Preston 3 ITFC 2
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!