A very dull match partly decided by a moment of stupidity from the Leeds sending off and settled by a moment of magic by Celina. No real poor performances from our team, although McGoldrick struggled again I thought. Celina arguably man of the match, closely followed by good performances from Knudsen, Kenlock, Skuse, and Waghorn (who had a very positive first half). Four points off play offs, which is ridiculous thinking about it. While we got the three points today, we didn't dominate the match and we looked shaky at times. Desperately need some new blood in this transfer window if we want to mount any kind of play off charge in the second half of this season.
Dull or not, gimme 3 points any day of the week. The rot has been stopped. Yes, we play grim stuff - HOWEVER, bar Wolves / Brentford / Leeds / Sheff Weds and a few other when on form - a good half the division also do not exactly play fantastic stuff. Given our budget / I think we're going along quite nicely this season. Again - this will annoy people but the reality is anything top 15 is a successful season. Bookies had us down for a relegation fight - we're not likely now to get embroiled in that so we'll have to see IF we can push on and do anything. Personally, I very much doubt we can unless we add / stay injury free - however it's the hope that kills you so unfortunately, as an ITFC fan I will have to stick with hope and see if we can achieve. Bolton A is another must win you feel.
Fair play Westlake, I agree given our resources and injuries etc you can't argue where we are in the table. Your support is unwavering for Mick, it seems it only waivers when you watch a game which I think proves a point in itself
I understand that football is ultimately a results business and, as Westy states, we are arguably over achieving considering the budgets McCarthy is working under. But do we realistically expect play offs this season? Do we expect any type of progress? The manager clearly doesn't want to be here, the players' effort has dropped over the past couple of months, and our owner hasn't had an ambitious plan in place at this football club for half a decade. The whole club is treading water until summer. Watching our "style" of football is such a dull, torpid, and uninspiring experience that even when we do win, there is little to discuss or appreciate after the match. I can tolerate bad performances and I can tolerate the occasional hard fought result, but it's just a consistent slog watching this football. It's the same old stuff. I cannot recall the last time we truly dominated a match or played a team off the park. Not to mention the ticket prices means you pay some of the highest prices in this division. I appreciate that to someone not watching the games and just seeing the result, a win is a win. But the way we play is keeping fans away. As for myself and the mates I go with, our trips to Portman Road have decreased over the past couple of years because it is not an enjoyable team to watch, the matches are almost always lacking in quality and as a spectacle, the prices are high, and the atmosphere is lacking. I'm not even a season ticket holder, so I really feel bad for those supporters who stick it out, but I know of several who have just stopped watching. If Evans had any ambition, he would've identified a successor, sacked McCarthy and got the new man in now to get to grips with this team, identify areas to improve, given Portman Road and supporters a boost, and planned for next season.
I'd argue football actually isn't a results based business. Football is all about the fans and without the fans you wouldn't have a football club. It's an entertainment business. And fans want to be entertained otherwise what is the point of going. People work hard all week to pay a lot of money to get enjoyment out of supporting their club. Unless you already support people aren't going to go if they don't enjoy the football. I have enjoyed going to a few football matches over the past few years but only down to the social side of it rather than the football itself.
Of course it's a results business. At the end of the day, the result is what matters the most more than anything. Take the fa cup final Wigan v Man City. Man City pulled Wigan's pants down all day. One way traffic. Wigan won't care, the players won't the fans won't they won the cup. I'd love us to play triangles / sexy footy / semi decent footy ala Royle - LOVED them days. However, McCarthy chooses to play the game his way and providing we get results - then to me anyway that's the most important thing. I'd rather win a game despite questioning what in the hell we're doing AV IT to an area/ try and win a 5050 and off we go. I saw us play some quality stuff under Jewell when he went 4-2-3-1 when Leadbitter and Norris finally made way for Drury + cannot remember. With Jet/ Martin off... Chopra? However, a lot of the results back then were toilet so I didn't enjoy where we were going despite playing much better stuff than we are right now. I'd love nothing more than us winning lots playing sexy stuff. I really would. Lets see what the new manager does next season - 99.9% sure this is the end of Mick this year.
I think its a bit of both actually but the bottom line is that fans want to see a successful side, that doesn't mean its promotion or nothing and it doesn't mean I want us to play expansive non stop attacking football and lose 5 - 3 every match. We want a team that can compete on a regular basis and achieve the play offs or thereabouts playing attractive football when we can and grinding out results when we have to, hopefully with continued progression through realistic investment in the playing staff the promised land would be achieved but this clearly cant happen under the present regime. If there was a change of ownership and or management I for one would become a season ticket holder again and I'm sure many others would too but regrettably this stagnation cant do anything else but continue under the existing structure and the gates will continue to decline, what a sad way for our Club to be treated and the worst thing is that nobody apart from the fans gives a damn, disgraceful.
I'm still of the opinion we'll come up short Spanish. The Leeds win stops the rot though and at least eases my fears that the season could really transend into an utter mess, which clearly I or none of you want. At this time of writing, Bart + Didsy are still here - so I guess we'll know come Feb 1 what we have to work with for the rest of the season. Seriously could do with some signings though you'd have to think. Said in Bolton preview I fancy a draw ( sadly ) which clearly won't be enough.
