Fresh from a disappointing defeat to Nottingham Forest, December football comes to Portman Road with a mid-week match. Our players are certainly used to a higher number of matches after doing their time in the Championship and lower leagues - hopefully that benefits us going into the busier month of the fixture schedule. Despite not winning a match at home yet, a handful of draws and impressive performances possibly points to our home form being crucial towards survival. Palace - last season’s surprise package - have struggled so far this season. A point yesterday against Newcastle sees them climb above us in the league table. “Must win” games are a bit of a football cliche, but this definitely feels like our best chance to get points on the board this month. My wife and father-in-law are Palace fans. Fortunately, they’re not with me to watch the game Tuesday night. I will be going (seen 4 games, 4 draws this season), so maybe a draw is your best bet to get prediction league points. I’m backing us in this one, 2-1 Ipswich win.
Nah, I cant predict a draw at home, Nuggets! Gotta be time for a right royal win over Palace. 3-1 Delap, Chappers, Hutch tho I wish for Clarke who needs confidence if he comes on.
Thanks to Man U, we are now just 2 pts behind Everton in 15th. We will do ourselves a huge favour, the Club, the incredibly loyal fans, the shoal of smaller fry like us, if we do manage to win Tuesday night. It will get the home monkey off our backs and the Suffolk boys and girls go home happily singing their hearts out, and the odd carol no doubt as the Xmas period kicks in.
Think we’ll all be predicting a home win, but this is a Palace side arguably underachieving filled with international quality players. They’ve got some key players back from injury too. They won’t be a pushover.
To Town of course. Now is getting to the time that the toxic traits will start to surface - arrogance, lack of belief and infighting. I don't think we have that in our camp and I don't believe that Southampton do either. I have a feeling that Wolves will be fine too. A win for Town on Tuesday night is worth more than three points. If we can find a way to get a couple of goals in front before the hour mark I fancy Palace to start tearing themselves apart.
You are right Hampy. If we dont start winning a few games from promising positions soon, even our committed, passionate and loyal support, as well the owners will get concerned and ask questions. One or two players who dont make an impact and fall out of favour, could begin to moan and social media will lap it all up. Turncoat Townies will post desparate posts about our survival in the championship next year. That is the gloomy prospect. However, with a win tomorrow, followed by more points in the next fixtures, injured players coming back, and, critically another striker in January, then I am sure we will be fine. Our shallow squad depth, if that makes sense, is hurting us as others have said.
The biggest positive as I see it at the moment is that there isn't a clear gap opening between the relegation and survival zone.I'd be much more worried if we were falling further behind but we're not.A couple of wins and we get our heads above water.
Agreed. We're still in the fight and it seems like there's currently a mini league of about seven teams (from West Ham down) forming that are in the 'relegation dogfight'. One win in 13 for us obviously isn't a great stat. But six draws for a newly promoted team (two years from playing League One football) is hopefully a positive sign that we can start getting more wins on the board. With the exception of Liverpool (our first match of the season against the runaway league leaders) and Everton - I thought we potentially deserved a bit more out of our home draws to Fulham, Villa, Leicester (in particular), and Manchester United. Even looking across our entire set of results so far this season, I'd argue only Manchester City and West Ham really outplayed us (and that West Ham defeat was riddled by a series of self-inflicted mistakes). Four or six points from the next two should be the aim - although both Palace and Bournemouth are obviously good sides that will make it difficult for us. The starting eleven is starting to look more settled and recent form has been quite positive (one win, two draws, one defeat). Injuries have been a factor this season though - more so than the last couple. If Tuanzebe and Johnson are both out tomorrow night, I do worry about that right-back slot. Harry Clarke doesn't look up to it for this level - hopefully game-time solves that. O'Shea isn't a natural right back, so whoever's playing ahead of him has to be defensively savvy.
That is really bad news. He's been our best defender this season and one of our most consistent performers.
With Johnson not 100% fit, does H. Clarke start? With Ogbenne out as well, right side is looking a bit thin. 2 massive home games coming up
I'd shake it up a little, and firstly I'd drop Delap and give Ali a start. Delap has been running his socks off, and I think he needs a little break, and we need to get Ali up to match in case anything happens to delap. Also, if fit, bring back Philips (or even tylor)for cajuste. I'll probably get shot down for this, but I'd even possibly give Jack Clarke a start, needs to prove himself
I’d be reluctant to drop first team players in a must-win home match. Palace aren’t a bad side and with our first and second choice right-backs possibly out, I think it’ll turn out to be a high scoring game where we need our key attackers on the pitch. Arguably Szmodics could be dropped. I think I’d rather see Broadhead given a start than Jack Clarke, but we’ll probably have to ease Broadhead back after a long lay off - so hopefully both lads get more minutes tomorrow. I think Cajuste has been brilliant last few matches, definitely played his part. Morsy is one booking away from suspension, so Phillips or Taylor might end up getting their chance on Sunday? I wouldn’t drop Delap for Al-Hamadi in a month of Sundays! Makes more sense to me to start Szmodics up top if we need to rest Delap and then give Clarke or Broadhead a go at left wing.
