Ipswich Town vs Southampton F.A. Cup 3rd Round Replay

[number 9]

Judging by the recent transfer activity, even MM knows we needed to strengthen. Nothing wrong with moaning about a poor performance...even if it was against a class premier league team. I just hope the next time we're under the cameras we at least redeem ourselves by playing a 'scorcher' because it would be an excellent advertisement for ITFC. COYBs!

[Charnwood]

You know those two consecutive defeats at the hands of Derby & Southampton may well have been a blessing in disguise.

Had we been sitting top of the league and just knocked Southampton out of the FA Cup I just wonder if Marcus Evans would have seen the need to support MM in the transfer market.

It may just be that when the transfer window closes we'll have a stronger squad than we would have done had we not suffered those two defeats.

As they say, out of adversity etc etc... often comes better opportunities...

[J4ck22]

It's not just the simple fact that we lost those two games J4ck, it's also the manner of those two defeats and the fact that we didn't really do ourselves justice especially in last night's game which was a "one off" and we offered absolutely nothing going forward.

Last nights defeat wasn't really a narrow lose, Southampton were in complete control throughout and we were miles behind in class which probably shouldn't surprise us if we're honest with ourselves. Losing to Derby was far more disappointing to me because in reality I thought we were capable of much more than we offered on Saturday.

Yes we should be able to win comfortably at Millwall this coming weekend and I sincerely hope we do, but performances like our last two games at Portman Road should really serve as a wake up call and a reality check on how fragile we really are and how much work still has to be done to keep us up there with the very best in The Championship. We need to realise that the season is far from over and understand that MM still has a difficult job on his hands if he's going to take us to the promised land.

If we simply sweep those two performances under the carpet as if they didn't happen we do so at our peril. My bet is that MM will be looking at both games over and over again looking at what went wrong and what we need to do differently to make sure we learn from our mistakes.

Were they really in complete control though? Defensively I'd agree, but going forward they were almost as bad as we were and created next to nothing other than their goal. Even so, why is it so surprising? Southhampton have been very, very good this season and losing to them and being outplayed is hardly a shock or shameful. We've just come off a 12 or something game unbeaten run, we can't win everything and believe it or not but sometimes performances won't be so good and we will lose.

If you read my second para Jack it says "which shouldn't surprise us" so I guess we both agree Southampton were expected to win and therefore our defeat didn't come as a surprise or a shock to either of us........what I guess we disagree on is the ease with which Southampton won.

As far as I saw it they only needed to score one goal because their defence was so much in control we could have played all night and never scored, so they did the bare minimum they needed to do to win and didn't over stretch themselves.

I don't believe I'm over reacting, what I'm saying is that we need to learn from two defeats and not just simply accept them and sweep them under the carpet just because we were playing better sides......... and assume that normal service will automatically resume as soon as the opposition gets a little easier. Unfortunately in The Championship it isn't that simple and we have no right to expect another long run of undefeated games to commence, just because we've lost a couple of games to better teams.

I certainly don't consider myself to be a panicker, cos rightly or wrongly that's something I never do even in times and situations when maybe I should. However what I am saying, is that a good manager like MM will not brush these two defeats under the carpet and kid himself they didn't happen, but instead will learn from them and try to make sure the players improve as a consequence.

The problem we have on this and other forums is that some people just can't accept any form of criticism of the team even when it's constructive or deserved, but simply see it as either an over reaction or utter panic.

That's fair enough and I agree with you, they did do the bare minimum although I don't think it was all that intentional and I still think they had a bad game apart from their defence. I don't care if people want to criticise, we're not perfect and we have a right to. But when we get a result like this, then people start to doubt the squad and the rest of the season, which in my opinion is an over reaction. That's what I don't like.