ITFC 1 Preston 1

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.

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.

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!

SUPER BLUES…