By Aston
January 2 2005

Ipswich Town started 2005 in the worst possible way, losing there unbeaten home record spanning back to April last year and the goals scoring run at home from 2003.

Report: Town Vs West Ham

Ipswich Town started 2005 in the worst possible way, losing there unbeaten home record spanning back to April last year and the goals scoring run at home from 2003.

Right what can I say? Well because I’m not allowed to swear on the network there’s not much I can say, Town where were diabolical in the first half and not much better in the second and it could be summed up by West Ham’s 2 goals.

The first came after just 55 seconds, Matt Richards made a mess of his clearance, Richard Naylor failed to communicate with Kelvin Davis instead playing him into trouble and allowing Marlon Harewood to score what is probably the easiest goal he will score this season.

West simply battered Town all game and were unlucky not to have a second goal before half time although they did get the ball in the net how ever the effort was ruled out for an offside against former Norwich defender Malky Mackay.

Town’s half was summed up by a few weak and poor efforts from the players Ian Westlake and Darren Currie the best of a poor bunch.

The second half nearly started as bad as the first an error from Tommy Miller almost allowing West Ham to double their lead, fortunately Miller managed to clean up his mess and it stayed 1-0.

Town did slowly start to look like a team that tops the table but didn’t manage to find the end product, Darren Currie seemed more concerned with doing Cristiano Ronaldo style step overs than getting a good ball into the box.

West Ham wrapped up the points in 90th minute, another lapse at the back Sergei Rebrov's effort was blocked on the line but not cleared properly allowing Matthew Etherington to tap in from 6 yards.

Town did not deserve any thing from yesterday’s game and are only top of the table because Sunderland failed to beat Preston by 3 goals instead losing 3-2 at Deepdale, their defeat means Wigan move back into 2nd place 2 points behind Town after beating Sheffield united 2-0 and Reading only managed a draw at lowly Gillingham and remain 4th on 48 points four behind Town.

Ipswich Town squad Darren Bent, Dean Bowditch, Pablo Couñago, Darren Currie, Kelvin Davis, Jason De Vos, Kevin Horlock, Daniel Karbassiyoon, Shefki Kuqi, Jim Magilton, Tommy Miller, Richard Naylor, Lewis Price, Matt Richards, Ian Westlake, Fabian Wilnis.

West Ham Squad: S Bywater, H Mullins, T Repka, M Mackay, C Powell, N Reo-Coker, C Fletcher, G Williams, M Etherington, B Zamora, M Harewood, R Burch, A Ferdinand, S Rebrov, T McClenahan, A Melville.

	Ipswich Town 0	West Ham 2
Bookings	Kuqi De Vos	Zamora Mullins
Red Cards	None	None
Goals	None	Harewood (1) Etherington (90)
Substitutions	Bent replaced by Bowditch (65)	Zamora replaced by Rebrov (72) Reo-Coker replaced by Ferdinand (85) Etherington replaced by McClenahan (90)
Possession	45%	55%
Shots	10	10
Corners	6	6
Fouls	15	13
Attendance: 30,003

Talk about Town on our message board.