Ipswich 1 Wolves 2: Visitors fight from behind to snatch late win to take huge step towards Premier League survival

JORGEN STRAND LARSEN’S 85th-minute winner at Portman Road almost certainly sent Ipswich Town back to the Championship and ended this season’s relegation.

The Tractor Boys had hoped for a second win in four days to reduce the gap to their visitors to six points when Liam Delap prodded them into an early lead.

But just as it has so many times this season, Kieran McKenna’s side failed to hold onto a lead at Portman Road, conceding twice in the final 20 minutes to Pablo Sarabia and then Strand Larsen.

In the process, the gap between the sides became a yawning chasm of 12 points that is surely unbridgeable.

Wolves’ victory also means that Southampton will be relegated if they fail to win at Tottenham on Sunday.

The question coming into the game was whether it could possibly live up to December’s reverse fixture at Molineux and its gloriously chaotic ending which shaped the relegation battle in its own way.

Ipswich’s injury-time winner provoked a furious Wolves reaction at the final whistle which saw defender Rayan Ait-Nouri sent off and Matheus Cunha later banned for taking the spectacles off an Ipswich staff member.

Even more dramatically, Gary O’Neil lost his job as Wolves boss 24 hours later, paving the way for Vitor Pereira to step in and oversee a Wolves revival which had them nine points ahead of Ipswich at kick-off time in Suffolk.

There was plenty of passion cascading down from the sun-kissed stands at Portman Road, fuelled by Wednesday’s surprise by welcome victory at Bournemouth which kept alive Ipswich’s slim hopes of a miraculous escape.

Yet while the Tractor Boys sang, it was the visitors who made the early chances.

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First, Joao Gomes fed Jean-Ricner Bellegarde who cut inside but lost his cool and lifted his shot wastefully over the Ipswich bar.

Gomes was involved again in the 10th minute, slipping the ball to Bellegarde whose through ball invited Jorgen Strand Larsen to shoot. Ipswich keeper Alex Palmer calmly closed down the angle and beat away the Norway striker’s effort.

From the resulting Rayan Ait-Nouri corner, Toti sent in a looping header which Palmer carefully tipped over.

The importance of Palmer’s interventions was seen after 16 minutes when Ipswich took the lead, sending the Portman Road faithful into raptures.

Following a corner that was partially cleared, Axel Tuanzebe sent over a diagonal cross.

Dara O’Shea, who had stayed up, rose above Ait-Nouri and headed the ball across the six-yard area.

Naturally enough, it was Delap who reacted quickest to stab the ball beyond Wolves keeper Jose Sa.

The Ipswich fans know only too well this season that hope can be the most dangerous emotion in football.

Their side has surrendered too many leads and conceded too many late goals, especially at Portman Road, for a 1-0 lead ever to be considered safe.

Scoring after 16 minutes only extends that agony and Wolves might have equalised within five minutes had Toti not missed his kick under pressure from O’Shea when no more than five yards out.

The home side survived an even bigger scare eight minutes before the interval when Palmer, who has been a secure presence since being brought in from West Brom in January, almost committed a howler that would have scarred him forever.

Under no pressure, the Ipswich keeper tried to control a simple back-pass from Cameron Burgess, but allowed the ball to pass under his boot.

In desperation, Palmer scrambled back to his line and clawed the ball away just before it entered the net.

In doing so, he conceded an indirect free-kick on the six-yard line which Ipswich defended by placing all 11 players on the goal-kick and rushing out en masse to block Emmanuel Agbadou’s shot.

Wolves manager Vitor Pereira might have wondered why Palmer was not sent off when his action was a deliberately denying a goal-scoring opportunity by handling when he wasn’t allowed to do so without committing an offence.

The palpable second-half tension in the Portman Road air rose further when the impressive Gomes created space for a shot in the 50th minute and sent it thudding against the Ipswich post.

Just before the hour with Wolves pressing for the equaliser, the Ipswich defenders appeared to be frozen between playing the ball out of their area and hacking the ball to safety.

They fell in between both options and were grateful in the end that an almighty goalmouth scramble somehow ended in a goal-kick.

The Ipswich desperation did at least deny Wolves space for the most part. That was until 17 minutes from time.

Ait Nouri had just seen his shot saved by Palmer when Strand Larsen ran beyond the home defence.

He swivelled and picked out Sarabia who tried initially to find fellow substitute Rodrigo Gomes, but when that pass was blocked, he moved the ball to one side and whipped a low shot into the bottom corner.

Sarabia then turned provider five minutes before the end of normal time, turning Andre’s cross-field ball into the path of Strand Larsen to steer home the goal that all but guarantees Wolves another season in the Premier League.

Today’s defeat means the Tractor Boys have now lost six home games in a row, a stat not seen at the club since 1963.

They have also given away an unforgivable 23 points from winning positions.

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