By Aston
May 10 2005

Ipswich Town are doomed to another play-off campaign after failing to beat Brighton at the Withdean Stadium on Sunday.

Adam Virgo’s goal on ten minutes cancelled out Shefki Kuqi’s fourth minute goal to give Brighton the point they needed to survive for another season in the championship while denying Town any chance of going up automatically.

 

Town took the lead after four minutes when Adam Virgo failed to clear Darren Bent’s flick which found Shefki Kuqi who powered the ball home to give Town the lead.

 

Virgo made up for his error 6 minutes later, capitalizing on Davis’ parry of Gary Hart's header and put the ball into the net from six yards.

 

Richard Naylor could have restored Town’s lead after 19 minutes when he lost his marker to find Darren Currie’s cross with his head but sent the ball wide. Darren Bent may feel he deserved a penalty after appearing to be fouled by Brighton’s Charlie Oatway, the ball broke from the challenge to Shefki Kuqi who was unable to find a way past Blayney.

 

Fabian Wilnis had to go off before half time following a clash of heads with Brighton’s Dan Harding, Drissa Diallo coming on in his place.

 

The second half was a load of nothing really, Town’s fans and player knew about Wigan’s 2-0 lead against Reading so it would take a mass of goals from Town to get the automatic spot, in the last 15 minutes they did go for goals playing 4 strikers but still couldn’t find the back of the net.

 

Brighton: Blayney, El-Abd, Butters, Reid, Harding, Hart, Oatway, Carpenter, Knight, Hammond, Virgo.

Subs: Mayo, McPhee, Nicolas, Robinson, Shaaban.

 

Ipswich: Davis, Wilnis, De Vos, Naylor, Unsworth, Magilton, Miller, Westlake, Currie, Bent, Kuqi.

Subs: Couñago, Diallo, Horlock, Price, Scowcroft.

	Brighton 1	Ipswich 1
Yellow Cards	Oatway (35)	Kuqi (14) Magilton (32)
Red Cards	None	None
Goals	Virgo (10)	Kuqi (4)
Substitutions	G Hart replaced by C McGhee (82) L Knight replaced by J Robinson (88)	Wilnis replaced by Diallo (40) Currie replaced by Couñago (64) Diallo replaced by Scowcroft (75)
Possession	51%	49%
Shots	7	12
Corners	2	12
Fouls	17	13
Attendance: 6,848

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