Ipswich Town 0 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Town lose the last home game of the season.

A very disappointing end to a disappointing season.

The Wednesday goal was a great goal, as Wednesday tore open the Town defence so easily to score! In reply Town only had a few half chances. Wednesday have secured a play off place.

Mick McCarthy gave some bland, lame excuse after the game that Wednesday were the better, more motivated team!

Everyone at Town and especially the manager and team (and the fans) needs to stand up and examine themselves and acknowledge they have not been good enough this season and decide to change and do better!

This includes myself and personally, I have blogged here about what great potential football talent the Town players have, but only really the goal keepers (Bart and Dean) and Tom Lawrence have played well enough this season.
Several of the new footballers that have come in to the Town squad this season, seem to think they are great players, but have not shown this game after game and only good team performances, game after game will take Town back to the top, and that does not seem to be part of their agenda. Couple that with a long list of injuries and established players not playing well enough every game and that is the reason Town have been poor and struggled this year.
I have generally supported Mick and Terry, but they too, have underperformed and the owner Marcus Evans needs to stand up more!

I am a Town fan at heart and have been for many years and always will be, but it is hard to keep positive when we do not even have our own young footballers showing enough. Footballing talent is great but realising that talent is another thing altogether.

So, just one more game to go now to end the season, away at Nottingham Forrest. I hope the team will dig deep and want to prove that they deserve to play for the town of Ipswich and the county of Suffolk and win or draw the game and the Town revival can start with this positive step forward! Let’s all pull together and commit to doing and being better and move forward…..COYB!!!

Rotherham 1 ITFC 0

Town won a good game last Monday against Newcastle (ITFC 3 Newcastle 1), but lose today against relegated Rotherham, with nine changes to the team!

So a poor season continues right to the end. Town are the only side not to beat Rotherham this season.
Not only have the Town first team regular players under performed this season, the squad players when called on have not played well enough either.

Just 2 more games to go, home against Sheffield Wednesday and away against Nottingham Forest. Both of these will be tough games.

Town are safe from relegation, but have wasted another good opportunity to win a potentially winnable game. Dean Gurken saved a first half penalty, so the result could have worse. I listened to the game on Radio Suffolk and Richard Naylor agrees the team incomers did not do well enough (Dozzell, Bishop, Rowe and Samuel). Pitman and Diagouraga played poorly too!

If Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor stay next season, Town will need a huge improvement to challenge for promotion. The best Town player this season, Tom Lawrence won’t stay with Town and Town need investment from Marcus Evans the owner and also not the huge ticket prices if they want to keep any fans!

As I mention above, Town have 2 tough games to end the season with and if they lose these morale, in the team and fans will be close to rock bottom! Tough times for Town… Whilst it is hard to endure these times with Town everyone needs to stick together and WORK and SUPPORT hard to turn these bad times around…COYB

Burton Albion 1 ITFC 2

Good Friday proves miraculous as Town win away with an own goal from ex Town player Luke Varney and Freddie Sears scores his first away goal in over 2 years despite missing the first shot, he somehow managed to score the rebound.

Town move up to 15th place and nine points above the relegation zone. Town’s next game is the Easter Monday game at home to Newcastle and it truly will be a miracle if they win that one!

COYB!

Fulham 3 Town 1

Fulham 3 Town 1

Last week was another disappointment, with the away loss at Fulham. Berra scored, Bialakowski played well. Fulham are pressing for a play off place and Town need points to be safe from relegation.
COYB….

ITFC vs Wigan

Match night…Town vs Wigan.
I’m at home and my student son has gone to watch with his friends.
He wasn’t impressed that his ticket went up from £19-00 yesterday to £21-00 today!
These ticket prices do not encourage the casual fan to attend.

Anyway I am going to listen to Radio Suffolk commentary and hope for a Town win. My son has a bet on a 1-1 draw….due to Town’s recent results.

COYB! GO TOWN!

ITFC 3 Wigan 0

Well played Town! First goal from David McGoldrick, 2 goals from Freddie Sears….that’s more like it! A great game from keeper Bartoscz Bialkowski to keep Wigan at bay! Finally a home win for Town and a much needed one. Kenlock played well also.

Town are now 9 points from the third relegation zone place. All teams below Town lost tonight. Town still need to win games to the end of the season but hopefully this result will restore some confidence and spark some more good games from Town. WELL PLAYED TOWN!

Ipswich Town 1 Birmingham 1

Town get a home draw against fellow Championship strugglers Birmingham.
I listened to the game on Radio Suffolk and Town seemed to have a reasonable first half with several chances, but it was 0-0 at halftime. Then the second half started badly with Birmingham scoring and Town withdrawing into a shell and not making more chances. A mis-hit cross turned to a shot by Grant Ward proved enough to be a lucky equaliser.

What is the matter with the Town? Not enough contribution from too many players (despite a 2 week break due to the international games). Town have been hit with injury but the squad should be good enough to take their chance and step up and do enough to win games. Does this squad have passion for the Town? Today another good opportunity to win a game has gone by and the team are lucky to get a draw and relegation is still a possibility. I’m listening to Mick Mills on the radio saying how the players should be good enough but haven’t performed! It is so hard to be a fan when you do not feel the squad are giving enough effort and passion to win each and every game. There are no easy games in the Championship and every player has to play well for the whole game to get wins.

Indeed I’ve just listened to manager Mick McCarthy who stated Town didn’t play well and he is very frustrated by having to say this game after game. He blamed losing the first goal for Town’s poor performance and of course that was a blow, but surely it doesn’t account for the overall lacklustre average performance. However, he also stated they are now 6 points away from the relegation places, when they were 5 points away before the start of the afternoon. Town are now so desperate that they are having to rely on results from teams around and below them, doing poorly.

There are not many games left to the end of the season now. Will we see any winning games from Town?
Will they avoid relegation?

Tue 4 Apr 7:45pm Wigan Athletic H
Sat 8 Apr 3:00pm Fulham A
Fri 14 Apr 7:45pm Burton Albion A
Mon 17 Apr 3:00pm Newcastle United H
Sat 22 Apr 3:00pm Rotherham United A
Sat 29 Apr 3:00pm Sheffield Wednesday H

Sun 7 May 12:00pm Nottingham Forest A

Tough times at ITFC right now. Time for the team and squad to dig deep and rise to the challenge of winning games and the fans support. It is not a one way process, as there are still committed Town fans turning out game after game and supporting the team.

COME ON YOU BLUES…try and have a good end to the season and not a bad one!