Peterborough, Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley all winning and us failing to win puts us back to 3 points off the relegation zone and 5 off the bottom. Maybe some of the players have got cosy, maybe they think they've proved themselves. Always was a fear given the attitude they showed under Jewell. What's the verdict of those at Portman Road today?
Good result for City today...although it pushed us back into the bottom three...sorry to infringe on the tractor boys site...looking forward to the verdicts from the Town fans on today's game also!!
we were woeful. Can anyone answer why we played two right wingers and no left winger. Martin spent more time getting in Edwards way then anything else. Either we tried a brand new formation or his positioning was the worst I have ever seen at any level of football.
We were poor today all over the park; Henderson, did ok was left with no chance for the goal. Cressy, Chambers & Smith had average games, for the most part untroubled but very wasteful at times with the ball, sometimes let Stead have too much time & space, just as well he is rubbish.! Orr, absolutely awful, I fail to see what he gives us in going forward or more importantly defensively...only a matter of time before he is making way for Hewitt. Martin, loads of huff & puff but far too often end product is missing. Drury, did ok but he does not press hard enough when we do not have the ball, no pace is also a big problem for me. Championship is out of his league. (missing Hyams industry in the middle) Ndaw......is missing Hyam...! Edwards.........was shocking, does not ever take his full back on, not able to deliver a decent cross, was caught at least twice on his heals today when well-placed for a shot.! Murphy, held ball up well at times & won most of his challenges in the air DJ was for the most part ineffective upfront, was unlucky though first half when he was denied twice by Heaton. Micks changes today had little effect, in fact I was surprised to see Murphy replaced.! Time to ring a few changes Boxing day; Hewitt in for Orr Hyam for Drury JET for Edwards (Chambers skipper) IMOâ¦!
We couldn't counter the 6 that Bristol deployed in Midfield against our 4 leaving Martin and Edwards to deal with 2 men! We were much better second half but it was a woeful performance with no one coming out with much credit. You can't legislate for professional footballers who seem incapable of completing basic 5 and 10 yard passes to one another and this was without any pressure being put on them! Cresswell was shockingly bad and he needs to be taken out for a while as his confidence is just shot. Tommy Smith was my MOM today, great goal and he was solid in defence. Murphy came off due to taking a knock so that change was forced on Mick but I would like to have seen Hyam come on for Drury in the second half as we had no football through Midfield! As for the rest much works needs to be done before the away game at Charlton. COYB
I was there today and i have to agree with pretty much everything you've said. personally i though smith was good today, a really good goal and i was never a fan of his but he is undoubtedly getting better. other than that we were pretty dreadful, it was my first game since birmingham (MM's first) and that performance could have easily come under Paul Jewell! The only other point I would make is that I though the atmosphere at PR this afternoon was dire, the worst I have ever seen. Sitting in the Lower North Stand I have been there where we have played worse and lost but still there has been a few songs and a bit of noise. today on the other hand there was absolutely nothing. I can guess that can be expected with where we are in the league, the weather etc but for me it was noticeable how quiet it was there today and for those who weren't there today, JET won pretty much every header when he came on up front! he's finally learnt what paul jewell's coaching staff couldn't teach him, to JUMP!
I thought Smith was very impressive today, looked very confident and was a very good physical presence, I was very impressed. I thought actually the back 5 weren't too bad but they were often sold short by the midfield particularly Martin who often left Cresswell with 2 men to mark!! Martin was very frustrating today, he's really not a left winger and gauging by today he doesn't really want to play out there!! I actually though Cresswell was decent today he was just often made to look bad due to Martin leaving him facing 2 men!! I have to say everytime I've seen Orr play (not for town) I've thought he's been awful but I just assumed I'd seen him when he's had bad games but he really hasn't impressed me, he wasn't awful today and was decent enough defensively but i wouldn't be dissapointed if we didn't keep him, like others would be nice to see Hewitt come in. As for Edwards he really has never impressed me whenever he's played on the RW for us, it seems to me he is far better attacking from RB than he is from RM as he overlaps and takes players on, but he just doesn't seem to do that from the RW and just seems pretty uneffective!! I actually think I'd prefer to see Martin on the RW than him because at least he takes his player on!! I thought N'Daw had a poor game and I have to disagree I thought Drury ran Smith close to MOM, he never gave the ball away today, kept the ball moving and was one of the only players to make probing passes/runs!! I do think he's got the talent to be a decent player in this division, i just think he needs the confidence to be able to dominate a game!!!
We only win with Luke Hyam, win with Luke Hyam! Seriously, he's our Xavi. Today sounds like a continuation of Elland Road. I really think we have some players who clearly have the ability but don't have the passion or desire to win games and have already got the life of riley sewn up. Much as it pains me to say it Lee Martin has earned more from his Ipswich career than greats like Beattie ever did.
To me it seemed like complacency had set in or more like a Boxing Day game when none of the players give a s**t 'cause they've had too much turkey.Also what is it with the failed short corner routine-just whip it into the box and hopefully Smith will get on the end of it!
That really annoyed me, especially when we got a corner right at the end Martin took it short really quickly before any of our players got in the box. I like watching the pretty tippy tappy football but with corners and freekicks, just whip it in, especially as their GK looked poor from crosses!! I'd much rather see Cresswell or Drury take corners than Martin!!
Drury ran Smith close for MOM Do you actually watch games? Drury is totally out of his depth at this level and it showed yesterday! Not much creativity and too powder puff to be effective in the middle of the park. Absolute gash performance yesterday so let's move on quickly because this game will not live long in the memory. A point gained when playing ****e is better than a defeat which is what we should have had!
To be fair to Drury he is who he is and he has never been of the standard. It's the players who have proved they can play the ball about and go on a winning run who will hopefully find themselves moving on in January
Yes he I thought he was. And I do actually watch games!! Would be good to put your opinion across without being so patronising, I find it quite insulting especially by someone with a brain the size of a pea!! As ever having a reasonable debate turned sour by you!! And my opinions from games have included me thinking Smith could be decent at this level unlike you who seems to go from thinking he should be our next captain to being not good enough for league 2!! Or thinking we would be okay letting McAuley go because Delaney is a much better player!! Perhaps I should look at games differently and I might see these sort of things?? What do you think JWM?? (I'm predicting he will side step the crux of the argument for further insults that are completely off point of what I said!! Fingers crossed I'm wrong!!)
Thing is Drury was one of those players last year. It was arguably him and Hyam who changed our fortunes. I still think he could be a handy little player for us and certainly had a decent if not spectacular game yesterday
PTC don't take it so personally, JWM can take as good as he gives Speaking of which Spanish has been absent for a while now, maybe he's with Guru?
Yes but JWM is a grown man and he gets kicks out of winding me up on a football forum, I mean really how sad is that!! There's ways of saying things and JWM you have the subtley of a Bull in a china shop, just be reasonable, there was no need to be so antagonising, I mean you're a grown man with kids FFS!!! I'm not taking it personally it just annoys me when people are dickheads!! I was just thinking that, not heard from Spanish for weeks!!
The reason Drury kinda stood out yesterday ( I thought he did ok as well ) was down to the fact almost everyone else was so poor. For me the only players to have a reasonable game yesterday were; Henderson, Smith & Murphy....
Very true, I thought Smith played very well and Drury did his job effectively enough without being spectacular. I actually thought Creswell was decent enough but was made to look bad due to lack of cover from mainly Martin and sometimes N'Daw!! Again he did nothing spectacular but was solid enough. He got little support when attacking aswell, it's like they expect him to do everything himself down that left hand side!! I thought defensively the back 5 weren't too bad either, chambers had a reasonable game and Orr defensively wasn't too bad. But Orr just offers very very little going forward, I don't know whether it's because we're used to Edwards being so gungho as a RB!! But I'm kinda thinking we should put Edwards back to RB, because he offers very little when he plays on the RW IMO!! I'm starting to think we should play 3 CB's with Edwards or even Hewitt and Cresswell as wing backs, with 2 strikers and 3 midfielders Hyam & N'Daw plus one other between Drury, Martin and JET dependant on how attacking we want to go!! I'd be tempted to see how Drury does pushed a little further forward trying to be an attacking playmaker with N'Daw and Hyam behind him!!
