Fleetwood Town fell to a 2-0 league defeat to Ipswich Town at Highbury Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
A first half of few chances for either side left the scoreline goalless going into the break. In the second half, Ipswich’s captain, Samy Morsy opened the scoring in the 72nd minute for the visitors before Kayden Jackson doubled their lead minutes after as he slotted it past Cairns.
The first chance of the game fell to George Edmondson. Ipswich’s number five rose highest at the corner and produced a powerful header towards the goal, but thankfully it went wide of the mark.
A few minutes later Conor Chaplin found himself with a yard of space on the right-hand side of the pitch, which he used to cut inside and get an attempt off at goal, but it was nothing more than catching practice for Alex Cairns early on.
Carl Johnston, as he did on Tuesday night, had a lively start to the game. The midfielder was constantly getting on the ball and driving forward while trying to get Ellis Harrison involved in the game, but it wasn’t quite paying off for him in the first 20 minutes.
Danny Andrew was as threatening as ever going forward as he received the ball out wide on the edge of the box, he took a touch to set himself up and caused a problem for Walton who had to do get down early to deny the full-back from opening the scoring.
Fleetwood enjoyed a spell of pressure inside the opposition half where Andrew was involved once again, but his two attempted crosses from free kicks were slightly overhit.
Some superb defending from Clarke as he was at full stretch to deflect Joe Pigott’s well-struck effort wide of the goal. Town defended the corner well and any potential was relieved.
Another piece of fantastic defending, this time from Toto Nsiala, who stopped Kayden Jackson in the nick of time before the Ipswich man was able to get his effort off on goal.
Pigott managed to get his strike away this time and he very nearly put the away side in the lead in injury time of the first half. The forward’s effort rattled Cairns’ far post.
Andrew lofted a well-weighted cross into the box which found Clarke at the edge of the box – the centre-half perfectly struck a half volley which looked for all the world to be curling into the bottom right corner if not for Walton’s fingertips.
Town’s number five was the man to win the header from the resulting corner as well, but his header was just a bit too soft to worry Walton again.
Morsy gave the away side the lead after he latched onto the end of Wes Burns’ cut back from the byline – the midfielder slotted the ball into the bottom left corner.
Dan Butterworth almost made an immediate impact off the bench as Harrison played the winger through on goal but his attempted effort was blocked.
Shortly afterward, Jackson doubled the lead. Jackson was played in behind the defence and he placed the ball past Cairns to make it 2-0 on the day.
Town XI: Cairns (GK), Andrew (C), Jules, Clarke, Harrison (Morris 88’), Camps, Pilkington (Hayes 66’), Johnson, Lane (Butterworth 79’), Nsiala, Johnston
Subs not used: O’Hara (GK), G. Garner, Biggins, Boyle
Ipswich XI: Walton (GK), Edmondson, Woolfenden, Burns, Pigott (Bakinson 66’), Jackson (Bonne 84’), Chaplin, Thompson, Celina (Norwood 90’), Donacien, Morsy (C)
Subs not used: Hladky (GK), Penney, Aluko, Burgess