First things first, what idiot put Millwall AND West Ham both at home with a 3pm k.o ? You need your head examining frankly....! Onto the ground and game. I didn't particularly like at the train station, the path going separately and HAVING to go straight into the away end. At most grounds you can walk around with no trouble etc, seems a bit drastic or is it really that rough !? Nice ground, traditional. Again, a shame the lower tier of the away end cannot be open - surely it can be !? Anyway, we started quite well and Millwall also didn't start too shabby. My initial thoughts " this will NOT end 0-0 ". Stockdale was so very unlucky for Millwall's first goal. Three bites of the cherry Simpson I think had, the ball finally ending up in the net for 1-0. Shortly after, 2-0. Again, poor play by us combined with good open attacking play by Millwall. At this moment, with only 8 minutes on the clock weirdly I wasn't overly worried. That may appear weird, however, if we are going to be 2-0 down I'd rather it be after 8 minutes than 82. The Millwall crowd by this point was in good voice. We enjoyed the " Millwall's a ... hole, I wanna go home " and there was some fairly good banter between supporters. From then on in the first half, we had more of the ball due to Millwall being very content to counter. We were passing the ball VERY slowly, sideways and backwards. Trotter and the other CM, Poss Henry were controlling the midfield well. Feeney on the right wing was absolutely DESTROYING us for fun. Hardly gave the ball away, made Kennedy at LB seem completely invisible. WHY O WHY no one went straight through him to put him off until Chopra did on 82 minutes was beyond me. Their 4-4-2 system with wingers was controlling our 4-4-2 diamond. Leadbitter was given the job on the left hand side, and was offering Kennedy zero protection. Surprise surprise Leadbitter passed the ball backwards and sideways all game. Against sides with GOOD wingers we MUST NOT play this system I would state ! Millwall duly saw the first half out. Scotland had half a chance when Chop's closed the keeper and made a mess up, but from around 30 yards and had to take it first time. Millwall were very very good value for the 2-0 lead. We were also lucky not to concede a penalty, when Wabara decided he was fouled, and put his hand on the ball in our box. The ref didn't give a free kick to us, and what made Wabara feel he had the right to gain a free kick from the ref was beyond me. That would have been 3-0, game over, and an idiotic thing to do on debut. Fortunately, the referee who was horrific for both sides didn't give the decision. HOWEVER - my question at half time was simple. 1- Could Millwall play that well 2nd half ? 2- Could we be that poor, give the ball away, slow and lethargic for the 2nd half ? In answer to my question, Millwalll were the same again and we were slightly better. Stockdale made a superb save at one point in the second half. Not sure what Millwall player had the first chance, but he had to get up and move a good 5 minutes back across when we were beaten all ends up ! As the half progressed, we were finally playing better, however without creating much of note. Millwall seemed happy with countering still, we obviously wanted the ball to try to create an opening. Bullard's goal came pretty much out of the blue, on 65 I think and SOMEHOW we were alive with a realistic chance of a result. How would Millwall respond at 2-1 ? Would they crack !?!? We finally started to play some decent football for a spell. The game by this point was as open as Ulrika Johnson. How we were in it ? We'd been shocking for much of the game, HOWEVER without resorting to hoofball. The players at least kept going to Jewell's pass the ball philosophy, which was pleasing. Keane would have had us playing rugby much before then. However, another Millwall attack ( and they had responded rather well too to us scoring by having a good spell straight after ) ,,,, resorted in the referee from my perspective being a clown. A millwall player passed the ball, and it appeared it would go to our CB. NO. The ref had other ideas, he got in the way of the ball, deflecting it, and sending Millwall into a 2 v 1 situation. The ball was passed to the VERY Impressive Feeney, who smashed home for 3-1. 3-1 72 ish on the clock, game over or would we respond well? Scotland immediately had half a chance from a narrow angle to cut the areas. He may score that 2 in 10, it wasn't an easy chance by any means. However, we were the town of old and crumbled. Badly. I can't for the life of me remember the move for the 4th goal, but Millwall pushed, tails up, and slammed home again. The rest of the game, Millwall countered rather well. Feeney, god he had a game. The 4-1 scoreline sadly I'd say was a fair reflection. Millwall really impressed me, we were poor. My only regret is the ref's positioning for their 3rd goal. U never know what may have been. Cresswell was so badly badly missed. He would have dealt with Feeney much better than Kennedy did. Players that impressed - Stockdale had a great game. Was so unlucky for both the first 2 goals, as you may have seen. Wabara offered a good threat going forwards and was quite solid. Chopra + Scotland both put in a good shift - need something to work from....... Bullard tried his heart out to get us going, but was leggy. The rest really were very poor. Sonko when he went off was a big loss. Work to be done. We can have a good season, but some players are going to have to up their game. I'd suggest having AT LEAST Martin or Carson or BOTH on the bench / line up v Donny an absolute MUST.
Not being your typical cynical self again JWM, its good to see!!! Good review Westlake, although you seem to contradict your self a little as you say we played fairly well for large periods of the game but then go on to say we were poor and Millwall deserved the scoreline. Were you trying to say that we controlled large periods of the game without actually doing alot, with Millwall using the counterattack to good effect and punishing us for our weaknesses??
Progress under Jewell has been made? The first game of his tenure at Millwall who were riding high in the league in January and we lose 2-1. After scorelines like Norwich 5-1, Swansea 4-1, Leicester 4-2, Southampton 5-2, Peterborough 7-1 and now a good tonking at a previously struggling Millwall 4-1 I will let you make your own minds up!
This is what I said before JWM, its not just results, its the bigger picture and with you it always seems to be your outlook on where our club is, is based on our last result!! So you don't think we have made progress then JWM?
Forums are hilarious things. We win games, NO ONE comments. We lose, EVERYONE moans. We have whinging people such as johnnywarksmoustache who I'm convinced would moan if we won the champions league, signed Messi + Ronaldo. Grow up, we're not going to win every game, its a very even league.
Based on our last result! How about basing it on the last 5 years of utter garbarge since we sacked Joe Royle! The last Ipswich manager who knew what he was doing! How I long for those days when we had an attack minded team that played football the right way and actually entertained the punters. Don't give me all this bollocks about the last result. We were promised 3 years ago that it was operation premiership and yet we are further away now than we have been since 2004/05! Perhaps if Evans had taken over the club when Joe Royle was in charge we would be in the premiership now instead of being a piss poor average championship team. Just don't talk about this bigger picture because all I care about is the next result! That's what football is a result driven sport and quite frankly the results are speaking for themselves.
I just cannot comprehend what you just said, its ridiculous. Based on your logic basically every manager would get the sack after loosing a match. Are you saying we should sack Jewell?? So what you are saying is we should base our opinions on the team not on a mulititude of things not the "bigger picture" but the last match and the last 5 years. So your taking it out on Jewell for what has happened over the past 5 years. I do not recall you being so negative about Mr Keane JWM, when he is the reason why Jewell has had such a hard time. No manager could have turned it round very quickly after the complete shambles of Roy Keane. Yes things aren't rosy but things look far more promising than anytime in the past 3 years, we just need to be patient now because we were really were in a terrible situation when Jewell took over!!! When we finally have someone in charge who appears to know what they've got to do you grill him for it. We are starting to have an attack minded team that play football the right way and entertain. But if I recall correctly you were one of those arguing for Keanes style of play because it could get us some results rather than being the nice pretty Ipswich of old. I bet you were one of those fans moaning when Royle was in charge because we didn't play good football. Lets get it right and take off those rose tinted glasses that people seem to be wearing about Royle now, yes he did a fantastic job but I do not recall many fans wanting to be at the club in his final season and we did not play great football under him, we were direct which often was using the long ball, it was entertaining but it wasn't purist football, we played far better football initially under Magilton and so far under Jewell. Even though you have been watching Ipswich for over 40 years you seem disillusional!! And a stereotypical cynical football fan!!
There are plenty of Championship clubs up and down the country that have promised the Premiership in a 3 year plan. Most have failed so dont be too hard on yourselves. You need a young and hungry manager and players to achieve promotion.
I personally have a split view on this. Can I see improvements under jewell - yes Do I think we are doing as well as what we should - NO Look at our what Jewell considers to be our first choice line up and it has (I believe) ten players with premier league experience and 9 with full international recongnition. The team should have the experience and the ability to do well at this level on a weekly basis. Im not talking about winning every match we play but I think we should have enough about us which means we dont concede 3 or more goals other than on freak occasions. Other than Cresswell, I cant think of one player we have signed since the Magilton days who didnt come with a high profile yet Millwall can sign an unheard of youngster from Bournemouth who single handedly undone us on Saturday! I haven't lost faith in Jewell. I think he says the right things and his enthusiasm and spark gives out the right messages but we should have a strong resolve than what our results are currently showing.
Though not many have spent as much as us and it's young and hungry players we need, the hungry manager we already have and he is working hard to identify the right players to move us forward. Unfortunately it will take time as we are in need of players in every area apart from left back!
ptc Perhaps if you went and watched as many Town games as I do home and away every season you wouldn't be quite so dismissive. This forum is home to all kinds of views and while I respect your "bigger picture!" I think you are just in denial! I and many more like me who pay a considerable amount of money to support the Town expect BETTER! I don't think that is too unreasonable! All we are getting right now is the same worn out cliche's about players being tired blah blah blah! You might be happy to settle for mediocrity but I definately aint!
hey warky, you seem a bit down old bean. are you losing patience? do you want big fat paul sacked as thats how you're coming across?
To sum up my views, for an aging team that was in all probability meant to fill holes in the foundations, built on not much more than £3m with players that mostly didnt have a full pre-season i dont think were doing half badly. Yes this result comes as a shock and is worrying but reading *scrolls back up and down* westlakes report it seems that 4-1 may have been a bit harsh maybe not performance wise but scoreboard wise. A good victory against Doncaster, which im not going to assume is a given but something i would expect then we should be OK. I think there was a possibility that we let Millwalls current league position over-shadow their recent performances, and in ways we cant lump this in with southampton and pboro results because it is a new defense. This is going to continue to be a roller-coaster season but as long as were not looking at relegation even a teensy bit then im just going to sit comfy and enjoy the ride.
Sat home to Donny = big game. We need to turn around, and I would suggest NOT playing the diamond being essential. If it IS played, JET HAS to be somewhere in it, he did quite well when he came on saturday. Bowyer / Bullard / Andrews / Leadbitter all DON'T possess pace / movement etc. I would like to see either Carson or Martin in the line up saturday, its essential to us getting a result.
We are crying out for some genuine pace in the team why the hell can't PJ see that and change it? I bet he's still down on Martin and Carson. A bit like Keane used to be with players he fell out with! Play Bullard further up the park where he does his best work and drop Leadboots for Hyam.
JWM, i do agree with parts of what you say but i clearly remember you, only about 2-3 weeks ago when we were in our little run talking about how happy you are with Paul Jewell and how things are on the up. yes we pay our money and expect a bit better than what we've been getting but it's clear we are better equipped now than we have been since Joe Royle.we have a manager who knows what he is doing (despite some hammerings) but things are definately looking up and we will be there or thereabouts this season. That doesnt mean we arent going to lose games because we will and if every time we lose one we get people moaning about how bad a situation the club are in etc etc then to be honest thats wrong. if we win the next two games we might be back in the play offs and i'm pretty sure there will be people writing about how PJ is the saviour blah blah blah. We need perspective: we are better equipped than we have been for years but we are a work in progress. we are not going to win every game but things are most certainly looking up compared to the last few years so lets get behind the team and not moan (we are all guilty of it) when the slightest thing goes wrong!
Tractorbhoy, I agree with you in that I can certainly see progress under Jewell but no, with the players we have we are not doing as well as we should be but arguably I would say the players we have now Jewell has done extremely well to get them in for the amount he has spent, they far exceed anything what I expected to get in this season. Obviously him being able to recruit as well as he has has raised our expectations perhaps somewhat unrealistically especially as we still have major weaknesses throughout the team but with the quality and personnel we posses we certainly should not be performing how we have been in the past few matchs, the thing that has surprised me most is lack of possession and loosing the ball to easily. For example when I went to the Cardiff game I was very surprised that we lost it after going 2-1 but we just couldn't keep hold of the ball and I just couldn't believe it with the midfield we have. JWM if it really makes you that depressed going to football matches why bother going?? I used to love going to footy matches, but under Keane I just stopped going because it was just making me depressed at the complete and utter rubbish I was watching and a clueless manager, I understand that he put us in such a bad way that these things are not going to be sorted over night and we still have a very long way to go. But I have started going a bit more recently and have seen more to encourage me than any time in Keanes reign and that even comes after watching the Southampton match!!! Why am I in denial JWM?? I try to show balance to my arguments unlike yourself where there appears to be no grey areas its just black or white. We do expect better from the itfc, especially over the debacle of the past few years but as John Cobbold said someone has to lose(unless you draw )!! I just think your being a little too critical on Jewell due to whats happened over the past 5 years which he had no control over and yet as I say I do not recall you being anywhere near this critical of Keane, when what he did was just inexcusable!!! I am certainly not content for mediocracy for this club which is why I was on here so much moaning about Keane probably more than you do and look what happened!! But there has to be a process to getting to where we want to get to it doesn't just happen over night, I'm far from happy with the last few performances and results, we should be doing better but the bigger picture IMO is rosier for us than it has been in a long time but its just going to take alot of time and patience for us to get there.
