A 90th-minute winner from Dutch international Martijn Reuser gave Ipswich
Town's promotion hopes a tremendous boost and left Fulham with an uphill task if
they hope to claim a play off place.
It looked as though Fulham would hold out against almost persistent pressure
before Jim Magilton split the Fulham defence and Reuser, on loan from Vitesse
Arnhem, was through on his own to slip a low shot past brave keeper Maik
Taylor.
Ipswich played some superb football but were denied by the brilliance of
Taylor who brought off a succession of top class saves.
Little was seen of Fulham as an attacking force until the closing stages after
they introduced new American signing Eddie Lewis who twice forced Ipswich
goalkeeper Richard Wright into top class saves.
It was a thrilling finish to a match in front of a near capacity crowd. The
kick off had been delayed 15 minutes because of a tail back on the road from
London.
There was a tremendous atmosphere and Ipswich, who had failed to score in
their previous three home games, created loads of chances and it was amazing
they had to wait to so long for the breakthrough.
Tony Mowbray headed wide for Ipswich from a great opportunity in the 28th
minute after a corner from Jamie Clapham had been nodded on by Matt Holland.
Fulham were livened by a heavy hailstorm on the half hour but their only shot
of the half came from Kevin Ball just before the interval which Richard Wright
saved under the bar.
Ipswich reverted to 4-4-2 after the interval and in the 52nd minute Clapham
had a left foot drive brilliantly turned aside by Taylor.
Mowbray sent a header floating across the face of the Fulham goal and in the
58th minute Taylor was well placed to hold a diving header from David Johnson
from a cross by Mark Venus.
A spell of Fulham pressure saw Gary Croft clear a header from Karlheinz Riedle
off the line from a corner by Steve Hayward and then Alan Melville had a shot
charged down for Fulham.
Then it was Ipswich on the attack again with a close range header from Johnson
rebounding off Taylor's knees.
Fulham made a double substitution in the 65th minute with the introduction of
Lewis and the Dane Bjarne Goldbaek in place of Riedle and Simon Morgan.
Taylor rescued Fulham again in the 71st minute when he touched a close range
header from Mowbray over the bar from a corner by Clapham.
Teams:
Ipswich: R. Wright, Croft, McGreal, Mowbray,
Venus (Stockwell 81), Clapham, J. Wright (Reuser 76), Holland,
Magilton, Scowcroft (Naylor 75), Johnson.
Subs Not Used: Branagan, Brown.
Booked: Venus.
Goals: Reuser 90.
Fulham: Taylor, Finnan, Melville, Coleman,
Morgan (Goldbaek 65), Phelan, Ball (Davis 71), Hayward,
Peschisolido, Riedle (Lewis 65), Hayles.
Subs Not Used: Hahnemann, Symons.
Booked: Hayles, Hayward.
Att: 20,168
Ref: T Bates (Stoke on Trent).
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