Ipswich Town Football Fan Chat » League

Only three home games left this season.

Ian Wade — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:47:57 +0000

From an entertainment point of view the last three home games have been dreadful. Scunthorpe were a team of “spoilers” who wasted time to slow the tempo of the game and very nearly succeeded in getting a point if it had not been for Connor Wickham’s 92nd minute strike. I could not watch games like that every week. The Barnsley game was not much better but we did get three points again due to a moment of madness by their keeper. The guys who summarise on BBC Suffolk say they can accept games like that provided we get three points. They get paid for watching these games unlike the rest of us who spend our hard earned cash to support the team and turn up to be entertained. The performance against Plymouth was lack lustre with the majority of the players clearly lacking confidence. We gifted them their two goals and their players worked very hard for their manager, Paul Mariner, who received a wonderful and deserved reception when he appeared from the tunnel. Paul Mariner joined Ipswich in October 1976 and became part of the great team that won the FA Cup in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981. He did not make the reunion of that fabulous squad when the North Stand was renamed the Sir Bobby Robson Stand on the 26th September 2009. He would have had a lot of “catching up” to do with old friends after the Plymouth game so it is probably understandable that he might have overlooked having a drink with Roy Keane. Why Roy Keane had a public rant about that I cannot understand. Very childish.

I listened to a commentary of the game at Swansea on BBC Welsh Sport which seemed about as entertaining as the Scunthorpe game. The commentators were however very complimentary about the Ipswich work rate and how well they closed the Swansea players down. However there was not a lot of goal mouth action at either end. The commentators made Jamie Peters at left back our best player and also made the observation of how one footed Daryl Murphy is. Do we really want to sign him ? Oh for a Paul Mariner type centre forward, lets hope Connor Wickham signs a contract and makes the grade.

The club is losing money each week which is not surprising with the number of players in the squad. The squad was too big under Jim Magilton and it is just the same under Roy Keane. In 1981 when Ipswich were competing for three trophies, the League, the FA Cup and UEFA Cup, they did it with a squad of 14 players ! In any business wages are the biggest expense item on the trading account. I am sure there will be a major clear out at the end of the season. Ipswich probably need another five points to be sure of staying in the Championship and lets hope they can pick those points up at home in the remaining games against Reading, Doncaster Rovers and Sheffield United and perhaps give us a bit of entertainment.

Progress Yardstick

Ian Wade — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:07:59 +0000

After all the excitement of the last gasp win against Coventry it was disappointing to go out of the FA Cup at Southampton and then allow WBA to draw level in injury time at Portman Road last night. WBA were clearly the better side but Ipswich do now defend resolutely and are proving difficult to break down. If we had players who could control the ball and strike it cleanly the result might have been so different. Not surprisingly Jon Stead looked ring rusty after his suspension. David Norris made some great runs from midfield but his finishing was abysmal. Gareth McAuley had a great chance with a free header and later on Carlos Edwards and Tamas Priskin should have done better when WBA were pushing forward looking for that equaliser. Progress has been made since the beginning of the season but if we could find that player who is going to hit the back of the net on a regular basis the future would be so much brighter. The aim at the moment has to be to stay in this division so that we can have our local derbies again with Norwich. Forget about Premiership football for this season, I do not want to pay hard earned money and see Ipswich get stuffed every week.

School Report after 15 League Games

Ian Wade — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:38:35 +0000

Progress at Portman Road is “very slow” which reminds me of comments from my school reports ! As long as us supporters see all the players trying and playing to the best of their abilities we know that eventually we will climb away from the relegation zone. Roy Keane seems to be having the same problem that Jim Magilton had in that he is still not sure of his best eleven. Jim Magilton went the whole season without knowing his best eleven, I hope Roy Keane does not take that long. Us supporters can only judge things on what we see on the pitch, we do not know what goes on behind closed doors and in this respect have to accept the team selections that Roy Keane makes. The defence has started to look more solid since the arrival of goalkeeper Asmir Begovic. Delaney is certainly a central defender and not a left back. David Wright has filled that position but is better as a right back. Alex Bruce always gives 100% and Tommy Smith has looked solid and has improved with each game. Unfortunately he was injured in training and might struggle to regain his place. Gareth McAuley, also injured, has looked better now he does not have the responsibility of being captain. The midfield is a bit of a puzzle with a lot of players competing for those positions. David Norris is another player waiting to come back from injury and will presumably play in the centre of midfield and not as a wide player where Jim Magilton continually played him. Luciano Civelli, another long term injured player, will fill the left side of midfield. Grant Leadbetter seems to be making the other central midfield place his own and Jon Walters best position is the right side of midfield. It is a shame to see Owen Garvin sitting in the stand and not even in the squad but as I said earlier we do not know what goes on behind closed doors. We badly need a player up front who can hit the back of the net on a regular basis. In due course I am sure young Connor Wickham will fill that role. He always looks a handful for defenders when he comes on. In the meantime Jon Stead, Tamas Priskin and Pablo Counago will be competing for the places up front. Already there does seem to be too many players at the club. With very few reserve games it must be hard to keep all the players match fit. I am sure we will see some go out on loan soon and some might need to be sold if they want their careers to progress.