WOOD HEADER SINKS IPSWICH

WOOD HEADER SINKS IPSWICH

United make it four consecutive victories with 1-0 win at Elland Road...

UNITED 1 (Wood 35), IPSWICH 0

United team: Green, Ayling, Jansson, Bartley, Taylor, Phillips, O’Kane, Hernandez (Mowatt 82), Dallas (Grimes 86), Sacko (Roofe 76), Wood. Subs: Silvestri, Coyle, Cooper, Antonsson.

Ipswich team: Bialkowski, Chambers, Webster (Emmanuel 56), Berra, Knudsen, Ward (Bru 75), Skuse, Douglas, Lawrence, Sears, Pitman (Best 25). Subs: Gerken, Grant, Kenlock, Dozzell.

Referee: Stephen Martin

Att: 22,554 (902 Ipswich)

Booked: Bru, Berra (Ipswich)

Chris Wood’s towering first-half header – his fourth goal in as many matches – saw United make it four consecutive victories as Ipswich Town were beaten 1-0 at Elland Road on Saturday afternoon.

Wood guided Charlie Taylor’s 35th-minute cross beyond Town goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski to take his tally to seven for the season and ensure United’s rich vein of form continued with another deserved three points.

Garry Monk’s side started the game brightly and only the woodwork denied them an opener after just 10 minutes, Wood striking the far post with a ferocious strike from 20 yards out.

At the opposite end, Cole Skuse’s deflected effort almost crept in as it rolled inches wide, but United were looking the more dangerous of the two sides as they probed for an opener – something which duly came 10 minutes before the interval.

Some patient build-up play inside the Ipswich half before the ball was worked out to Taylor down the left, allowing the full-back to deliver an inch-perfect cross for Wood to nod home and break the deadlock in front of the South Stand.

Wood twice threatened to double his tally on the stroke of half-time before the New Zealand international had the best chance of the second half’s early exchanges, seeing his effort blocked by the onrushing Bialkowski after being slotted into the area by Pablo Hernandez.

Hadi Sacko then passed up a glorious opportunity to make it two, firing wide from inside the area after Wood’s initial strike had been blocked into his path, before Bialkowski was at full-stretch to tip over a bending Kalvin Phillips free-kick which looked destined for the top corner.

Ipswich attempted to assert some pressure on the United goal in a desperate bid to snatch a late equaliser, but Freddie Sears’ wayward free-kick was as close as they came as the hosts saw the game out to continue their rise up the Championship table.

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