Ipswich Town 1 Birmingham City 0

IPSWICH Town boosted their promotion hopes with a battling victory over Birmingham and kept their 14th clean sheet of the season.

Ipswich defenders Mark Venus, Tony Mowbray and Manuel Thetis were outstanding, although Frenchman Thetis was booked for the ninth time this season.

Birmingham had enough possession to have deserved a point, but they lacked guile in the penalty area, despite the skills of Peter Ndlovu. Bobby Petta, for whom Ipswich accepted a £500,000 bid from Barnsley a couple of months ago, scored his first goal of the season to earn Ipswich victory after 16 minutes. The Dutchman, who is refusing to sign a new contract, collected a free-kick from Venus and scored with a left-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Both sides were denied first-half penalties. In the 26th minute, Petta appeared to be fouled by Gary Ablett and, before the interval, Thetis pushed Nicky Forster near the byline.

Birmingham brought on striker Paul Furlong to play alongside Forster in the second-half and soon took territorial control. In the 54th minute, Ndlovu rounded Adam Tanner and forced Richard Wright to save well at the near post.

Ipswich lived dangerously, with Ndlovu only just wide with an 18-yard drive in the 58th minute. Ipswich withdrew Petta after 65 minutes and replaced him with Richard Naylor, with James Scowcroft dropping into midfield.

Ipswich attacks were few and far between, but there was drama in injury-time when Naylor broke into the penalty area and appeared to be tripped by Martin Grainger. Instead of awarding a spot-kick, referee Mike Jones booked Naylor for diving, a decision which video evidence suggested was wrong.

Daily Telegraph