A first half double from Colby Bishop saw Accrington Stanley to an impressive 2-0 win over league leaders Ipswich Town in front of the Sky Sports cameras, with Ross Sykes and Armando Dobra both receiving red cards late on.
The visitors came into the game unbeaten in Sky Bet League One but Stanley started the first half the better of the two sides and John Coleman’s side opened the scoring on 17 minutes when Sam Finley crossed superbly for Bishop, with the striker powering a header into the bottom corner.
Stanley continued to pile on the pressure after opening the scoring, but winger Jordan Clark showed tremendous defensive ability to clear the ball off the line after goalkeeper Dimitar Evtimov had initially parried the ball.
Bishop was bundled over in the penalty area on 40 minutes by former Red Aristote Nsiala and the referee pointed to the spot with no hesitation.
The striker got up to take the penalty himself and despite Tomas Holy going the right way, Bishop smashed the ball past the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner to grab his second goal of the game.
Ipswich came out after the break the better side with Dobra and Danny Rowe both coming on as substitutes, and Sykes did superbly on 64 minutes to deny the visitors a way back into the game as he cleared the ball off the line after it had bounced around the penalty area.
Dobra then dived in late on Sean McConville and the Ipswich substitute was handed a yellow card by the referee.
Minutes later there was an off the ball incident between Dobra and Sykes, and both were eventually shown red cards for their involvement in the incident.
Substitute Dion Charles fired a powerful effort over the bar near the end and despite the pressure from Ipswich, the Stanley defence remained strong to secure an impressive victory over the league leaders.
Before today, the last time Stanley kept a clean sheet at home was against Ipswich in January in last season’s Emirates FA Cup.
Stanley’s next game is an away trip to face Peterborough United on Wednesday 23rd October, 7.45pm kick-off.