A pair of Kamil Grosicki goals condemned Ipswich Town to a 2-0 home defeat by Hull City this afternoon.
The Pole grabbed his first of the afternoon after 14 minutes, when a Marc Pugh dummy opened up the Ipswich defence for the winger to find the net, before he added a second just after the break from outside the box.
The Blues had side bright periods of play and had spells of pressure, but David Marshall in the Hull goal was never truly tested as the hosts drew a disappointing blank.
A defeat for Millwall at Leeds means the gap to safety remains 13 points for the Blues, with Paul Lambert’s men having just seven games left to play.
The Town boss made three changes from the side which started against Nottingham Forest last time out, with ankle injury victims Matthew Pennington and Teddy Bishop replaced by Toto Nsiala and Trevoh Chalobah, while Kayden Jackson came in up front in place of Collin Quaner.
The Blues started well, forcing a succession of corners with neat play down the right, but less than 15 minutes in they were behind.
A flat ball inside was dummied by Marc Pugh, meaning the ball evaded Luke Chambers, fell to Fraizer Campbell who laid the ball off to Grosicki who applied the neat finish.
The Portman Road fell flat as their side fell behind once again and, while the Blues by no means threatened to blow the house down, they did give reason for their supporters to be excited on occasions.
James Bree’s crossing was a major source of attack, threatening on a few occasions from the right, most notably when Edwards headed back into danger for Jackson to bring down and fire at goal. Eric Lichaj was there to clear a certain goal off the line, before Marc Pugh repeated the tick with the final kick of the first-half to deny a glancing Edwards header.
The positive end to the first half didn’t last long though as, within four minutes of the restart, the visitors had doubled their lead.
It was Grosicki again who applied the finish, from the edge of the box, in off the post, after a bobbling ball had cruelly evaded Cole Skuse down the Ipswich right, allowing Jarrod Bowen to play a simple pass inside for the Pole to score.
The Blues huffed and puffed in response, with Jackson and Judge missing the target with efforts from the edge of the box, but they were unable to open the door before the full-time whistle blew.
Ipswich Town: Bialkowski; Bree, Chambers, Nsiala, Kenlock; Skuse (El Mizouni 74), Chalobah, Nolan (Dozzell 18); Edwards, Judge, Jackson (Quaner 61)
Subs: Gerken, Knudsen, Emmanuel, Downes
Hull City: Marshall; Kane, Burke (McKenzie 74), De Wijs, Lichaj; Batty, Irvine; Bowen, Pugh, Grosicki (Evandro 87); Campbell (Martin 37)
Subs: Long, Ridgewell, Stewart, Milinkovic
ATT: 15,720 (485 Hull fans)
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