Championship - Swansea City vs Ipswich Town Preview & Matchday Thread

[Frosty]

Swansea City v Ipswich Town



Saturday 17th February 2024 – 15:00


Swansea.com Stadium








Pre Match Thoughts - Mike



What a difference not conceding first or early makes ! Town's trip to Millwall saw us return to winning ways with a confidence boosting drubbing of our hosts, getting back among the goals was also very pleasing and to go in at the interval Three goals to the good had us all relaxed for a change as the game as a contest was over at that very early stage.

I must admit after the opening Quarter of an Hour I was saying to myself here we go again, we looked second best, slow to press, no passes and generally poor, we had Hladky to thank as he had to produce Three saves to keep the scoreline level, not worldies but saves none the less. thankfully that was as good as it got for Millwall as Town suddenly took control and began to look a different proposition altogether. the combination of Hutchinson, Burns & Clarke was causing them all manner of problems and it was from a Hutchinson cross that a much improved Nathan Broadhead cleverly directed his backward flicked header into the net to gives us the lead.

More good work from Broadhead saw them concede an own goal from his cross to double our lead and by the time kieffer Moore headed us further ahead just before half time the game was done and the points in the bag. The cross for Moore's goal was courtesy of some great work by Harry Clarke who dinked his way into the box, evading tackles as he got to the byline before whipping a lovely ball across for Moore to head down into the turf and over the keeper, I thought Clarke had a fab first at both ends of the pitch and the speed and determination he showed in getting back to make the tackle when they were in a one on one situation epitomised everything about Clarke's love of playing for Ipswich Town, that's what you wouldn't get from Williams.

The second half was always going to be a stroll and so it proved with kieran McKenna clearly instructing the players to manage the game sensibly and without risk and hopefully pick them off if the opportunity arose and this we did with some aplomb, we were literally never troubled but nor did we go for the jugular, yes a goal or two more would have been nice but I think protect what we had was the sensible option.

There was still time right at the death for the referee to award us a penalty after some good work by Substitute Al-Hamadi who was fouled right on the edge of the box, Town probably fortunate to get the decision of a penalty, it was the Iraqi striker who dusted himself to fire the spot kick home and with it his first goal in a Town shirt right in front of the jubilant town fans who had been absolutely fantastic all night long, the delight on Al-Hamadi's face and those of his colleagues was great to see and showed just what a fab team spirit we still have within the squad.

So the aforementioned winnable run of Nine games is up and running with this emphatic win, one down, Eight to go and why shouldn't win most of them ? Based on last night we are capable although it has to be said Millwall looked woeful and dead in the water in truth, I feel they are going down based on the poor effort. But the sensible approach as always is to take One game at a time and not look into the future or get too far ahead of ourselves, it has served us well in the past.

Next up and game number Two in this run is another away day, this time the long haul to Wales and a match up with Swansea who like Millwall are finding things tougher than was expected although they are clearly not in such a dire situation as the Lions, that said the Swans will still be wanting to get some more points on the board and quickly. they are currently in Seventeenth place with a Seven point cushion from the drop zone so while not critical it is still very much too close for comfort and that sort of lead can be eroded away very quickly.

They are clearly lacking in confidence right now and have only won One game under Luke Williams, and with only one win in the last Six League outings this is clearly looking like more than just a blip. With Swansea nursing a fair few injuries, particularly in defence this could be a good time to take them on and you have to feel with our fire power we could well take advantage of their misfortune. Town seem to be clear of too many injury problems and I think we can get another win on the road. providing of course we keep a clean sheet in the opening Fifteen minutes and not find ourselves chasing the game, I don't think we will find the stadium too hostile and again that will suit us with our large and very vocal support in attendance.

So it's another Town win for me, albeit not quite such a stroll as Wednesday turned out to be but well within our capabilities for sure. With Southampton playing away at West Brom on Friday night and Plymouth hosting Leeds at lunch time on Saturday we could conceivably find ourselves level on points with Leeds Utd and a game in hand come 5pm Saturday evening, how good would that be, we haven't been cut adrift just yet. Town win. COYB'S.


The Opposition – Swansea City - Honours



League


Second Division / Championship
Promoted: 1980–81
Play-off winners: 2011

Third Division South / Third Division / League One
Champions: 1924–25, 1948–49, 2007–08
Promoted: 1978–79

Fourth Division / Third Division / League Two
Champions: 1999–2000
Promoted: 1969–70, 1977–78, 2004–05
Play-off winners: 1988


Cup


Football League Cup
Winners: 2012–13

Football League Trophy
Winners: 1993–94, 2005–06

Welsh Cup
Winners (10): 1912–13, 1931–32, 1949–50, 1960–61, 1965–66, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1988–89, 1990–91

FAW Premier Cup
Winners: 2004–05, 2005–06


The Manager– Luke Williams







League Table as at 15.02.2024






Form Guide





Swansea City


20 Jan Swansea City 1 - 3 Southampton

30 Jan Leicester City 3 - 1 Swansea City

3 Feb Swansea City 0 - 1 Plymouth

10 Feb Hull City 0 - 1 Swansea City

13 Feb Swansea City 0 - 4 Leeds Utd



Ipswich Town


13 Jan Ipswich Town 2 - 1 Sunderland

22 Jan Leicester City 1 - 1 Ipswich Town

3 Feb Preston 3 - 2 Ipswich Town

10 Feb Ipswich Town 2 - 2 West Brom

14 Feb Millwall 0 - 4 Ipswich Town



Head to Head







Match Referee – John Busby







SWANSEA CITY 1 IPSWICH TOWN 2

[arana peligrosa]

Voted to win although the Millwall performance and score made it so. Without that, had another poor result arose, may just as well voted different but you got to keep faith in things. The opposition don't seem up to much. Appear too easily beaten and concede goals regular. With the attacking options we possess they can be got at and ideally, we can take something from it.

Visited Swansea 2, 3 times, been all over the city and far and wide and never saw the stadium. Either it's invisible or hiding in plain sight but for all the venturing about it's a fine city and worth making the trip. Everything there, and I mean everything, is written in both Welsh and English. In any event hope to get victory from it and wish nearest challengers slip up and drop points with it.

[rossi]

I had predicted a loss against Millwall - and although our performance was much better than I had been expecting (especially defence) I hadn't bargained on Millwall being so woeful, in fact they were the poorest Chapionship side I have seen in a while.

So I'm expecting Swansea to be similar and can't see beyond a comfortable win for us - 3 or 4 nil I think.

Incidentally, I agree with Mike that it was great to see the reaction to Al-Hamedi's goal, both from himself and his team-mates - well, most of his team-mates, anyway, it was not lost on me that the reaction from Mr Chaplin was distinctly lukewarm, maybe he wanted to take it.

[Charnwood]

I predicted we’d score 3 and win at Millwall and I’m expecting a similar result on Saturday at Swansea. Whilst I didn’t expect the clean sheet on Wednesday night I see no reason why we can’t have two on the bounce especially if we can shut up shop for the first 20 minutes like we did at Tgd New Den. We certainly need to start piling the goals in as I think goal difference between us and Leeds could well come into play at the end of the season.

I loved the Al-Hamadi goal celebration too and trust this will be his trademark, hopefully we’ll see it many more times between now and May.

Prediction; Swansea City 0-3 Ipswich Town

[shabba]

Shame about the Saints result last night, and Leeds probably win in the early kick off today.

Lineup?

You'd have to imagine Omari HAS to start again? Does Chaplin stay out? Will they keep the same XI mostly but rotate tuesday? Its not common for Clarke, Masimo and Broadhead to play every game when there is midweek games, they all have injury question marks so the club has done well managing that.

Suspect we might see 1-2 changes at most.

[hallamblue]

Gotta feeling it’ll be a draw today. Would love a win naturally … we’ll see

[Charnwood]

Gotta feeling it’ll be a draw today. Would love a win naturally … we’ll see

Just love your confidence in our team Liz

[hallamblue]

It's more a reflection of my complete lack of confidence in our defence unfortunately. the rest of our team is very good...

[Bluemike]

Chaplin in for Burns, rest unchanged

[hallamblue]

COYBssssss

[shabba]

Chaplin in for Burns, rest unchanged

Happy enough. Chaplin needs to play well or will again find himself dropped, he seems to have struggled a bit of late but I guess the whole team has.

[osborne77]

Would love to see Al Hamadi get a longer spell today. Leeds have won now and Southampton responded very well to their first loss in months, so almost certain that it's play-offs for us. Consequently, we have a bit of cushion to try a few variations and I feel we need to be a bit more adaptable now the opposition clearly know how we're going to set up and play every game.

Town win again. Three for us and another clean sheet would be great but unlikely.

[Charnwood]

Much better opening 10 minutes than we had at Millwall on Wednesday night. It looks like we’re already in our stride.

A shame Burgess didn’t do better with that free header.

[Charnwood]

Well done it’s Nathan Broadhead again

[Bluemike]

Get in !!!!! BROADHEAD

[hallamblue]

Wooooooaaah 0-1 Broady again

[Andym]

Much better opening 10 minutes than we had at Millwall on Wednesday night. It looks like we’re already in our stride.

A shame Burgess didn’t do better with that free header.

Indeed, a much better start. Didn’t take long to get on top. Lovely goal too

[Charnwood]

Another game we don’t have to chase. So much better and makes it significantly easier on ourselves.

[Steve]

What a difference when coming out of the blocks almost straight from the kick off

Just got to keep it up. Too early to think to much on the goal difference but great start

[TODD66]

Just checked and we are winning!!

Get in!!

[Charnwood]

Leicester losing 0-1 at home to Middlesbrough

[Ohiotractorboy]

First game in the last 11 that town aren’t on ESPN over here, having to follow it on fotmob ticker

[Andym]

Town TV frozen. Missed the equaliser. Is it just me?

[Blue Wilf]

No mine frozen too

[hallamblue]

Yer I missed it too, but undoubtedly a c*ck up in defence as we were making several errors in the minutes b4….

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLL CHAPPERS WOOOOAAAAH

Swansea commentators think several players in centre of park were offside when the ball put fwd

[Andym]

2-1 up. Missed the last 2 goals.

[Charnwood]

Missed the equaliser but not our second.

[Ohiotractorboy]

Conor Chaplin baby. Conor Chaplin oooohh!

[Bluemike]

The video with subtitles is working fine, great goal from Chaplin

[patthegimp]

I keep losing audio coverage - about 5 times now. Very aggravating