The away end’s explosion of noise and limbs at full time left no question about what this meant to Ipswich. They had waited 22 and a half years for a Premier League win and the nagging thought remained, throughout nine minutes of added time, that they might fall just short yet again. But when Aro Muric saved from Dominic Solanke the outcome was virtually assured and what a feather in the cap this was for Kieran McKenna, whose superbly coached side will feel their season has liftoff now.
McKenna, beaming as he walked off the pitch, had done a number on the club where he started his career as a player and academy coach. It said everything about Ipswich’s performance, not to mention that of Tottenham, that the points went where they were deserved. The away side were excellent in the first half, picking their moments to attack and scoring well-worked goals through Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap before hanging on once Rodrigo Bentancur’s header threatened to transform the picture. They saw the game out in relative serenity and, on this evidence, look a convincing top-flight proposition.
It was harder to define Tottenham after a muddled afternoon’s work in which they gave themselves too much to do. A week previously they had given Aston Villa a head start before blowing them away; West Ham received similar treatment last month; but they cannot always presume to skewer their opponents after the break. When Bentancur scored a switch appeared to have flicked but their pressure never quite materialised into an all-out siege.
Minds and legs seemed tired, perhaps not helped by a midweek excursion to Istanbul. Ipswich were sharper and hungrier in the moments that mattered, Omari Hutchinson putting in a phenomenal shift and playing an integral part in Delap’s ultimately decisive finish. It was their day: one that finished with Ed Sheeran, who had played a role in designing the pink kit they debuted here, congratulating the squad in the dressing room.
“It’s a really significant moment in the recent history of the club,” McKenna said. “A massive day for the supporters and a really significant day for where the club was two years ago.” On the equivalent weekend of 2022 they were drawing at home to Cheltenham; the job McKenna has performed is astounding and his team looked perfectly at home here.
Few more so than Jens Cajuste, who has obvious pedigree as a loanee from Napoli but only started because of Kalvin Phillips’ suspension. Cajuste made Ipswich tick before the interval and they had come mightily close twice before his initiative unlocked the door. He changed the tempo of a patient passing move with a burst through midfield and, eventually receiving possession again, delivered a right-sided cross that snicked off Delap’s head as he challenged Cristian Romero. Szmodics, his back to goal and under little pressure, had time to contort himself for an overhead kick that fizzed past Guglielmo Vicario’s dive.
The Spurs keeper had won that particular duel within two minutes of kick-off, repelling from an angle after the first of numerous Hutchinson sprints made the chance. Soon afterwards Cameron Burgess had headed against the bar, so Tottenham could hardly consider themselves not warned. Szmodics’ intervention should have jolted them into action but instead Ipswich streaked further ahead.
Delap will never be presented with an easier finish, making sure from a rebound off Radu Dragusin that was already heading goalwards. But the conception had been a masterful display of back-to-front football, even if it began with Ipswich riding their luck through a misunderstanding between Muric and Sam Morsy. Eventually they cleared their lines, Hutchinson wriggling away from Bentancur and eating up the ground before finding Leif Davis. Beyond him darted Szmodics who, from the byline, drilled a centre from which Vicario parried against his unfortunate centre-back.
“The first half was pretty much spot-on,” McKenna said. Beyond a Brennan Johnson prod that trickled wide and a Solanke effort that Muric stopped smartly, Spurs’ huff and puff had yielded little.
The second half was, on recent evidence, always going to be a different story. Muric tipped over from Son and, from the corner, Solanke’s bundled effort was correctly ruled out for handball by the video assistant referee. But the screw was never quite consistently turned, even after Bentancur had thundered unmarked onto Pedro Porro’s corner. The late Solanke chance aside, Ipswich looked strong and composed in pulling through.
“We can’t start games like that at this level and expect to just overcome the gap,” bemoaned Ange Postecoglou. “We gave ourselves a mountain to climb.” It is feast or famine for Tottenham nowadays and their manager needs to find some middle ground for those days when they are spluttering.
McKenna, for his part, was entitled to purr. “It’s nice to do it here, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. The personal significance was clear; collectively, Ipswich could feel a colossal weight lift.
