Ipswich Town v Norwich City preview and matchday thread

[marko69]

A Gary Rhodes Creme Brûlée is destined for my belly later on tonight.

I really rated Leon Best a few years ago when he was at Newcastle. Thought he'd be the next Michael Owen for England. Sadly didn't come to fruition for him, but I'd be delighted to see him at ITFC.

[number 9]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... paign=1490

MM's rant at the fans was unprofessional, in my opinion. I know some of you will be saying, good for you MM...I say, don't let the fans get to you Mick...just get on with your job. You look silly ranting at the fans.

[hallamblue]

A Gary Rhodes Creme Brûlée is destined for my belly later on tonight.

I really rated Leon Best a few years ago when he was at Newcastle. Thought he'd be the next Michael Owen for England. Sadly didn't come to fruition for him, but I'd be delighted to see him at ITFC.

Looks a bit of Journeyman to me marko

[marko69]

Who? Gary Rhodes? No flippin way, Hallam. You never tasted his chicken, mozzarella and tomato breasts? That's a dish by the way. Not some food fetish thing.

[Andym]

Always interesting to read the different opinions.

Norwich certainly played "better" football than us, but created few chances. Our defence that always worries me were actually fairly solid. I wouldn't criticise any of them.

We were on top for most of the first half ( I thought the Douglas goal was yards offside - clearly I was wrong ) but I think the stats showed that Norwich had about 60% possession at half time. They weren't allowed to do much with it to Ipswich's credit.

Jerome won just about everything in the air in the first half, and his goal was the one bit of quality. The only time their possession and passing was allowed so close to our goal.

Bru wasn't at his best (I wouldn't be quite as scathing as MCP) but his running and closing down probably contributed to our success. On the ball he was less good, and his set pieces....oh dear. . Skuse was ok, but I still wish he would demand the ball from the back 4 or at least get his arse into gear to make himself available. We did resort to hoofball quite a bit but on many occasions it was out of necessity as we still don't move off the ball when in possession. It's what Hyam was so good at; unfortunately his distribution was so poor that he scared you to death when he'd got it. But we do need someone in front of the defence who gets into space and wants the bloody thing. And Skuse is not that man, never will be.

Douglas was ok without being outstanding, and n my opinion the best of those 3 (Douglas, Skuse, Bru). Ward on the other hand had a great game.

Murphy did ok, ran out of steam a bit in the second half. Sears contributed to the equaliser but still is not giving us much from wide positions.

Bishop made a difference when he came on; a good substitution at about the right time. It was a fairly clean but physical game and I wouldn't have wanted to see him on much earlier as physical strength is obviously not one of his attributes. Varney for Sears was understandable but 15 minutes (or more) too late to make a difference.

I wouldn't have brought on Pitman for Murphy as someone (sorry, forgotten who!) suggested; I think without Murphy we'd have struggled as we were having to play long high balls.

Overall it was a fair result; either side could have won but the opposition would have been aggrieved if they had. We had effort and commitment and closed down. Their superior skill was pretty much neutralised by it. Now if we could just learn how to move into space....but let's celebrate a good performance.

[Bluemike]

I too also like to read others opinions on the games although I don't always agree, much of what you say Andy was spot on but I didn't think Jerome won everything in the air, in fact I thought Berra won so many headers it ws untrue.

Me being me I also thought we deserved to win the game and once again didn't get the rub of the green with the Douglas goal, even so called experts all over the TV were of the opinion we should have won the game and were the better team, Chris Sutton being one of them but I guess that is the beauty of the game. I agree 100% about Kevin Bru's set pieces, they are a total joke, had Conor ward been playing I suggest we would have had a few right on the money and then who knows what could have happened.

Either way as you say we can celebrate a good performance, for days leading up to the game I was reading posts about how "we could not score" where was the goals going to come from" they would "rip us to pieces" "Hoolahan, Naismith & Jerome would have a fiedl day against our defence" when in truth none of it happened, in fact it was their defence that struggled to cope with Ward and Murphy, Murphy was burnt out after 70 minutes because of the shift he put in , Klose has been strolling through games this season and Murphy had him in his pocket, all over the place in fact.

For all their mega millions it was us that took the game to them for the most part, in fact you couldn't tell who had spent the millions, they may hav a had a lot of possession but that means jack sh*t when most of it it in and around your own box or centre circle, Leicester were crowned champions with 37% possession LOL, had it been a boxing contest we won on a majority points decision, no question.

[herforder]

Funny old thing, but I thought they had come here not to lose, and anything gained was a bonus. Sound familiar? Perhaps we were far too pessimistic about the outcome; affording the over-puffed Canaries too much respect, whilst seeing only apparent negatives in MM and his team. Not so! It was a match that we could easily have won, even without another poor Lino decision, and sets the benchmark for home performances to come.

Without getting over emotional, or losing perspective, I think we can be justifiably proud of yesterday's team performance. With a couple more astute additions, we might even end up half decent!

[Bluemike]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... paign=1490

MM's rant at the fans was unprofessional, in my opinion. I know some of you will be saying, good for you MM...I say, don't let the fans get to you Mick...just get on with your job. You look silly ranting at the fans.

I am defintely saying Good for you Mick, these bloody loud mouth fools who give it large from the safety of the stand or their sofa's are jokes, I have maintained for ages the knee jerk bullshit I read from many Town fans is not only way off the mark and unjust but the sign of low intellect, I am glad MM feels the same. Tell it as it is MM, I wouldnt want to be any other way. It has nothing to do with fans not liking MM, that is their right but at least the ones with an IQ feel the same all the time and there is nothing wrong with that at all, not everyone will like the manager, it is the prats who act as Mick has descibed them, calling him great one week cus we win and an arsehole the next because we lose, thay are thick, I even witness it at away games from one half to the next LOL.

[marko69]

Must admit, I did like his response to the Sky pundits regarding the "suggestion" that it was onside.......

"Well make up your f**king mind, it either is or it isn't!"

GET IN, MICK! You tell em son!

[hallamblue]

Mick , you f***** ing beaut !! Says it how it is.

[Andym]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... paign=1490

MM's rant at the fans was unprofessional, in my opinion. I know some of you will be saying, good for you MM...I say, don't let the fans get to you Mick...just get on with your job. You look silly ranting at the fans.

I am defintely saying Good for you Mick, these bloody loud mouth fools who give it large from the safety of the stand or their sofa's are jokes, I have maintained for ages the knee jerk bullshit I read from many Town fans is not only way off the mark and unjust but the sign of low intellect, I am glad MM feels the same. Tell it as it is MM, I wouldnt want to be any other way. It has nothing to do with fans not liking MM, that is their right but at least the ones with an IQ feel the same all the time and there is nothing wrong with that at all, not everyone will like the manager, it is the prats who act as Mick has descibed them, calling him great one week cus we win and an arsehole the next because we lose, thay are thick, I even witness it at away games from one half to the next LOL.

I agree. I know we (Bluemike & I) often see things differently, as he is the eternal optimist and I'm the opposite. But I think we are both consistent yet willing to admit things went wrong (Bluemike) or right (me,). At the end of the day he (,MM) has strengths and weaknesses like all of us. But he too is consistent to the point of obstinacy in his approach. So it's bloody stupid to make him a hero one minute and an arse the next.

[herforder]

Come on, fans being numpties is the same at every level of football - part of the game's fabric. You can bet your life if Barca lose, or have a dodgy half, there'll be a section of fans - and press - calling for drastic action; or moaning that the world's about to end! Fickle inconsistent fans? Of course we are! (That's why, if you speak with players off the record, they'll say that 'this would be a great life, if it wasn't for the bloody supporters!).

What really got on MM's top notes was being accused of being boring! Implication being: I may be a sh*t manager, but no way am I boring - and I'll thump anyone who thinks I am! Isn't he great?

[Ohiotractorboy]

I like how he said the fan would have gotten his pint of lager in his face

I hear what you are saying Number 9, but I will take that over the vanilla, "We have very passionate and knowledgeable fans" crap which you sometimes hear as a political dismissal.

[Charnwood]

Just for the record, the foul on Murphy wasn't a pen. Looked like Murph pulled up just after the challenge where there was no touch. Was surprised to see him stay on, looked like he had pulled a thigh or hamstring.
Great result though. We had a couple of chances at the end but then so did they.

With all due respect the penalty incident on 11mins "was a penalty all day long" according to David Johnson pundit on Sky Sports, furthermore he had the added benefit of action replays etc etc. Given the comments which followed your observation I can only presume the penalty incident you're referring to is when Murphy fell over later in the game when clear through which I don't think anyone thought was a penalty. Not sure how you could get the two incidents confused.

[arana peligrosa]

Took in post-game reaction and while pleasing to ascertain we played well at times and indeed could have beaten them, the fact remains we still haven't registered a victory in this here fixture for some significant time now. Not so much a criticism, merely a fair observation, and while disappointing to learn the match officials didn't have the best of games and certain decisions didn't go our way, there was (once again) a degree of positives to take away and furthermore, if this one game alone was anything to go by, Norwich City won't be too far distanced from ourselves by end of season.

The expected sporadic behavioral issues came to the fore, along with it, a smoke device incident in the crowd that had the potential to cause more harm that what manifested. General consensus among our fanbase was a score (and performance) of some merit, although a minority still saw ground for complaint with various personnel, particularly McCarthy himself.

On another day, (and) with increased competence from various match officials, the win would (or could) have been ours, but as before it was something of a better performance from previous times and something to take into subsequent game time.

[Dubai Blue]

Charny, I was referring to the later one, which I think was the one Lucy was referring to. But it's all academic now anyway.

[hallamblue]

"..we was robbed"!

[herforder]

"..we was robbed"!

Twice in a week! (And, yes, I refer purely to football)

[Charnwood]

Charny, I was referring to the later one, which I think was the one Lucy was referring to. But it's all academic now anyway.

No probs mate, I just assumed you were replying to my post an hour or two earlier.