Match Day Thread Paul Mariner Day Town v Plymouth

Honestly, that's all we need.

 

Yes, I am sure they are all enjoying playing for such a fine Club, lovely county and terrific supporters. Why leave League 1!!

 

Donacien is great one on one!

 

Burns shoots inches wide from a rapid break

 

Yup, we do need that striker!

 

We can easily compete at Championship level now

 

11 games unbeaten, well played all. Great atmosphere at PR.

 

Yes!!!!

5 minutes injury time seen out professionally, that was dominant from us today.

 

Good performance but Dyer has a point about our finishers playing in the U23s.

 

A thoroughly satisfying performance,and bodes very well for next Season whichever Division we’re in (although my head says we will narrowly miss out on the playoffs).

 

Will not be any better sides than us in League One next year.

 

I do worry about the possibility of McKenna being poached by a higher division club over the summer. If we can keep him and the squad we have, I am really looking forward to next season

 

I don’t think we need to worry too much about that. A big top flight club is not going to come in for him yet and he’s not going to move on to a Championship side or risk his career on a struggling Premier League side. He needs to do some proving himself at Ipswich before those opportunities he wants will come.

 

Real Big performance this, whilst I've been highly impressed with McKenna I've felt that the fact we've mainly beaten those who we should've beaten has left a bit of a question mark about whether we're as good as we think we are or if we are just a mid table team. For the first time probably since before ME was in charge we have a consistent standard of performance, for the first time in a while you know chances are if you watch town its going to be a half decent game, it hasn't been like that in over 15 years.

I wasn't able to watch the full game but seen some highlights and managed to watch the last 20 minutes or so but I thought our defence looked superb again that back 3 plus GK and full backs work superbly together, they rarely look like they need to get out of 2nd gear because they all seem to read the game so well and snuff out danger early or position themselves in the right place, I think the Oxford game is the only game in recent times ive seen us be opened up.

Despite the fact I rate Norwood I was surprised to see his inclusion today given how well Bonne played the other day and it felt like he'd be given the opportunity however for me if we play 1 uptop Norwood still is our best option as he has more strings to his bow than all the others.

I known everyone is saying it so perhaps it is true but I still am not convinced we need another striker for next season for me there are other areas I still need to be convinced on and would be interested on others thoughts....Thompson looks a good player but IMO he'd be a very good LB but I don't think he's a wing back, so if we're going to keep the same backline next season (which currently would seem a stupid thing to change) we need a wing back. I'm still not convinced by Backinson, he sometimes shows some real moments of quality but then he lapses, he literally looks to me like Leagues 1s version of Pogba and feels a bit of a luxury player in defensive midfield which is an area I don't think you can have that type of player, so still think that's an area to look at.

Then I still think we need a number 10 who is a midfielder rather than a forward, someone who can control the game higher up the pitch, we currently have players with high quality up they're but they're all forwards or wingers and have a tendancy to lose the ball. The type of player I think we need I have to say we have had in the building in the past year in Coulsen, Downes and Fraser.

I've perhaps been one of Celinas biggest critics this season but have to say he has been showing more consistency recently and although he played the 10 today still think he's better wide left where he gets more space to run at players which is when he's at his best...have to say the piece of play to put Burns in today was world class.

And a word on Burgess...do we think that back line looks more balanced with a left footer?

 

I think you hit the nail on the head there… something that Mick McCarthy never managed to achieve - we are enjoyable to watch. At times thrilling.

 

You know, the biggest improvement I've seen with Celina since McKenna came in (and many others actually) is his work rate off the ball. He no longer feels like a luxury player, only on the field to produce moments of magic. He's closing down quickly from the front, tracking back and covering Thompson. He contributes to the team when we're out of possession way more now and is helping with the clean sheet count along with the other front players.

 

I’m guessing McKenna has told him and the rest of the squad, if you don’t work hard, you don’t play. As you say, work rate from the whole team had increased massively since he took charge

 

We completely outplayed Plymouth yesterday as we do most teams we play against but let down by so called strikers who dont score, if we had a decent goalscorer who knows where we could have finished the season but im sure McK is well aware of our shortcomings.
Karl Robinson said on TV last night that he hopes we dont make the play offs because we are now a fantastic side that he wouldnt want to play against, what a turn around from a few weeks ago and the management of Cook The Useless, we now play great entertaining football and the support has responded with over 23000 there yesterday in the sunshine.
The only spoiler for me was the fighting after the match near the Station Hotel and not a policeman to be seen, i hope the lad who got felled with as perfect a right hook as ive ever seen is feeling ok this morning with his liquid breakfast no doubt.

 

There’s been a bit of that going on of late.

On the goals front now that we’re creating loads of chances and getting bodies in the right areas we need to be a bit more patient. There are a lot of aimless pot shots from outside the box when there has been the opportunity to slide someone in. Lots of flashing the ball across the ball to no one in particular. If we attack the keeper a bit more we have the players in the right positions to follow up parries. Players should know themselves if they are set well to take on a longer range effort or if they’re off balance or snatching at it. It’s understandable how we’ve ended up doing that from a position of creating not much at all a couple of months ago. With a bit more composure we can exchange some of our shots off target for slightly fewer shots and more goals.

These are obviously the players Kieron will stick with as long as our play off hopes are still just about on but we can make an adjustment on final balls and finishing just by not blasting it.

We could score an extra goal or two in our final games by ditching the pointless fiddly set plays and putting good direct balls in to heads from corners and free kicks each time.