BEN Marshall scored a dramatic injury-time equaliser as 10-man Rovers came from behind to earn a last-gasp point at form-team Ipswich today.

The Tractor Boys were seemingly set for a victory that would have taken them within two points of top spot after David McGoldrick curled in a fine 65th-minute free kick, 60 seconds after Matt Kilgallon was controversially shown a second yellow card.

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But Marshall, pushed up from right back to a more advanced role for the final 15 minutes, upstaged McGoldrick when he bent the ball brilliantly into the top corner to send the 379 Rovers supporters into rapture.

Jordan Rhodes was named captain for the trip to his former club after Grant Hanley was ruled out with the knee problem he had picked up playing for Scotland a week earlier.

Hanley’s place in Rovers boss Gary Bowyer’s starting line-up went to Kilgallon, while fit-again top-scorer Rudy Gestede and the suspension-free Corry Evans went straight back into the team, at the expense of another Ipswich old boy, Ryan Tunnicliffe, and Josh King, who failed to recover from the back strain he sustained playing for Norway on Monday.

Mick McCarthy’s high flyers, unbeaten in their previous seven games, were also without their skipper, Luke Chambers, through illness, and top-scorer Daryl Murphy, through injury.

They missed Murphy in a first half in which Rovers carved out the better chances.

On 11 minutes a long throw from Marshall, who five minutes earlier had swung over a cross that just evaded Rhodes, was headed clear only as far as Lee Williamson, whose first-time effort, on the slide, deflected wide for a corner.

The Tractor Boys went on to enjoy their best spell of the opening period with Kilgallon in the right place at the right time to cut out a cross from Stephen Hunt before Jonathan Parr volleyed well wide of the target following a cross from fellow full-back Tyrone Mings, the Championship’s player of the month for September.

But it was Rovers who were looking the more dangerous and Gestede headed wide a good, if difficult, chance on 24 minutes after Craig Conway cut inside and then back outside on to his left foot and stood up a cross to the back post.

Shane Duffy wasted a better opportunity three minutes later.

Jason Steele’s free kick, from near his own box, was flicked on by Gestede to Tom Cairney, whose lofted cross found Rhodes with space in the area.

His header was not a good one. Gerken, however, could only palm it clear as far as Duffy who, from 10 yards out, totally missed the ball.

Gerken made amends in the 38th minute when he got down low to his right to push aside a powerfully stuck left-footed shot from Gestede after he had collected Cairney’s pass and twisted this way and that.

Steele, who showed good handling throughout, then made a flying stop from David McGoldrick, before Tommy Smith headed the resulting corner straight at him.

The final opening of the half went Rovers’ way as they launched a rapid counter-attack which would have ended with Gestede turning in Conway’s cross had it not been for an excellent interception by Christophe Berra, Ipswich’s captain for the day.

What followed four minutes after the restart was a cynical but necessary piece of defending from Kilgallon after he clipped the heels of Conor Sammon when he was bearing down on goal.

The centre back could easily have been sent off.

But referee James Adcock decided to book him only.

The decision enraged the home fans.

But it only served to fire up their side who, through McGoldrick, curled the resulting free kick inches past Steele’s left-hand post.

Kilgallon’s respite, though, was brief, as he received his marching orders in the 64th minute after he was adjudged to have fouled Sammon, again, after a coming together on the edge of the box.

The former Leeds United man, who will not be able to appeal against his one-match ban, insisted he was the one who had been fouled.

And worse was to follow once Kilgallon had made the long walk down the tunnel as McGoldrick curled his free kick over the wall and into the top corner.

From then on Rovers were on the rocks and Duffy cleared off the line to deny Hunt a certain goal after he met a cross to the back post with a downward that was destined for the bottom corner until the intervention of his fellow Republic of Ireland international.

Bowyer replaced winger Conway with centre back Alex Baptiste and then chose to take off striker Rhodes, who had scored three goals in his previous three games against the Tractor Boys, for right back Adam Henley, with Marshall moving further forward.

But Ipswich, whose boss McCarthy is the manager of the month, were doing all the pressing and McGoldrick rattled a left-footed volley against the post from a pinpoint Kevin Bru cross into the box.

Rovers then had an opening for an equaliser.

But Duffy, up front from the back, sent his diving header from an Evans cross harmlessly wide, before Steele saved from McGoldrick after the pacy forward broke through on goal.

Marshall, however, came to Rovers’ rescue three minutes into injury-time with his fourth goal of the season, a stunning 20-yard free kick that arrowed into the top corner.

Ipswich: Gerken, Parr, Smith, Berra, Mings, Bru (Anderson 86), Skuse, Williams (Tabb 79), Hunt (Ambrose 90), McGoldrick, Sammon. Subs not used: Bialkowski, Bajner, Henshall, Clarke.

Goal: McGoldrick 65.

Rovers: Steele, Marshall, Duffy, Kilgallon, Olsson, Cairney (Tunnicliffe 83), Evans, Williamson, Conway (Baptiste 69), Gestede, Rhodes (Henley 75). Subs not used: Eastwood, Taylor, Dunn, Varney. 

Booked: Kilgallon, Tunnicliffe.

Sent off: Kilgallon 64.

Goal: Marshall 90.

Referee: James Adcock.

Attendance: 16,972 (379 away).