This is the first time since Chelsea 3 Ipswich 1, I was in the wrong end of fans! ( thanks Ipswich ! ) Upon getting to my seat at 2.58, it became quite apparent the police / steward job in the Villa end was fierce. They were DEFINITELY expecting trouble today, let me put it that way. They really did focus on people. At this point, since I'd already had 5 pints I thought " I'm in a lot of trouble here if Ipswich score ! " the two lads behind me were Ipswich fans, two infront likewise. I was right by the town fans, behind the goal. Luckily nothing kicked off, however, there was quite a lot of tractor boy fans in that block. I will comment on the Ipswich support volume now - I enjoyed us giving Lambert stick! Great job gang! I thought we were loud first half, and Villa were really quiet. Everywhere. I went with a Villa fan who was appalled with their lot, he usually "sits" in the Holt, however he acknowledged we were the ones doing the noise. 15 minutes in, 5 off their head bald Villa fans came in behind and gave it a great go at creating an atmosphere. No one would join in with them! They seemed more bothered about abusing the away fans than watching the game, and to my surprise the steward actually warned them several times. They were told to lower the tone, so they started doing the most politically correct funny songs I think I've heard at a game before like " you're 4 out of ten not 5 " " you're slightly worse than average " and " Norwich are marginally better than you " - fantastic ! Our volume tailed off dramatically upon the Bent goal. I was disappointed with our lot second half. One song when Bent scored of encouragement, and I only heard two ( yes two ) chants in the second forty five minutes. The confidence from a good effort the first forty five clearly went from most. Our variation of songs is becoming horrific too. Can we not do more creative things really !? We definitely have lost our fan mojo I'd say! I wanted the Villa lot to be absolutely banter abused especially at 1-0 !!!! I swear we're at our best in a London away day, we seem very up for it and give it large for 90. Regardless of score ! I just thought I'd write this, because this was my opinion. I really wish I was in with you guys, and I hope you all had a great day out ! Villa for me deserved it, they missed a sitter on 20 or so who someone shoved wide, Loach made a class 1 on 1 save, and another classy one at a corner too. We played alright though, stand out players for me were - Hewett - Based on that I don't think we need another RB! Classy! He looks very composed on the ball and will only get better. Reo Coker - had an excellent first 60 and the best game I've seen him have in a town shirt Chopra - looked a good finish and put in a great shift! Loach - deserves to start the next game Mclean - I think he could be a success, good link up play Players who did the opposite Hyam - not his best display, often messed up very short passes Murphy - better through the middle but understand why he was in that role. Back to the league now, I think we can get a result at Cardiff sat
Good post Westlake. I just wonder what could've been achieved if there was double the volume in that away section.
double the silences at certain moments !? If we'd had 6000, we would have had banter with the Holt end, and our fans in the right sections! Never mind. We really do need some more chants though!!!!!!!!
Me and my brother used to think off chants and get them going in the old North Stand. We invented the dodgy keeper thing about the Swindon keeper Nicky Hammond amongst others. I was very disappointed my brilliant Stuart Slater chant was never picked up though.
westlake, i was up at the back of the top tier and there was a pretty good atmosphere up there throughout the whole 90 minuntes. i know what you mean about a lack of chants but for most of the 2nd half, especially towards the end the town fans were understandably shouting more along the lines of "come on ipswich, come on ipswich" as were were losing instead of generic chants. but i do take your point. i could see those 5 bald villa fans (they looked like a dreadful comedy act from where i was) from right at the top, did you and the other town fans celebrate when we scored and what was they're reaction? concerning the actual game i have to disagree with you on reo-coker. i thought he was crap, especially considering he has been a premier league player. he hasn't done much since he has been with us and I think MM seriously needs to look to spend a bit of dollar on a quality central midfielder, for me we look a bit light in that department.
portmanpaul I couldn't agree less. Hyam and NDaw should be our central midfield, it's the only area of the pitch we don't need to strengthen. I would hate to count them all but we must have fielded 20 or 30 different players in central midfield over the last few years.
I agree with portmanpaul, but only in as far as depth; but then again, were lacking real depth all over the park, central midfield is one of our stronger first 11 areas.
n'daw is very good yes but he and hyam are both defensively minded players. drury isn't good enough to take us forward but is a good squad player. i would happily spend a bit of money on a ball playing goalscoring midfielder in a similar vein to andy king at leicester and play him with either n'daw or hyam. our lack of goals from midfield is shocking and is something which in the long terms needs to be sorted.
I agree with PP we are crying out for more goals from Midfield and having 2 defensively minded players in the middle of the park simply will not deliver enough goals. We are crying out for a creative player who can take a decent dead ball situation al la Reuser or Magilton of old. Without a decent goal input from midfield we will be marooned in this division end of!
I think the point is with Hyam and N'Daw forming a good effective partnership, midfield is not crying out for a new addition. IMO Obviously leads to the question what is a priority position? for me its an effective RM/W Plenty of players that can play there, but none seem natural fits
We need someone who can take a decent dead ball so that we can score our fair share from freekicks around the box and from decent delivery from corners. We used to have Jamie Clapham, Darren Currie, Martijn Resuer for this purpose now all we have is Aaron Cresswell Every time we get a free kick on a dangerous area of the park you just know that it will either hit the first man or clear the cross bar on its way to row X,Y,Z! We are putting far too much pressure on our strikers to score when our goals should be distributed through midfield and our Centre Backs. Mick Mills has alluded to this problem many times this season and who are we to argue with God?
JWM, i think your forgetting that we have lee martin as our right footed set piece man. god he winds me up, more than anyone else in our team. great energy and commitment but he never ever has an end product whether it be a cross into the box, a through ball, or a shot.
Jeez Warky you made a good point! I can't see how it can possibly be so difficult. I was an Ipswich & District League player and I practised my arse off on free kicks and corners and regularly netted and provided crosses and goals from outside the box from full back as a result. I don't care if it goes in just start testing the keeper! It's the same size penalty box and goal and the same danger area from crosses at every level of football.
mate them villa fans were absolutely hilarious !!!! absolute comedy gold, legends!!!!! they were on a stag do haha, absolutely off their heads!
Agree with the need for a decent dead ball striker. Ambrose isn't playing much at the minute, he could do a job for us. Would much prefer to see him on the right than Martin any day. Getting Paul Taylor back will be like a new signing, we haven't had a chance to see what he's about at all.
I have to agree with you on this JWM, in fact I would put this as our most pressing issue at this moment in time. MM has done fantastically to rectify a lot of the issues we had in defence and we finally look like we are able to go 90 minutes without falling apart.. and even keeping the odd clean sheet. In the DJ & Murph combo we had a strong partnership up front but without goals from midfield we are simply to soft and the pressures on defence and attack is magnified. I gather this could be Mick's Summer priority but I'd love to see us cheer on a box to box midfield player who could notch up 10 goals a season. If not then our wide players really need to chip in and Martin & Edwards are simply not effective enough in that respect.
Yes we certainly need someone good on set pieces, I don't know for the life of me why Martin keeps taking them, it's like Leadbitter all over again!!! I know some have criticised him but I think Creswell is much better at deadballs than anyone else in our team, along with Drury (albiet that stupid Le Tissier freekick against Bristol)!!
The thing about Cresswell is that he never makes the right decision - going for goal from 40 yards etc... just needs some tweaking to be decent (ala martin, just needs some tweaking to be brilliant!)
