Match Day Thread Play down Pompey

Bring on the summer now, and great chance to pick up some proper strikers. Great crowd today, gave it their all.

We have our club back.

 

Nice lap of appreciation from KM. feels like he’s saying thanks everyone I gave it my best go.

 

Let’s see whether we pick up wins in the next two. One win from either of those and I still fancy us.

 

The game was there to win today, Portsmouth didn't offer much in attack. A point isn't the end of the world but helps Pompey more than us. The stats from us are good, passing accuracy, possession etc but none of it resulted in a goal.

As others have said, the play offs may be just beyond us this season but if we play with this sort of form next season we'll have a good chance of automatic.

 

Not a result that helps either side, frustrating, looks like were destined to finish 10th. (I assume Pompey will successfully cash in their games in hand).

Annoying how we've gone from a free scoring side that leaked goals, to a side who struggle to unlock defences. And we still struggle to beat teams around us. Ipswich habits die hard it seems.

Not mathematically impossible yet, but no sign of any, let alone enough, other challengers slipping up.

 

Nevermind mathematically impossible it’s still practically very possible! We are five points off and play the sixth placed side in two weeks. We have four very winnable matches left and this game today was never on the radar as one of those. We do need to pick up some points from the next two but we certainly didn’t need to win all three of these against our play off rivals.

 

Very exciting game,really disappointed we couldn’t finish them off and stick it in the eye to Cowley,wouldn’t want that c-unit anywhere near our Club!

 

All things considered a decent point against the form side in the division. We've still got a chance I have blind faith that our season will go to the last game of the season....we don't want to get in there too early.

I still can't believe that there is the gap that there is given the run of form we've been on between us and the playoffs. If we don't get there for me there are 2 spells which have cost us, the start of the season clearly although that was somewhat expected and then I have to say the games after Cook left, many of the players had come here for Cook and were clearly disenchanted. Fair play to them and McKenna for picking themselves up.

I still think we've got good enough strikers to score in this division, as Cowley said we've goy 3/4 strikers who would get in most teams in this division and maybe even some of the teams above. For whatever reason they are just not clicking whether that be through form, managerial tactics, the balance of the team, rotation or lack of quality (which you would expect at this level).

We're looking very light on the ground in CB positions but especially CM, clear areas to strengthen over the summer

 

Sorry but forget promotion this season, it ain't happening!
Next season we will piss this division.

 

I admire peoples optimism, and although I didnt watch the game - I shall get a refund from iF..ingFollow - I tend to agree with Spanish. I relish the prospects for next season. We had the usual high energy, high performance and dominance, but for whatever reason, we are failing to bang them in.

Itfcpc comments are valid, but my view is we really do need at least one new striker who scores for fun and hit 10-15 goals a season, if not more.

Really encouraging aspect from yesterday, is how Burgess & a still poorly Carrol stepped up and played ok.
That said, we now have 3 1st teamers sidelined for 2-3 weeks, notably our King Morsy the Most missable.
So my head says a 2pts off finish, my heart is with others, and we will grab the 6th spot on the last day!

 

Well it’s a valid goal at the end. Woolfy does not interfere and everyone else is on. If that goal goes in everyone would be raving about Wembley being on the horizon. It was ALWAYS a tough ask but we’re not done yet.

 

Given that McKenna has not shown faith in one particular striker I'd agree that we will probably be looking at a new forward line next year, I just do feel we already have the talent particularly at this level and will go down as one of the only negatives on McKenna this season, that he hasn't been able to get the best out of these players. The stats show we have 3 or 4 15-20 goal strikers in our ranks already (and I'm sure Simpson would've reached those numbers had he stayed at Swindon)

 

I hope you are right with regards to next season, and we've got to think given our current form that is true however how many times have we said this over the years?

Just over a year since Lambert left have we progressed any further from a team who dominated possession, was sound defensively, sat in 9th in the division with the added caveat of giving many academy players a chance?

 

First of all our form is the 2 points per game that we need to hit our mark.

Sunderland and Wycombe are likely to be well out of it, Oxford and Sheffield Wednesday will probably take the fourth and fifth spot. That leaves Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bolton and ourselves in the running for the sixth spot and if you look at the remaining Portsmouth fixtures it gives you an example of why those other teams are not likely to get to something like 80 points that people have been talking about. They next face three sides in that battle for sixth - they can’t all get three points when they face each other - and then finish the season against Wigan and Sheffield Wednesday. Plymouth still have to play SEVEN of the top ten and they have games crammed in tightly so we can expect more fatigue and injuries than the other contenders. Bolton have the slightly easier run in than ourselves but still that includes Portsmouth, Wigan and Sheffield Wednesday.

Looking at the table right now it does look as though with their two games in hand Plymouth would be in pole for that sixth spot but given their hellish fixture list nothing is done and dusted yet. We just need to target 15 more points from our last 8 (just under 2 points per game, which we’ve matched since McKenna came in) and that is going to be incredible close if not quite enough. There’s the possibility that if we can win any two against Oxford, Plymouth, Rotherham and Wigan we can get to 78 points and that will almost certainly be enough.

 

With respect I dont think we can compare the Team performance, the Club's transformation and plans for the Ground and Fans astonishing support, with anything that was seen during the Hurst, Lambert or Cook years, and well before that. I note we have had 14 managers since magic Magilton, albeit several temps!
The glimpses I had of the highlights of yesterdays game were nothing short of Championship class, and some movements in last 6 games would have done us proud in the Premiership.

But we know it's about goals at the end of the day. And this has to be remedied, one way or tother.

 

One thing is for sure, the players have responded very well to McKenna's methods.

Coming from the Man U set up it's clear he has brought that Premier League mentality with him and the training sessions that are designed and needed to make players perform to the standards required at that level. It's almost like we've become a premier league team overnight in the way we go about team preparation.

The training sessions are an hour and half long, mimicking match time. The intensity is high and the players worked hard so that when it comes to match day we can be the ones pushing the pace in the final fifteen minutes because the energy and cardio is there for us. The squad is together more, travelling to home matches on a coach and that sort of thing has helped with that I'm sure. It all feels like McKenna has upped the professionalism at our club and the players are loving it. He's brought a premier league way of doing things that everyone seems to be enjoying. It must be a good time to be an Ipswich player right now and I reckon recruitment will be a lot easier when players get to speak to McKenna and see how we do things.

Other managers are starting to notice too, Appleton and Cowley both had good things to say about us this week.

 

It’s great that all this is finally happening but you just have to wonder what we were paying the last few clowns who stole a living as professional football managers for?!

 

That was more obvious to some of us than others, wasn’t it?

 

Well for most of those managers that didn't quite get it right, a common denominator is that they all worked for scrooge Evans! They were being paid to keep their mouths shut about the poor working conditions.

 

With the exception of Paul Hurst who was given short shrift! As it turns out two of the signings he was derided for are still having an impact, Gwion Edwards is a big player for Wigan and Chalobah is a regular in the Chelsea side!