You can write your own intro this time. I'm just going to keep my head down under a cushion and pray. Ref has shown a red card on one in three occasions this season; Gulp. COYG
Cooper, Watts, Opoku, Aimson, MacLeod, Edwards, Grant, Lewis, Camara, Mayor, Ennis. Subs McCormick, Hardie, Reeves, Moore, Fornah, Jephcott, Tomlinson. Is Lowe gambolling today....only one striker....talk of Mayor being played more forward. A lot on the shoulders of Ennis. Tomlinson promoted to the bench.....so no place for Lolos today.
1-0....Parrott...4mins...H/T The nearest to an own goal without putting it into the net yourself by Argyle....diabolical pass to no one....Cooper had no chance of beating Parrott to the ball. Sloppy loose passing by Argyle....hardly had the ball at all in the first 20 minutes....but got a toe hold on the game and did quite well in the last 15 minutes. Cooper saved at least two goals with good saves. Ennis and Camara working their socks off and Lewis after a dodgy start playing well and putting some good balls into the box from the left wing. Lone Argyle Commentator doing well....but tells us he is not seeing the same picture as we are...so he cannot be sure what we're seeing as he speaks....that sounds a good idea.
Another shocking goal conceded. Defenders Manual 1.1 Never, ever pass square across your own penalty box unless, after thorough consideration you are certain it cannot be intercepted.
Another dismal result. The game was thrown away by Adam Lewis in the first 5 minutes and although we had a good spell later in the first half, we never really threatened. We really need to get the basics right at the back. Obviously square passes across the box must be strictly verboten but also, can the back three not keep a straight line? It's absolutely basic than one should not get 5 or 10 yards in front of the other two. It's happening time and time again giving the opponents space to run into. Other than Lewis, you can't say anyone played particularly badly but as a team it's just not good enough. Man of the Match Ennis again with Macleod looking good too.
1-0...F/T Argyle had..... plenty of the ball and looked in control for long periods....problem was that they had no real threat up front (other than Ennis) and never looked that dangerous....but they did enough to win that game if they had got to grips in the attacking third. Ipswich never dominated after the first 20 minutes and personally looked a poor attacking side....just as there home record suggested. They did not miss a chance to waste time and the Ref allowed it to happen....Their giant keeper (Tomas Holy 6ft 9in tall) was allowed to wander across from the corner of the penalty area to the opposite corner to take a goal kick....doing a little bit of gardening on the way....in the last 5 minutes we faffed about with the ball in our own half with the continual square pass instead of getting the ball up field. Only six shots at goal and two on target.....when Ennis was on it always looked as if we had a chance....and Camara was always looking industrious.....Lewis played as well (after the first 10 minutes and match winning cock-up) as he ever has....but was subbed. Aimson received a lot of stick from Edwards amongst others....Jephcott and Hardie eventually came on and did nothing really to reverse the situation. As I said earlier we had a good lone Argyle commentator.....who told us that he was watching different pictures to us and apologized for maybe talking about other things than what we were viewing......he couldn't tell us without a lot of problems who was being subbed.....and of course we could clearly see what was happening, What a farce the winning goal was an under hit square pass across the penalty area...giving Cooper no chance to beat Parrett to the ball....game over in less than 4 minutes. Four defeats on the trot now....we just don't look up to the job.....Northampton, Doncaster, Wigan and now Ipswich have not look great....didn't out play us and didn't deserve to win so easily.....we certainly didn't deserve to win at Northampton that was obvious.....but we could have got 9pts from the last three games. I would give MOTM to Ennis for his continual chasing around and effort.
16th in the league now and only the bottom three have conceded more goals. We might play some attractive football in the middle third....but it becomes nothing in the attacking third....and in the defensive third we wear grooves in the pitch with our constant square passing.....and of course it went dramatically wrong today in less than four minutes. We seem to be making a simple game into something far too complex for the ability of division one players.....okay the Premiership can do it because they have got the quality players to produce the end result....GOALS Okay I feel out of sorts and cheesed off watching all this pretty football with no end product....we seem to be able to string together a series of wins.....but just as easy we can do the opposite and lose games week after week.....what is going wrong......maybe we just need to play within our ability and keep it far simpler.
Just watched Ryan Lowe's post-match interview....nothing new to say really.....although talking about the goal...he said that he didn't like square passes because they can go wrong at times.....sorry I must have wax in my ears....I thought he said... he didn't like square passes at the back........I thought his whole philosophy was playing out from the back with balls to and fro across the back.....keeping possession being the idea.....and of course not having to pick the ball out of your own net.
A dismal afternoon result wise but I don't think Ipswich can be overly pleased with the game either except of course the points. If you take the first 15 minutes out of that game and the fact we gifted them the winner then it was very even. Lewis was shocking for the whole of the 15 minutes and the rest of the team better but not great. They did not seem able to pass a ball or put their foot on it. Once everyone had settled down it was much better without creating a load of chances. Apart from Ainson that is who had a shocking afternoon all around. He couldn't pass the ball at all. Not totally deflated with this now as we were not mullered. I did think at the start we would be. I can see why Ipswich are struggling to put results together. They like Argyle didn't look confident at all. Felt sorry for Ennis who was left to close play down all by himself mostly. I do not rate Lewis and haven't since his first game with us.
