Bowen secures 14th place as Irons defeat Tractor Boys

West Ham musings by the author of Massive, Goodbye to Boleyn, Hammers in the Heart and Irons in the Soul.

Ipswich Town 1 West Ham 3

Finally the season is over. In game 38 Fabianski plays at the age of 40 to make his final West Ham appearance. Scarles, Dinos and Fullkrug start with Kudus and Paqueta on the bench. What could possibly go wrong against a relegated side that has lost eight in a row at home?

Ipswich give it a go and Fabianski has to make a great one-handed save to claw away a Broadhead effort. Thankfully the Tractor Boys are still good at self-sabotaging. Morsy plays a weak back pass that is intercepted by Bowen. Jarrod flicks it across goal to James Ward-Prowse who stroke home his first goal for a year.

Can we hold a lead? No, soon after the break Todibo seems to duck out of a tackle and Broadhead fires home a powerful shot into the bottom corner. Thankfully we still have Bowen. Jarrod plays a one-two with Wan-Bissaka cuts inside and hits a sumptuous effort past the despairing Walton.

Clarke goes close for the home side before our two subs combine for the third. Rodriguez does well to nick the ball off Clarke race forward and set up Mo Kudus for a shot that he curls home. His fifth goal of the season, though such a gifted player should be scoring more.

The win is very welcome as WHU secure 14th place with Spurs getting battered at home and Wolves drawing. As Big Sam says on WhatsApp if we'd been offered finishing above Man United and Spurs at the start of the season we'd have taken it. Matt counters that we might not have been so happy to finish behind Forest, Bournemouth, Brentford, Fulham, Brighton, Palace and Everton.

Still, this was a decent farewell to Fabianski, Cresswell, Coufal and unused sub Danny Ings. Good to see Cressy get such a good reception from both home ands away fans. A summer of rebuilding now awaits. Come on you Irons!

Massive: The Miracle of Prague by Pete May is available from Biteback Publishing, price 12.99.