A debut goal from Kenwyne Jones has given Bournemouth a 1-1 draw with Championship promotion rivals Ipswich Town at Portman Road.

The striker, who joined the Cherries on loan from Cardiff City last week, came off the bench and struck with eight minutes remaining to cancel out Freddie Sears's first-half goal.

However, the point means that Eddie Howe's men have missed the opportunity to go back to the top of the table, and they are now a point adrift of leaders Middlesbrough.

Ipswich made a bright start to the game and took the lead in the sixth minute through Sears, who slotted home his fifth goal for the Tractor Boys from close range after being set up by Daryl Murphy.

Bournemouth came close to equalising four minutes later when Andrew Surman drilled a shot across goal from a tight angle after being found by Callum Wilson.

Eddie Howe's side began to dominate proceedings, with some neat passing football leading to a chance for Harry Arter, but the midfielder's shot went high and wide after he had been teed up by Matt Ritchie.

Another good team move from the visitors saw Ryan Fraser in space, but his drive from just inside the area was parried away by Bartosz Bialkowski. The Ipswich stopper then had to palm Fraser's looping cross over the bar after it had looked set to drop into the net.

Sears almost made it two after the break after a good solo run. The frontman won the ball in the middle of the pitch and carried it towards the Bournemouth box, but he could only fire wide after Murphy had helped to open up space.

Wilson had an opportunity to level matters nine minutes later, but he could only fire into the side netting after doing well to reach the byline.

The striker was involved again soon after, as he teed up Ritchie to shoot from 10 yards out. However, Ipswich defender Christophe Berra was on hand to block the effort then clear the ball to safety.

Luke Varney could have doubled Ipswich's lead 10 minutes before the end, when he regained possession and found himself through on goal, but Boruc came out to smother the forward's effort.

Ipswich were made to pay for that miss just two minutes later as Jones, who had only been on the pitch for three minutes, rose highest to meet Ritchie's corner and head home beyond Bialkowski to make it 1-1.

Bournemouth almost found a winner in injury time but Yann Kermorgant's header was clawed away by Bialkowski to keep the scores level.