Ipswich's Late Drama Falls Short Against Everton

Ipswich have already made a habit of leaving it late this season. Sunderland felt it. Crystal Palace felt it. So when the board went up showing seven added minutes at Hill Dickinson Stadium, the away end braced for another dramatic twist.

It never came.

Zian Flemming, the match-winner against Palace, stepped off the bench with the script seemingly written for him again. Ipswich, down to 10 men and running on fumes, still found one last surge. The ball broke to Flemming in stoppage time, the chance they had been chasing. He leant back and lashed it over the bar. A huge moment, gone in a heartbeat.

The game still refused to die quietly. Centre-half Issa Diop, thrown forward in desperation, almost stole a point at the death. His late effort looked destined to sneak through, only for Jarrad Branthwaite and James Garner to hurl themselves in the way and smother the shot. That block felt as decisive as any goal.

Ipswich had done plenty to justify their belief in another comeback. Before the red card for Abdul Fatawu midway through the second half, they had gone toe-to-toe and forced Everton’s Jordan Pickford into four sharp saves. The England goalkeeper, freshly named again in Thomas Tuchel’s squad, stood between Town and another statement result.

The dismissal changed everything. With a man down, Ipswich were shoved back, forced to defend deeper and live off scraps on the counter. Yet they never completely folded, and Gary O'Neil will have seen enough in the fight, the organisation and the refusal to give in to take something real from the afternoon.

For O'Neil, whose father died earlier in the week, this was a draining watch on and off the pitch. He urged his side on in the closing stages as they chased an equaliser that always seemed just one clean pass away. They pushed, they gambled, they committed bodies forward. It was all effort, no reward.

Still, the wider picture offers a measure of comfort. Five games into their return to the top flight, Ipswich head into a three-week international break on six points, clear of the early-season scrap at the bottom. The late goals deserted them this time, but the resilience has not — and that might matter more over the months to come.