Mustapha Carayol delights Ipswich boss with decisive strike at Deepdale - 7M sport

Mustapha Carayol delights Ipswich boss with decisive strike at Deepdale



Posted Sunday, February 25, 2018 by PA

Mustapha Carayol delights Ipswich boss with decisive strike at Deepdale

Mick McCarthy praised Mustapha Carayol after the winger climbed off his sickbed to score the winner in Ipswich’s 1-0 victory at Preston.

Carayol netted the only goal of the game to condemn North End to their first defeat in eight Sky Bet Championship games and just their second loss in 18.

It was his first Ipswich goal, and although the Gambian was replaced at half-time his contribution proved decisive.

Ipswich manager McCarthy also believed the victory at Deepdale came after a number of good performances from his players in recent times.

He said: “I’m delighted for Mustapha Carayol to get his goal. He’s had diarrhoea and sickness in the week. He could have had another 15 minutes but he’d run his race.

“I think that’s a culmination of really good performances. We should have been more than one up at half-time.

“It’s the Championship, I’ve never been anywhere where being tough and able to defend wasn’t a valuable thing. There have been three good performances over the last week. Today we’ve played well and won.”

Victory ended a winless run of three matches for the Tractor Boys who have not have lost a league game against Preston since 2010.

Carayol should have given Ipswich the lead on his first start for the club after eight minutes. The visitors broke from a Preston corner and Martyn Waghorn played Carayol through but the winger fired straight at Declan Rudd before poking the rebound wide from six yards.

But McCarthy’s side did take the lead after 21 minutes as Carayol made amends for his earlier miss.

Preston full-back Calum Woods hesitated in clearing, allowing Carayol to pinch the ball and slide it past Declan Rudd.

Ipswich could have doubled their lead on the half-hour mark as Carayol found Waghorn unmarked eight yards out, but Alan Browne denied the striker with a superb last-ditch block.

Preston boss Alex Neil had seen enough from his side, making a double substitution after just 37 minutes as Woods and Callum Robinson were hauled off and replaced by Josh Earl and Josh Harrop.

Neil’s men remained restricted to long-range efforts, Earl cutting in from the right touchline after 71 minutes and firing an effort at goal from 25 yards that was easily held by Bartosz Bialkowski.

Ipswich held on for the win and Neil was disappointed to see his side’s run come to an end.

Neil said: “I don’t think we played anywhere near the levels we can. I thought it was flat and we never really got going.

“I think how much we’ve demanded of the players and we’ve had three really tough fixtures which have taken a lot out of the players.

“I tried to spark something and if I’m honest it didn’t work. I feared this was coming after looking at the players yesterday. They looked tired.

“I will say that they have performed superbly well for me since I’ve been here. I won’t let one game today taint that.”

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