Struggling Ipswich claims huge win at Bournemouth
Ipswich Town saw off a faltering Bournemouth 2-1 to claim its first Premier League win of 2025 and offer itself a glimmer of hope in its bid to stay up.
Nathan Broadhead’s first Premier League goal put the visitors ahead in the 34th minute of thisclash at Vitality Stadium, just moments after Bournemouth had gone close at the other end, with Antoine Semenyo and Alex Scott forcing Alex Palmer into making two crucial saves.
Liam Delap doubled Ipswich's lead on the hour, playing a one-two with Conor Townsend before lashing a powerful first-time shot into the net.
Bournemouth thought it had a penalty when Semenyo was brought down by Axel Tuanzebe, but the on-field decision was overturned after a video assistant referee (VAR) review, with the contact shown to have been outside the penalty area.
Evanilson initiated hopes of a comeback when he pounced on a rebound from Lewis Cook’s effort in the 67th minute, but Ipswich held firm to claim just its fourth league win of the season.
Tenth-placed Bournemouth has now lost four of its past five league games, in a further blow to its hopes of qualifying for Europe, while 18th-place Ipswich is now nine points from safety ahead of a crunch clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Kieran McKenna wants his Ipswich Town side to control what it can as it continues to push for a remarkable salvation story.
"Really proud, a bit of relief after the last 10 minutes when everyone is so desperate to get the result over the line," he said after the win.
"Very proud of the performance in terms of how hard we worked, the quality of the goals we scored, some of our play and the resilience we showed defensively.
"We've been waiting for a win in the league, that can happen, but everyone has stuck together, stuck at it. There's a lot of belief, and you can see togetherness in us as a team.
"Let's see. We can only control us. Coming into the last quarter of the season, we want to make this the best quarter of our season. Where it leaves us, let's see.
"[Wolverhampton Wanderers] are a team one position above us in the league, we can only control our performance and let's hope we get that result."
The Ipswich boss was also full of praise for Delap, who scored his 11th goal of the season.
"A fantastic team move, Delap's goal is the best goal anyone will score [at Vitality Stadium] this season," McKenna said.
"[Bournemouth] are hard to play against and play through. Liam took it in customary fashion."
As for Bournemouth, coach Andoni Iraola expressed frustration at his side's struggles in defence, with the Cherries now having lost four of their past five Premier League matches.
"Now everything is costing us a lot. We need a lot of chances to score goals," he said.
It compounded a tough week for Iraola’s side, which was eliminated from the FA Cup by Manchester City at the weekend.
"When you are in a bad turn of results like we are now, everyone goes against you. Even the penalty is a little bit outside, the deflections go for them, the clearances are off the line. But you have to persist," Iraola added.
"For us, it's a difficult result, but at the end of the day, we will keep believing in our offensive players, support them more on the other side.
"But in the game today, we cannot concede two goals. If we are not able to score, finish with a clean sheet. But definitely not concede the goals."