Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Ipswich 1

Last updated : 05 March 2003 By Footymad Previewer

Super-sub Richard Naylor stunned Wolves with a late strike to earn Ipswich Town a share of the spoils in dramatic fashion at Molineux.

Naylor had only been on the pitch for three minutes when he headed home from close range with his first touch after 84 minutes.

His strike left Wolves reeling as they looked set to pick up three more priceless promotion points following skipper Paul Ince's third goal of the season after 47 minutes.

But Wolves paid the price for failing to turn their domination into goals as they should have been comfortably in control of affairs before Naylor's late intervention.

Wolves laid siege to the Ipswich goal in the opening period but their finishing left a lot to be desired.

Such was their domination in attacking terms in the first half that Ipswich failed to manage a shot either on or off target.

But Wolves struggled to make the most of some intense pressure with both winger Mark Kennedy and recalled strike Nathan Blake, who was making his first start for three months after recovering from two dislocated toes, both failed to hit the target from close range.

When Wolves did manage to test the Ipswich goalkeeper Andy Marshall after 38 minutes he comfortably dealt with a low drive from Colin Cameron.

Kennedy was the chief culprit as far as Wolves were concerned as he squandered the best chance of the half five minutes before the interval.

He was released by Shaun Newton and only had Marshall to beat from ten yards but sliced his drive wide of the post.

Having squandered so many chances in the first half, Wolves rapidly made amends at the beginning of the second – needing just two minutes to finally break the resistance of Ipswich.

Denis Irwin whipped in a cross from the right wing that Kenny Miller flicked into the path of Ince who drove a low volley just inside Marshall's near post.

The response of Ipswich was to produce their first shot on target of the evening when skipper Matt Holland saw his long-range drive in the 59th minute comfortably saved by Matt Murray.

It was one of only two efforts that were on target from Ipswich in the entire match.

But the second one proved to be decisive as Naylor rose above a static Wolves defence six minutes from time to head home a free kick from Martijn Reuser to earn Ipswich the most unlikely of draws and keep alive their own play-off hopes.