Well, I would be glad to hear others views on the match. My first point, is how brave so many souls were to turn up at all... a raw freezing PR afternoon. And not much warmed up or entertained by what was on the pitch either! We started brightly and I thought well, here we go, one cracking shot NDaw I recall ( his last and only contribution!) which could have gone in, get in with 3 or 4 here...and start that long steady climb we all have waited for. A serious injury to one of theirs, stretchered off, and the whole game turns. Barnsley move about effortlessly, we like headless chickens for most of 1st half. What is going on I ask myself? Where is this newly formed team, the effort, the left-overs from a fine clutch of away performances. Why are we so clueless at Home, and inept at the simple things like passing to another Town player, like the goalie kicking the ball up the pitch and not out the field at least 6 times, like not reverting to our Kean hoofball, like hardly any service to our front 2. Barnsley should have gone in at least 2 up. So, a quick swig at my flask, to the astonishment of the nice lady next to me, and half time rollicking from MM -who always finds the positives to take out of any game! - and an improved, sharper performance which ends with cracking little gem from Chambers of all people! That said, Harewood misses yet another sitter - his 4th or 5th should-have-been goals. The crowd croak to life, we fizz about with more determination, but no shape or form. McGoldrick may come good by next season, Maclean, I doubt it. All around me were saying, what happened with the DJ Deal ? We missed him badly yesterday, ok only 2-3 seasons left in him, but what a difference he had made last month! Their sub dives in a sneeks a well timed header from a corner, and they could have nicked it again. NDaw like most others had a poor day. Cressy gave us much cheer with one or two excellent crosses. We nick a point, and luckily all teams around us do the same. No progress. On drive home, I get to wonder was it all worth it? here are our goals going to come from? Yes, of course, but so frustrating - we need to win these home games handsomely, and not just spin out the rest of the season with hapless performances like that. Turned inot home gates well gone 8...another swig and nice curry from the lady awaits. Thats more like it!
Sounds like a long and frustrating day gaffer. I can only go on what I've seen on football league show(pointless)and read this morning. Our home form is awful. Do they feel more pressure to perform at pr. we were lucky Harewood can't hit a cows arse with a banjo. If we can start to play at home as we can away we will climb up the table. From reading a few posts yesterday we need creativity in the middle. Is Wordsworth that man if move comes off. All gone a little quiet. And the forward line must find their scoring boots quick. Dj has gone. Taylor won't be back till next season so chops,murphy,mcgoldrick,Maclean et al have to show their up for the fight. Probably not just to play but possibly their futures now with all these options.
Good points Mad about our forwards. We ship a load in, and while to be fair to the newbies, they did threaten some nice touches on a very cold afternoon, we let go of DJ the one man who has almost single-handedly restored our recent fortunes - for whatever tactical/commercial/covering/bridging & hedging options/delay in negotiatons etc reason. I can see a load being shipped out end season if not before like Scotland, Chops, JET, maybe Murphy (tho he too has done well of late). But like most, I am 100% behind MM and he must be focussing on next seaon after getting us out of the dire mire we were in...only 6 weeks ago! Most, not all of his buy/loans have been shrewd choices. I also admire his post-match honesty and general man management.
That is the big question oldgaffer... where are the goals going to come from? We were playing it about nicely enough under Jewell, but the defence was an utter shambles. We've definitely made progress at the back. I'm not surprised about McLean. In my experience people with his attitude rarely get their heads down and do the job. I wrote us off a few months ago. There was a big fanfare as we hauled ourselves out of the bottom three but we're not out of the woods yet. I was watching Billy Sharp yesterday and thinking he would be my ideal acquisition in the summer. We haven't won in 2013 so we have to be thinking in terms of results over the next few weeks and not beyond. A few more wins before the end of February and we will look a lot more comfortable. If our present form continues there are teams breathing over our shoulder.
I to am fully behind MM. He has transformed the defence into a tight unit that won't ship 4 or 5. Shrewd he is,and knows what it takes to survive and get out this league. Billy sharp hampy would be a good acquisition. I've cast an eye over him a few times in last few seasons. His movement and prowess would be ideal but still need some quality to supply our forward line. Along with sharp I'd still like to see us go back for George Boyd. Posh seem to be willing to let him go. Of course this is all dependant on money. But we need permanents and not a constant stream of loanees so we can get stability.
Lancs you make a good point however bad we were under Jewell in defence we seemed to actually be decent on the ball and played a nice passing game. It seems that MM has made us much more solid which we have needed to be to stay in this league however this seems to be at a cost of being dreadful on the ball and very poor creatively!! I'm willing to accept this this season because we need to survive and there's no doubt we probably would've lost yesterday a few months ago but if we continue to play this way once we're (hopefully) safe and into next season I can't say I'll be thrilled. It's very refreshing that we're getting points on the table and amazing how Mick has turned our fortunes around but it's hardly exciting to watch!! I watch with a real jealousy and admiration everytime I see Watford these days, the football is fantastic, and I would happily make more of an effort to get to PR if I saw an Ipswich team play like that. We really do need some more creativity in the midfield, everyone seems to rate this N'Daw (I also do) but by god he's also had some terrible games, he's very very good defensively but going forward is not his forte, the amount of times he looses the ball is ridiculous. Whilst Micks back to basics approach has got us out of this situation I also feel this approach has held us back somewhat as well, we're too rigid particularly at home when we are expected to take the game to the opposition. I think Murphy and Chopra have been very unfortunate not to get a look in, I think a forward line with these 2 in is much more balanced than McGoldrick and McLean. I really cannot understand the McLean transfer!! One thing which really surprised me about yesterday was for the Barnsley goal we did not have anyone stood on the post, if we would've done we would not have conceded whether this was because the players just didn't or Mick doesn't want a player on the post, I'm not sure. But it surprised me with Mick as a manager who likes to get the basics right that we didn't have anyone on the post especially defending a 1 goal lead in the 88th minute!!
I thought Mclean looked good yesterday always running and eager to get involved first half he was better than Mcgoldrick, We do need some creativity in the middle but that was not the first thing that needed to be delt with by Mick, we look more like a team now so we are getting to a stage where only a few minor changes are needed which is huge progress in a short time.
Some excellent points ptc. We won't see flamboyant football under mick. He's very purposeful,knows what he wants and will be brutally honest if he doesn't get it. I'm with you and would love to chops given a run. When we got him I seriously thought we had our 20+ goals a season man. As for macleà n he's gonna have to go some to winning us over. I will forego thrilling exciting football for rest of the season for solid win at all costs football and come end of February we will be as good as safe and can look forward to a more sustained attack at the right end of table.
Ptc you can't expect champagne football when we are scrapping for survival. Mick has made us hard to beat which is the fundamental requirement. I certainly don't remember much champagne football being played under jewell. I must have missed those 10 minutes. I'm really not bothered about the style at the moment so long as we keep picking up points. The group of players that mick has inherited just simply aren't good enough to get us to where we want to be in the long term and once we have secured safety there will big changes made.
It's the same old problem of having good enough strikers but not enough service. It really is the root of our poor goal scoring record this season. We probably have one or two 20 goal a season strikers right now but unless they become the penalty taker those numbers won't be reached. You'll find that a lot of players who hit high figures will also be on penalty duty, helping to add to that number. I would imagine that Mick is well aware of our lack of creativity and is currently looking to address that problem but as JWM says, we need to grind out points at the moment and N'Daw and Hyam certainly help protect the back four. We could try Cressy at left wing and put young Mings behind him. We need new wingers.
Can you see us playing football like we did in the glory days warky. Going off on a slight tangent the game as we know is run by money. And we don't have bucket loads. Success breeds success and if we can get back to challenging at the top or even to the promised land perhaps we can get a few flair players in. But for now I'm all for solid and boring grind out results.
I would love to get back to the George burley era when we played teams off the park. This group aren't good enough and there will be a big clear out in the summer assuming that we are secure in the championship.mick has a very good record of building promotion winning teams on a shoestring and next season his real talents will come to the fore.sofar he has been firefighting.
Completely agree. The defence rightly got sorted first - it sounds like the coaching under Mick and Terry is top class (quite a few of us had been wondering if the coaching was lacking due to the same school boy errors). He has now got in a great selection of strikers, all eager to fight for a place and make an impact. Hopefully now we will focus on getting in a top winger or creative midfielder. If they are young enough to form a partnership with Hyam then we really have a young and exciting team for future seasons in Cresswell/Smith/Hewitt/Hyam.
Sorry Weighty it aint me! Intrigued how your conversation went! Comes of relying on our pen names. Next time up, I shall buy you a well earned pint. I am the gaffer with beard, rather more white these days! I made do with a cup of tescos tea and sat down as the whistle blew... Lots more valid points, and I am happy to accept the bump & grind policy for time being, but hardly going to get me scraping the 4" of snow off my screen, pack a shovel, wheel chains, spare kit, grub, and flasks of god knows what, drive 300m the next time we have serious snowfall is it?! Our present pairing midfield, NDaw & Hyem, plus Martin on a good final delivery day and perhaps Drury if he stays, is more than a handful for most teams. We just need that first Home win thumping & crowd feel-good factor to give everyone a massive lift. Away form seems fine and picking up great points against top teams...as ever was.
Time will tell and I'm sure Mick will get the points required and the results but I have to say I do struggle to warm towards managers who don't play attractive attacking football and managers who prefer work rate over flair etc!! I personally like to be entertained than having to put up with the football we are playing atm but I accept currently we had to do what is needed to keep us up!! Anyone think now it seems Mick has sorted the defence out and there's alot of praise from our strikers at the work TC has done we could do with a coach to specilise in the midfield? I actually this is where we looked best under PJ!!
