It could be a long and painful Christmas for Ipswich Town fans.
Town conceded after only 26 seconds, despite kicking-off themselves. That set the tone for a truly miserable performance as they suffered their heaviest defeat of the season, losing 4-0 at home to a rampant Newcastle side with Alexander Isak scoring a hat-trick.
And the fixtures don’t get any easier for Kieran McKenna’s team with a trip to Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal on 27 December, minus suspended captain Sam Morsy, before entertaining Chelsea at Portman Road three days later.
After conceding the early goal, Ipswich never looked like getting back into the game, with a few shots off target and away goalkeeper Martin Dubravka not having to make a real save throughout the 90 minutes.
Ipswich desperately missed suspended six-goal top scorer Liam Delap, but once more goalkeeper Arijanet Muric will come under the spotlight for his role in Newcastle’s third goal, scored just before half-time which ended the game as a contest.
Following back-to-back promotions after being in League One when McKenna took over almost exactly three years ago, the Ipswich fans would have expected days like this on their return to the big stage.
This was a painful one and one Ipswich need to quickly learn from.
