By Aston
September 15 2004

Ipswich Town slipped from top spot in the football league championship after defeat against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium.

Stoke 3-2 Town

Ipswich Town slipped from top spot in the football league championship after defeat against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium.

Former Norwich City striker Ade Akinbiyi scored the winning goal in the 85th minute for the home side, after town had twice given up the lead earlier in the game.

Town controlled the game in the first half and within a minute could of taken the lead if it weren’t for the best efforts of Ed De Goey in the Stoke Goal, Darren Bent used his pace to race though the Stoke defence and latch on to Ian Westlake’s neat though ball, Bent did every thing right apart from put the ball in the net, only De Goey stopped that happening.

Shefki Kuqi who had a nightmare of a game against Millwall on Sunday came close to righting some wrongs, Kuqi raced onto the end of a long clearance and some how found his way past De Goey only to have Darel Russell slide in make the block before he could find the net.

Tommy Miller, Darren Bent and Dave Brammer all had chances to give Ipswich the lead but a an in form De Goey stopped Miller and Bent opening the scoring and saved Brammer the embarrassment of an own goal after his scuffed clearance.

Jason De Vos opened the scoring on the night, netting his first goal in the blue and white of Ipswich, the 6ft 4’ defender out jumped the Stoke City defence and headed the ball home from Ian Westlake’s corner in the 41st minute.

Town how ever could not hang on to the lead until half time, Dave Brammer’s ball found Wayne Thomas in the box, Thomas headed the ball goal bound with Akinbiyi making sure no town player would stop it crossing the line.

The same players that ended the first half started the second Ed De Goey only managed to play 13 minutes of the second half after picking up an injury, Joe Royle also deemed it a good idea to introduce a substitute of his own at this time, Pablo Couñago coming on for Shefki Kuqi. Steve Simonsen who replaced De Goey got his first touch of the ball as he picked it out of the net after Ian Westlake’s goal. Tommy Miller found Darren Bent in the box, Bent found him self with an ideal opportunity to score but in stead squared to Westlake who tapped in to make it 2-1.

Town held the lead for longer than last time, about 15 minutes before Wayne Thomas levelled it up again for the home side with a very similar goal to his first, Thomas directing the ball inside the near post on 75 minutes.

Five minutes after Stoke’s second equaliser the home team found them selves a man down after John Halls got two yellow cards inside the space of two minutes, the first was for a foul on Ian Westlake the second for a professional foul on Jim Magilton.

The ten men of Stoke did manage to find a winner in the 85th minute after a break down in commutations between Richard Naylor, Drissa Diallo and Kelvin Davis allowed Ade Akinbiyi to sneak in and score to make it 3-2 and that’s how it ended. Town slip to third in the table a point behind new leaders Stoke behind Wigan on goal difference and ahead of west ham on goal difference.

Ipswich Town Squad: Darren Bent, Dean Bowditch, Pablo Couñago, Kelvin Davis, Drissa Diallo, Jason De Vos, Tony Dinning, Kevin Horlock, Shefki Kuqi, Jim Magilton, Tommy Miller, Scott Mitchell, Richard Naylor, Lewis Price, Matt Richards, Ian Westlake, Fabian Wilnis.

Stoke City Squad: De Goey, Halls, Thomas, Taggart, Hall, Henry, Brammer, Russell, Clarke, Noel-Williams, Akinbiyi, Simonsen, Hill, Asaba, Greenacre, Guppy.

Halls (x2)
Clarke
Akinbiyi

	Stoke City 3	Ipswich Town 2
Yellow cards		Horlock Naylor
Red Cards	Halls	None
Goals	Thomas (45, 75) Akinbiyi (85)	De Vos (41) Westlake (62)
Substitutions	Simonsen On For De Hoy (58) Guppy On For Brammer (67) Asaba On For Noel-Williams(86)	Couñago On For Kuqi (60) Bowditch On For Wilnis (86)
Attendance: 23,029

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