Match Day Thread Ipswich Town v Sunderland - Tuesday 26th January - KO 19:45

Sunderland travel to Portman Road to face Ipswich Town in the Skybet League One.

Last time out Sunderland beat Shrewsbury and Ipswich lost to Peterborough.
Sunderland will be looking for a win against an Ipswich team that has so far failed to beat any of the top seven teams in League One.
Lyndon Gooch will end his Covid isolation period on matchday and could be on the bench for this game. Lee Johnson was full of praise for Luke O’Nien and might be tempted to promote him to the starting eleven.
Ipswich are ninth in the table on 35 points, with a game in hand of Sunderland. The tractor boys have signed Josh Harrop on loan from Preston North End.
Ipswich Town struggle to perform when live on national television. It’s now a record of just three wins from the last 32 attempts, dating back six years to January 2015. The remaining 29 games have been made up of 10 draws and 19 defeats, the most-recent of which came just over two weeks ago when Swindon Town won 3-2 at Portman Road.
Lee Johnson:
“I have enjoyed working with Charlie, he is a good professional, sometimes he does things where you think he has confidence issues, but you shouldn’t be like that as a player.”
“If you believe in the process, that’s what I am trying to do to help him, educate him, nurture him, even at 28. He is training consistently, the body is consistent, there’s a lot of Charlie Wyke that is consistent, and I only see a bright future for Charlie here. It‘s not easy, he has to keep going, keep getting the chances.”
“He could have had six at Wimbledon, he got three. Previously he might have focused on the three misses rather than the three that he scored. Now he is starting to focus on the ones that he scores.”
“Even against Shrewsbury when he closed down the keeper Matjia Sarkic (rounded him and then missed the target), he was bright after it because he was closing down, working hard, holding things up. He did what we needed.”
“We need to be consistent. Consistency of character, consistency of work, consistency of decision-making."
Paul Lambert:
"There was nothing in the game really, They've been in good form and we managed to stop them having a shot on target.”
"Mark has been great for us since he arrived and he has to learn from disappointments and not dwell on them. He's a whole hearted player and he is a proper defender.”
"It was a case of fine margins. We played with commitment and got into some good areas, but we just need to find that final pass or get the shot away - it's something that we'll work on.”
"We also had three strikers missing today, which obviously wasn't ideal."

Match Appointments:
Referee: CHARLES BREAKSPEAR
Assistant Referees: Leigh Crowhurst and Abbas Khan
Fourth Official: John Busby

Team Line ups
Sunderland: Burge, Power, Wright, Willis, McFadzean, Winchester, Leadbitter, Scowen, McGeady, O’Brien, Wyke.

Subs: Matthews, Sanderson, Younger, Embleton, O’Nien, Gooch, Maguire.
Injured: Xhemajli, Kimpioka, Hume, Flanagan, McLaughlan, Grigg,

Ipswich Town: Holy, Chambers, Nsiala, McGuiness, Ward, Dozzell, Downes, Bishop, Judge, Drinan, Edwards
Subs: Cornell, Woolefenden, Kenlock, Huws, Nolan, Sears, Thomas.
Injured: Norwood, Jackson

Betting Odds:
Home 5/2 Away 21/20 Draw 23/10

My two pence:
We just don’t seem to be capable of playing well for the full 90 minutes, but hey we won and in the end that’s all that matters.
Let’s hope that Charlie the goat is back in the goals again.
This game is live on Sky Sports Footie.
Ipswich are almost as inconsistent as us, and for that reason I’m going for a 2-0 away win.

Live stream
https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video

Ha’way the Lads

 

Going for a draw for this one, will be a tough match and it’ll keep our run going. Hoping for 3 points like

 

Hate it when we are live on TV for the pundits who have no idea what’s going on to put their oar in

 

If you step back from being a supporter, for a moment, watching Sunderland is fascinating. There were times, against Shrewsbury, when I saw things that stirred long forgotten memories. We strung a series of passes together, ran off the ball, chased down the keeper, tracked back purposely, etc

But you can see the players are having to really concentrate and take in these strange concepts. It seems most of the coaching has centered on attacking, pressing, getting players in the box, etc. When Shrewsbury had no option but to attack we had a period when it looked quite messy. It was only Johnson's use of subs that wrestled back some level of control.

We can't expect to be in control throughout the entire match, the opposition want to win just as much as us, but we do need to be able to learn how to be calm when things aren't going our way.

It's encouraging to see players improving individually even if the teamwork isn't always 'joined up'. On Saturday I focused on Scowen, for 10 minutes, and his work rate was phenomenal. O'Brien was making great defensive clearances then appearing in the opposition box. He's like a new signing and I can't understand people saying he brings nothing to the team. He must've gone through hell since he arrived here and he's shown real determination to force his way into the team.

It's impossible to predict our games but there's no reason we can't pull off another Lincoln so, sod it, I'm going for that ...

... Scowen and O'Brien to get on the scoresheet.

 

A tight game, which may well be goalless going into the last few minutes.

But I reckon we will get a late winner - just a feeling I have in me watta!!

Bart

 

Great as always @RTB

I'm going for a 0-1 (Wyke) 84 min winner.

 

Trouble at Mill....
Paul Lambert has had time to make it work at Ipswich Town. In this newspaper's view, that time has run out. Today, we call for Blues’ owner Marcus Evans to make a change.
More than two years on since his appointment, the club is struggling to compete with the top six in the third tier of English football. The third tier.
Saturday’s lacklustre home defeat to promotion rivals Peterborough - described as a “really good” performance by Lambert - was proof again of his side’s apparent inability to beat the better teams in the division.
And, proof again, that expectations of the fans and the club are seemingly in completely different places.
https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich-town/eadt-ipswich-star-say-paul-lambert-should-go-7068372

 

We died a death in the second half on Saturday so I'm expecting to see a few changes.

Winchester in for Leadbitter
I'd start Maguire on the right and use Diamond from the bench.

 

Let's hope the Ipswich players feel the same and don't put a performance in 'for the gaffer'.

I don't think they will, Lambert is a L1 Steve Bruce who would rather blame his gran than accept any criticism.

 

https://tractor-boys.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67438

They are not happy at all.

 

If he had to type all that out it's no wonder he's not happy.

 

I would suggest the bit on us is a cut and paste job, not a patch on our threads.

 

I'm going for an away win for the lads. Can only see us getting more used to the way Johnson wants us to play and still think we can get promotion. Only nine points off top with the best defensive record and half a season to go. All to play for, ha'way, let's go knack a tractor.

 

RTB

As already mentioned above we could, win lose or draw, using past form as a prediction.

I have ticked the win box, cos whats the point otherwise.

Same team (ish) although I would like Graham/Grigg out of the club

 

Great thread as ever marra, going for a 1-0 to the lad's.
Hhaaawwwwwaaaaaayyyyyyyy

 

If only you knew

 

That's what I was thinking - pretty comprehensive though

 

we are better off playing them away at the minute they have lost 5 times at home, but we need to get at them from the off, if we let them play we are in the crap, bogey ground but no supporters is a plus. Might need to bring players like Mcgeady on in the 2nd half to get things moving.

 

Great thread RTB as usual.

I'm going for a 2 or 3 nil away win if LJ can get the team to play for 90 minutes, I think when we play well there's not a team that can touch us in this league. So Ha'Way Lads let's have a full game on the front foot and start climbing this league.

Ha'Way The Lads and FTM for good measure.

 

Losing games is the biggest knock and puts doubt in the minds of players, especially if they go a goal down ... just look at Newcastle who's heads go down if they concede.

Sunderland have lost less games than any other team so I'm sure Johnson will use that to motivate the team.

Portsmouth were absolutely destroyed at the weekend which will be in their minds if they concede in the next game. As that game is against Lincoln, on Tuesday, it'll be interesting to see how they react.