[christianu]

Heres the match report from there last meeting:

NEW YEAR DELIGHT AT IPSWICH

"IT’S a great start to the New Year for the Hammers, after Marlon Harewood’s early strike and a Matty Etherington goal in the last minute earned West Ham United a fantastic 2-0 win over Championship leaders Ipswich Town at Portman Road.

Alan Pardew was without the experienced duo of Teddy Sheringham and Steve Lomas, suffering respectively from ankle and calf injuries sustained at Rotherham on Tuesday. Fit-again Carl Fletcher returned to the midfield after missing two games with a groin problem, while Bobby Zamora earned a recall in attack, starting for the first time in five games.

West Ham made the perfect start to 2005, taking the lead with just 55 seconds on the clock. A short back-pass left Ipswich goalkeeper Kelvin Davis under pressure from the approaching Marlon Harewood, and as Davis tried to go around the Hammers striker Harewood robbed him of the ball and rolled it into the unguarded net.

On 17 minutes Alan Pardew’s side had the ball in the net again. After Zamora had won a free-kick, Etherington’s ball into the box was fired home by Hammers captain Nigel Reo-Coker from close range. But West Ham’s celebrations were cut short when referee Taylor ruled the goal out for offside.

Still Hammers swept forward, roared on by a passionate travelling contingent. Just five minutes later the hard-working Zamora slipped Gavin Williams in, but he shot straight at Davis from 12 yards out. The ball rebounded off the Ipswich goalkeeper and was smuggled clear from the circling Harewood.

With West Ham dominating, Stephen Bywater was nothing more than an interested spectator. He was partially woken after half an hour by a Darren Currie drive from the edge of the area, but gathered Ipswich’s first goal-bound effort with ease.

He then had to be alert to parry a treacherous Currie free-kick that had alluded everyone inside the Hammers penalty box.

Ipswich began to grow in confidence as the half progressed, encouraged by a crackling atmosphere at Portman Road. However, Hammers defence, which paired Tomas Repka and Malky Mackay in the heart of a back four, remained solid to send Alan Pardew’s side in 1-0 ahead at the break.

HT: 1-0

With the second-half just three minutes old West Ham were on the attack again. Reo-Coker found Etherington on the left, whose whipped cross would have found Zamora at the back post had Richard Naylor not intervened.

A similar chance at the other end saw Chris Powell intercept Shefki Kuqi’s cross under pressure from Tommy Miller.

The willing Bobby Zamora earned his fifth booking of the season seven minutes into the second-half for a foul on Fabian Wilnis, and will now face a one-match suspension. However, it failed to dampen the striker’s enthusiastic performance.
The Hammers weren’t the only ones letting their passions run high, though. On the hour Kuqi committed a foul on Carl Fletcher then proceeded to square up to the Hammers midfielder, receiving little reaction from Fletcher and a yellow card for his troubles.

Joe Royle brought on teenager Dean Bowditch for the ineffective Darren Bent, but still it was West Ham that made the running. On 64 minutes another dangerous Etherington free-kick was met by Zamora, but his header went straight at Kelvin Davis.

Zamora left the field seven minutes later to be replaced by Sergei Rebrov, just before Hayden Mullins received a yellow card for hauling down Bowditch.

The Ipswich forward was causing some nervous moments in West Ham’s defence and with ten minutes left he almost wriggled away from Fletcher, before the tenacious former Bournemouth player got back to make a tackle.

Stephen Bywater then had to make a smart block at his near post from Bowditch’s shot on the turn and did well to hold Jason De Vos’ late header.

With just a minute of normal time remaining Harewood’s cross was cleared only as far as Rebrov, who hammered in a shot that Davis could only parry at the feet of Etherington. The winger duly slotted home from close range to get 2005 off to a perfect start with a resounding 2-0 victory."

And the one earlier on the year.

West Ham 1 Ipswich Town 1

"West Ham were unable to keep their lead against Ipswich on Saturday - with a rare penalty miss from Teddy Sheringham letting the visitors off the hook - and the Hammers had to settle for a point which leaves Ipswich above them in the table.
After an anxious moment when Darren Bent had a shot saved from close range by the feet of Steve Bywater, the Hammers opened the scoring when, following a poor clearance of a corner, Chris Powell played Luke Chadwick in, allowing him to cross for Malky Mackay who stooped to head home his first goal for the club.

Shortly afterwards, Bent headed just wide while Marlon Harewood volleyed over at the other end.

Nigel Reo-Coker had a deflected shot brilliantly saved for a corner by Kelvin Davis; from it, Ian Westlake was booked for not being 10 yards back when he intercepted the cross.

The free kick saw Etherington find Mackay, whose header was cleared off the line, and in the resulting scramble Teddy Sheringham's point blank shot was saved by Davis - prompting a handshake from the West Ham skipper.

Then, following another West Ham corner which was cleared, Tomas Repka played a ball to Etherington on the right that he only just kept in with a header.

Carl Fletcher was quickest to react as the ball rolled into the box, and as he latched onto the it, Davis brought him down.

Teddy Sheringham stepped up to take the penalty and struck the ball low and firm...and just beyond Davis' right hand post, to the delight of the 2332 travelling fans.

While West Ham were dominant, it wasn't all one way traffic and Steve Bywater made a great save from a Tommy Miller shot, parrying it over the bar; from the corner that followed, Jason De Vos' header was saved at close range by the Hammers keeper.

Ipswich started the second half brightly, with Bent always a handful; early in the half he hit a stinging shot over and was then denied by Bywater from close range at the expense of a corner.

From it, the man who had supplied the cross for that move, Pablo Counago, struck the equaliser on the turn in a crowded box.

Sheringham, Chadwick, and Harewood all had efforts go wide but Ipswich were standing firm.

They brought on Kuqi and Dinning for Counago and Magilton - roundly booed for comments he had made about Alan Pardew - while Sergei Rebrov replaced Teddy Sheringham and Hayden Mullins came on for the injured Luke Chadwick.

Rebrov's impact was almost immediate as he played Etherington in only for his cross to be glanced at close range by Harewood just beyond the advancing Calum Davenport; if either had connected cleanly it would surely have been 2-1.

There was a smile from the fans just before full time, though, when a ball boy ran on to the pitch to retrieve a second ball - with play going on around him.

Alan Pardew named an unchanged starting line-up and bench following the win over Rotherham in midweek, but Adam Nowland, who got a groin injury in the warm-up, was replaced at the last minute by Steve Lomas.

Former Hammer Kevin Horlock was welcomed back to Upton Park."