Dobra comes in to the 1st 11. Judge dropped (not before time). Midfield looks a bit lightweight to me - dozzell, Nolan and Lankester. Hope I’m wrong but can see the downward trend continuing 3-1 defeat. My glass is now definitely 1/2 empty
I think we may nick this one, boring hard fought 1 nil win. Bennett with his first goal.... More importantly, no injuries, sending offs or penalties conceded
Seems like a good balance to the line-up, although there are definitely more youngsters in there than what I was expecting. Hopefully they can reward the faith and reverse the team’s recent poor form.
Meh, boring first half. We're not moving the ball quick enough and as usual there are not enough players making runs or committing defenders.
Had to giggle a second ago. Nolan fluffed a simple short pass (one of many today) to Chambers and it went off a defender for a throw. Chambers went to take the throw in and he looked at Nolan and went to throw it to him because he was free. He was at the point where he's about to throw it and he changed his mind and threw to somebody else who was marked. The way it all happened I could just imagine Luke just about to throw it and then thinking "nah, you've been hopeless today Jon" and quickly deciding against it.
Oh my word, Nolan has lost his balls. Refuses to take any kind of responsibility and has played it backwards all the effing time, if I was a Town player today I would not be passing to him.
Dozzell takes his chance to get that fifth yellow card and a one game ban, he's been waiting until late in the game to take one for the team today if you ask me. Means he'll miss Plymouth but be back for Portsmouth.
That was crap again today. Everything that we've complained about this week was on full display today. Backwards and square passing always the first thought, slowing any forward momentum. Cornell was putting goal kicks in the direction of the shortest person on the pitch in Dobra. Nolan couldn't pass a ball accurately even if it was on rails. It was really poor and I'm not going to torture myself writing too much about it. Cornell - pissed me off today. There are no ball boys, he should be running to retrieve the ball and get it going again, especially in the last ten minutes. Ward - one of the only players to show any urgency at getting the game going. McGuiness - solid enough Woolfenden - I don't think he's going to make it as a top defender. He's too relaxed all the time and some of his short passing recently has been woeful. Chambers - did alright today Dozzell - some good passing. Took a yellow card late in the game, on purpose in my opinion Nolan - absolute gash. Took backwards and square options all the time and even then couldn't complete those passes Lankester - lost in the middle again, he looks like he's not sure what he should be doing Bennetts - the more I've seen the less I like. Wants to do the fancy all the time, takes on one too many and makes the wrong decision more often than not Drinan - didn't have a lot to work with which is the story for any Ipswich striker Dobra - did ok I guess, he's just so small bless him It's pretty clear that whatever Lambert is asking these players to do will not amount to winning games of football. Every team we come up against looks better and more coherent as a side than us over the course of 90 minutes.
Heard the post match interview where PL blamed the local press and fans for aiming negativity towards the players especially the youngsters. Aside from the fact that the young players tend to be exempt from criticism (apart from PL himself when he had a go at McGavin) I think he is trying to get himself sacked. He knows the job is beyond him but he wants a pay off. ME is entirely to blame in this case as he was the one who gave him a 5 year contract extension when we hadn’t won for 2 months. If we continue like we are for another couple of seasons, I fear we could even find ourselves in league 2
Given our injuries its not so much the results which bother me at the moment. If we'd have seen the lineup we had today at the start of the season we wouldve thought it was probably a cup game. It does just feel like Lambert has lost it now, tactically and getting spikey with everyone else. I'm really not confident that even if we change manager this season it will make any difference, our injury list is horrendous and even if they start coming back its very rare for players to hit the ground running after an injury