Well played Town! An away draw is an alright result except that judging by the Radio Suffolk commentary overall Town were the better side.
However make no mistake, it is a good result to draw with Leeds away at Elland Road. The result keeps Town in seventh place and still in contention for a play off place. So well done ITFC!
Brief match details
Town had good chances in the first half and went a goal up when the Leeds keeper Paddy Kenny made a mistake from David McGoldrick’s long range shot. Then a soft penalty was awarded to Leeds and Ross McCormack scored to level the score. Not much else to say..a mention that Stephen Hunt didn’t play and was left on the bench while Jay Tabb had quite a good game. Paul Anderson played in place of Carlos Edwards and he was subbed off for Frank Nouble in 72 minute. New signing Richardson on the bench.
Town team details:
22 Gerken
04 Chambers
03 Cresswell
08 Skuse (Booked)
06 Berra
05 Smith
11 Anderson (Nouble – 72′ )
16 Tunnicliffe
10 McGoldrick
09 Murphy
18 Tabb
So the next game is a home game against Bolton next Saturday. Again this will be a tough game against a good Bolton side who have underperformed this season. There is though, every reason to be optimistic that the Town team can win against Bolton and get the 3 points to keep up their play off position challenge.
The first win of 2014 for ITFC…A home 2-0 win vs Reading
Well played Town! Great to win the first game of 2014 at home against a good Reading side!
Town now are in 7th place in the table now just below Reading in 6th place and it was a vital win for Town to maintain a realistic play off place challenge.
Match analysis
Town were without injured Luke Higham and Stephen Hunt was in with the midfield of Skuse Tunnicliffe and Edwards. The Town had chances in the first half but couldn’t take them and Reading were doing fine with the Town back four and keeper quite busy. Town were a bit fortunate to have a Reading penalty appeal turned down, but every team deserve a break now and again as we know these can go for or against during the season.
After halftime though Town started to play better and on the hour Daryl Murphy scored with a fine shot. Anderson replaced Edwards at half time and in fact he scored a fine goal right at the end of the game to seal a good win for Town. Jay Tabb came on around 66 minutes for Hunt and the Town had a decent second half with Mick Mills on Radio Suffolk giving his man of the match award to Christoph Berra. Well done Berra and great that the team managed a clean sheet. Mings came on in the 93rd minute for McGoldrick.
Going forward…
This result gives Town confidence and they have a tough game away at Leeds this next Tuesday night.
However manager Mick was rightly pleased with the result and performance and so was I!
Town can now concentrate on aiming to get results and points to gain a promotion play off place.
WELL PLAYED TOWN…now keep it up!
I’m listening to this match now on BBC Radio Suffolk and it is 0-0 at the moment but Liam Trotter has just missed a chance, and Town haven’t got going yet (in the words of commentator Mick Mills).
I hope things improve as Luke Higham has gone off injured and has been replaced by Jay Tabb. I will add more comment after the final whistle…
Sadly Town are down a goal and it was a Millwall cross that went straight in, catching Dean Gurken out.
Millwall have overall had the better of the first half but there isn’t much between the sides and I hope Town see this and come out full of energy, commitment and ruthlessness and can get the goals to win this game.
COME ON TOWN
Fulltime: Millwall 1 ITFC 0
The second half was little better for Town and Town “old boy” Lee Martin missed a good chance for Millwall.
Post match comment
Town just never got going and now are on a poor run of form after losing 3 games in a row.
By all accounts from the radio commentary no Town player did well. Again David McGoldrick was spoken of as the best Town player out of the team but even his performance was a long way from his best form.
Centre back Danny Shitu was singled out as Millwall’s man of the match who didn’t do anything special but was very solid and get Town quiet. This is frustrating as in other games he has been a weakness Town have exploited in previous games against Town.
Also frustrating is why some Town players are not playing to their full potential and from today the question mark hangs over Jay Tabb. What has happened to Jay? Is it a system/position thing? Was he out of position today and unable to make anything from it? For me Jay Tabb is not playing to his potential. It is hard to know exactly why things aren’t working for the team at the moment. Is it a lack of confidence or a lack of ability and ruthlessness? Quite probably it is a combination of all these factors. I think the team has had several changes over the last three games and the side hasn’t jelled together and just doesn’t have the determination and strength of character to dig deep enough into inner resolve when the game plan isn’t working. Thankfully it is definitely not beyond hope that the team and squad can get together as a unit for the remaining part of the season.
Next game up is ITFC vs Reading Saturday 25th January 2014 15:00
Now the game at home against Reading is a great chance for Town to BOUNCE back to form!
Obviously Reading are a good team so this will be a good test for Town but the whole squad must be desperate now to return to winning ways and so while it is a hard potential game for Town the squad have to view it as a good opportunity to bounce back to winning ways and put the smile back on their faces and on the fan’s faces. COME ON TOWN….and goodluck with the training and preparation for this coming home game against Reading.
Town lost away at Preston tonight and crash ignominiously out of the FA Cup.
Preston 3 ITFC 2 …dreadful result for Town
Manager Mick McCarthy said he was livid after this game when the Town gave away three soft goals to lose a game they were comfortably in control of, as they had been leading, after scoring first.
Well, Mick, I am livid like you, and also, so should be any other passionate ITFC supporter. I listened to the game on the radio and heard Mick also say he was livid with the officials but he would not explain that and I don’t know what incidents upset him in that respect.
In the same way as the first match against Preston, in this cup replay Town were without some regular first team players e.g. notably Cresswell, Chambers, Murphy and Skuse were all out injured. Also in the same way the Town team did not do themselves justice. This is just so upsetting for me as I thought Town had good strength in depth and the fringe/squad players were good and certainly good enough to beat Preston but I will have to admit I was wrong and the Town squad is just not as good as I thought it was! Again, Town players have let the fans down but more importantly have let themselves down.
It is hard for me to acknowledge this, but I have to face this reality now. The Town team and potential is much better than that of last season when Mick McCarthy took over a team in disarray from Paul Jewell, but a result like this tonight shows that the Town squad is simply not good enough for anything more than an average team in an average season. I had been calling for a good cup run and an attempt to get in the play-offs this season, with this Town team and squad but this result clearly shows the Town squad clearly is not good enough for anything more than an average season.
If by some miracle the Town squad do have a great run in and end to this season and do gain promotion it is blindingly obvious they would be nowhere near strong enough to stay in the Premiership. I obviously hope Town do have good games between now and the end of the season, but as I have constantly said, the team need to play consistently well and not just in patches as they have done this season so far. The squad will have to improve rapidly and dramatically for this to happen!
By the way, well played Preston. Now beat Nottingham Forest in the next round… 🙂
The good news..
No matter how hard or painful it is to be an ITFC supporter at times like these, I will continue to support the club and be a true blue fan through and through. Come on Town…dig deep and do well and play well for the remaining Championship games for your own individual pride and for the good of the best team in Suffolk and try to recapture the times when the team was the best in England and trying to be the best in Europe!
Right Town squad, pick yourselves up now and get to it for each remaining game this season!
Finally…great skill from Tommy Smith in the game a few days ago, scoring against QPR
On Saturday 12/01/14 Town lost at home to QPR which was a very disappointing result.
It was 0-0 at half time and Town were matching QPR and had chances and were generally playing well.
Again though the second half was not good overall for Town. All three goals for QPR were avoidable and were the result of Town’s mistakes.
Niko Kranjcar for QPR scored their first and he got the ball from a throw in opposite the Town penalty area and was allowed to go into the box by 3 Town players! His shot was good, low and right in the far corner to beat Gurken. No doubt it was a great finish by Krancaer but why did the 3 Town players (Chambers,Taylor and Higham I think) allow him into the box and past them with no challenge? It was both poor defending and a great finish! After the game manager Mick praised the finish but it was only made possible by 3 Town players being beaten easily by Kranjcar. No doubt about it that was poor defending and Town were punished!
The next goal was a mistake by Town goal keeper Dean Gurken who fumbled a QPR shot from Charlie Austin and Gary O’Neil was on hand to score from 2 yards out, an easy goal but the QPR player was in the right place at the right time to score from the rebound with no Town defenders reacting and blocking or clearing the fumbled rebound!
As if that wasn’t enough the third goal was a backpass error from a long QPR punted clearance upfield. Unfortunately Tommy Smith miscontrolled his backpass to Dean Gurken and Traore came flying in to get the ball and easily score past Gurken!
The three goals were all made by errors from the Town but the QPR scorers were clinical and ruthless!
Unfortunately Town were neither clinical or ruthless and some good chances they made were squandered through lack of a clinical finish EXCEPT for the consolation Town goal at the end of the game scored by Tommy Smith!
Smith’s goal was a great finish on the volley from a corner! Well played Town and Tommy for getting that goal back which showed some fighting spirit and was a fantastic finish!
So overall Town were well beaten by quality from QPR but all 3 opportunities were handed on a plate to QPR by three bad defending mistakes from Town.
The Town side was much changed again from the last game against Preston with much more of a first team feel and there are some positives to be had from the game as Town played well for some periods.
Unfortunately Murphy and EbanksBlake were injured and not in the squad.
Featured game on the BBC Football League Show
This was the featured game on BBC Football league TV show and what a shame Town couldn’t take that opportunity to showcase themselves better. It was good to see more of a Town game on the show but unfortunate Town didn’t impress more!
The other games were very interesting to watch with Leicester winning easily and looking good and Burnley too! This Championship is a tough one though as seen by Sheffield Wedneday 6 Leeds 0.
Next for Town…
Town have their FA Cup replay away at Preston on Tuesday before another away game at Millwall next Saturday. Both these games should be winnable for Town. Preston are a good side but the Town first team should be good enough to win the replay. In the first game many first team players were rested to allow other squad members to play and it didn’t work well.
Millwall will be tough to beat because although they are in poor form and lost on Saturday they have new manager Ian Holloway in charge and he is good and they were unlucky to lose that last game! Town though should win if they put in effort and are ruthless!
There is no doubt the games in this new year 2014 will not be easy for Town in the Championship, but Town do have good players and they will need to work hard and be ruthless to win against the other good teams in the Championship. Come on man up Town players and I will keep shouting for you to do well! COME ON YOU BLUES!!!!
This FA cup game ended in an unsatisfactory draw for both sides. Of course this suited Preston much more than Town. In brief Town had made 6 changes and Preston had a couple. The changes for Town didn’t really work as is obvious from the score and this report will highlight why.
Two of Town’s changes were due to injuries to Murphy and Smith (in came Ebanks-Blake and the defence was reshuffled & Tyrone Mings was in but out of his preferred position). The rest of the changes were to give the squad players a game and try & rest other first team players. In came Wordsworth and Tabb in midfield (along with Luke Higham) and Scott Loach was in goal with Carlos Edwards back too.
Ipswich-v-Preston (Sylvan-EbanksBlake)
Unfortunately Town did not start very brightly but I think this is for 2 reasons.Firstly the new players haven’t played together before and fairly soon after the start Town changed their planned 3-5-2 formation to 4-4-2 in order to combat Preston’s 4-4-2 formation and overall this did not suit this new Town team.
So Town looked to Nouble & Ebanks-Blake up front but Ebanks-Blake’s debut for Town ended badly after 27 minutes when he pulled up with a potential hamstring injury and was subbed off. However it gave Town the chance to get our best player of the season into the game,namely David McGoldrick. In fact McGoldrick then scored to give Town the lead from a penalty.
Preston though are a good side and although a league below Town, they are challenging for promotion to the Championship and have a good manager in Simon Grayson. The Town new/fringe players just didn’t gel or perform well enough on the day and Preston scored through the very experienced Kevin Davies.
It was disappointing to me that the Town players who were given their chance didn’t take it and play as well as I think they they can. However on the bright side I hope they react positively to this as they now know they will have to work harder and play better to get regularly into the Town first team. Preston played well and so it was a tough game for the Town team. It is now vital these fringe players react positively in this way and do not brush off their poor performances and expect to get back in the first team without giving the manager a good reason to do include them.
I will add personally I was surprised Wordsworth didn’t do better as I still think he is potentially a very good player who has had a bit of a rough time at Town. I am also surprised Jay Tabb didn’t do better either as I believe him to be a quality player-am I wrong?! Mick Mills on the BBC Suffolk Sport radio commentary wanted manager Mick to fine Luke Higham for too many backward passes and I agree with our “legends'” assessment! Come on Luke, be more positive and make more forward passes and forward runs!
I’m sure this game has given manager Mick and all discerning Town fans a better indication of Town’s current strengths and weaknesses and how these need to be fixed to maintain a realistic promotion challenge for ITFC.
The team will need strength in depth if they are to seriously mount a promotion challenge for the rest of this season.
Next….
Well there will be a cup replay against Preston and the winners of that will play Nottingham Forest.
I’m sure Town will go to Preston with an improved squad and want to win the game badly after the draw at home. I certainly hope so!
I remember the good old days when Town won the FA Cup in 1978.
ITFC FA Cup winners 1978
It would be great to win it again! COYB! No reason why Town cannot do well this year in the FA Cup!
Well, before the cup replay,next Saturday Town start again to play the reverse fixtures of the start of the season with a game against QPR. That should be a good game. For most fans getting promotion to the Premiership is the priority for Town and I believe this is definitely possible if Town work hard for the rest of the season and play to their full potential and are ruthless and resilient in their match play! Town have been unbeaten for a few games now but just managed draws. Now Town need to get some wins in! GO TOWN…We all agree ITFC are magic….Oh when the Town, go marching in…..Let’s make some noise for the Town!
As usual the Xmas New Year period is a busy period for football and Town have had 3 games I haven’t mentioned yet.
Firstly the away game at Doncaster was a good 3-0 win for Town. Very good! I’m not sure there is much more to say about that! Except to say that it was a good late Christmas present (on Boxing Day) for the team and fans.
There are no easy games in the Championship and travelling a long way for games isn’t easy but these are the types of games Town have to get points from in order to have a promotion play off challenge.
Secondly on the Sunday after Town were back on the road with another away game against Bournemouth. This ended in a 1-1 draw. Bournemouth by all accounts played well so it was a good point for Town.
The next game was played yesterday, a home game against Charlton and this ended as a 1-1 draw. This result was quite disappointing for me and many fans, as Town led for most of the match and missed a penalty which would have most likely sealed the win for them. The conditions were bad with heavy rain & wind but Town played well in the first half and yet not so well in the second half when Frank Nouble came on for Murphy and Taylor on for McGoldrick. It is good to see Taylor back in the side.
Still, for me, that was definitely 2 points lost and I hope the team realise this. I’m sure they must be disappointed as well as the fans and I hope they will try harder in the New Year! This may sound tough but everyone knows winning games is not easy in this league. Being tough and ruthless and winning ugly should be part of a successful team.
Town remain in sixth position in the play off places but they have made their play off promotion challenge harder for themselves by not beating Charlton. Mick is saying publicly that a draw was a fair result. Of course Mick McCarthy is doing really well for Town following the very difficult last couple of seasons.
The Town are developing into a good side and while all fans have been dreaming of a return to the Premiership, maybe this could happen this season? COME ON YOU BLUES…..
Next…
Well the next game is an FA Cup game against Preston North End at home on Saturday 040114.
A good result would be an extra present for the fans as Cup games are a welcome diversion from the slog of the Championship. Town have nothing to fear but must take nothing for granted to avoid problems.
Then the week after is a home game against QPR and that should be a good game and a good test for Town and there is every reason to think Town could win if they play to their potential!
