By Aston
February 11 2006

Town extended their unbeaten league run to seven games with a 2-1 win against Burnley at Portman Road earlier today.

The visitors started slightly the better side, Noel-Williams fired wide then Ricketts fired at Supple in the Town goal.

 

Ian Westlake was booked for unsporting behaviour on ten minutes but his frustration was nearly short lived as his long range effort went close to giving Town the lead.

 

Burnley defender Wayne Thomas was shown the first of his two yellow cards on 14 minutes, three minutes later, Ricketts then wasted a chance to put the Clarets ahead, Harley crossed in only for Ricketts to head wide from 6 yards.

 

Westlake again tried his luck from range and Ricketts had a shot blocked by Town defender Richard Naylor as the game crept past the half hour mark with out a goal.  

 

Alan Lee came within a whisker of opening the scoring with 41 minutes gone, his effort hitting the inside of the post then coming back out, that “miss” proved costly as minutes later Burnley had taken the lead.

 

With one of Burnley’s few on target Ricketts made up for his earlier errors and poked the ball home from 12 yards just before the half time break.

 

Sito came on for Ian Westlake at the start of the second half, Sito went into the right back birth with Fabian Wilnis joining Jason De Vos in the centre of defence with Richard Naylor going up front.

 

Spicer was added to the list of players in the referee’s notebook for a late challenge, while Scott Barron and Matt Richards both fired wide from distance.

 

Darren Currie fired right into the arms of Jensen, McGreal had to clear from inside his own box after Lee had chipped the ball over Jensen with no one else around.

 

Lee did get Town level soon after, Lee used his physical presence to hold off the Burnley defenders before spinning and firing into the net on 62 minutes.

 

Town then started to push more at the Burnley goal, Naylor headed over, Juan scuffed his effort and Sito fired into the arms of Jensen

 

One of Burnley’s rare second half trips into Town’s have saw Ricketts fail to trouble Supple with his effort.

 

Town did eventually take the lead, Duff brought down Alan Lee in the box, referee Darren Deadman had no hesitation in awarding Town a spot a kick and dismissing Wayne Thomas for dissent, the defender taking his time to leave the pitch before Matt Richard did the business from 12 yards, send the ball to the right of the goal with Jensen going the same way but being unable to get any thing on it.

 

Lee almost made it 3-1 in the dieing minutes, Jensen able to keep his shot out, Jensen was lucky to remain on the pitch as soon after he elbowed Lee in the back of the head but luckily for Burnley it was out of site of the officials.

 

Town have now moved up to 10^th in the table, 9 points off the play-offs.

 

Ipswich: Shane Supple, Fabian Wilnis, Jason De Vos, Richard Naylor, Scott Barron, Ian Westlake, Jimmy Juan, Owen Garvan, Matt Richards, Alan Lee, Darren Currie.

Subs: Lewis Price, Jim Magilton, Jaime Peters, Dean McDonald, Luis Sito.

 

Burnley: B Jensen, M Duff, W Thomas, J McGreal, J Harley, J Spicer, J O'Connor, M Hyde, G Branch, M Ricketts, G Noel-Williams.

Subs: D Karbassiyoon, W Elliott, G O'Connor, C McCann, D Courtney

	Town 2	Burnley 1
Goals	Lee (62) Richards (pen 83)	Ricketts (45)
Yellow Cards	Westlake	Thomas Ricketts Spicer Elliott
Red Cards	None	Thomas 2nd Yellow (81)
Subs	Sito on for Westlake (45)	McCann on for Branch (67) Courtney on for Noel-Williams (83) Elliott on for Spicer (89)
Possession	59%	41%
Shots on Target	12	4
Shots On Target	12	5
Corners	3	2
Fouls	7	15
Attendance: 24482

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