Football: Mr Wright swoops to end a spot of bother.
ENGLAND Under-21 keeper Richard Wright got himself out of a spot of bother with a brilliant penalty save for notorious slow starters Ipswich.The Suffolk side, who have overcome miserable openings to the last two seasons before reaching the First Division play-offs, might have been a goal down after just two minutes.
Grimsby had a great chance to mark their return to the division after promotion in style with an early goal.
Ipswich centre back Tony Mowbray allowed a through ball to slip under his foot to set Lee Nogan clear on goal.
Wright came out and appeared to get a touch of the ball before striker Nogan went tumbling in the box.
The keeper escaped a booking and immediately redeemed himself by standing up strongly to block the spot kick by Kingsley Black.
And then in the second half Wright showed his class with a wonder save to deny Grimsby's debutant Stacy Coldicott the winner they deserved. It came as the Mariners took the second half honours without being able to force a breakthrough against a generally disappointing Ipswich outfit.
The home side lacked the vital composure in front of goal although manager Alan Buckley will try to solve the problem this week by reviving the deal to sign Lee Ashcroft from his former club West Brom.
Buckley is prepared to allow target man Steve Livingstone join Scottish club St Johnstone, but on this occasion his side missed another Albion old boy, winger Kevin Donovan.
He was ruled out through injury and as well as being last season's top scorer, he is also the club's regular penalty taker. But Black almost atoned for his miss when he cut in dangerously to test Wright with his side's only other incisive attack of the first half.
At that point Ipswich looked the more likely to break through and when the Grimsby defence were exposed by Bobby Petta's pace, they were relieved to see his drive deflected over the top.
Then Ipswich's new Dutch signing Marco Holster wasted a great opportunity to celebrate his first League game in England with a goal.
He was put through by the nippy David Johnson with the Mariners defence again all at sea, but weakly failed to hit the target.
It was left to Ipswich's highly-rated prospect Kieron Dyer to go closest to opening the scoring when he showed his skill in a tight situation after 31 minutes, but keeper Aidan Davison did well to spectacularly tip his dipping 20-yard volley on to the bar.
But Grimsby stormed back after the interval and looked far more businesslike.
Booked
Again they almost started a half with a goal. This time Tony Gallimore crossed from the left following a short corner and skipper Paul Groves' low volley flew just past the post.
Petta was then controversially booked for allegedly diving in the penalty box as he seemed to have his legs whipped away by John McDermott.
But Ipswich never looked like finding a way through, even though manager George Burley brought on substitute Alex Mathie to renew last season's prolific goal scoring partnership with Johnson.
And it was left to Wright at the other end to keep his side in the game when he brilliantly flung himself to his right 16 minutes from time to turn over a stinging drive from Coldicott.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Richard Wright
MATCH STATS
GRIMSBY v IPSWICH
GOALS
SHOTS ON TARGET
SHOTS OFF TARGET
BLOCKED SHOTS
CORNERS
FOULS CONCEDED
OFFSIDES
RED CARDS
YELLOW CARDS
0
7
5
2
8
124
0
1
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| Title Annotation: | Sport |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Aug 10, 1998 |
| Words: | 590 |
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