Town win last 2 games…

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Tue 17 Mar ITFC 1 Bolton 0

21 March 2015 Watford 0 ITFC 1

WELL PLAYED TOWN!

Jay Tabb actually scored in the Bolton game! Something of a mishit shot but it went in for a vital goal.
I suggest Tabb practises shooting and taking dead ball/set pieces eg free kicks and corners, during the international break before the next game.

Against Watford, Richard Chaplow scored in extra time with an assist from Freddie Sears…sweet!

Town have a few injuries (Parr, McGoldrick) and Mings is suspended so Elliott Hewitt has been brought back from loan at Colchester to help strengthen the side.

Currently the top 2 leagues are on international break and Town’s next match is:
Fri 3 April 2015 Championship vs AFC Bournemouth (Home)
17:15

This starts the Easter holiday and should be a great game as Bournemouth are currently at the top of the league (73 points and Town 67 points). GO TOWN!

Town’s remaining games are crucial and Town must get wins and points if they are to stay in the play off places. They are currently in sixth position.

Fri 3 Apr 5:15pm AFC Bournemouth H
Mon 6 Apr 3:00pm Huddersfield Town A
Sat 11 Apr 3:00pm Blackpool H
Tue 14 Apr 7:45pm Cardiff City H
Sat 18 Apr 12:15pm Wolverhampton Wanderers A
Sat 25 Apr 3:00pm Nottingham Forest H

Sat 2 May 12:15pm Blackburn Rovers A

COME ON YOU BLUES!

Middlesborough 4 Ipswich Town 1

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A very bad result for Town today away at Middlesborogh.

I listened to some first half commentary on BBC Radio Suffolk and keeper Dean Gerken was taken off injured after the first Middlesborough goal after 5 minutes.
I feared the worst then but Town equalised a few minutes later with a goal from Daryl Murphy.
It sounded like Town played reasonably in the first half.

I was able to watch the second half on Sky tv and Town were awful!
Patrick Bamford played really well for ‘Boro and skinned Tommy Smith a few times.
Town only had one chance in the second half, a header from Luke Varney which missed the target when it was a good opportunity to score.

All the Town players had poor to average second half performances and the only one who looked to have any energy and drive was Johnny Parr.

As I said before (2 posts previously), with Town on this awful run of form it will be a MIRACLE if Town get a play off place.
It is all very disappointing, as the team seem to have folded and thrown away opportunity after opportunity since after Christmas. When Mick McCarthy came to Town, the defence has improved but recently even they have given away soft goals and Town have missed the Hunt brothers and Didzy sorely.

As Town’s form has continued to be poor, many people (fans and even the manager) have said Town were still in a good position, but that was meaningless when Town’s bad form has continued for so long. They will have to play much better to get results again, as the end of the season is fast approaching. A footbal game lasts 90 minutes (or more) and any winning team has to play well for the whole time and likewise the team have to play well for the whole season to get a reward at the end.

It is so hard to stay positive for me, as a Town fan, when the team have been performing poorly.I had really hoped these last 10 or so games would hve been an exciting time as a Town fan, but without a miracle, this season is heading for mid table mediocrity for Town!

Can you tell I’m very disappointed!? COME ON ITFC….I’d love you to prove me wrong and finish the season with a fighting flourish! So give me something to shout about Town please…COME ON YOU BLUES!!

ITFC 1 Brentford 1

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Town drew 1-1 with Brentford last Saturday.

I didn’t see the game live but saw the highlights on tv (Football League show) and listened to parts on BBC Radio Suffolk. From that it seemed like a good game. The two Town highlights seem to have been one really good finish for a goal for Daryl Murphy and one shockingly bad finish to miss an almost certain goal by Daryl Murphy. Murphy was easily inside the 6 yard box (2m or such?!) and his contact with the outside of his boot took the ball way over the bar! Really one of the worst misses you could ever see at scoring a goal and from an “on-fire” striker! Oh well….

Anyway Town could have and should have won the game but didn’t. At least it was a draw. Now Town have dropped outside the play off places and there are only ten more games to go. The remaining games for Town are pretty tough:

Sat 14 Mar 12:15pm Middlesbrough A
Tue 17 Mar 7:45pm Bolton Wanderers H
Sat 21 Mar 3:00pm Watford A

Fri 3 Apr 5:15pm AFC Bournemouth H
Mon 6 Apr 3:00pm Huddersfield Town A
Sat 11 Apr 3:00pm Blackpool H
Tue 14 Apr 7:45pm Cardiff City H
Sat 18 Apr 12:15pm Wolverhampton Wanderers A
Sat 25 Apr 3:00pm Nottingham Forest H

Sat 2 May 12:15pm Blackburn Rovers A

Mick McCarthy thinks 5 more wins might be enough for Town. On current form, I don’t see 5 wins there for Town. It is clear Town are going to have to improve and get results from these games and winning results. Draws will not be enough.

The old cliche is very true that Town have to do well game by game, taking and focussing on each game one at a time and every game will have to be like a final if Town are to have any hope of getting a play off promotion place.

I hope Town can do this and I feel they have the potential to do it, but it is going to be a huge challenge for them to actually do it. So it is going to be a very interesting and exciting end to the season.

Next game is away against Middlesborough.

COME ON YOU BLUES…..

Leeds Utd 2 ITFC 1

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Town lost away at Leeds tonight. Town’s poor recent results continue.

I listened to the game on Radio Suffolk and Town appear to have given away one soft goal and Murphy who came on as a substitute missed a penalty! Billy Sharpe (of course..) scores again against Town with Freddie Sears getting the Town goal. Overall a draw would have been a fair result but frustratingly Town seem to only have themselves to blame for the loss and not really good play from Leeds. Town cannot keep making major mistakes without consequences.

Town now remain out of the promotion play off places, with another missed opportunity to get some points again tonight.

I really despair at Town presently. They were in a great position at the start of the year but their form has been poor since. There are various factors for this (especially with injuries to key players and most especially to McGoldrick who is badly missed from the team) but Town have made the finish to the season so hard for themselves. If Town do not start getting results they will not get to the play offs. Although it has been a good season for Town, it would be bad for Town not to make the play offs, when at one stage they were in second place and trying for automatic promotion.

I have previously on my blog posts called for Town to dig deep and grind out the results and show the character needed to do this but this hasn’t happened.

I now think it will be a miracle if Town get promotion.
Getting into the play offs is going to be hard now with so many other teams in better form than Town and the dream of winning the play offs and gettting promotion is fading for me. It is such a shame. I’m listening to another fan on the Radio Suffolk saying that the team are a shadow of what they were earlier in the season.

I’ve just heard manager Mick McCarthy on the radio and he is obviously very disappointed also (especially with the defensive errors).

The next two games for Town are tough. First home against Brentford on Saturday and then away at Middlesborough. Really Town have to win both to get back on track. The Town team have the potential to win these games but I’m no longer optimistic. I predicted Town to beat Norwich 3-0 last Saturday, but the nature of the game (with the lack of both quality and character, determination and resolve) and the result shocked me.

Nonetheless I will keep supporting the Town and hope they can stop this bad run of form and get that team character and spirit going, that is needed to get results and a good finish to the season.

COME ON YOU BLUES….

Norwich 2 ITFC 0

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What a bad Sunday for Town, losing away at Norwich today. I felt sure Town would rise to the occasion (games just do not get bigger or better than this derby) but they didn’t! I thought Town would win and predicted a 3-0 Town win. Now though,I feel jaundiced by this result as most fans and players do too.

I watched the game live on Sky tv and Town matched Norwich throughout the whole match and had chances to score but they weren’t taken. Norwich didn’t have many chances either but they carried more of a threat in their whole team (Grabban and Jerome especially and particularly Bradley Johnson). They took the 2 best chances they had but in truth they arose from Town errors.

First a counter attack from Norwich somehow saw a cross from wide go through the Town box and unfortunately Luke Chambers was ball watching and hadn’t a clue Johnson was running in behind him. Johnson’s shot was great and Chambers block was too late and of no use and the shot went high and hard into the goal past keeper Bialkowski.

The second Norwich goal was a race by newly arrived substitute Jerome, with a cross in the box and Mings and keeper Bartoscz Bialkowski got in a muddle with Grabban and the ball bounced tamely into the net. That was effectively game over.

Town really sorely lacked any linkage from their midfield to the strikers. Murphy and Sears were quiet but had no quality service to get the ball in good areas. Sears had a good chance from Murphy but Norwich keeper Ruddy made a fine save. Chris Woods (newly arrived on loan from Leicester) came on late in the second half and should have scored with a free header. Chaplow played the first half and was full of energy but without quality and Varney played the second half and was much the same.

Too often Town lumped balls forward from the back or midfield that failed to get anywhere! A huge lack of quality in the Town midfield. No one really got on the ball and took on the Norwich players and went forward past players. The only exception was Tyrone Mings who did try when he had the ball and Sears was good as usual with the ball but he hardly had it and contributed little by the end.

So that unfortunately is another opportunity Town have wasted in the promotion chase. The team were only average today and they need to be better than just average to win and contest the remaining games to the end of the season. Norwich go above Town in the table..End of the bad news. 🙁

Now the Town team must learn from this match and move forward positively to the next game 🙂

COME ON YOU BLUES!

ITFC 4 Birmingham 2

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ITFC 4 Birmingham 2

A great home win for Town last night! A good result and a good performance that sees Town in third place in the Championship (Derby, Middlesborough,Norwich and Brentford all won also and Bournemouth play tonight away at Nottingham Forest…this is one time I want Forest to win!).

Brief match highlights

Tyrone Mings scored his first Town goal after 50 appearances..nice! Freddie Sears scored twice…(first home goals for him)…very nice! Kevin Bru scored after Murphy should have scored…really nice!

It was a comfortable win for Town but they had to play well and they did against a good Birmingham side rejuvenated with new manager Gary Rowett. The only downsides were a fumble by keeper Bartoscz Bialkowski and Cole Skuse going off injured.

WELL PLAYED TOWN!

NEXT…Norwich away!

Well fantastic..On Sunday Town travel to Carrow Road for a very spicy derby match and I hope they beat the Canaries (budgies?!).

COME ON YOU BLUES…

ITFC 0 Reading 1

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What a disappointing performance and result for Town! ITFC 0 Reading 1.

Losing at home is never a good result and Town didn’t put in a good performance. I listened to the game on Radio Suffolk live and Town actually started well but after about twenty minutes went behind to a Reading goal from nowhere and Reading improved dramatically and Town had a few chances but didn’t take them and didn’t take control of the game.

The Reading goal was a very accurate long range shot, which seemed to stun all the Town team. Some were blaming the keeper Bartosz Bialkowski, but it was a good shot by the Reading player.

So Town threw away a good opportunity to go level with Middlesborough who also lost to Leeds at home.
Derby were losing but managed to grab a late winner, guess who from? Darren Bent! That’s hard…..(Darren Bent ex Town player). In this competitive Championship, Brentford beat leaders Bournemouth and Norwich beat Watford and are now only a point behind Town.

I also watched the highlights on the TV with the football league show and really the highlights consisted of a very early Town chance and the Reading goal and Jay Tabb with a chance. Mick McCarthy said in his post match BBC Sport interview that the result “was not the end of the world” but you could tell he was very unhappy with it and the performance!

Let’s face it Town are not playing well this year! It is a problem being without David McGoldrick (injured) even with Darren Murphy in good form. Town have also lost Noel Hunt to a ligament injury and dipped into the transfer market for 2 new players, Richard Chaplow and Luke Varney.

If Town do not improve soon they will fall out of the play off places. For weeks, people around had been saying that Town are still in a good position despite not doing well this year. That though, is really pointless! Almost like Town this year (pun!?). As a supporter it brings me to despair! However, win, lose or draw I’ll support Town evermore!

In my heart and head I know Town have the players with the ability to do well and get promotion, but they do not seem to have that belief themselves. Can the team get back to consistent winning ways? Who knows? It is very hard to know which Ipswich team turn up to play, as they are being very inconsistent this year, after getting themselves in a good position. They need to rediscover their form of the first half of the season…COME ON TOWN…LET’S DO IT!

2 good recent results for Town

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Since my last post, Town have played twice and won twice, stopping the slump of bad form they had encountered in January and early February 2015.

Firstly, Town beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at home and last weekend Town had a good away win 2-1 against Fulham. Daryl Murphy continues to score and is on 20 goals for the season, a huge part of Town’s success this season.

Well the Championship remains very tight at the top and tonight Middlesborough went top with a 1-1 draw away at Birmingham. Last Saturday Derby drew 3-3 with Rotherham and Town remain in fourth position but only 3 points behind leaders Middlesborough.

Bournemouth drew at home last Saturday against Huddersfield and Watford and Norwich are into the fifth and sixth play off positions. It is very close at the top and it is a well known fact that any side in this division can beat any other and the race for promotion remains very competitive as is every game in the Championship.

Town’s next game is home vs Reading (this coming Saturday..Sat 21 February 2015). Reading are in the quarter finals of the FA cup and playing well at the moment so again it will be a good test for Town to get a result there. If Jay Tabb plays for Town he would give 110% against his old club. Town have the players to win the game and it is all about physical and mental toughness to get results and points from every remaining game to the end of the season now for Town to maintain their promotion push.

TOWN FIXTURES:
Tue 24 Feb 2015 – Championship

Ipswich v Birmingham 19:45

Sun 1 Mar 2015 – Championship

Norwich v Ipswich 14:05

Wed 4 Mar 2015 – Championship

Leeds v Ipswich 19:45

Away at Norwich soon….sweet!

COME ON YOU BLUES!

Rotherham 2 ITFC 0

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Last weekend Town drew against Wigan and today they lost 2-0 against Rotherham.

Town have had a dreadful start to 2015 and are now 5th in the table. So many people are saying the Town
are still in a good position and we should be happy?! What are they talking about? They are talking rubbish! The Town team are playing badly and not getting points or results. The sign of a good team is that even when playing badly some points are gained either by winning or drawing.

So the team have thrown away a great opportunity to get points against teams they should be doing better against. Without an immediate change, the team are heading toward a mediocre season. What is the problem with the team? Is it all this nonsense being talked about by so many that we have been in a great position? Once the players start thinking like that, they start to lose focus and committment which appears to be the case. Well that obviously is not the whole trouble, but really the players should be kicking themselves really hard and they know should be trying everything they can to show everyone they are good enough to get out of the Championship and that they are a good team.

I’m afraid to say at the moment, Bournemouth, Derby and Middlesborough all look so much better than Town..ouch it hurts to say, that but the truth can be hard to acknowledge. The worrying thing is the Town team are endorsing that. There have been games in the past where Town have dug deep and salvaged games that they had been losing in, but that never looked likely today. Recently manager Mick McCarthy stated how “bonkers” the Championship is, but he knows that does not explain the Town’s poor form this year.

The next game comes round very soon for Town and it is overdue time for Town to stop the rot and get a rare win this year!
ITFC vs Sheffield Wednesday (Home)19:45

On a positive note there are enough games ahead to start playing better and finish the rest of the season strongly. I have been supporting this Team under Mick since he took over and he has done well with the Town with limited resources so far. This current bad run is an undoubted dip in form, so pick yourselves up now team and get back winning and show us that you really are the pride of Ipswich and East Anglia!

COME ON TOWN!!

Brighton 3 ITFC 2

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A disappointing loss to Brighton last night which meant Town lost the chance to go top of the Championship. Town are now in third place below Middlesborough (same points as ‘Boro but a worse goal difference). It is though very close at the top of the table as leaders Bournemoouth lost on Tuesday away at Leeds.

Up to now there has been no run away leader of the Championship and all the top 6 teams currently have great chances to get promotion this season. This is a crunch time for Town now both mentally and physically. Town need to be strong in both areas and work hard to get points for the remainder of the season. The performance against Brighton wasn’t great and Mick McCarthy was unhappy with it especially in the first half. There were some positives with Daryl Murphy scoring again and Freddie Sears scoring his first Town goal.

The next game for Town is Wigan at home on Sat 31 January so there is time to take a break and get prepared well for that. It is great Town are in such a good position and the team need to believe they can either win the Championship outright or be second and get automatic promotion. A play off place is of course possible but given Town’s position it is almost a poor option/consolation!

Here is a video compilation of manager Mick McCarthy over the last two years at Town:

It has been a great season so far for the team and supporters and as I said in my last post this is the time now for Town to push on. The loss at Brighton was not good but they can put it behind them on focus on every game one by one to win and at least get a point. This is the way to get the top or second place and get promotion and performances are not as important as winning points! Winning points and performing well is of course ideal but that cannot always happen. There is no reason Town should not be confident
enough to believe they are good enough to win the Championsship this season. Come on Town team, you can win the Championship if you get yourselves together and stay and play together for every game from now to the end of the season.

Town must be confident, but realistic and work hard and the reward of promotion will happen! COME ON YOU BLUES!!