Darren Bent shrugged off the distraction of his midweek arrest to put Ipswich
in pole position in their Division One play-off semi-final against West Ham with
the matchwinner in the first leg at Portman Road.
The Ipswich striker scored his 16th goal of the season while out on bail over
an alleged incident involving an air gun.
West Ham had weathered an early storm in the first half, when Andy Melville
cleared Ian Westlake's shot off the goal-line with goalkeeper Stephen Bywater
stranded in no-man's land.
But the Hammers could not long resist the home side's combination of pace and
power and Bent broke the deadlock after Richard Naylor hit the crossbar in the
57th minute to leave West Ham with work to do in the return leg on Tuesday.
The visitors were unbeaten in four games but they lacked the play-off
experience of Ipswich, who have reached this stage of the season on five
previous occasions and started well, with Tommy Miller firing wide from 25 yards
out in the opening moments.
Ipswich were buzzing with invention and threat, and Tomas Repka did well to
block Bent's effort from a Jim Magilton corner. Jermaine Wright and Westlake
also had efforts go narrowly wide.
Marlon Harewood struck the side-netting in the 12th minute for West Ham after
good link-up play between Connolly and Bobby Zamora, but it was all Ipswich, who
had a shot from Magilton deflected wide off Andy Melville before Bywater was
forced to save low from Bent.
When the visitors began to settle they looked dangerous, and they almost
caught Ipswich out on a fast break out of defence in the 24th minute. Connolly
carried the ball forward and fed Zamora, and his shot from 20 yards out beat the
despairing dive of Ipswich keeper Kelvin Davis but went narrowly wide of the
upright.
Bent then caused panic in the West Ham defence in the 29th minute by tempting
Bywater well off his goalline and pulling the ball back to Westlake, but
Melville cleared his resulting shot off the line.
Almost immediately Zamora hit an effort across the face of goal at the other
end after being teed up by Connolly from Matthew Etherington's low centre.
But Wright hit the side-netting with a cracking volley from 25 yards from
Magilton's corner in first-half stoppage-time to underline the home side's
dominance.
Bent sent the ball over the crossbar for Ipswich following good work along the
left touchline by Westlake after the break, but he did not have long to wait
before breaking the deadlock.
Wright stormed into the penalty area to feed Naylor, whose shot rebounded back
off the crossbar in the 57th minute. Repka failed to control it and ricocheted
kindly for Bent, who nodded home from six yards.
Carrick forced a diving save from Davis with a curling free-kick with barely
10 minutes remaining, and substitute Jobi McAnuff then had a well-struck shot
blocked as the Hammers regrouped.
The fightback was momentarily halted by the appearance on the pitch of a
protester who had to be removed by stewards, but in reality West Ham had little
left to offer the 4,500 travelling fans.
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