Josh Coburn earned what could prove to be a priceless point with a second-half equaliser as Millwall recorded a 1-1 Championship draw against promotion-rivals Ipswich at Portman Road.
The Tractor Boys took the lead late in the first half through Jack Clarke with visitors responding early in the second period through Coburn for a share of the spoils.
The result kept the two teams in third and fourth respectively, two points behind second-placed Middlesbrough, who drew 0-0 at Blackburn, but with Ipswich having a game in hand.
Clarke weaved his way through the centre of the pitch in the third minute and fed Ben Johnson on the left, whose fierce cross into the penalty area failed to find an Ipswich attacker.
Moments later, on-loan Sunderland midfielder Dan Neil went close to opening the scoring with a shot which skimmed past Millwall goalkeeper Anthony Patterson.
At the other end, Christian Walton had to parry away a chance from Camiel Neghli as the Lions countered down the left.
The ball had to be cleared off the Millwall goal line in the ninth minute as Town won a free-kick down the left where Johnson delivered a cross and Darnell Furlong made good contact with the ball but visiting captain Jake Cooper was able to clear.
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Jack Clarke found space on the edge of the Millwall penalty area and drilled a low shot past Anthony Patterson.
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Camiel Neghli produced a wonderful cross into the Ipswich area and Josh Coburn hammered home a leveller from close range.
Ipswich were having the lion’s share of possession and Patterson fumbled the ball following a long-range effort from Johnson but there was no home threat to follow up the rebound.
The Lions shot stopper was called into action moments later when an acrobatic effort from Ivan Azon was unbelievably tipped wide following another cross from Johnson during a pulsating opening 30 minutes.
But leading scorer Clarke gave the Tractor Boys a deserved opening goal in the 41st minute. He picked up the ball just outside the penalty area from Azor Matusiwa and weaved his way into a shooting position, firing low and hard past a despairing and unsighted Patterson from 25 yards.
Millwall enjoyed a perfect start to the second half when they equalised through Coburn in the 50th minute.
Neghli muscled Furlong off the ball, his cross evaded Ipswich defender Jacob Greaves and allowed the Millwall striker to fire home from close range.
The ball was in the back of the Ipswich net again but referee Michael Salisbury ruled that Town goalkeeper Walton was fouled on the goal line by Coburn.
Furlong powered a header just past the post from a corner and from another set-piece Neil’s shot from the edge of the penalty area took a deflection, which carried the ball just past the post.
Millwall struck the crossbar late on through substitute Mihailo Ivanovic – following a goalmouth scramble – as the visitors sought the winning goal but the two sides settled for a point apiece.
The managers
Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna:
“In reality I thought we should win the game and I’m disappointed we didn’t win the game.
“I thought (our) first-half performance was excellent and I’m really, really pleased with that, every aspect of it apart from probably the last execution to go and be two or three nil up at half-time because I think our level of dominance and the general performance was good enough for that.
“A little bit disappointed that we didn’t open up more of a margin.
“Disappointed that we didn’t go and kill the game off in the second half because they came out and put two up front and went man-to-man and locked on and we had so much space to break through.
“When they do that we know they are a big threat and are always going to be capable of scoring a goal.
“They’re always going to be a threat putting balls into the box and on set-plays and we’re disappointed with ourselves that we didn’t go and execute better on our transition moments and the moments when we broke the pressure to go and get the second or third goal and really put the game to bed.”
Millwall’s Alex Neil:
“Ipswich were the better team first half and I didn’t think that we got a foothold into the game. I thought we were a bit panicky, we didn’t move the ball well.
“We pressed the way we normally press but to be fair to them, I knew they were going to work on a lot of rotations to try and free up that spare player in the middle and they found them more often than not.
“The only thing I will say is that they score the goal and (goalkeeper) Pat (Anthony Patterson) has only one other good save, other than that I didn’t think there were loads of chances but if anybody was going to score it was going to be them not us.
“I wasn’t best pleased at half-time. They played better and we needed to do something to get back into the game.
“I think the (Ipswich) goal was the catalyst.
“I think if it was 0-0, I don’t know what I would have done at that point but I think when they score, we need to do something to get back into the game and we went double aggressive on it and we went one-on-one on the pitch.”
