Millwall FC vs Ipswich Town Preview & Matchday Thread

[JohnnyB]

Was great to be with the town fans today - they deserve so much better!

This was the worst performance I have ever seen from Ipswich. PL has a massive job to turn this around - and by turn this around I mean give the opposition some problems and challenge.

The positives in my opinion:

Pennington, to me looks like a solid, tidy central defender. PL needs to build the defence around him.
Flynn Downes - really tried to do the right thing as a defensive midfielder. The future.
I thought Jordan Spence played well when he came on.

Unfortunately, not a lot else. The defence (primarily Knudsen and Chalobah) take risks and leave us exposed. Chambo is a great servant but today was a liability. Midfield is generally brittle, forwards carry no threat. Overall they look like a team whose confidence is shot. Millwall were nothing special at all but carried themselves with significantly more energy and intent. There were countless occasions when town players were nudged off the ball by the superior desire of the Millwall players.

As others have said, PL has a massive job to torn this around at all. Let’s give him our full support.

[arana peligrosa]

Lambert has a task of Everest proportions putting this club back on course and rebuilding, whether he's suitable for the job remains to be seen but a full time task lies ahead in making things right. Seems the team (today) hadn't improved much from before and there could be no dispute in opposition victory. Devoid of any clear attacking intent, the threat of a relegation becomes more tangible by each passing game if results don't improve rapidly.

[rossi]

yes, I really thought that with a new manager looking on the players would be on top of their game.

Maybe they were - maybe they really are that poor as players.

Whatever, PL has a hell of a job trying to turn this around.

I still say that this would never have happened under MM - history now of course but he was hounded out by morons who didn't mind hurling abuse in his direction but couldn't handle it when he threw some back. OK, the football played was cráp, but I guess he played the only way possible with the poor players at his disposal. PH could not match that, although to be fair the playing squad is a lot weaker now.

One constant throughout all of this is the lack of investment and support from the owner. Can PL do an MM and keep us up? I sure hope so, but have serious doubts right now.

[AzzurroMark]

yes, I really thought that with a new manager looking on the players would be on top of their game.

Maybe they were - maybe they really are that poor as players.

Whatever, PL has a hell of a job trying to turn this around.

I still say that this would never have happened under MM - history now of course but he was hounded out by morons who didn't mind hurling abuse in his direction but couldn't handle it when he threw some back. OK, the football played was cráp, but I guess he played the only way possible with the poor players at his disposal. PH could not match that, although to be fair the playing squad is a lot weaker now.

One constant throughout all of this is the lack of investment and support from the owner. Can PL do an MM and keep us up? I sure hope so, but have serious doubts right now.

I totally agree with you on this one Rossi. I was chatting with a Norwich fan about PL the other day, saying i fear that the "morons" are unlikely to give him much time to try to get it right and that perhaps they were totally missing the point. By this i mean that while the football was dire under MM, perhaps he was trying to compete in a F1 race using a Ford Focus!
I know there are supporters who regularly watch Town who can pull holes in this argument. Agreed that MM should have remained professional, but you know what, when i saw him mouth his comments at the Morons at Carrow Road last season, i thought "good on ya Mick". Yes that is all history now, but those same original minority of "fans" are still at the club, and until they see the bigger picture, the atmosphere at PR is never going to be far from turning toxic.
My words to them is , PL has got a massive task on his hands, he is likely to struggle to change results much until he can overhaul the squad in January, so we are likely to see very, very few wins in this time, but if ever thete was a time for us fans to get behind our team, this starts from now and needs to continue 100% for the remainder of this season, even if we do have to bite the League 1 bullet!

[Tangfastic]

Very hard to see any positives from that game.

If we’re going to make any kind of fight, the experienced players have got to start upping their game. Youd think that Lambert would be looking for a spine of the team to start from.... but it’s difficult to know where it is.

Knudsen was absolutely terrible. Chambo is starting to make more errors. Skuse did very little. Bart is shaky as hell... what a joke that third goal was between Bart and Chambo.

For me, it’s trying to get to that Januaarry window where we’re not out of touch with fourth from bottom. Hard to know where we get points from. We offer no goal threat and just look like conceding goals at every set piece.

Pennington and Downes did themselves no harm. I really do like the look of Lankester. He tries to make something happen every time he gets the ball.

[BLUEBLOOD]

Caption Comp : All I need is a good BIC Razor and a Bottle of GRECIAN 2000 and hey Presto ! back to looking good.

[Bluemike]

Week after week I am coming away from games saying to myself at least it can't get any worse than that and yet game after game it does get worse, yesterday was yet another horror show in what is now becoming a long line of them, inept doesn't come close. At the start of Paul Hurst's tenure I was at least coming away from games thinking "how did we not get something from that", we were creating chances and having a decent amount of efforts at goal, decisions were going against us and you could see a little bit of injustice, now though the last few games have been mindblowingly bad, we barely create a chance worthy of the name, a corner is like winning the cup and our general lack of ability in doing the basics well is so shocking it is untrue.

Yesterday with Bryan Klug at the helm it was his turn to totally c*ck up the starting Eleven and formation, his decision to go 3-5-2 again saw changes to the line up and worse still we had Knudsen & Ward as Wing Backs with Chalobah deployed as One of Three CB's alongside Pennington & Chambers, we did at least get our Two up front with Jackson back in alongside Sears, I have to say the line up did nothing for me even before a ball was kicked, out had gone Donacien, Edwards & Edun who if I was picking the team would be Three of the players first on the sheet.

As is the norm these days the game started fairly uneventfully with neither team looking particularly threatening although Millwall seemed to have the greater desire to get forward and create something, Town though did get a couple of early glimpses of Millwall's box. Home claims for a penalty fell on deaf ears as the hosts began to impose themselves more on Town's defence and we were finding it hard once again to string passes together as we huffed and puffed to get going. The first real chance fell to Millwall who saw a shot well taken down and blasted just past the far post, it was a warning which we did not heed as minutes later they went ahead, yet again we are totally clueless in defending set pieces and this was another one, Chalobah's tame effort at challenging for a header at the back post see's him easily beaten the header across goal is then turned home by the very impressive Lee Gregory despite the attention of at least Four Town players around him !! Such had been our inability in front of goal in recent games and the opening quarter of this one I could not help but think to myself at that point "this is game over"

Minutes later we are almost undone by another set piece as they came a whisker away from converting a free kick, although it has to be said it was not a free kick to start with but you still have to defend the damn thing which we don't do. All over the pitch we were second best, every second ball was being won by Millwall, time after time our players were being outmuscled in Fifty Fifty's, their desire was far greater, even when we did get the ball any attempt at an attack was breaking down early on or we never found the killer or final ball, it was painful to watch. The midfield was being overrun with Skuse winning little and Dozzell just not seeing anything of the ball, Downes was at least putting himself about with some tidy play and was using the ball well, the experiment of Knudsen & ward as wing backs was laughable, at the back Pennington was for me the stand out player for Town in that first half, good positioning and covering floundering teammates several times, winning headers at key moments and generally acquitting himself well. Up front our Two strikers had had zero impact although Sears was at least making One or Two decent runs, Jackson may as well not have been on the pitch.

The first half was coming to a close and it was Millwall who nearly doubled their lead, this time Bart easily collecting a header from another set piece, there was no doubt Millwall had been the better side and could count themselves unlucky to only be one ahead, for Town it was another pitiful tale of woe in truth, change had to happen, I wanted to see Gwion Edwards on for the second half and do away with this ridiculous 3-5-2 as it was not working.

Well we got change but OMG we get another waste of space come on as Jordan Spence replaced the out of sorts and struggling Cole Skuse and yet we still stick to the same formation so now we have Spence as a damn Wing Back, couldn't make it up. The half was barely Five minutes old and it really is game over as Millwall plunder their second. How simple it is to score against us, it really is criminal, a long throw is headed on by a Millwall player straight to Lee Gregory who turns and fires it home virtually unchallenged, it is just unacceptable nonsense.

With an hour on the clock we fashion our first real effort, unfortunately Downes shot was sent out of Bermondsey and half way back to Ipswich such was the inaccuracy but it did at least get a rendition of "we've had a shot" from the excellent Town following who had been superb throughout. One bright spot of the afternoon was the arrival of young Jack Lankester who entered the fray to replace the woeful Jackson. Another massive cheer went up from the away end as we finally won our first corner as the game went deep into the final quarter, inevitably it came to nothing. A real comedy of errors saw us concede a third, this time Bart who it has to be said was garbage again and skipper Chambers get in each others way as the keeper attempted to punch and Chambers tried to header it clear, all it did was gift it to them and Leonard had all the time in the world to float it over everyone and into the empty net, having seen it again it has to be Bart's job to call for it, if he didn't it is massively down to him, if he did then Chambo can take the flak, either way it was defending right out of the Sunday morning manual.

The remainder of the game peetered out with Millwall content on seeing it through to the final whistle in the knowledge we had nothing in our locker to hurt them although Chalobah did crash one off the outside of the post in Town's final futile effort to salvage something. As official reports have stated this will be the easiest Three points they claim all season and their fans chants of "can we play you every week" and "You're going down" have a certain amount of truth to them because playing us every week would be a virtual gift of Three points.

Bart (5)....A shadow of the player he once was, flaps at everything and looks like a rabbit in the headlights, a error in every game.

Chambers (5)...Certainly a day to forget, looked all over the place in the back Three and failed to lead as we expect, comical for the Third.

Pennington (7)...One of the few to come out with any credit, had a good First half and held it together as best he could, looked solid for the most part.

Chalobah (6)...Switched to CB, yes he makes mistakes but at least the boy shows some intent and willingness to at least try to drive forward.

Ward (4)... A wing back he aint, in fact what is he ? Are we so bad that he gets a game most weeks, woeful in attack and at defending.

Knudsen (3)...If there has been a worse player in Town's colours I am not sure I've seen him, every fan around me thought the same, get rid.

Skuse (4)...Did nothing and looked out of sorts, limped out at HT.

Dozzell (5)...Hardly saw the ball as the game completely passed him by, will clearly have much better days.

Downes (7)....Town's MOTM for me, was industrious in his play, won tackles, snapped into challenges and used the ball well, ploughed a lone furrow.

Sears (5)....Never looks a goal threat but who would in this team, will run all day but so would a Greyhound.

Jackson (3)...Absolute waste of time him being on the pitch, did nothing, looked lost and scared, no presence whatsoever and disappointed me.


SUBS :-

Spence (4)... When this is all we have to bring on to salvage a situation start planning for league One. Totally inept.

Lankester (6)....Like the look of this boy, went looking for the ball and when he had it he used it well, didn't look out of place at all.


The only glimmer of hope as I see it is Paul Lambert, yesterday had nothing to do with him and as such we could hardly expect anything to change, Klug got it woefully wrong just like Hurst was starting to do but these players are shot to pieces mentally, even the seasoned pro's are now looking lost. Hopefully today's "meet the manager" session will get a lot out in the open as to what the hell is going wrong cus we were second best in every department once again and this against a fellow relegation threatened team. Lambert has to keep us in touch until January and on yesterday evidence that in itself is going to take some doing. I ahve followed the Town for over 46 years and I can safely say at present this is by far the worst ever Town team i have seen, it is only over the last five or Six games I feel this (Swansea apart) so hopefully it can be corrected by Lambert, a brave man he must be, can he do it ? I would not be betting on it at this moment in time.

[barmy billy]

Thanks as always for the report, Mike.

It makes pretty dire reading and I really don't know where you get the motivation from after seeing it all first-hand. Paul Lambert certainly has a job on his hands and we can only cross our fingers and support him to the hilt.

As you have said elsewhere, events at Leicester most definitely put things into perspective.

[marko69]

Thankfully there were delicious bacon rolls and coffee to eat and drink while reading the report.
Excellent comprehensive report which everyone will be thankful for, but depressing to read. Really thought they’d show up yesterday.

Hopefully those miracles of biblical proportions start today with the Apostle Paul Lambert meeting everyone. And if Paul is to sit and watch video footage with them, hopefully he too has bacon rolls and coffee.

[ashfordblue]

PL HAS TO BE BRUTAL AT TODAY'S meeting of the full playing squad, its blatantly obvious some players are not up to the task in hand, and must be dropped, and shipped out on loan or sold in the Jan window, long term injured players like Huwes and Bishop must be assessed for their ability to get back to full fitness very quickly, if its not possible, again get rid in the Jan window or sooner, we cannot afford to have players keep breaking down and being sidelined, as a temporary fix PL must bring in at least 4 or 5 good quality free agent players to stabilise the team, and start putting points on the board, i am confident with PL contacts, he can sort this shower of sh*t out quite quickly, similar to what Mick did in his start in 2012, thankfully we do have a very sound youth basis under 18's and 23's to bring on up at some stage, as with Downes, Lankester, Dozell etc, so its not all doom and gloom for PL, he has got a very good assembly of youth players being developed under Klugg, to bring on for future 1st team admission, i think that this experienced PL appointment, regardless of past scum connections, should have been implemented back in the summer, to save this embarrassing position that we find ourselves in, ME must learn to go with experienced managers, not possible high risk maybe's from lower league teams, these comments wont bode well with some on here, but i say what i feel and have seen.

[marko69]

Everything you say in that f**king MASSIVE paragraph, Ashford seems blatantly obvious. Think it will bode well with everyone, no worries there whatsoever.

[hallamblue]

Thanks Mike for the report.

I think I heard Skuse was in a protective boot after the game and was in pain before the match, but guess he just tried to play through it?

I think one or two players are clearly not up for the relegation fight, and Lamberts first job will be to wheedle these individuals out and replace with either some of our own youngsters, and / or some short term contracts on a PAYP basis for one or two experienced out of contract players, like Keane, Bent etc to get us to January!


I’m going to post on here shortly a post by a Norwich fan who has jus5 posted on Twtd , his thoughts about us and Lambert’s style - might be worth a read!

But judging by Klug’s post match comments he feels the real problem areas are both boxes - and the lack of quality. Think it’s safe to safe the whole squad is an utter shambles now ...not a particularly good legacy left to us by Paul Hurst I’m afraid.

[marko69]

I think I heard Skuse was in a protective boot after the game.....

Many forumites hope it’s a BMW you speak of Hallam and he’s driven far, far away.

[hallamblue]

Ha ha ha you crack me me up marko.

Tbh I think it’s going to need to be a jumbo jet sized boot to accomdate the current Town squad!!

[Bluemike]

Thanks Mike for the report.

I think I heard Skuse was in a protective boot after the game and was in pain before the match, but guess he just tried to play through it?

I think one or two players are clearly not up for the relegation fight, and Lamberts first job will be to wheedle these individuals out and replace with either some of our own youngsters, and / or some short term contracts on a PAYP basis for one or two experienced out of contract players, like Keane, Bent etc to get us to January!


I’m going to post on here shortly a post by a Norwich fan who has jus5 posted on Twtd , his thoughts about us and Lambert’s style - might be worth a read!

But judging by Klug’s post match comments he feels the real problem areas are both boxes - and the lack of quality. Think it’s safe to safe the whole squad is an utter shambles now ...not a particularly good legacy left to us by Paul Hurst I’m afraid.

I think even Stevie Wonder can see that Hallam, klug really is on the ball LOL.