes later the game had been abandoned, and the players playing on the flank occupying Joe Bennett and Julio Arca could see why.

Bennett tweeted: “The game was unplayable but that decisions should of (sic) been made earlier. Just feel for the supporters who travelled down.”

There was an entire strip of grass, five metres in depth, along the touchline in front of the dug-outs which was of particular concern. The linesman on that side even had to run the line on the field of play.

“At one stage I thought he was going to tackle one of our players,” said Mowbray. “The referee is a young guy who had to make a tough call.

“I was careful not to emphasise that we wanted the game off during the day because we had travelled five hours to get here. The grass was there and we needed to play it.

“It would have been easy for me to stamp my feet. Ipswich were aware we had played extra time on Wednesday, we have got some major players unavailable and they saw an opportunity to take advantage of that. Those are the reasons why I was pretty calm when it was eventually abandoned.”

By the time the frustrated crowd of 19,735 had dispersed to learn they would not be given a refund, just a 50 per cent reduction on the rearranged game’s admission price, Jewell emerged to indicate he had no complaints either.

“A lot of the pitch was fine, that’s the frustrating thing about it, but you saw Jay Emmanuel- Thomas slip over into the hoardings in the first couple of minutes. It’s really horrible way to end a Saturday afternoon,”

he said.

“I think Sonko’s injury probably came into the referee’s thinking because they’re in contact and the fourth official had relayed to him that he’d heard our physio say he thought Sonko had cracked a rib due to his fall, which will have to be confirmed.”

The managers may have been satisfied with the outcome, but the fans certainly weren’t after taking a significant hit to their pockets – for nothing.

IPSWICH TOWN (4-2-3-1): Lee-Barrett; Edwards, Sonko (Delaney 31), Smith, Cresswell; Hyam, Drury; Murphy, Martin, Emmanuel-Thomas; Chopra. Subs: Leadbitter, Scotland, Bullard, McCarthy.

MIDDLESBROUGH (4-3-1-2): Steele; Hoyte, Hines, Williams, Bennett; McMahon, Thomson, Arca; Emnes; Main, Jutkiewicz.

Subs (not used): Ripley (gk), Ogbeche, Halliday, Smallwood, L Williams.