I’m about five pints in from watching this down the pub, but I thought we were fortunate to get away with a point there. I thought Birmingham’s disallowed first half goal was soft. I thought our penalty decision was pretty soft as well. The first half we looked lethargic and stodgy. To be fair to the team, when we conceded we reacted well and took the game to Birmingham. The real issue for me was central midfield. Matusiwa had a few errors and was guilty of thinking he had more time than he did. Hopefully after a few Championship games, he’ll adapt to the tempo. Jack Taylor had an awful game, I thought. Our full backs were pretty poor. Ogbene was a non factor. Szmodics looked like he was struggling - should’ve hit the target for the first half chance. The main positives were our centre backs - I thought O’Shea and Greaves were generally solid. Jack Clarke looked a constant threat, unlucky to be on the end of some harsh refereeing decisions. Hirst applied himself well and took the goal from the penalty (although definitely an element of nerves when he hit it). Young looked classy from the bench. Main factor to consider was this is the first game of the season and there’s plenty of rust to kick off. A tough away game against a team that is likely to challenge for the top six. Take the point and I’ll definitely take my five points for the predictions league
This banter is about as pedestrian as our performance tonight. Get Ristac to bring his Leeds lot back over from two years ago - much more entertaining than this half-arsed effort.
I had the absolute horror show of listening to the whole game on talksport radio as travelling across to Suffolk. Troy Deeny the expert non bias Birmingham fan commentry. Not sure what happened to Brum when they went a goal up ,seemed to loose their momentum. Good away point.
I did wonder if the name sounded familiar. The original 606, now that definitely is a blast from the past!
Don't feed the troll!! A point against a newly promoted side with all the momentum when we're still finding our feet as a squad with significant reinforcements to come in,I'll settle for that!
Best I can find online: https://web.archive.org/web/2011012...nttype=-1&phrase=Ipswich Town&phrase=Football Most the links have been lost, but several threads on the first page from 2011 are there. Yorkie, Warky, and Fieldmarshall on some of the surviving links. The star ratings are giving me serious nostalgia!
Make no mistake. That was absolutely dire. Young made a hell of a difference but there was so little other quality from Town. Beginning to question McKenna’s vision and decision making and Ashton’s handling of affairs without O’Leary. Did we just get lucky in the Paul Cook transfer window? For Burgess, Morsy, Hutchinson, Broadhead and some of the coaches to want out and for the manager to say that some players don’t want to be with us come the end of the transfer window something is rotten. Maybe it’s the captaincy going to the hapless O’Shea… never a leader… or perhaps that’s just a symptom. We get out of jail and I hope it helps break the losing mentality - and I hope none of the players believe that they put in an acceptable performance. It’ll have to be some performance against Southampton to make up for that.
You’ll be okay, start judging the team after a few games, your first two games are rivals for a top 3 finish, a draw away is a good result
I have to say I expected that kind of performance, team coming up with the bit between their teeth wanting to put one on a recent Premier League team who have the favourite tag (still not sure why). That was a very disjointed performance and I'm not surprised some of these players have been with us a year but very few have played regularly or all together and it showed. We've lost the great team who got us the double winning promotion lost their spirit and now after many have had the chance of PL football and been pushed to one side by multimillion pound signings they want to leave. We've also lost pretty much every player bar O'Shea who performed at any decent level last season (although Cajustes return is welcome). I couldn't see any partnerships or patterns of play unlike the team we had coming into this division 2 seasons ago. On paper I see a very good squad which yes needs adding to but with my eyes over the past season I've seen nothing so far which suggests this team can compete at the very top of this division. The positives are this is a really good point and will probably be one of the toughest games of the season, against a good team (whether they'll be up the top or not I think it's too early to pass judgement) but the circumstances made it tough. I thought as McKenna said on the ball we werent good enough but generally apart from a couple of lapses off the ball we were pretty solid, we pressed okay and generally kept a good compact shape. We only started playing better when we went a goal down. I appreciate Ogbene has had a serious injury (so we must be short/desperate if we're starting him) but ive seen nothing from him so far the fact Al Hamidi looked more dangerous down that side says it all. Agree with Hampy about Young, he looks like a starter in my eyes, looked like one of the only ones calm under pressure (missing Morsy there). I thought CB pairing were okay but we're not as good on the ball in that area as we were last time we were in the division plus for me Greaves can play very well the majority of the game but still has a habit of being half a yard off the pace in crucial moments. A couple of signings and getting enough points to keep at the top for a while things could turn and start to click but we looked a way off that last night. There's a lot of work to do on and off the pitch.
The result wasn’t disastrous, the performance was. Jack Clarke deserves singling out. He just couldn’t be arsed. That’s not what champions are made of. McKenna made a lot of excuses for mitigating circumstances in his post-match. There can be no mitigating circumstances for that effort from Jack Clarke.
Dire it might have been, but to play poorly and still get a point away at a team in terrific home form, I will take that. I will better judge in a months time. I agree much work to do on and off the pitch.
Anyone try Now tv live stream? It purports to show Sky games. And visiting all the ITFC international sites like Belgium, Spain even Somalia didnt work! Maybe I am not tech savvy.
Welcome back to the Championship. Crap football, opposition more interested in stopping you play than anything else and worst of all incompetent and possibly corrupt referees with no control from VAR. Enjoy your season!!!
Just seen replay and more I think about it, it is clear they were keen to stop us playing our free style flowing game, and simply put in many aggressive tackles, and boot was in. Just look how Hirst was outmuscled. Our 2nd half performance improved and we showed real character in getting back in it. It will prove to be a big point.
Stopping you from playing? Where has this idea of free flowing football come from. Who dreamt this ideal up. That's not how you play at all. You didn't even try and play. Garbage long balls from your full backs and crosses from silly positions. Rubbish spectacle of huff and puff football.
