Millwall v Ipswich Town 
Saturday 27th October 2018 – 15:00
The Den
Pre Match Thoughts - Mike
Hurst's Era Over
So there we have it, after a mere Five months at the helm Paul Hurst's tenure as Ipswich Town's manager is at an end, the painful defeat at Elland Road Wednesday night sounding the death knell for the Yorkshireman. In truth it has all turned into a bit of a disaster from day one, the bright new dawn we all craved just failed to materialise and if I am brutally honest it never looked like it was ever going to be a success and that is coming from someone who bigged up Hurst from a very early stage.
Much has already been said as to why it has all gone pear shaped with team selections, tactics, substitutions, players shipped out on loan, lack of motivation and behind the scenes issues all being mooted as failings on Hurst's part, some of those we know to be true while others are, at this stage, pure conjecture and while I am pleased to see Paul Hurst go I wish him well, he certainly didn't come in with the intention of failing, god knows his career is going to be affected every bit as much as anyone else so despite the fact his best was not good enough people can rest assured he did give it his best shot, he just fell woefully short (no pun intended).
Clearly the hunt for a new manager will have already begun, in fact it would not surprise me at all if it is done and dusted, names are already being bandied about with Paul Lambert no less the favourite to take over. Clearly whoever gets the job next will not be welcomed by everyone, just as Hurst wasn't but no matter who it is they will get my support 100%, just as Hurst did for Five months until it became obvious that he was not up to it and was letting us down with bizarre decisions etc. What I do hope that if it does turn out to be Paul Lambert we all put this ex Norwich connection to one side, at the end of the day it takes balls for an ex canary to even contemplate coming to Portman Road and while he wouldn't have been my first choice I will welcome him here. All I ask of him is to try and play a bit better football but first and foremost get us to at least 21st position come next May, he would go down as a hero if he achieves that, In the meantime lets see what unfolds over the next few days and wait for confirmation as to who will become Town's Seventeenth professional Manager.
Marcus Evans
Clearly there is little love lost between many Town fans and club owner Marcus Evans, a large number now blame him solely for the mess we find ourselves in, a lack of ambition, a tight hold on the purse strings and a distinct lack of interaction with the fans just Three of the issues often hurled in his direction and in truth it is hard to argue against it. Evans talks a good story with regard to the Academy and his dreams of one day a return to the Premier league but his actions seldom seem to back it up.
At first I was very pro Evans, whatever anyone says he did save the club from extinction when nobody else was remotely interested, that is fact and cannot be argued against, however how many years should we be indebted to him for ? The years roll by and we are stagnating due to his hard line stance on spending, it finally looks like things have now caught up with us, Paul Hurst was brought in knowing full well the constraints he was being expected to work under, however the gulf in spending between the top end Championship clubs and the likes of us is now a chasm which is only going to widen. The day of reckoning seems to have arrived and a change in his thinking has to be seen or we are in very real danger of dying as a club, the January window could well be our last bite at survival as we know it.
Into The Lions Den
Saturday sees us head to Millwall for the first of Three relegation Six pointers, these games are massive and will go a long way to deciding if we have a chance of the great escape or not. It goes without saying that the events of today (Thursday) put a different perspective on things, for a start we don't even know if it will be Bryan Klug in temporary charge which looks likely or if a decision is made on who the new man will be, trying to second guess which players will be given the shirt is hard enough at the best of time these days so there is no point in even trying to predict that scenario. What we do know is that once again it is a fresh start for the players, yet another clean slate with the chance to impress yet another new manager, that in itself should give us a bit of a boost and may well see a much better performance on the pitch.
At present Millwall are one of those clubs in the relegation mix, currently sitting in 20th place with Thirteen points they find themselves a solitary point above the drop zone, helped by Wednesday home win over Wigan Athletic where they had to come from behind to seal the points. But lets not kid ourselves here, Middlesbrough, Villa, Leeds & Derby have all failed to win at The Den already this season, it is a tough place to go and get anything from so when taking into account how we are playing it looks a nailed on home win, usually I would say a point would be decent but such is our plight draws are not enough, we need a win or Two asap, the one hope is that the players have the chance to play with a certain amount of freedom following Hurst's departure, I am sure the importance of the game is not lost on Bryan Klug.
The Beat
I could not let this pass without mentioning that Friday 26th October is a very sad day for everyone connected to Ipswich Town Football club, our greatest ever player is laid to rest, it is a very sad and poignant occasion in our history, never again we will see the likes of Kevin Beattie don the Blue & White of the club, those days when he graced the Portman Road turf seem lost in time, tomorrow at around 14.30pm The Beat will be at Portman Road for the very last time as his Funeral procession makes the journey to Seven Hills Crematorium via the stadium he lit up so many times. Thank you for the memories Kev, sadly missed, never forgotten. RIP great Man.
The Opposition - Millwall
Millwall Rovers were formed by the workers of J.T. Morton's canning and preserve factory in the Millwall area of the Isle of Dogs in London's East End in 1885.
In April 1889, a resolution was passed for Millwall to drop 'Rovers' from their name and they were now playing under the name Millwall Athletic, inspired by their move to their new home The Athletic Grounds. Millwall Athletic reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1900 and 1903.
Millwall moved to a new stadium, named The Den, in New Cross, South London in 1910.
Millwall, who had now also dropped 'Athletic' from its name, were invited to join the Football League in 1920 for the 1920–21 season through the creation of the new Football League Third Division.
In the 1925–26 season Millwall had 11 consecutive clean sheets, a Football League record, which they hold jointly with York City and Reading.
In the 1927–28 season Millwall won the Third Division South title and scored 87 goals at home in the league, an English record which still stands.
Millwall were the tenth best supported team in England in the pre-war years, despite languishing in the Third Division for most of the 1930s. Millwall were one of the most financially wealthy clubs in England.
The loss of so many young men during the Second World War made it difficult for clubs to retain their former status. This was especially true for Millwall, who appeared to suffer more than most. From being one of the country's biggest clubs before the war, Millwall were reduced to one of its smallest afterward.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s Millwall's form was poor, and they were relegated into (and became a founding member of) Division Four.
Later in the decade, Millwall established a record of 59 home games without defeat (43 wins and 16 draws) from 22 August 1964 to 14 January 1967. During this spell, Millwall played 55 different teams, kept 35 clean sheets, scored 112 goals and conceded 33. The record was eventually broken by Liverpool.
Millwall missed out on promotion to Division One by one point. By remaining unbeaten at home in Division Two for the 1971–72 season, Millwall became the only club to go through an entire season without losing a match at home in four different divisions Millwall hosted the first game to be played on a Sunday against Fulham.
George Graham managed Millwall from 1983 to 1986, and during that time he guided the club to a Football League Group Cup win.
John Docherty In his second season as manager, Millwall won the Second Division championship and gained promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in the club's history in 1988 where they stayed until the 1990 season.
Mick McCarthy guided Millwall to third place in the new Division One at the end of the 1993–94 season, and then went on to manage the Irish National team. Tthis was their first season at a new ground, at first known as The New Den.
In 1997 the club experienced severe financial difficulties that resulted in them being placed in financial administration and eventually falling to the old Division 2 until 2001 when they were promoted back to the Championship.
Between 2005 & 2006 Millwall had 6 managers come and go, ending back down in League 1 in the process. In 2010 they gained promotion back to the Championship via a Webley playoff final.
Kenny Jackett celebrated five years in charge of the club in November 2012, including a 13-game unbeaten run and flirting with the play-offs, however Millwall finished poorly, narrowly avoiding relegation on the last day of the season. Their poor league form coincided with reaching the semi-final of the FA Cup for the fifth time in their history. Kenny Jackett resigned on 7 May 2013. He was Millwall's fourth-longest serving manager.
After a month of searching, Millwall appointed Steve Lomas as their new manager on 6 June 2013. Millwall sacked Lomas on 26 December 2013, after winning only five of his 22 games in charge. Neil Harris and youth team coach Scott Fitzgerald took over as joint caretaker-managers. Millwall appointed Ian Holloway as their new manager on 6 January 2014, with the club sitting 21st in the table. He was given the priority of maintaining their Football League Championship status, which he achieved.
The following season, Holloway was sacked on 10 March 2015 with the team second from bottom in the Championship, and Neil Harris was reinstated as caretaker manager until the end of the season. He was unable to ensure survival, however, as Millwall's relegation to League One was confirmed on 28 April. Harris was confirmed as Millwall's permanent manager the next day. In his first full season in charge, Harris led Millwall to a fourth-place finish in League One and a play-off final at Wembley, which the Lions lost to Barnsley.
In the 2016–17 FA Cup, Millwall reached the Quarter-finals for the ninth time in their history, knocking out Premier League opposition in three consecutive rounds.
Millwall made it to the League One play-off final at Wembley for the second successive year. They were promoted back to the Championship following a 1–0 playoff final victory over Bradford City.
Last season Millwall finished in a very respectable 8th place on the Championship table with 72 points.
The Manager – Neil Harris
Past Match Video - Trev
Media Watch – K L Blue
Fans reaction to PH sacking
http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/town-fans-r ... -1-5752591
http://the72.co.uk/118033/sad-it-didnt- ... aul-hurst/
Is Evans to blame?
https://ipswich.vitalfootball.co.uk/it- ... -the-chop/
The decline of Town
http://twohundredpercent.net/suffolk-pu ... wich-town/
Form Guide
Millwall Last 5 Matches - Currently in 20th place with 13 points
29 Sep Millwall 2 – 3 Sheffield United
03 Oct Nottingham Forest 2 – 2 Millwall
06 Oct Millwall 2 – 1 Aston Villa
20 Oct Reading FC 3 – 1 Millwall
23 Oct Millwall 2 – 1 Wigan Athletic
Ipswich Last 5 Matches - Currently in 24th place with 9 points
29 Sep Birmingham City 2 - 2 Ipswich Town
2 Oct Ipswich Town 0 - 2 Middlesbrough
6 Oct Swansea City 2 - 3 Ipswich Town
20 Oct Ipswich Town 0 - 2 QP Rangers
24 Oct Leeds United 2 – 0 Ipswich Town
Marko's Caption Contest - THE DON CUP
Was a better turn out for QPR ..... I particularly liked the Aylesbury seed in the tooth caption. There is a certain level of elation when that trapped seed is out after a few days!
Nicscreamer was scoring the 5pts before I even knew what it was. Had the judges emailing scores which forced me to google it. Very good
QPR SCORES
Nicscreamer 5pts
AylesburyBlue 4pts
IpswichtownNo1 & Tangfastic 3pts
Number 9 & Frosty 2pts
LEAGUE TABLE
FROSTY 28
TANGFASTIC 27
NICSCREAMER 24
IPSWICHTOWNNO1 24
BLUEMIKE 24
DERICKIPSW 24
ANDO 18
BLUEBLOOD 17
NUMBER9 16
AYLESBURYBLUE 9
WATERSHIP DOWN 8
PATTHEGIMP 7
BARMY BILLY 5
SHED ON TOUR 3
MARVINBAY1973 1
CHARNWOOD 1
KL BLUE 1
OHIOTRACTORBOY 1
Paul Hurst Caption pic:
Match Referee – Robert Jones
MILLWALL 1 IPSWICH TOWN 1
