IF Heavyweight boxing champion Fabio Wardley is to achieve his dream of fighting at his beloved Portman Road, then maybe Kieran McKenna can stick him in Ipswich’s back four.
The Tractor Boys’ defence certainly needs beefing up after they gave away a couple of sloppy goals to surrender to their fellow relegation battlers.
British and Commonwealth champion Wardley wants to step into the ring at his beloved Ipswich Town, but for now he had to make do with parading his belts on the pitch at half time.
His appearance failed to inspire a second-half comeback, after carbon copy strikes from Iliman Ndiaye after 17 minutes and Michael Keane five minutes before the break had set Everton on the way to their first win on the road since last December.
Electrical issues with the turnstiles delayed fans’ entry to Portman Road and kick-off was pushed back 15 minutes – but what’s another quarter of an hour to Ipswich fans who had gone 8,214 days since their team’s last win in the top flight.
That was in April 2002 when Darren Bent’s goal beat Middlesbrough 1-0, but that season saw the Tractor Boys finish third from bottom, four points adrift of Sunderland and they were relegated along with Derby and Leicester.
They should have seen their team take the lead after only five minutes when Wes Burns burst down the right and squared the ball to Jack Clarke, but he embarrassingly skied the ball high and wide from 12 yards.
It was Everton’s turn to waste a good chance two minutes later when Dominic Calvert-Lewin intercepted a sloppy pass by Kalvin Phillips, but he rushed his shot and the ball was turned behind by goalkeeper Arijanet Muric.
Ipswich were punished for more slack defending when they failed to deal with Jack Harrison’s cross. Burns was robbed by Ndiaye, who turned and fired the ball into the far top corner for his second League goal for the Toffees.
Michael Oliver awarded Ipswich a penalty after Clarke twisted and turned inside the box and went down when tussling with Dwight McNeil, but after being advised by VAR to review the incident on the pitch side monitor, the referee overturned the decision.
Ipswich’s defending from a corner again left a lot to be desired when McNeil fed Keane and he had the time and space to rifle the ball into the roof of the net from close range. It was also a second League goal of the season for the 31-year-old.
In the week that the Football Association overlooked all Englishmen in favour of appointing German Thomas Tuchel as manager of the national team, this battle between two highly regarded English-born bosses was not the best advert for defending.
Everton boss Dyche suggested before the game that he wasn’t “trendy enough” to have been considered for that role.
“I don’t think I am an on-trend manager,” said Dyche. “It’s not because of my ability or knowledge, that’s for sure, as I’ve had 10 years in the Premier League and I know the game inside out.
“The perception has to be right and I don’t think I am right for that at the moment.”
Ipswich’s endeavour was not in question, but they remain naïve to life in the Premier League, and the fact that Dyche has 10 years’ experience on McKenna showed, as Muric had a busier second half than his Everton counterpart Jordan Pickford.
Dyche may not be trendy, but he gave Toffees fans a reason to party, while Town set a new record of failing to win any of their opening eight league games at the start of a top-flight season. They will find themselves in the bottom three if Crystal Palace win on Monday night.
