Paul Jewell has played what he considers his best eleven and only made changes  when injuries have intervened. Having a settled side must help, although frustrating for those who have to sit on the bench, especially Jamie Peters and Tommy Smith.

Connor Wickham was guilty of missing three scoring chances on Saturday, but lets not forget he will not be 18 until the 31st March. If we can hold onto him for another season he could be the one to score 20 odd goals. He wears the number 9 shirt normally associated with the centre forward and thats where he should be playing in a 4-4-2 formation.

The future is beginning to look brighter. Once the club has reached 50 odd points the fear of relegation will be gone and Paul Jewell will be able to plan for next season. If Marcus Evans wants to fill the stadium then ticket prices have got to come down. Times are hard for a lot of people. I admire those supporters who go to all the away games, they must have very deep pockets or make other sacrifices.

How the football team performs will have a certain bearing on attendances as will the fact we are still in a recession.  Admission prices generally are too high and that includes ITFC. I am, and have been for a long time, a season ticket holder with two seats. I do not agree with the statements that match day prices are kept at a high level to compensate for the deal that season ticket holders have. Each year, if we renew by the early bird deadline, we are told we will get a 50% rebate if Ipswich Town are promoted in that season. Sounds very nice but I do not believe that will happen again this season. The club missed an ideal opportunity to test the water and offer a deal on seat prices for the Carling Cup game against WBA. £10 for adults and £3 for children would have looked attractive for everyone especially families. It would have been a good PR exercise. Better to get some money in than have no bums on seats! There has been little atmosphere at ITFC this season. Fewer travelling fans from other clubs is due in part that the admission prices for the away fans are also too high. I was talking to a policeman at the Cardiff game whose job was to travel from Cardiff and monitor their fans at the away matches. He stated that ITFC prices were much higher than some other clubs, hence only 700 Cardiff fans travelled to Ipswich. Our friends or enemies up the road at Norwich City managed to sell 20,550 season tickets and I notice they are sold out for this Sundays game against us. Perhaps it is a more affluent area than Ipswich who have to rely on supporters travelling a fair distance to get to matches.

This Sundays game at Norwich is the most important of the season for Ipswich fans and was missed last season when Norwich were in the lower division. With a full house the atmosphere should be great and lets hope Roy Keane puts out a more adventurous side. The opening games of the season were encouraging but in my opinion too much is made of key players being injured. The midfield seems clogged up with players since the arrival of Jake Livermore and Jack Colback who are on loan until January. As much as I like Jack Colback his arrival has meant others have had to take a back seat which is a shame. It has disrupted the midfield with too many similar players. Oh for a creative midfield player. The front player or players are not getting any service from midfield so the goals are drying up and the games have become very boring.

 If you want to get bums on seats something has to alter. The accounts show that gate receipts and other income that make up the turnover figure do not even cover the wage costs. Marcus Evans gave Roy Keane a two year contract which ends in June 2011. This should be honored but I am sure Marcus Evans will not make the same mistake as the FA when they gave Fabio Capello a new contract before the World Cup. What a crazy decision. I would imagine Roy Keane will have to wait until May 2011 to see if he is offered a new contract. With all his own personal wealth I do not expect it bothers him one way or the other, which is worrying for supporters who love the club for what it has achieved in the past. The play-off against Bolton and the subsequent fantastic day out at Wembley against Barnsley in May 2000 are a distant memory.

 We have progressed to the third round of the Carling Cup with two hard fought away wins. A home tie in the next round would be good to bring in some extra revenue. The draw will be made on Saturday before we host Bristol City complete with Jon Stead.

Roy Keane certainly would not win any popularity stakes and his man management skills are questionable but at the end of the day all we all want is to see our beloved Ipswich back where they belong. If Roy Keane can do it “his way” then we will forgive any of his shortcomings.

Roll on Saturday and Bristol City.

Roy Keane reckons his job starts now, but I thought he was supposed to have started a year ago ! What has he been doing then, having a laugh at the supporters expense. The season has been rubbish with very few good points. The emergence of Connor Wickham spurred me into renewing my season tickets. I do hope no stupid deals are made as banded about in the press of Tottenham buying him and then loaning him back to Ipswich for a season. If he can score twenty odd goals for us next season it might propel us into the Premiership and then he will become a Premiership player with Ipswich. Roy Keane talks of wanting four or five other players. What is going to happen to the huge squad he already has ? I know he has already released a few but a lot more need to be cleared out. David Wright not having his contract renewed was a major surprise, but perhaps he has too much to say to the press ! He could finish up with the Canaries.

Roy Keane’s expensive signings have been dreadful. I am sure Sir Alex Ferguson conned him when he told him what a good purchase Lee Martin would be, much the same as George Burley and David Sheepshanks were conned by Sven Eriksson into believing that the Italian goalie (name escapes me) we had was a good buy. Tamas Priskin just never looked interested. So what is also to become of the following :- Alex Bruce, Pablo Counago, Jon Stead, Colin Healy, Alan Quinn, Kevin Lisbie and possibly Owen Garvin. Owen Garvin is the only creative midfield player we have at the club but he has been in and out of the side like a yo-yo. He is not Roy Keane’s type of midfield player which is a shame, or is there another problem which we do not know about. If Liam Trotter has any sense he will move on and not accept a new deal. He will then be assured of playing regularly. Carlos Edwards has been disappointing and was another bad buy.

So what are we left with of those we have seen on the pitch this season ?  Goalkeepers :-Brian Murphy and Arran Lee-Barrett . Defenders :- Damien Delaney, Gareth McCauley, Shane O’Connor, Tommy Smith, Tom Eastman and Troy Brown. Midfielders :- Grant Leadbetter, David Norris, Jaime Peters and Billy Clark. Hopefully Luciano Civelli will be back from injury at some point next season. Strikers :- Jonathan Walters and Connor Wickham.

My old school reports use to say “must do better”. The same applies to Roy Keane. One wonders with all his wealth, is he motivated enough ?

Medals can be ordered direct from the Royal Mint at  www.royalmint.com