Ipswich Town v Reading preview and matchday thread

[Bluemike]

Good report Mike, thanks.

For me it was a very poor first half. neither side playing particularly well. There almost seems to be a pattern to our style at home. We batter the opposition with countless lofted high balls to Murphy - most handing possession straight back to our opponents. Then in the 2nd half of games we try a little spell of tippy tappy passing and generally good passing on the deck interchanges, only to get caught with by a sucker punch when we appear to be well in control. But our never say die, wholehearted players continue to battle away. Upping the pressure and closing down quickly. Opponents really do have to match our battling qualities and that willingness to run when the legs have gone. Not many manage it tbh - Reading didn't either. The winner when it came was no more than we deserved, for sheer persistence if nothing else.

Two final points .

1. I was happy to see AMN come off. He constantly gives the ball away IMO. Bru's appearance saw a much better midfield IMO.

2. Mike, you forgot to add scum to that list of high spenders . What was it? £23m? and 3-0 stuffing at home?? Mwahahaha.


QPR next up. COYBS

Cheers Liz, I actually thought AMN played well first half, he did give away a couple of balls, but he chased and closed down everything, won a few tackles, got into a good position from which his effort was saved, I thought he did ok. As for the scum, who ??? I reckon they should spend another 20 Million LOL.

[arana peligrosa]

Only got the score some time after the game was at an end. Apart from the result itself am in the dark as to what largely occurred out there today i.e. how the team and opposition played, what line-up McCarthy went with, was we really deserving of three points etc.

All relevant information will be collected and analyzed soon enough, but that was a very important result that keeps us in touch with the play-off places and adds a bit more respectability to our home form. Believe the winning goal (Pitman ?) came in the dying moments of the game, so that was a nice revenge element after the 5 - 1 mauling at their venue earlier in the season.

A record number of wins on a Tuesday also as I understand, (something in the region of 16 ?) and that's an incredible statistic, it's too bad we can't play all our fixtures on this day if it means we get results out of it, each and every time.

We realize McCarthy is not a name for everybody and there's a section of our fanbase who would argue for change, but there is progress being made and it looks likely we'll be involved in another play-off opportunity by end of season - but one game at a time, there's no sense in getting carried away at such a relatively premature stage of the season.

[Andym]

Overall a pretty poor game. Not sure either side deserved to win. Probably neither side deserved a point but there we are.

Bart did everything expected of him in a game where he had little to do. At the back, Knudsen had probably one of his best games defensively. Smith did well too but give him the ball and he looks like he's going to die of fear.

I thought AMN was relatively poor. Unfortunately he lacks strength and in the championship it's such a physical game. He wasn't awful but not great, and was pleased when the substitution was made. Unfortunately Bru wasn't a lot better. Not bad but bot a great performance. Skuse had some good moments but what was he thinking? Apart from the penalty a solid performance. Hyam had some good moments, particularly early on, but gave the ball away once or twice in dangerous positions. Fraser was a contender for man of the match with another good performance, along with Sears. Murphy tried hard against some big defenders but wasn't that effective.

Two good goals from the only bits of quality, although I'm not convinced Fraser's long ball to Varney was anything more than a hopeful punt. Edit: having seen it again, it was actually a very good ball.

Pleased with the result, disappointed with the performance. I know there's a difference of opinion about which - result or performance - is more important. I'd go for performance every time. MM complained that the crowd were quiet. I'm not surprised given the quality of football we endured. Some will say we should lift the team. But we play their vastly inflated wages and they should entertain and give us something to cheer about.

[Mach_Polish_Blue]

It is games like tonight where the result is everything, hardly a classic and we weren't great but thankfully we did enough. Yes we deserved it but Reading were poor, it would have been so disappointing not to have beaten them tonight.

A pretty dull first half in truth which we edged without really testing their keeper, Bart had even less to do. I think we improved after we switched to the 4-3-3 midway through the half with AMN, who I thought was our best player first half, having the best chance to give us the lead. Fraser also had a chance right on the stroke of HT which their keeper saved. Once again we failed to go in with a lead at home, that is now 1 in 15 where we have led at PR at the break.

The second half was better but still not a classic by any means, I was surprised to see AMN taken off though with Bru taking his place. Thankfully we got the breakthrough following a great ball by Chambers to send Sears away who in turn got in a decent cross to Fraser who seemed to tie himself in knots before getting his shot away, the ball going in off the insdie of the post. I really thought that was job done as Reading had posed little threat to our goal but quite what Skuse was thinking in giving away the penalty when the guy was running away from goal god only knows, to say I was swearing was an understatement.

We did manage to carve out one or two openings the best being a shot from Knudsen which Al Habsi did well to smother while Reading did look dangerous on the break once or twice as we went looking for the winner. With time running out we somehow managed to conjure up the winning goal, a long ball from Fraser was superbly chased down by varney before he sent over a pinpoint cross for Pitman to prod home from close range to send the Town fans wild. It has to be said MM should take much credit tonight for Two inspired substitutions which won us the game, Varney & pitman combining for the all important second goal, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.

So our amazing run of Tuesday night wins at PR continues and this much needed win sees us back up into the top Six. Hopefully the doom merchants who bemoaned spending nothing while others all around spent millions will have a day or Two off from the negativity, many couldnt see a win, many thought we would be lethargic and while one win doesn't achieve anything it does go some way to dampening down the negative vibe if only for a few days, (by the way how did Derby, Wednesday, Wolves and Burnley do tonight after splashing the cash ?? ) QPR here we come. Keep the faith.

Mike good report cheers.

I'm one of those 'doom merchants who bemoaned lack of spending' but I'm not looking for any negativity. Evans doesn't back Mick, Evans wouldn't mind us to remain in this league for the 15th season next year. Why can't we be more than play-off hopefuls who scrap for the 6th place?

We are 6th at this stage and it's all thanks to miraclous Mick's job not Evans. We badly faded this time last year as we hadn't bolstered the team (Sears aside) and luckily finished 6th. We had plenty poor away defeats and I just don't want that situation to happen again.

Yes win is a win no matter how it's achieved. But it doesn't mean Marcus Evans' policy is fine.

3 wins of out last 4 home games is an improvement on our average home record this season. And we can't afford to drop too many points at home as we have horrible away games towards the end of the season where any point will be really valuable.

Poor first half last night as people say. The reason? Hyam - Skuse in the 4-4-2 system, do you agree?

See you on Saturday at QPR. Can't wait !

[Magicmark]

We did deserve the win last night,thought the second half we showed a bit of class with some nice passing,Pitman's last minute goal made the 100 mile round trip an enjoyable evening.

[Ohiotractorboy]

Very nice win, and those were some god-awful kits Reading were wearing!

[jaykay]

my view of the game was great result very poor first half.one shot on target for both teams.the only good bit was frasers pinpoint corners.why we had no one at the near post is beyond me,as any little flick on would have gone in.second half a lot beter.bart had nothing to do.knudsen steady great 60 yard diagonal pass,more of that please, and good shot on target.berra and smith never realy troubled.chambers looked tired and couldnt get back several times after forward runs.but a great pass to sears who set up frasers goal.hyman and skuse didnt bring nothing to the table.why 2 defensive midfield players in a home match i will never know,unless one was a box to box player,which neither is.ive never been a fan of skuse as i think he has only one string to his bow.he could have cost us 3 points with that ill timed tackle.fraser the star of the show. maitland niles to lightweight.murphy who i am a great fan off th was very quite but only had crumbs to feed of.sears was busy.it was cold night and not a lot of excitement to keep you warm,maybe this why the crowd was quite.the ref was ok,but must have being taken lessons from the premier refs in the way he gave the penalty.blew early but took a age to point to the spot.he did a great tackle on skuse in the centre of the pitch,well skuse ran in to him.reading were poor,didnt seem that interested if they won or lost.the away support was poor.the board said 200 away supporters.well i sat near them in the sir alf and thought the second car must have broke
down,as it looked like 100 in their section.
mick did see we needed someone to link the play up,and brought on bru early.also was good to see the other 2 subs linking up for the winner.i also liked the way we used the posts to help the ball in for both goals what we do without fraser god knows.just goes to prove one player can to for a team,so if we had a class playermaker we would be chasing top 2 not top 6.

[Bluemike]

It is games like tonight where the result is everything, hardly a classic and we weren't great but thankfully we did enough. Yes we deserved it but Reading were poor, it would have been so disappointing not to have beaten them tonight.

A pretty dull first half in truth which we edged without really testing their keeper, Bart had even less to do. I think we improved after we switched to the 4-3-3 midway through the half with AMN, who I thought was our best player first half, having the best chance to give us the lead. Fraser also had a chance right on the stroke of HT which their keeper saved. Once again we failed to go in with a lead at home, that is now 1 in 15 where we have led at PR at the break.

The second half was better but still not a classic by any means, I was surprised to see AMN taken off though with Bru taking his place. Thankfully we got the breakthrough following a great ball by Chambers to send Sears away who in turn got in a decent cross to Fraser who seemed to tie himself in knots before getting his shot away, the ball going in off the insdie of the post. I really thought that was job done as Reading had posed little threat to our goal but quite what Skuse was thinking in giving away the penalty when the guy was running away from goal god only knows, to say I was swearing was an understatement.

We did manage to carve out one or two openings the best being a shot from Knudsen which Al Habsi did well to smother while Reading did look dangerous on the break once or twice as we went looking for the winner. With time running out we somehow managed to conjure up the winning goal, a long ball from Fraser was superbly chased down by varney before he sent over a pinpoint cross for Pitman to prod home from close range to send the Town fans wild. It has to be said MM should take much credit tonight for Two inspired substitutions which won us the game, Varney & pitman combining for the all important second goal, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.

So our amazing run of Tuesday night wins at PR continues and this much needed win sees us back up into the top Six. Hopefully the doom merchants who bemoaned spending nothing while others all around spent millions will have a day or Two off from the negativity, many couldnt see a win, many thought we would be lethargic and while one win doesn't achieve anything it does go some way to dampening down the negative vibe if only for a few days, (by the way how did Derby, Wednesday, Wolves and Burnley do tonight after splashing the cash ?? ) QPR here we come. Keep the faith.

Mike good report cheers.

I'm one of those 'doom merchants who bemoaned lack of spending' but I'm not looking for any negativity. Evans doesn't back Mick, Evans wouldn't mind us to remain in this league for the 15th season next year. Why can't we be more than play-off hopefuls who scrap for the 6th place?

We are 6th at this stage and it's all thanks to miraclous Mick's job not Evans. We badly faded this time last year as we hadn't bolstered the team (Sears aside) and luckily finished 6th. We had plenty poor away defeats and I just don't want that situation to happen again.

Yes win is a win no matter how it's achieved. But it doesn't mean Marcus Evans' policy is fine.

3 wins of out last 4 home games is an improvement on our average home record this season. And we can't afford to drop too many points at home as we have horrible away games towards the end of the season where any point will be really valuable.

Poor first half last night as people say. The reason? Hyam - Skuse in the 4-4-2 system, do you agree?

See you on Saturday at QPR. Can't wait !

Mach the doom merchants thing is not aimed at anyone in particular, just a generalisation of how our fans tend to get i'm afraid. I think we know each other well enough to know we aint gonna be falling out over anything football related, even if you are doing my head in !! I still come back to my point on a previous post Mach, it is MM not wanting to spend not ME witholding funds.

I still maintain that ME wants to get out of this division as much as you or I do and that the policy he adopts is partly enforced on him due to our past failings while also safeguarding the future is a long one. Mick has decided not to go to ME for new signings, that is his choice but yesterday he said the very same thing that I have been trying to get across and that is that he will be using the loan market if needed, it makes perfect sense in our position.

We are indeed now getting our home form a bit more acceptable so if we can continue to get good results on the road we won't be far away. Yes the first half was not great last night but MM switched it midway through to a 4-3-3 and it started to improve, there was no great mystery as to why, just one of those poor 45 minutes really. As for Hyam & Skuse being paired together, I didn't like it 18 months ago and I am not keen now, for me Douglas with Skuse is much better because he is more attacking than Hyam will ever be which is backed up by his Three goals and several other near misses, Hyam never has given us that. That said Hyam did not do too much wrong last night, it just makes us too defensive, especially at home, but at the end of the day we won and deservedly so, albeit without tearing up any trees.

Looking forward to seeing you at QPR Saturday mate where I will no doubt have to try and convince you that you are wrong LOL. It should be a cracking atmosphere with over 3000 of us making the trip, lets cheer them on to another great away win, that would be the icing on the cake.

[itfc76trev]

Most entrainment in first half was me and the guy next to me having an argument

[BLUEBLOOD]

Most entrainment in first half was me and the guy next to me having an argument

Wow I had an argument with the bloke next to me too....was that you then trev....?

[itfc76trev]

Most entrainment in first half was me and the guy next to me having an argument

Wow I had an argument with the bloke next to me too....was that you then trev....?

Must have been you lol bloody know it all

[ipswichtownNo1]

Only got the score some time after the game was at an end. Apart from the result itself am in the dark as to what largely occurred out there today i.e. how the team and opposition played, what line-up McCarthy went with, was we really deserving of three points etc.

All relevant information will be collected and analyzed soon enough, but that was a very important result that keeps us in touch with the play-off places and adds a bit more respectability to our home form. Believe the winning goal (Pitman ?) came in the dying moments of the game, so that was a nice revenge element after the 5 - 1 mauling at their venue earlier in the season.

A record number of wins on a Tuesday also as I understand, (something in the region of 16 ?) and that's an incredible statistic, it's too bad we can't play all our fixtures on this day if it means we get results out of it, each and every time.

We realize McCarthy is not a name for everybody and there's a section of our fanbase who would argue for change, but there is progress being made and it looks likely we'll be involved in another play-off opportunity by end of season - but one game at a time, there's no sense in getting carried away at such a relatively premature stage of the season.

Lol, your opinion changes quicker than the wind!! Is this the same saint jude whos posts i have been reading in the birmingham and portsmouth threads??? Glad to see you are feeling a little happier now.

[arana peligrosa]

Only got the score some time after the game was at an end. Apart from the result itself am in the dark as to what largely occurred out there today i.e. how the team and opposition played, what line-up McCarthy went with, was we really deserving of three points etc.

All relevant information will be collected and analyzed soon enough, but that was a very important result that keeps us in touch with the play-off places and adds a bit more respectability to our home form. Believe the winning goal (Pitman ?) came in the dying moments of the game, so that was a nice revenge element after the 5 - 1 mauling at their venue earlier in the season.

A record number of wins on a Tuesday also as I understand, (something in the region of 16 ?) and that's an incredible statistic, it's too bad we can't play all our fixtures on this day if it means we get results out of it, each and every time.

We realize McCarthy is not a name for everybody and there's a section of our fanbase who would argue for change, but there is progress being made and it looks likely we'll be involved in another play-off opportunity by end of season - but one game at a time, there's no sense in getting carried away at such a relatively premature stage of the season.

Lol, your opinion changes quicker than the wind!! Is this the same saint jude whos posts i have been reading in the birmingham and portsmouth threads??? Glad to see you are feeling a little happier now.

There was some problem in trying to comprehend what that last post was suggesting, but going with this response :

If you want a change of opinion then check out a rival fansite (we don't need to disclose the name) where directly after a game and a Town setback, (once again) some 75 per cent of users are berating the manager left and right, give it an hour or so after, lo and behold that number sinks down to around 10. Yeah, fickle supporters, they're unique aren't they ?

Yes may have been posting here and there, been doing that for eight years apparently : and of course an opinion will change from week to week. What do you expect, the same demeanor game after game ?

Just to clear up any ambiguities, and so this will never have to be repeated once more, I'm not 100 per cent with McCarthy, far from it. I don't believe we're going to achieve anything so long as he remains here and you can take that up with a number of other participants who share that sentiment. But - he's our manager like it or not so we can do little more than play along.

In recent weeks we've been subject to some sh*t scores and performances but we all want what is best for the team. If the team plays poorly, if McCarthy fucks up, or makes a mess of it - then we speak out on it. - If the team plays more efficiently or improves on the last time out, we give plaudits where necessary.

Once more, if you expect the same demeanor from supporters game after game, result after result : then you've no right telling others what they should, or should not be doing.

Discussion closed

[marko69]

Holy fk mate, ^^^. THATS a discussion closed is it? You've lined up potentially 4 new discussions right there.

I'm with ITNO1 on this. GREAT to read you writing more positive stuff, Saint. And GREAT that it reads that you are a lot less depressed and perhaps enjoying life a bit more. Being positive is good for you and healthy.

McCarthy the F**K out.

[Bluemike]

Well my demeanour certainly doesn't change game after game, I am consistent, and the point ITNO1 makes is spot on, this is what infuriates me with so many of our fans, Black or White with nothing in between.

[Steve and Jo]

Of course we all feel different straight after games. Highs after wins, lows after defeats but most try to stay level headed over not berating Manager out over a defeat or Super, super Mick over wins.

The Birmingham defeat i could take easily. Up against a good team, seemingly we were not stuffed. Two fantastic out of this world strikes. Very harsh sending off but we were right in it. Just one of those games take it on a cheek and move on.

We are Ipswich Town, we have no right to win every single game. We are competing right up there and yes a i agree with ITNO1 and holly sheeeesh, here i go again agreeing with Mike and even Marko. Nearing the crunch time soon.. Squeezy bum cheeks and all that. Time for calm nerves and maybe a smile

[marko69]

here i go again agreeing with Mike and even Marko.

And even Marko??

I must talk some pish to warrant the "even" ^^^ !

[jaykay]

i'm with saint.people get berated if they have a moan about the football we play,you only moan when we win ,never come on here when we win etc.well the man has come on and said he happier with the win,and still he in the wrong.everyone changes their mind about managers and players,keane and jewell,bullard,choppera etc.fair play to you saint.anyone who supports a team in scotland with the colours green are ok with me.that includes marko and the mighty hibs.

[number 9]

Can't imagine why Trev & Blueblood got in arguments...it seems like we all get along very well haha!