It finally happened, too much playing around at the back and we mess up terribly and lose a goal. 4-1
Chambers challenge from behind, Rovers have a free kick in a good spot. Town need to calm down a bit.
4-1 loss then. First half was pretty competitive between the two teams, Doncaster were quicker in their movements and their passing and caused us a few problems. They played with more purpose and a clear plan. They put strong pressure on us when we were playing out from the back and you could see that it would pay dividends soon. Second half was a good disaster for Ipswich. We needed a half like that to continue our evolution as a team that wants to play out from the back. Doncaster did their homework and provided a blueprint for the rest of the league on how to get at us. We'll learn a lot from the mistakes tonight. The decision making needs to be quicker and better. The choices on when to play short or knock it long were wrong too often and we got punished more than once. There were several players just not at it today, Judge, Nolan and Kenlock were ineffective and Nsiala had a terrible start to the second half. Holy - sketchy moments with the ball at his feet. Needs to improve his decision making as he put us in trouble a couple of times. Kenlock - guilty of way too many passes back to Wilson which didn't help us put Doncaster under pressure. Wilson - not bad but not great either. Nsiala - oh dear, where do you start? Terrible choice on when to 'take one for the team' when he got beaten for pace and pulled his man down in the box when he could've done it sooner. Another one that needs to learn the intricacies of playing out from the back. Chambers - couldn't contribute as much in attack as recent games but added way more than Kenlock on the opposite side. Made a rash challenge that gave a free kick away when Rovers were on top, not what was needed at the time. Huws - didn't play badly and I thought he should have stayed on the pitch and swapped Bishop for Nolan instead. Huws adds some size and strength to our team that I thought was needed against this opponent. Dozzell - some decent passing again but got overrun in midfield with the quick passing of Doncaster. Nolan - didn't stay as close to the striker as Bishop does and we struggled to bridge the gap between Dozzell and Sears. I wish Nolan had been changed for Bish. Edwards - our most dangerous player again, shame Kenlock couldn't pass to him more often to let him have an effect on the game. Sears - mostly anonymous as Rovers starved the striker of any kind of service. Judge - just no. Still a problem to our shape and he's just not a bloody winger, nor does he want to be out that wide all the time. What did I learn from the game today? - We obviously have a long way to go with our new style of play, there are lessons to be learned from that second 45 minutes. Kenlock and Judge are weak links. Myles plays backwards too often and it slows us down. Judge is just not effective and takes a place in the team away from someone like Lankester or Bennetts. Nsiala is still capable of nightmare moments. Bishop links the spine of the team between the lines better than Nolan. This will be a wake up call that not all matches are going to go the way we want them to and hopefully will teach us how to deal with it.
This tells us where we are and Lincoln away next could be horrible as well, we desperately need Ward back and our paper thin midfield needs some backbone, we hardly heard Dozzell, Nolan, and Judges name in the match and Holy maybe needs dropping to the bench, but although disappointing it really is early days and hopefully our strikers will soon be fit.
One game too many for our paper thin inexperienced squad. Hardly a surprise that we'd lose eventually. We've got so many games coming up we're gonna need to scrap alot of the games. I've been so impressed with the start but I am worried, we need players with resilience over and grit over the next month. I'm concerned we have too many injuries and not enough players with mileage or experience to hang our hat on
My immediate concern is this is another instance of us failing to beat a fairly well-fancied League One team. As people rightly pointed out on here before the match, this always had the feel of the first proper test of this squad. Injuries have been unfortunate, and we’ve been systematically disappointing in keeping our first team fit for over half a decade now, but we’ve got one of the deepest squads in this league. I get the impression that Lincoln on Saturday is going to be another big test, and should provide an indication of where this team is heading. If we cannot beat Lincoln, then I’m resigned to seeing another season of picking up comfortable wins against the bottom half teams, but struggling for results against clubs in the top half of this division. We’ve got to do better.
There is definitely a ‘COVID factor’ when you look at all the bizarre results that are happening. I think it’s hard to predict individual matches. On our day we can beat any side in this division but a couple of performances this season we have not turned up at all. I think we will be in the mix but we can’t keep getting by without key defenders and prolific strikers for the whole season.
I know its only one game, but as mentioned above, it highlights how poor we are against good teams For me Tonto has to be dropped, and Wolfy back in the team. He's by far our best defender, especially if we are going to continue to pass out from the back. Tonto is too much of a liability, and is not consistent enough..way too many mistakes. We also need to have one recognised forward playing down the middle, be it Ollie or Freddie...and possibly bring lanky in to provide proper width
Been wondering why Wolfy not back after returning from injury. He has been one of our best players on the park. Toto is a character and can pull off amazing get out if gaol feats on the line, but we dont need characters at this stage, we need grafters, and skills to bring ball forwards. And anyone on here to spend an hour with Holy to drum in sensible distribution & kicks forward.
Toto has single-handedly won us some points this season. Woolfy is another level. I would opt to play them as a pair. But more of an issue is KVY has barely played since we signed him and we don't have a back up.
