Ipswich Town delivered a devastating blow to Sheffield United's promotion hopes with a resounding 5-0 victory at Portman Road on Friday night. Jaden Philogene, a £20m signing from Aston Villa, made history by scoring his first senior hat-trick, while George Hirst and Jack Clarke added to the scoreline.
The result leaves Sheffield United bottom of the Championship table without a single point, having lost their first five games for only the second time in an EFL campaign. The last time the Blades suffered such a dismal start was back in the 1995/96 season. Ruben Selles' side has failed to score a goal since the opening day of the season, and the Ipswich thrashing has only added to their woes.
Philogene's hat-trick was the highlight of an impressive Ipswich performance. He opened the scoring on 20 minutes, profiting from a clever decoy run by Leif Davis to slot the ball into the bottom right corner. The youngster doubled the lead just after the restart, and completed his treble with a thunderous strike 20 minutes from time.
Hirst and Clarke added to the scoreline, with Hirst capitalizing on a goalkeeping error by Michael Cooper to make it 3-0, and Clarke slotting home a fifth after being gifted space by Ben Godfrey's clever play.
The result has sparked concerns about Ruben Selles' future at the helm of Sheffield United, with pundit Lee Hendrie suggesting that the manager's position is under threat. "That is a damaging, damaging result for Sheffield United and Selles," Hendrie said. "Sometimes you've got to be careful what you wish for."
Selles, speaking after the game, acknowledged the need for his team to re-analyze their performance, but insisted that they need to "feel the pain" of the defeat before moving forward.
Comments (0)
Leave a Comment
Be the first to comment on this article!