Very poor result today (losing to bottom place team Bristol City). I listened to the radio commentary and ITFC again had winning chances. Town started well with a good first half but then to let a goal in the first few minutes of the second half and then to concede a goal in the last few minutes is just dreadful.

It is just an awful season for ITFC supporters! Town now down from 19th place to 21st place and in real danger of falling into the bottom three and getting relegated. It is time for Mick & Terry to get the Town players and team motivated and determined to fight harder.Town need greater committment from the players in the squad and especially the team. Sadly, the team & the players have let themselves down badly, as much as letting the supporters down. Look at Bristol City today-they kept going & took their few chances and ended up winning, not because they were the better team but because Town players let them through complacency and lack of awareness. I actually think Mick McCarthy is too soft on his team saying recently he cannot fault the team work rate. My own view is that these players are not performing well enough and I feel as a team and as a minimum the team work rate has to be way above average to compensate. Unfortunately games and results are not just won and gained from work rate especially when one team do not concentrate & hand the opposition chances as ITFC team have done repeatedly over this & the previous season.

Well that was the bad news! However as I have said before the good news is that all the Town players are good football players-they simply need to get it together as a team consistently. I do not believe Town have to try & hope to get better players to join the club (though it would be nice to get a few top quality players in!) but  the players need to WAKE UP & WORK (& fight) a lot harder to get points and results! COME ON TOWN!!

Well I haven’t posted lately & interestingly Town play against Bristol City away today (my last mentioned the next game was vs Bristol City at home). Presently we are playing football in the depths of winter with snow all around…Amazingly most Premiership & Championship games are still going ahead.

The home game against Bristol City ended in a slightly disappointing 1-1 draw. It was disappointing as Town cannot seem to play well at home despite having several good away performances and results under new manager Mick McCarthy. Still it was a point and kept Town out of the bottom 3 relegation places.

Since that game Town still cannot get any improvement in their home form and the last home match was a similarly disappointing 1-1 draw with Barnsley who are another club struggling to fight relegation. A few weeks earlier Town had a good away performance at table toppers Cardiff with a well deserved 1-1 draw and Town had chances to win. Town also lost away to Aston Villa (2-1) in the cup but had chances against the struggling Premiership side and was overall a good performance by Town.

Meantime there have been the usual player changes. On loan DJ Campbell left and most recently Jason Scotland has left as Mick McCarthy looks for younger players to play for the team. Henderson has left also leaving Scott Loach & Adam LeeBarrett as goalkeepers. Out went Nigel Reo-Coker and new players in include strikers Mclean & McGoldrick and Frank Nouble. It is hard to keep up with so many changes and cannot help the team get established. However it has to be done as the manager tries to build a team of his choice for the future. The Championship table is very congested:

Position  Team           Played Goal Diff  Points
1            Cardiff             28         20          60
2            Leicester         28         26          50
3            Hull                  28         8            50
4           Crystal Palace 28        15           48
5           Middlesbrough 28         8            47
6           Watford            27        16           46
7           Brighton           28         10          42
8           Burnley            28         3            42
9           Millwall             28         2            41
10         Nottm Forest   28         2            41
11         Leeds United   28        -5            41
12         Charlton          28         0            39
13         Derby              28         1            38
14         Blackburn       28          1            37
15         Blackpool        28          3            34
16         Bolton              28         -1           34
17         Wolves            28         -6           33
18         Huddersfield    28        -16          33
19         Ipswich            28        -21          32
20         Birmingham    28         -9            31
21         Sheff Wed       28        -12           29
22        Peterborough   28        -13           26
23        Barnsley           28         -15          25
24        Bristol City        27         -17          22

Town are just 10 points off the bottom place (Bristol City) but only 10 points away from the 8th placed team (Burnley).

The managerial football madness continues. Bristol City sacked Derek McInnes & now have Sean O’Driscoll in charge. Southampton sacked Nigel Adkins recently who had done so well for them to get them to the top. It seems there is little rhyme or reason for sacking and appointing football managers. In Town’s case though we needed to change Paul Jewell who could not handle the hard times even with the full club/owner support and we are in better shape with Mick McCarthy a manager who can handle both good & bad times positively.

Hopefully I shall be listening to the game on BBC Radio Suffolk and currently I’m listening to Mark Murphy on “Life’s a Pitch” pre game ITFC fanzine radio show (link to Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/bbclifesapitch).

Anyway I hope Town continue their good away performances today and get a good result as Town still need points to climb the table & keep away from the bottom relegation places. GO TOWN..COYB..