Championship - Ipswich Town vs Stoke City Preview & Matchday Thread

[Frosty]

Ipswich Town v Stoke City



Saturday 12th August 2023 – 15:00


Portman Road








Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike



Wednesday nights Carabao Cup First Round tie at home to Bristol Rovers went about as smooth as it can get as Town eased their way to a Two goals to nil victory over their league one counterparts to set up a second round match up away to recently relegated League One Reading FC, not the most attractive of ties it has to be said but definitely winnable all the same.

Town boss Kieran Mckenna changed the whole Eleven players following on from Sunday's win at Sunderland but it hardly showed as we turned in a thoroughly professional performance to get the job done with little fuss, from the moment debut making Jack Taylor put us ahead in the Twelfth minute you kind of sensed that was job done even at that early stage. The goal itself was decent with first Kayden Jackson and then Omari Hutchinson with good work to set up Taylor who fired home his first goal for the club.

Town didn't set back on what they had as the continued to dominate the ball and press forward, Freddie Ladapo sending a header over the bar when he maybe should have at least hit the target. Minutes later it was Ladapo again in the thick of the action as he dispossessed the Rovers keeper on the edge of his box before teeing up Taylor who was close to getting his second with a looping effort which was headed off the line by a rovers defender. town saw out the half with little fuss although Slicker in the Town goal was called upon once to save a shot from distance that seemed to take a deflection on it's way through.

The second half was to turn out to be a bit more even although Town still carved out most of the chances, two efforts from Ladapo failed to add to our lead, the first drawing a save from the keeper after Freddie had showed his strength in getting the better of Two defenders while the second was blazed over the bar. The game by this point was a little more end to end and Town had Slicker to thank for keeping the lead intact with a decent save with his foot as he dived the other way.

With substitutions starting to affect the flow of the game chances continued to come and go for Town although Rovers did look dangerous on the break on more than One occasion. Town sent on some of their big players to see the game out but it was Sone Aluko who settled things once and for all with a neat finish after good work by George Hirst to make the run and get in a good cross.

As games go in this competition it wasn't a bad game in truth and it showed how much strength in depth Town have, whether that line up would be strong enough in a Championship game is debatable but there were some promising individual performances. Young Elkan Baggott at the back looked pretty assured throughout and surely worthy of keeping at Portman Road, Slicker in goal impressed and looked more than capable of challenging Vaclav Hladky for the number One slot, Greg Leigh never fails to impress me and he did well in both defence and when getting forward, Aluko rolled back the years to show some neat touches while Ladapo got in the right positions to have Four attempts at goal without scoring so all in all it wasn't a bad nights work. The crowd of over 15k was also a decent effort by the fans who generally shun this cup up and down the country.

The new pitch looks lovely and by all accounts met with approval by the players, the surrounding area is also a massive upgrade on what we had before and the whole place just generally feels fresher, there is still much work to be done though which is in the pipeline.

We are soon back into the bread and butter of league Football as we look to build on our impressive opening day win as we welcome Stoke City to Portman Road. Stoke also opened up the season with a good win courtesy of a 4-1 victory at home to Rotherham United. having watched the highlights of the game Stoke looked impressive but I must admit I found myself thinking "but it's only Rotherham" now that may sound disrespectful but some of their defending on closer inspection was pretty poor in truth so it is hard to gauge just how good Stoke were, either way we know that no game is easy at this level so we have to be on it from the first whistle to the last.

The Potters seem to have gone under the radar somewhat where predictions for the season are concerned but it has to be said they have bought a lot of players in the window and appear to have recruited well, One player who has already caught the eye and started the season well is striker Cunha Vidigal who followed up his brace against Rotherham with another in the 2-1 win over WBA in the cup on Wednesday night, he will definitely be One we need to be weary of for sure.

This is another game where I find myself thinking a draw would not be a disaster by any means, but then on the other hand we have momentum, belief and confidence in abundance, we are at home in front of over 29,000 noisy fans all willing Town to get another win so why shouldn't we go into it looking to do just that, take the game to them and set an electric pace from the off, Stoke will be confident too so we need to fly out of the blocks, Obviously there will likely be Eleven changes again as the big boys return to the fold so all should be fresh and raring to go. this is a really tough one to call but I would be surprised and a little bit disappointed if Town do not take something from the game, let them worry about us. COYB'S




The Opposition – Stoke City Honours



League


Second Division / Championship
Champions: 1932–33, 1962–63
Runners-up: 1921–22, 2007–08
Third place (promoted): 1978–79

Third Division North / Second Division
Champions: 1926–27, 1992–93
Play-off winners: 2002

Football Alliance
Champions: 1890–91

Birmingham & District League
Champions: 1910–11

Southern League Division Two
Champions: 1909–10, 1914–15
Runners-up: 1910–11


Cup


FA Cup
Runners-up: 2010–11

League Cup
Winners: 1971–72
Runners-up: 1963–64

Football League Trophy
Winners: 1991–92, 1999–2000

Watney Cup
Winners: 1973




The Manager – Alex Neil








Championship League Table









Form Guide




Ipswich Town



6 Aug Sunderland 1 - 2 Ipswich Town





Stoke City FC



5 Aug Stoke City 4 - 1 Rotherham





Head to Head










Match referee – Josh Smith









IPSWICH TOWN 2 STOKE CITY 1

[Shed on tour]

Going for a 1-1 draw. Think Stoke could do well this season and might make the playoffs.

[marko69]

Nice write up and after reading the last paragraph…… i now want to say 4-0 ITFC. (Like the old days when Ipswich always spanked Stoke)
29K in Fortress Portman Road will be fantastic. Really hope the lads continue this initial great form.

Voted win, predicted win in the forum comp ——>> 3pts. COYB’s

Ref caption:
Headline:
Referee Josh Smith awards even more dodgy freekicks, complete with swaggering attitude, and knows he wont be mobbed

(Its a big headline. Takes up half the page)

Alex Neil:
(Thinks)
Wow. I thought the noise in Carrow Road was loud.

[The Odious Mr Rossi]

With a new pitch tuned to our playing style, anything less than a home win would be a poor result in my book. We need to have the same sort of home form that Plymouth had last season.
I think we will win this one by a couple of clear goals.

[Bluemike]

All but sold out, around 40 seats left earlier.

[shabba]

All but sold out, around 40 seats left earlier.

It seems pretty well sold within 15mins of tickets being on sale
Should be a great atmosphere, the new changes to the ground look grest (video about it on town TV)

[Denny61]

I'm going for a 2.2 draw... should be end to end action

[arana peligrosa]

I got no idea what will occur. Once again we could win, they could win, until the game reaches a conclusion you just can't tell.

Home advantage could really work for us and while the opposition got a big win on opening weekend, after one round of games you can't make judgments. Estimate around 25,000 in attendance, possibly more, and while you kind of know what formation to expect, we possess the players and capabilities to take another three points from it.

[valleyroad]

I think this will be a tough match. Reckon Stoke will be a force this season.
Another big test for Town and should be another good gauge of where the team is at.
Not going to predict anything as I have really no idea how this game will go.
Hoping for another Town win but any other result would't surprise me either.

[marko69]

no idea what will occur, we could win, they could win, until the game reaches a conclusion you just can't tell.

Thats why the bookies are billionaires!

[Bluemike]

I have just noticed that this is the ref from the painful 4-4 draw at Charlton last season, with that in mind we can expect about Half Hour added time today.

[AzzurroMark]

Unchanged team from the Sunderland game, including bench.
A settled side is always a good thing.

[trimleyblue]

Woolfie!

[AzzurroMark]

Get in Wolfie. Doubt anyone had him down as first scorer today!;

[AzzurroMark]

Woolfie!

Are we the only two not at PR today?

[JohnnyB]

Meaningless maybe, but currently top of the league

[lucy]

What's the New Rule with the Clock because its stopped on 45 and I thought it had to carry on?

[trimleyblue]

Woolfie!

Are we the only two not at PR today?

It feels that way.

[arana peligrosa]

By all account we're playing well. Value for a lead etc. Never imagined Lobo as first scorer but we're ahead is all that matters.

Maybe allowing opposition too much room on the field, we aren't closing down their players maybe fast enough. Its a slight concern but we seem well in control other than that and could be ahead by a bigger margin.

Not sure of crowd but it appears noisy and vociferous. One more goal from ourselves will go a long way towards settling it, further victory etc.

[Dazzz67]

Following final score on TV and sounds like we are bossing it, hoping for a second goal now. We'll done Woolfie, nice surprise.

Downside to FS is that Sutton is a pundit, guys a class P, seriously, bit of a cocky tit who knows f all. Feel Jason Mohammed is tolerating him.

COYB!

[lucy]

Stoke should of had 2 maybe 3 Players booked this half but the Ref is very reluctant

[trimleyblue]

Jackson!

[trimleyblue]

Job done, happy with that.

[arana peligrosa]

Put down a 2 - 0 home win in the prediction league, kind of wish for time now without further goals but another strike for us would be mighty fine. Not much time allowing to accomplish it however.

Stoke believe had their chances, we were fortunate not to concede on occasion but over the course of this game the best team would have won. Just a shade under 30k for the crowd today, we're entering the end of additional time, going to do it, they can't spoil it now.

Full time, 2 - 0 win. Not sure if first place in league but this is a real encouraging start.

[JohnnyB]

A very impressive win and a great start to the season!

[Bluemike]

Excellent performance today, bossed it all apart from 5 minutes at start of second half, totally deserved the win and Two was kind on a dirty Stoke team. Morsy, luongo and Woolfenden all superb today as were Jackson and Harness when they came on.

" Top of the league at Portman Road "

[hallamblue]

Some of our play today was mesmerising. Stoke’s only response was thuggery (literally taking our players out ) most of which went unbooked.

OMG what are we witnessing at PR ( which was deafening for large parts of the game today btw). Feet in the ground time I know, but I haven’t seen football like this since the heady days of the 80/81 season. And we have barely strengthened as of yet!

…. TOP O THE LEAGUE AT PORTMAN ROAD

Edit: meant to say a massive shout for Woolfie today. He was absolutely stunning today. He coped with the physical side of Stoke very well, but he must have had done coaching because I’ve never seen him header the ball as well as he did today. Keep it up Woolfie

[Shed on tour]

Super performance today. Although I’ve been critical of him in the past thought Woolfie was superb today. Thoroughly deserved 3 points and couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season.

[Bluemike]

If we'd lost it would have been heaving on here!

[hallamblue]

Match highlights from Sky. They couldn’t show anything from Stoke, because there was nothing to see from Stoke!


https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/s ... wn/1293881