Collin Quaner scored twice in 11 first-half minutes as bottom-of-the-table Ipswich won 2-1 to cap a miserable week for fellow Sky Bet Championship strugglers Bolton.
The German forward, previously with only one goal since arriving on loan at Portman Road from Huddersfield in January, struck in the 33rd and 44th minutes of a match that had been placed in doubt over recent days.
Bolton’s players went on strike over the unpaid wages of non-playing staff, while the club survived another High Court winding-up order before a prohibition notice and an IT failure threatened the postponement of the match.
Josh Emmanuel netted a stoppage-time own goal for the home side but it came too late to save Phil Parkinson’s men from defeat.
Despite their fourth win of the campaign, Ipswich are 13 points from safety with six matches to play, though they have now lost just twice in nine games.
The standard of football reflected the lowly position of both clubs until Town struck 12 minutes from the break.
Skipper Luke Chambers crossed superbly from the right and Quaner rose highest to head home from eight yards.
Alan Judge forced a save from Remi Matthews with a low right-footed shot as Ipswich sensed a second goal. And there were joyous scenes among the travelling Ipswich fans when Quaner was allowed the time and space to fire in a right-footed effort from 20 yards that went in off an upright.
That goal saw Ipswich make it two goals in a game for only the second time in 2019.
Wanderers – booed off at half-time – were marginally brighter in the second half. Will Buckley – scorer of one of the team’s goals in last weekend’s win at QPR – scuffed a chance to pull one back after 50 minutes and substitute Erhun Oztumer finally tested keeper Bartosz Bialkowski after 72 minutes.
Emmanuel’s 94th-minute intervention could not prevent the visitors from picking up a first away win since beating Swansea 3-2 on October 6.
