Welcome to a weird date for a football match being Friday evening. I keep saying it but there is just something not quite right about this season and all the daft dates for our fixtures. So here we are after a break for the National Side of which neither of us had anyone taking part. We are still top of the pile despite two away draws on the bounce and chucking away a couple of points last time. Back on home turf after a month with the home record of winning every game still in situ. I keep asking this but what could possibly go wrong. The ref is a bit card happy having seen his current record this season so far. But he was in charge once before this season and we won that one. Port Vale are not on a bad run but we should have enough to beat them and I'm backing the boys to win again and get back on the trail. COYG
Well, make no mistake, a run of lacklustre performances came home to roost tonight. Port Vale thoroughly deserved the win. We couldn’t keep the ball and they took their chances. Players that can hold their heads up: Cooper (as always), Ennis, Miller while he was on, Wilson. I think the wingback positions are key. Miller (L) and Mumba (R) provide a big threat but the back 3 then need to perform. Scarr back to full strength is key.
We would not have scored if we were still there trying. I think they have cling film over the goal and there were chances it was easier to score than not. To be fair you could see this result coming almost from the first few minutes. The surprise to me was how long it took Port Vale to put one in. There were controversial moments in the game caused by the Ref but we did not deserve to get anything out of this match and so it proved. I am almost glad the not lost at home monkey has now gone. Have to say Port Vale deserved their 3 points and are a decent side even if they did start the time wasting from almopst the start of the game. They will call it game management and to be fair it worked a treat.
Disappointing result....but as said elsewhere it has been coming.....is that our seventh consecutive league match without a clean sheet....Dan Scarr is definately missed in the centre of the defence......Nigel Lonwijk is prone to the odd mistake at this stage of his career. This was the first league game this season that we have failed to score in.....that's quite a record. If we had been told on day one that we would have dropped only 3pts in our first ten home games we would have jumped at that situation.....also we would have said yes to the fact that we had failed only once to score in a league match this season. On the bright side I didn't expect Ipswich to drop 2pts to Fleetwood.....especially since they score so early on. Sheffield W could go top of the league today if they beat Derby.....but at the moment we are still in pole position.....and we'll have Schumacher back in the dug out for our next game.
And Sheff Wed didn't go top because they couldn't score or win either. After our first loss we are still number one. I had a look at the Ipswich board last night just to see what they were crowing on about. They are deluded or as deluded as other more famous clubs who have come down the pile. We are apparently going to drop away and their only serious competition is not us but quess who. Yep it's Sheff Wed and Derby. I am definately not going to start shouting about where we may or may not finish up because if you want to look silly that would be the thing to do. Up to now every time Ipswich have had the chance to go above us they have royally blown it. The time for crowing is one game before the end when you are 4 points clear of the rest but definately not now.
Ancient history means nothing does it? Indeed some of Ipswich's historical glories were achieved with a striker discovered in non league football by... Plymouth Argyle. And we gave them Paul Mariner for almost nothing... we took some striker in part exchange as I remember it, who, in my opinion, turned out to be one of the most useless players ever to turn out for the club.
