We were in line with the foul when the Ipswich player went down and he had his feet together before he went down. Surely if he was caught and it was a foul, his feet would be apart as if he was running
Aye I didn’t have that view looked like a ‘take one for the team’ He did then hoof the ball at the hoardings which I didn’t see live so might well have been for that, which is criminal.
Totally agree with this. i wouldn't knock any of our players for the performance yesterday. Of anyone Clarke frustrated me the most.
I have noticed that if you loose the ball, and your head, the chance of you getting booked for the slightest infringement soars. The likes of Freddy Lapido get away with repeated and calculated assaults by naive or worse refs and thats being kind. The time wasteing is being addressed and so should this issue with the technology that is available but so far ignored.
At the game, I said Hume was off as soon as he committed the foul, after watching the recording last night, I'm not so sure but if the ref thought it was a foul it was also a booking, I do think you make a good point about kicking the ball away though.
There was one looked like Ballard was getting hoyed all over from a corner but Ballard being Ballard he got on with it and didn’t react or appeal. He’s nails Ballard.
Looking back I though we played well for 25 mins and then seemed to get rattled when they got forward. It was a nothing game at 0-0 but their goal seemed to knock all the wind out of our sails. Second we started very poorly and got punished. Watching the goal back I blamed Ekwah, but have to say ONien wasnt in a great position either, didnt see that at the time. Ekwah does need to be better physically though for me, as good as he is with the ball at his feet. Not sure why Neil was further forward than Ekwah personally. By the end of the game Neil carried all the goal threat I suppose, but for me Ekwah should be higher one. Jobe looked good but cant play as a 10 yet. He doesnt secure the ball quickly enough in tight spaces. Plenty to like about his play though, but he has to score that chance. Puts us ahead when we deserved to be in front and might well change the game. Hume stepping in to midfield didnt look great to me either. I understand the tactic but not sure he has the pace or awareness to do it. So difficult for full backs to step into a space where the game is no longer just in front of them. So overall a couple of tweaks for Mowbray to make. A couple of extra players in and we still look like a team capable playing some cracking stuff.
Even the cameras replayed some of it but I often wonder if anyone cares, all teams do it, some more often than others, we should have had two penalties awarded for fouls on Ballard alone in that second half.
The striker situation is a bit frustrating mind. It's a strange one for us supporters because we're not privvy to any inside info. That said, maybe the reason why it hasn't been sorted out yet is because we are waiting on a few Clubs buying new players before releasing their loans. Yes, we've had this problem since January, but there must be a simple reason as to why we haven't addressed this position yet.. Surely the Club have decided on their targets by now, despite the Stewart saga. My hunch is that we are waiting on at least one loan, otherwise I'm still scatching my head. I still have faith though...
Perhaps yesterdays result will be a blessing in disguise. Imagine if Hemir and Jobe had both scored and perhaps someone else. Would the management then think that we will be ok with what we have and when the young ‘un and Ross are available we will get by without another striker. We played some good stuff yesterday but surely those who deal with our transfers must see that at least one experienced striker (such as Cannon) is a must. This defeat may trigger a signing that we would not get had we won.
For me, the lads were still a bit in holiday mode. We showed some good flashes of brilliance, but were a bit off the pace otherwise. Going down to 10 men was a wake up slap in the face. It was only down to a couple of brilliant saves that we unable to rescue a point. It is interesting that both Sunderland and Wrexham went to America for pre-season. Both were a bit flat on return. Coincidence?
I’m not too worried about the performance even though the bookies clearly knew something we didn’t because they had Ipswich as clear favourites. The concerning thing for me is that we’re playing a trio of midfielders who are too similar and none of whom are really creative. Nobody was getting over to help Roberts, whilst last season we had so much success on the right side due to Amad coming over and Gooch getting up the pitch. We have a lump of a striker getting absolutely no service and yet again we’ve had to rely on bringing Pritchard on after the damage has been done to start looking dangerous. We started the game without the “cute” footballers we had alongside Roberts in Diallo and Pritchard yet tried to play central and walk the ball into the net.
Dack could make a massive difference to the options in the final 3rd, let’s not forget that. Lad scores and assists.
Watched this on the tele and couldn't believe the number of times Roberts was kicked at and tugged and the Ref completely ignored it. He was loosing his rag towards the end which is totally understandable but doesn't really help. Bet he was sat in the dressing room going mad after the game. Thought TM controlled himself really well for the post match interviews, never seen him rage as much on the touchline as he did yesterday. I've said earlier in the thread that I thought the Ref was very poor and apparently it was his first match in the Championship and it showed massively for me.
Thought the ref was poor. Gave some soft fouls for both teams, then missed/ignored the blatant ones. Ipswich time-wasting from the 5th min was embarrassing
We rarely win our first game of the season. Only twice in the last 14 seasons have we taken all 3 points on opening day
