Town’s last 2 games have been home wins! Well done Town!
Last Saturday Town team beat Middlesborough 3-1 and last night they beat Yeovil 2-1 at Portman Road giving 6 points!(more than the 4 gained through all last month-August).

In both games Town went a goal behind but showed character to come back and win the games. So the point earned with a draw at Birmingham the few weeks earlier (before the international break) did look good! As I have said before IF you can draw away and win at home then you have a good platform to build a good team and get enough points to be in contention for promotion. All at ITFC are agreed the Town squad is far better than it was a year ago and Town must continue to make good progress if we are to challenge for promotion at the end of the season. I think the Town squad is decent but it has been decent for a long while. Character and hard work are vital ingredients and Town squad is beginning to show these so there is a bright future if Town can be consistent and keep improving!

Against Yeovil Darryl Murphy finally scored and hopefully that can give him confidence and he can start to score more in the coming games. Of course the other goal for Town was from a defender,Cresswell and so far the defenders are helping by getting needed goals. All supporters now look for a few goals from some midfielders! Commentators seem to think the Town midfielders lack creativity & they maybe right-but they certainly lack goals! Tunnicliffe and Skuse seem to be playing well and I think Hyam is alright but I want to get more end product from Higham with goals and or assists from him and a bit more going forward rather than defensive midfield. Higham is a good prospect but needs to work hard to develop this season and have a good season. I would like to see Anthony Wordsworth playing as I feel he is the most creative and capable of popping up with assists and goals.

Next match is Wigan away on Sunday…this will be a tough match (but there are no easy games in the Championship). Good luck Town..go for it and work hard and play well and get a point or points with a draw or a win!

COME ON YOU BLUES…. GO TOWN!!!!!!

Birmingham vs ITFC

A good away draw at Birmingham for ITFC? Well I thought so and I said so on Radio Suffolk on air to Mick Mills and Graham Mack commentators on the match after the game. Mick Mills disagreed and thought it was not good as he felt Town should have won and beaten Birmingham. Well that of course would have been better but the acid test of this result is IF ITFC can win their next home match vs Middlesborough tomorrow.
Any team that consistently wins home matches and draws away will be getting enough points to be challenging for promotion. So I hope Town win against Middlesborough tomorrow! Town do need more points with only a miserly 4 points for August which really is a bad start! Every Town supporter wants the team to be getting better results and winning enough points to challenge for promotion..so COME ON TOWN team!!

I did listen to the radio commentary of the game vs Birmingham and it felt much the same as earlier games. The big difference was Mick McCarthy gave starts to Gerken, Andersen and Tunnicliffe. Got to say well done to Christophe Berra for scoring Town’s goal BUT must ask McGoldrick,Nouble and Murphy to help out and score some goals!! We need goals and hopefully goals from strikers! The Town defence is by and large good now (Chambers, Smith and Berra and Cresswell all good). Town lack in form strikers and it is McGoldrick who has done the most so far and looked the best front player for Town.

COME ON TOWN!

However as I said in my radio chat to Mick Mills, I do think Town have a good squad if the front men can get in form and I am optimistic for the next months ahead. There are though, no easy games in the Championship and any team there is capable of winning against any other team so Town need to work hard to get points!

ITFC vs Middlesborough

With all supporters behind the team and squad against Middlesborough we know we can win, so GO ON TOWN..COYB!!!

ITFC FIXTURE TABLE 2013-14

ITFC 1 LUFC 2

Home loss today against Leeds United. I could only listen to live commentary on BBC Radio Suffolk when ITFC did well for the first 30 minutes and took the lead with a good goal from McGoldrick. Leeds equalised with a slightly lucky rebound getting to one of their players who finished well. Leeds then played better than Town and when Leeds took the lead with their second goal there was little response from Town. In the end Town applied pressure with a succession of corners but in reality never seriously threatened getting an equaliser. Very disappointing….

There is talk about Town’s problems now as their good early game promise seems to be fading fast. To me I have to ask questions of Daryl Murphy and Luke Higham. I do not think either have given enough end product to Town and for some while now. No doubt both are good footballers but Town need strikers to make and take chances and midfielders who can make things happen and these two have not done enough in my opinion in those key areas. Last season when Mick came to Town’s rescue it was the defence that needed attention and that was improved but now we need goals and strikers who will get goals and hopefully midfielders and others who can chip in with the odd goal or two every so often. Bring on Antony Wordsworth and give Frank Nouble a proper chance!

Town have had tough games to start but there are only 2 or 3 teams that will be less hard (slightly easier) to play than others in what is a highly competitive Championship league. Town themselves are becoming a soft touch as they flatter to deceive by playing well for periods but then playing poorly in spells. This will not work for success in the Championship and after the last few seasons Town have had, everyone at the club should know that. Consistent hard work has to be standard with the odd glimpses of real quality for success in the Championship. Once again Town need to wake up quickly and “smell the coffee” now and recover by putting the hard yards in otherwise we are destined for another poor season!

COME ON YOU BLUES!

Next game is away at Birmingham next Saturday…go for it Town!
(for all Town’s fixtures see post on new season’s fixtures 2013/14)

We are now 3 games through the new 2013/14 football season for ITFC and an encouraging start in the SkyBet Championship..played x2 and lost x1 (2-1 Away vs Reading) and won x1 (3-0 H vs Millwall). Lost disappointingly to Stevenage in the Capitol Cup but manager Mick tried some team changes which didn’t work for that game but showed the new players they will need to do better to get a place in the regular first team!

The 3-0 home win vs Millwall was pleasing with Skuse and Higham impressing the manager (Mick McCarthy!) and fans both. Scorers were Cresswell (via an own goal..), Smith and Anderson. Millwall didn’t play well and are in some disarray after their manager of last season Kenny Jackett left and new manager Steve Lomas finding it hard to get support from all Millwall fans. Town did well away at Reading with Jay Tabb scoring against his former club. That was always a tough fixture away but after these 2 opening games the Town team and us fans can feel optimistic about the games ahead. We all need to take games one at a time and not to get complacent or over confident and support one another!

Hopefully I will soon post a fixture list here.
The next game is on Sat 17 Aug away vs QPR-another tough away game…COYB!! Go Town!

The Championship for 2013/14 season starts tomorrow! The summer holidays for ITFC are over. I hope the whole team and management and staff have had a decent break and that pre season preparations have gone well and that everyone is looking forward for a good season ahead for Town.

As ever there have been several player changes.Out go JET/Chopra/Martin/Drury that I know of and there are probably a few more gone I don’t know about! Jay Tabb and Daryl Murphy signing new contracts and Christoph Berra and Cole Skuse and Ryan Tunnicliffe and Dean Gerken coming in. There are others but I can’t remember them off hand! The only disappointment I had was the failure to sign Richard Stearman. Anyway Mick Macarthy has a good squad (albeit with some injury problems already!).

The first game of the season tomorrow is tough- away at Reading…..looking forward to it!

COME ON YOU BLUES COYB…… GO TOWN

Burnley 2 ITFC 0

Last Saturday saw the final games in the NPower Championship and Town lost away to Burnley.
This was not a bad result by any means as manager MacCarthy had changed the side considerably as for the first time since starting he had a chance to use other players as we were safe from relegation.

Tyrone Mings played and played well. Chambers didn’t play but Kisnorbo did and he had a reasonable game.
Marriott was put on as substitute and showed some good ability with the ball.

Town started well but somewhat fizzled out later. The first Burnley goal was a screamer & more or less unstoppable. It was a shame the second was due to poor defending late on in the game. Anyway it was a shame to lose but Mick & the supporters had a chance to look at other players and they did alright. There is every reason to think the future for next season is good for Town. Already a few players are leaving (shame to see goalie Aaron Lee Barrett going as he had done well for Town imho). Hopefully we can secure McGoldrick and Steadman.

What a final championship Saturday! Apart from Burnley vs Town, the other games had promotion/playoff/relegation issues riding on them. In short congratulations to Hull who get second & promotion. However commiserations to Peterborough and Wolves who are relegated along with Bristol City. Barnsley did well to avoid the drop and well played ex Ipswich player Jason Scotland who helped them considerably.

Well the season is over-time to have a break before thinking of a better season for ITFC to come!

COYB!!!!!!!

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…