Ipswich Town 2-2 Aston Villa: Premier League – live reaction

That’s it from me, but check back here and on site for our match report. Of course, we’ve also got you covered for the late game, but otherwise, peace out.

Villa, then stay fifth, two points off leaders Liverpool, while Ipswich move up from 18th to 15th. If they keep playing to that level, they’ve a really good chance of staying up.

That was a really fun match, Liam Delap scoring twice more to earn his side a highly creditable draw. Villa miss the opportunity to go top but will know they didn’t deserve more than a point.

90+6 min Now Philogene goes down the right for Villa but he’s easily dispossessed and that’ll be that.

90+5 … but VAR wants a look at a handball … quickly deciding there wasn’t one. So the corner comes in, a header over the top looks dangerous, and there are, I think, three attackers in offside positions.

90+5 min Two defenders miss their clearances, Duran’s going behind, so here comes yet another corner…

90+4 min Villa are holding on! Ipswich force another corner, and this place will lift off if they can find a winner..

93 min Ipswich go short and Davis works it back to Taylor, on the edge. He unfurls a curler, but it’s straight at Martinez who saves easily enough.

90+3 min Ipswich win a corner down the right…

90+1 min Two further changes for Ipswich: Longo and Szmodics for Delap and Clarke.

90 min We’ll have five additional minutes.

90 min Ipswich have again played well, but could really use a win – though, as I type, Duran accelerates into space, hungry like the wolf. But just as the reflex of shooting looks to take him away form this ordinary world, he comes undone when Greaves slides in to make a terrific tackle.

89 min But here’s Barkley picking up possession 22 or so yards out, wellying a shot that Muric fists away.

88 min Villa, who’ve scored four late goals so fat this season – no one else has more – haven’t got near the Ipswich goal in quite some time.

86 min “This game has made me feel at least six months younger than I did at the start,” advises Simon McMahon. “But then I aged a year yesterday following my own team’s topsy-turvy 3-3 draw, so you know, swings and roundabouts.”

Imagine if age were fluid. Sorry Mr T.H.E Man, I’m four years old today.

85 min And Buendia lofts a donkey over the bar.

85 min It’s not easy to get this ball up and down…

83 min Clever oblique pass from Tielemans into Duran, who accepts on the half-turn … so Taylor flattens him. Free-kick on the edge, left of centre, and Villa replace Digne, Tielemans and Watkins with Barkley, Buendia and Maatsen before it can be taken. Digne is not best pleased; Buendia will go for goal…

81 min Here come Ipswich again! A clever pass out of defence from Taylor finds Burns, who draws a man towards him only to delay his offload to Clarke, haring alongside … such that when the square-pass comes, it’s not in front of him and his low shot is blocked easily enough. That was a big chance.

79 min Morsy carries forward and finds Taylor, who finds Delap roaming in the box. He can’t quite manage his roulette, but attempting it shows just how confident he’s feeling.

78 min Onana, though, who’s been quiet today, heads clear then Hutchinson hammers high. Villa are under pressure!

77 min Ipswich are coming now, another left-wing cross eventually knocked behind for a corner which Clarke’ll take.

76 min Can either side find a winner? Delap, of course, is on a hat-trick, and it says something about Manchester City’s set-up that it produced both him and Cole Palmer, neuther of whom were deemed good enough for the champions.

74 min Greaves fouls someone, I missed who, and is booked.

Konsa misplaces a pass and Ipswich counter, Hutchinson finding Delap out on the left. He immediately sets off for goal and, when Diego Carlos comes to challenge, a stepover inside sends him dashing in that direction to build himself a new home, while Delap dashes outside and hammers a finish across Martinez! Liam Delap is on one!

View image in fullscreen

71 min Gosh, Morsy is late on Philogene, introducing studs to metatarsus; somehow, the ref refrains from flourishing a second yellow card, and though I want players staying on, I’m not certain I get the rationale there, because that tackle deserved a caution and almost always gets one.

69 min Double change for Ipswich, Taylor and Burns for Phillips and Ogbene.

67 min Again, Ipswich get Davis in space down the left, but with men in the middle, he opts to aim for the near post, slicing wide, when anything across goal might’ve allowed a rebound had Martinez not held the shot.

65 min “Is it just me or is this fixture is far more entertaining than yesterday’s turgid Liverpool match?” wonders Everton’s Mary Waltz.

I didn’t see all of that, but the Wolves goal was essential viewing. Otherwise, though, this game was excellent in the first half, less so since.

64 min And here come the changes: off go Bailey and Rogers, on come Philogene and Duran.

63 min The home fans try to get their team going, Duran and Philogene waiting to come on for Villa. That’s some exciting attacking depth they’ve got there.

61 min Clarke wedges a ball over the top and in behind, but Villa are well-drilled and commit to what their manager demands of them, their squeeze meaning no one can run through while remaining onside.

59 min Which manager will dip into his bench first? Neither is really doing very much so McKenna needs to make something happen, while Emery has midweek to consider. Meantime, Tuanzebe nods a high ball into the box across, it hits Tuanzebe – there are muted penalty appeals – and Morsy shoots wide form the edge.

57 min Morsy clatters Tielemans and, having already been booked, he needs to be careful.

57 min “Watkins’ leap,” says Daniel Smith, “Looks to be a combination of Dr. J(Julius Erving), and Michael Jordan; basically walking on air.”

56 min Ipswich build through midfield only for Delap to spread wide … to no one.

55 min Tielemans brings the ball clear and, in pursuit, Tuanzebe runs across the back of him, clipping heels; he’s booked.

53 min Davis again finds space, meeting a diags with a cushioned-volley-pass that sends Clarke away down the left. His cross is stuck behind for a corner … which comes to nowt.

51 min It’s been a scrappy start to the second half, which, with the insertion of brackets, viz A Scrappy Start (To The Second Half) sounds like a late-era-Britpop dirge-single.