Before Sunday, Ipswich had not won a Premier League match since April 2002
Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap scored at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
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This sweet taste of Premier League victory has been a long time coming for Ipswich. More than 22 years they have waited. And of all the places they might have expected it to arrive they would not have dared to dream it would be Tottenham.
It was the club where Kieran McKenna served in the youth ranks and where his coaching journey began after injury curtailed his playing career.
And at home, Ange Postecoglou’s team have been strong, winning seven of their eight previous home games this season. Their only blemish came in the North London Derby against Arsenal but this defeat will hurt almost as much.
Spurs were booed as the away end erupted at the final whistle. McKenna’s team survived a tense and nervous eight minutes of stoppage time as they protected a slender lead.
They were 2-0 up at half-time thanks to goals by Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap and defended heroically to get over the line and players in Suffolk pink collapsed exhausted to the turf at the end having secured their first Premier League win since April 2002, against Middlesbrough, when Darren Bent was on the scoresheet.
Ipswich deserved their lead when it came via Szmodics, his third goal since the move south from Blackburn and another for the collection of awful goals Spurs are quite capable of conceding.
Delap challenged Cristian Romero in the air for a cross delivered from the right by Jens Cajuste and helped it on although not with a glancing flick. In fact, the ball looped into the air off the shoulders of the Ipswich centre forward.
Szmodics, alive to the situation, adjusted his position, with back to goal and lined up an inventive finish, hooking the dropping ball back over his own head as he fell and saw it skid into the corner. Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson stood and watched.
Spurs have conceded in 13 of their 15 Premier League home games in 2024. It is thrilling to watch them but they are so soft at the back, especially with Micky van de Ven’s pace on recovery.
McKenna had tweaked his team for his return to the club where he started his coaching journey, with full-back Ben Johnson deployed wide on the right with a nod towards the extra protection his team would require against Tottenham’s relentlessness in attack but they started positively.
Szmodics forced a save from Guglielmo Vicario within seconds. Again, he was quickest to react to a deflected cross. Dara O’Shea went close from the corner which followed, and his central defensive partner Cameron Burgess headed another corner against the bar.
Spurs winger Johnson, son of Ipswich legend David Johnson, went close at the other end when he darted in from the right to reach a teasing cross from Heung-min Son, only to see it fall narrowly wide. All this within the first 10 minutes.
Ari Muric saved from Son and Domnic Solanke as Spurs found a better rhythm and also reacted well to keep out a cross deflected towards his own goal by Leif Davis.
Ipswich stretched their lead just before half time, this time a wonderful sweeping counterattack which Rodrigo Bentancur ought to have killed in midfield. Bentancur allowed Omari Hutchinson to wriggle away from him and release Davis down the left.
Davis found Szmodics and his low cross was pushed by Spurs keeper Vicario onto his teammate Radu Dragusin and the ricochet left Delap with the simple task of crashing a shot into an open net from a matter of centimetres.
Tottenham returned for the second half with renewed purpose, kicking towards the South Stand. They have summoned fightbacks before.
Muric made a fine save to turn a curling Son shot wide and Solanke had the ball in the net only to find it ruled out by a VAR intervention. It came from a corner, won in the air by Bentancur and swept towards goal on the half volley by Solanke.
Ipswich players appealed immediately but only the replays made clear how the shot had taken an inadvertent deflection off Solanke’s left hand.
Referee Darren England was in charge at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first time since his VAR blunder saw a Luis Diaz goal for Liverpool disallowed for offside despite being onside, in October last year.
There was more VAR tension for England as he waited for John Brooks to rule on a Spurs appeal for a penalty. Pedro Porro’s cross struck Davis on a hand but no penalty was given.
Rodrigo Bentancur pulled one back, a terrific header at the near post to convert a corner whipped in by Porro.
The home crowd sensed a comeback and Postecoglou’s team poured forward, committed to three up front with two number 10s in behind and the full-backs pushed as high as the wingers.
Defensively, they had the centre-halves and a sitting midfielder.
Ipswich did what they could to threaten on the break but were more concerned with disrupting the game.
Postecoglou shook his head as George Hirst demanded treatment almost as soon as he came on to replace Delap, while the rest of the visiting team decamped to the side of the pitch for an impromptu timeout with McKenna.
Werner skied a chance and Muric saved from Solanke from a tight angle but there was no way back this time.
MATCH FACTS & PLAYER RATINGS
Spurs (4-3-3): Vicario 6; Porro 5, Romero 5.5, Dragusin 6, Udogie 5; Kulusevski 6, Bentancur 6.5 (Bissouma 84), Sarr 6 (Werner 66, 5); Johnson 6 (Maddison 84), Solanke 6.5, Son 5
Subs not used: Forster, Gray, Bergvall, Spence, Davies, Lankshear
Goals: Bentancur 69
Bookings: Bentancur
Manager: Ange Postecoglou 6
Ipswich (4-2-3-1): Muric 7; Tuanzebe 6.5, O’Shea 7.5, Burgess 7.5, Davis 7; Morsy 7, Cajuste 7 (Luongo 90+2); Johnson 6.5, Hutchinson 8, Szmodics 7.5 (J Clarke 70, 6); Delap 7 (Hirst 70, 6)
Subs not used: Walton, H Clarke, Woolfenden, Burns, Chaplin, Townsend
Goals: Szmodics 31, Delap 43
Bookings: Tuanzebe, Delap, Johnson, Davis, Hutchinson
Manager: Kieran McKenna 7.5
Referee: Darren England 6.5
Attendance: 61,505