LONDON, CMC – Reggae Boy Omari Hutchinson netted his third goal of the season but first in nearly two-and-a-half months to help Ipswich trounce Middlesbrough 2-0 and stay on the heels of Championship leaders Leicester City.
The 20-year-old on-loan Chelsea attacker scored in the 67th minute to double the visitors’ lead away at Riverside Stadium after Conor Chaplin’s deflected first-half strike gave them a 36th-minute lead.
For Ipswich, the win was their 15th in 20 games, leaving them a point off the Foxes in second on 48 points.
The home side struggled in the first half and eventually fell behind when Chaplin wrong-footed goalkeeper Seny Dieng with a shot that came off the head of Matt Clarke to notch his eighth of the season.
Hutchinson, a 20-year-old who made his full Jamaica debut last March, added the second for the visitors when he raced on to a pass out of midfield and beat the advancing Dieng with a low left-footed drive at the near post from 15 yards.
“It’s a great goal from the exact space we had spoken about potentially opening up,” Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said of Hutchinson’s goal.
“He hesitated a bit because I think there was a whistle in the crowd, but it was a great goal for him.
“If you remember from pre-season, against RB Leipzig, he had almost an identical chance and tried to chop the defender three times. So to go through with this composure here takes real bravery and composure.”
In the Premier League, in-form Reggae Boy winger Leon Bailey assisted as captain John McGinn’s seventh-minute strike fired red-hot Aston Villa to a 1-0 victory over leader Arsenal.
The 26-year-old Bailey, with two goals in his last two outings, raced into the right side of the box and squared his cross for McGinn, who pivoted to score from eight yards at Villa Park.
Villa has won 15 home games on the trot and is up to third in the standings, two points behind new leader Liverpool on 35.
In League One, 20-year-old midfielder Tyrese Campbell – who is eligible to represent Jamaica – scored in the 61st minute to put Charlton 2-0 up against Cambridge United, before Gassan Ahadme netted three minutes from the end and then again deep in stoppage, to earn the visitors a 2-2 draw at The Valley.
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