Doncaster v Ipswich: Ipswich Town delivered a knockout performance on Boxing Day as woeful Doncaster Rovers were floored by the Brilliant Blues.
Had this been a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the contest with rounds to spare as Mick McCarthy’s classy side put in a heavyweight performance to demolish the hosts’ fragile confidence.
Town went into the game looking to stretch their unbeaten run to six games, against a team that had lost their last three games, conceding three goals on each occasion.
The hosts’ chief tormentors were Ryan Tunnicliffe and Daryl Murphy, while David McGoldrick notched his 10th and 11th goals of the season in a superb display.
There was no sign of what was to come in the opening exchanges with both teams lacking a cutting edge, however, Town took advantage of some awful home defending to score two first half-goals in five minutes, thanks to free headers from McGoldrick and Luke Chambers.
McGoldrick added a third early in the second and could have bagged his hat-trick, only to be denied by Ross Turnbull in the home goal.
A Mark Duffy free-kick aside that was tipped on to the bar by Dean Gerken, Town were rarely threatened and the scoreline could have been far more handsome, with Frank Nouble having a goal chalked off for offside and Luke Chambers’ late effort, after a lung-busting run, going narrowly wide.
See our gallery - top right to relive the highlights of the Boxing Day fixture.
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