ITFC 3 Birmingham 1

Well done ITFC!
A great win for another crucial 3 points.
Town now have 60 points & have moved into 11th position and are finally safe from any relegation.

The game before was Sheffield Wednesday 1 ITFC 1 . Again a decent result for Town. Now there is one remaining last game to play away at Burnley. This can be slightly less stressful as relegation does not hang on it and Town will be playing to end the season on a high with a good performance and result.

I say again well done ITFC team, manager, support staff and supporters! What a season it has been. Started with a win and lots of promise of play off positions and promotion. Then at the end of November Town had hit rock bottom of the table & a change of managers. Jewell went & Mick MacCarthy came in…SUPER MICK!!

Well done to Mick for getting the team to get good results and climb up the table. A great achievement-thanks Mick! In fact Mick was as usual down to earth yet humorous in his post match analysis after the win against Birmingham. He said had he known 60 points would be needed to guarantee safety he probably wouldn’t have taken the job! In ‘normal’ years 50 points would have been enough but not this year with the teams up & down form through the season.

Wolves have slipped into the bottom 3 and now must rely on winning their last game and having other results in their favour to avoid successive relegation. Didn’t Mick MacCarthy come from Wolves?!! They should be kicking themselves for sacking Mick (& Terry Connor is at Town-well done Terry & thanks to you also!). Peterborough won and appear to be performing the great escape from relegation. So only Bristol City are confirmed to go down and the other team fighting hard to avoid the drop are Barnsley who won against promotion chasing Hull (Hull 2 Barnsley 0). This makes for an exciting but stressful end of the season for teams at the bottom. Thankfully now that is not ITFC.

So what can I say about the 3-1 win over Birmingham. I listened to live commentary on Radio Suffolk as usual and Town played well with 3 excellent goals (from Murphy, Edwards and Chambers). That is a rarity this season (3 good goals in one match for Town). Richard Stearman was out with a hamstring injury but his stand in Elliot Hewitt played well by all accounts and apart from conceding a late goal the Town defended well again. I have praised the back four of Town in my previous posts & they have done really well since Mick took over. All in all a great way to end the season with a fine home win and all that remains to say for this post is my usual…COYB….

COYB!!!!!

Home defeat today for Town and my first game this season at Portman Road! Oh dear.
(I got a ticket from Karl Fuller in the special £10-00 extra ticket for season holders-thanks Karl-see sidebar link to Karl @ the Fuller Flavour).

Me outside Portman Road before ITFC vs Hull 130413

Sadly Town were so very poor in the first half with the notable exception of Loach, Chambers, Stearman and Smith who played well. These Town defenders were solid as rocks but the rest of the team just weren’t up for it!
WHY NOT?!
In effect the team stood off the Hull players and let them play, and they played! Hull attacked with skill and threat and forced several corners thankfully that they generally botched up. The game got a little tense with free kicks going against Town and Town players not fighting to pick up the loose ball or trying to beat a man. It was bad and there was only going to be a good outcome for Hull.

This came in the form of a penalty as N’Daw brought a Hull attacker down in the box and poor Scott Loach saw the penalty go the other way to his dive. So 0-1 down and at some stage Jay Tabb became injured and on came Wordsworth. I was thankful for half-time and yet so bemused why Town hadn’t put more in to the match? The reason Hull dominated that half was because Town let them! Hull are a good team but we conceded a poor penalty from a clumsy challenge from N’Daw and the Town team let them go play far too easily…aaargh! I was very surprised at the poor performance of some the Town players and the lack of team work and effort and was worried for the second half….

However after the break Town came out and played football! Amazing! It was the same side but like a different team. Hyam started to compete (why hadn’t he in the first half?) and Murphy appeared in the game and worked well with Chopra. Twenty minutes of Town pressure then resulted in a Town goal from Antony Wordsworth. That was so much better and at that stage it was clear the next goal would win the game for either side.

The Town’s spell of pressure started to fizzle out and I was hoping they would at least hold on for a draw. Hull brought on Coren (Simpson off) and scored from a corner with ten minutes to go. I didn’t have a great view of that goal as it was at the other end of the ground to me but it didn’t surprise me that Hull should finally manage to score from a corner as Town gave them plenty of practice to do so in the first half.

Town had brought on Frank Nouble (off Chopra) and for a last try brought on JEThomas (off Murphy). It was too little to late and time ran out for Town.

Overall, at least Town showed some fight for twenty minutes in the second half but it is very hard for me to say, but Hull just deserved to win the game as the away team who had in the first half looked more like the home team. In fairness neither keeper had much to do and it wasn’t a good game overall.

Too many players for Town had a poor game (with the exception of the four defenders I’ve mentioned already) and it showed how much Town missed David McGoldrick. As the home team,Town should manage more than a twenty minute spell of pressure in a home game, and should create more than 2 or 3 chances on goal. The next game is another tough game but it is a home one against Crystal Palace.

Second half free kick before equaliser

The team have to play better against Palace next game and maybe Mick will make some changes for that game. We still need points to keep out of the relegation battle and every game till the end of the season is a big game and it is more important to win on Tuesday after today’s defeat.

Come on Town let’s get the right result next game and with the remaining games and finish the season well!

Well last Saturday was another vital win for ITFC to avoid relegation and it was an away win at Derby.

Well played Town! The three points does keep us away from the relegation places but even though Town went up to 14th position we are only six points from the bottom relegation place. The Championship this year is an even more competitive league than usually with many clubs struggling to avoid the relegation places close to the end of the season.

Mick Marthy’s post match comment on the Derby game was great. He talked about hearing police sirens and thinking the Town team would be arrested for stealing a win! Mick is also very grounded and knows how vital the win was. A big part of the was down to Scott Loach who saved a penalty but the whole team can take pride in “winning ugly”! Also what a great last minute goal from Carlos Edwards- a great individual effort but well done Town for a great away win!

The next game is today at home against Hull & I am going…wayhayyyyy!

I will post my match report here after the game. Come on Town let’s have a good home game against Hull (& score some goals past David Stockdale-the Hull keeper who was with ITFC in the early season).

COME ON YOU BLUES…