Swindon Town’s final home match of the season ended in defeat, as James Norwood’s double earned Ipswich their first win since March.
Norwood scored in both halves, smoothly converting a penalty in the first-half before capitalising on a Town error to double the lead in the second-half to earn the points for Paul Cook’s side.
Brett Pitman forced a tense finish when he scored from a pin-point Jordon Garrick cross to bring The Reds back into the contest.
Swindon pushed hard for an equaliser, but it just would not quite fall for them as Ipswich held on to win their penultimate away match of the season.
First-half:
The first big chance of the half was created by The Reds; Jack Payne won back possession high up the pitch before slipping in Brett Pitman; but the Town captain’s effort was just wide.
Ipswich struggled with the Town press and were almost behind once more, after Matty Palmer won the ball back and laid the ball to Scott Twine and his 30-yard effort was parried uncomfortably by David Cornell.
The Tractor Boys grew into the game towards the mid-point of the first half and would have been in front if it were not for a great save by Lee Camp.
Teddy Bishop was put through one-on-one with only Camp to beat, but the Town goalkeeper used all his experience to block the ball away.
Minutes after, Armando Dobra had a golden opportunity to score the away side’s first goal in six matches; controlling a cross from Myles Kenlock, but he scuffed his effort wide.
Paul Cook’s side had grown in confidence from the early stages and Camp was required once more to keep the score level, producing an acrobatic save from Norwood’s driven effort.
Camp was Town’s busiest player in the closing stages and produced a miraculous, point blank save from Kane Vincent-Young, who met a dangerous cross from Andre Dozzell at the back post, but Camp spread himself denying the striker from three yards.
Undeterred, Ipswich continued to pile on the pressure and were rewarded with their first goal of the match, James Norwood slotting home a penalty after Jonathan Grounds tripped Flynn Downes in the penalty area.
Second-half:
Chances were very hard to come by in the first 15 minutes of the second-half with both teams lacking in creativity.
Then out of nowhere Ipswich doubled their lead, after an under-hit pass back to Camp by Twine left Norwood with an easy finish and the Blues captain scored his second of the match.
Ipswich’s second goal kickstarted the Reds back into life and ten minutes later, the deficit was halved.
Substitute Jordon Garrick drove down the right wing and cut the ball back to the lurking Brett Pitman, and the Town striker’s first-time effort slipped under Cornell into the net.
Seconds later and the away side had a glorious opportunity to reinstate their two-goal lead, after Troy Parrott got in behind substitute Taylor Curran who brought down the midfielder in the box.
Norwood stepped up to secure his hat-trick, but his side-footed penalty was way wide of the goal.
As Town pushed for an equaliser, Ipswich looked to exploit on the counterattack and had another strong chance to put the contest to bed.
Dozzell once again breezed through the Town midfield and played Parrott through the lines nicely, however, Camp was there once again to foil the one-on-one effort.
Town continued to push but it was not meant to be and Ipswich returned to East Anglia with the points.
