‘Mixed Feelings’ For Cooper Following Ipswich Draw

- Leicester City drew 1-1 with Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Saturday
- The Foxes left it late to rescue a point courtesy of Jordan Ayew’s injury-time equaliser
- Steve Cooper assessed his side’s performance as having good and bad parts to it
- City remain 15th having collected 10 points from their opening 10 games

It ended in a 1-1 draw at Portman Road, with Jordan Ayew scoring a 94th-minute equaliser to cancel out Leif Davis’ fine strike early in the second half and ensure the Foxes claimed a share of the spoils in Suffolk.

Far from City’s best showing this season, Kalvin Phillips’ second yellow card put Town on the back foot in the closing stages and handed the visitors a potential route back into the game that they took advantage of.

“There's the result and the performance,” the 44-year-old analysed. “It's the performance that most of the time gets you the result. I think that we came here for the win. Not in an arrogant way - because we have to have that mentality - we expected to win if we got our performance levels right.

“If a draw is what it is, there's a slight positive in there, but we wanted to win the game. When we were good, we were superior, and we knew that we would be a better level.

“But unfortunately, there were some spells in the game where we just let Ipswich come on to us. This was our doing to be fair. I know they scored an excellent goal and there won't be many times you concede a goal of that quality, but we settled back into the game and we didn't panic, we kept going.

“We forced the 10 men and then took real advantage and missed a couple of good chances before the goal that we scored, so I felt that it was coming. And then we show composure in those final moments to get the result. In the end, if any team looked like they were going to win, I know it's because of the 10 men, but it was going to be us.

“We started really strong, finished really strong, but bits in between were a little bit too up and down for my liking, so it’s mixed feelings but we keep ticking over and we move on now.”

As he did against Southampton in Leicester’s last away outing in the league, substitute Ayew made the difference in front of goal, combining well with Boubakary Soumaré and then Jamie Vardy, the pair once again demonstrating their top-flight experience and class in that moment.

“They showed such great quality and composure in what is a chaotic time,” the Welshman explained. “They probably knew that that was the moment that was left in the game. For them to concentrate like they did is great quality but backed up with brilliant experience and composure.

“Bouba has obviously done amazing and then Jordan and Vards have showed the levels in the careers that they have had.

“A point away from home in the Premier League is never anything to be too despondent about. It will feel like a win scoring late, but I think we'll feel better about the result than what Ipswich will and I think that they're the sort of things you need to be doing when you come up against certain teams at certain times.

‘It's a miles better result than it is for Ipswich, but we think of ourselves, we think internally we shouldn't be satisfied with just the point. There should be some disappointment and frustration there, but we also know that we worked really hard in the end to get something out of the game.”

Scenes to saviour following the full-time whistle as the players went over to celebrate with the travelling supporters, Cooper spoke of the significance of carrying that spirit and camaraderie.

“The most important thing is always that the supporters and the players' connection, and I thought our supporters were excellent today,” he added. “They played a real part and it worked out well that this is where we were attacking and they were right by our goal in that second half.

“And it wasn't just the connection at the end, I think it was during the game and particularly the final stages as well. We need that and we want to keep building them sort of things.

"There's obviously players who have been here a long time, and some of us are new, and we want to try and earn the respect, so we've got to keep trying to do that. But in the end, it's always about the players and what they get out of a game and what they deliver and we just want to support them in the right way.”