Alan Judge and Luke Woolfenden goals bury hopeless Blackpool as Ipswich end their poor run of form

Paul Lambert handed full debuts to both Luke Matheson and Troy Parrott while Josh Harrop featured off the bench as the Blues cruised to a win against Blackpool.

In the first-half, chances for either side were few and far between and it wasn’t until the 43rd minute that the home side broke the deadlock through Alan Judge.

Miles Kenlock played a beautiful crossfield pass to Judge who had acres of space to run into on the wing, the midfielder touched the ball out in front of him and as the ball bobbled off the surface. He volleyed a low shot from the edge of the box into the bottom left corner, leaving Chris Maxwell no chance in goal.

The standout player of the first-half was debutant striker Troy Parrott. The 19-year-old was involved with everything good that Ipswich did in attack and his speed both on and off the ball proved to be too much to handle for the Blackpool defence as the Irishman broke through the defence multiple times.

It was an unlikely scorer who doubled the Ipswich lead. Luke Woolfenden scored his first goal of the season just after half-time to seal the victory. The centre-back rose highest at the back post as a deep corner was swung in and the Englishman squeezed the ball in at the tightest of angles.

One area that Ipswich were much stronger in on Saturday afternoon was their set-pieces. Both centre-backs Woolfenden and Mark McGuiness dominated at set plays all and the score could’ve been 4 or even 5-0 if Maxwell didn’t pull off some excellent saves to deny the pair.

Ipswich captain Luke Chambers was dropped from the team for the first time since August 2019, however, the decision from Lambert was proven to be a smart one as his replacement Luke Matheson helped the Blues to a clean sheet as well as three points.

The debutant had a faultless game in defence except for a yellow card he picked up for a late slide tackle in the second-half, with the right-back looking at home in the back four after only one week at the club.

One Ipswich player who’s performances often go under the radar is Thomas Holy, who had another impeccable performance in goal. The goalkeeper kept his eighth clean sheet of the season as he made some fantastic reaction saves to keep the Tangerines out.

Although the Blackpool side tested Holy on a few occasions, the Seasiders never really looked like scoring against an Ipswich side who performed far better than they have in recent weeks, as the Tractor Boys ended their poor run of form with a comfortable 2-0 win.

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