Championship - Ipswich Town vs Rotherham United Preview & Matchday Thread

[Frosty]

Ipswich Town v Rotherham United



Tuesday 20th February 2023 – 19:45


Portman Road








Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike



A real gutsy performance at Swansea in difficult conditions saw Town claim their second win on the road in Four days to get themselves firmly back in the race for the Top Two Automatic promotion places. Stylish and dominant it certainly wasn't but it was a team effort filled with guts, guile, determination and a will to win when perhaps in days gone by we would not have held out when under such pressure in the final Third of the game. There is no doubt Swansea belied their lowly league position and on the day can probably feel a little bit aggrieved that they did not get something from the game although it has to be said Vaclav Hladky in the Town goal only had One real save to make despite the pressure and what a good save it was.

Town definitely had the better of the First half though and could and maybe should have had more to show for their efforts come half time. How pleasing is it to have Nathan Broadhead firing again and looking back to what we know he is capable of, his cool finish after good work by Omari Hutchinson was Broady at his best and he was never going to miss that, that was his Third goal in as many games and it could be pivotal having him back to his best for the tough run of games coming up.

That opening strike should have been the catalyst for Town to go on and put the game to bed but we just could not get that second goal and with Swansea having loads of possession and putting lots of balls into our box it wasn't a complete shock when they did get themselves an equaliser but what a scrappy goal it was and Massimo Luongo will know he should not have lost his man as the bang average Yates bundled the ball home from close range.

Thankfully Town did not have to wait too long to regain the lead courtesy of a lovely move down the Left, a super ball from Cam Burgess sent Leif Davis away and the full back did what he does so often by controlling the ball with a superb first touch before taking it on and crossing for the onrushing Conor Chaplin to fire home One of his trademark goals, it was a lovely move which deserved a goal.

Going in at half time you kind of knew Swansea would come at us after the break and boy did they, wave after wave of attacks saw them peppering our area and the oh so dependable Burgess and Luke Woolfenden were winning so many crucial headers in what by now were atrocious conditions, Kieran McKenna was quite right in his assessment of the game when he said the second balls were so well defended too with the likes of Morsy, Luongo, Harness and Burns all bringing the ball away at vital times to ease the pressure. Town did have moments themselves in the second half too, none more so than when Kieffer Moore smashed one off the bar after their keeper had got the slightest touch on it.

Thankfully we held on for what could prove to be a priceless victory and the celebrations at the end said it all really, The fans were soaked but delirious and the players could not conceal their joy at another fabulous win. For me Cameron Burgess was an absolute rock and without doubt the MOTM, he even had a big hand in the decisive Second goal too but it was his defensive prowess which won us the day, his CB partner Luke Woolfenden definitely had one of his better days too and it could not have come on a better day.

One thing I really loved yesterday was substitute and new fans favourite Ali Al-Hamadi geeing up the fans behind the goal with Ten minutes to go and he certainly got a positive response, I just love this guys enthusiasm not to mention his contributions on the pitch, a lot more to come for sure.

So that is now Two down and Seven to go in our "winnable" Nine game run, you can't get better than that but we need to keep it going and you don't have any better chance than Two Home games against teams who have struggled for most of the season, but first it is Tuesday night under the Portman Road lights against basement boys Rotherham FC, sounds easy doesn't it but they are such a horrible team to play against, ugly doesn't come close and the game will be a clash of completely different styles for sure, one thing we can almost guarantee is that Burgess and co will have a fair few balls to get their heads onto again.

As much as I accept no game is easy we really cannot contemplate not winning this one after getting the job done in the Two recent away games, that would be criminal in my opinion. I just think our quality on the ball and going forward will be too strong for a team destined for League One next season, if we start as we know we can at Portman Road and get an early goal I feel this could be a good night for us but if we get to the Thirty Minute mark or so with nothing to show for it then things could get very twitchy indeed.

I can see changes in the Town line up after such a tough game in strength sapping conditions and will be no surprise to me to see Travis, Burns and Harness possibly in from the start, even Al-Hamadi could come into the reckoning but whoever we go with it is a Town win for me and that would set us up nicely for Birmingham on Saturday. All we can do is keep on winning and see where it takes us, if we do that at least if it is to be the play off's we go into them in good form which is key, personally I am not even thinking of them right now, we still have every chance to defy the odds against the big spending Premier League squads who just can't shake us off. Town win. COYB'S.




The Opposition – Rotherham United - Honours




League



Football League Third Division / League One

Champions: 1950–51, 1980–81
2nd place promotion: 2000–01, 2019–20, 2021–22
Play-off winners: 2013–14, 2017–18

Football League Fourth Division / League Two
Champions : 1988–89
2nd place promotion: 1991–92, 1999–2000, 2012–13
3rd place promotion: 1974–75


Cup


Football League Cup
Runners-up: 1960–61

Football League Trophy
Winners: 1995–96, 2021–22

Football League Third Division North Cup
Winners 1945–46



The Manager – Leam Richardson







League Table as at 18.02.2023







Form Guide




Ipswich Town



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

17 Feb Swansea City 1 - 2 Ipswich Town





Rotherham United


20 Jan Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Rotherham

3 Feb Rotherham 0 - 2 Southampton

10 Feb Leeds Utd 3 - 0 Rotherham

13 Feb Rotherham 1 - 2 Hull City

17 Feb Rotherham 0 - 1 Watford




Head to Head






Match referee – Keith Stroud







IPSWICH TOWN 2 ROTHERHAM UNITED 0

[hallamblue]

Would be nice if we could emulate the Leeds and Saints results against The Millers. Get the first goal and we might (we need to batter them frankly), but we tend to struggle against 11 men behind the ball tactics.

Town win … I’m hoping for something like 4-0 please…

[Charnwood]

I’m sure Kieran McKenna knows exactly how important it is to win this game and will have prepared accordingly. With games coming quick and fast there will be little time for full training sessions and most of the prep will probably be done away from the grass.
I doubt there will be any wholesale changes from Saturday as what we have now is a squad of 16 or so players who would seem to be able to change places almost seamlessly.

Prediction Town 2-0 Rotherham.

Ps: 5-0 would be better to draw us level on GD with Southampton

[arana peligrosa]

Voted to draw because we sometimes or often struggle to win when facing these opponents. Not only that they're down there someplace fighting for their lives and on the brink of early relegation, they're not going to roll over for us or hand over any three points our way.

Don't know why we have problems with these, ideally we should be taking wins near each and every time but the real resurgence of the team has only really come to the fore in the last 18 months / 2 years.

Guessing somehow we'll start 4-2-3-1, can't imagine why got that idea but in any event the emphasis should be on attack and attempt to breach as often as possible over the course of game what should already be a weak or fragile defense. Suppose a draw comes to pass, it won't be no real surprise. (Hope to get victory obviously)

ITFC 1 Rotherham 1

[Frosty]

Always get nervous when we play these guys.

My former flatmate is a Rotherham supporter, and I have faced a bit of stick from him in recent times.

[Charnwood]

I’ll take a repeat of the most recent 4-1. The rest of those results were pre McKenna times when our football club was in a completely different era which is best put behind us. No surprise the two 0-2 home defeats were when Paul Lambert and Paul Cook was in charge, both were next to useless and no longer manage in the EFL. Lambert still only 54 has been unemployed since his sacking at Ipswich and Paul Cook has found his level in the National League back at Chesterfield.

[Dazzz67]

Good write up Mike.

Like some of you on here, Rotherham can be a real tricky, physical team to play against. I feel following our performance on Saturday, which ended a two away game, short breaked stint we proved ourselves to get stuck in and grind out two excellent results, the lads must of been a bit knackered the effort that went in.

Pretty confident we can produce the goods on Tuesday night, lets get that goal difference down a bit and we will be looking good.

3 - 0 to Town.

[hallamblue]

Dave, I can honestly say I've never seen us beat this lot ...

[Charnwood]

Dave, I can honestly say I've never seen us beat this lot ...

We’ve won two of our last four home games against them, I always thought you went to most if not all of them Liz ?

[hallamblue]

Thinking back Andy I can now recall the 4-1 win at PR. I may well have missed the other one though due to numerous operations which meant I couldn't go to PR. I've certainly never seen us win at their place, and I've been there about 3 times.......you'd think I'd learn wouldn't you lol

[mendipblue]

Oh no referee Kieth Stroud . He is f**king useless 🫣

[AzzurroMark]

Oh no referee Kieth Stroud . He is f**king useless 🫣

Thanks Mendip, I'd missed that! I'm going to this game and now that name has left a black cloud over my head!

[marko69]

Nice preview, and this…….

As much as I accept no game is easy we really cannot contemplate not winning this one after getting the job done in the Two recent away games, that would be criminal

….. is spot on, and why I have faith ITFC will pump them. Going for a 3 or 4 nil performance. Predicted 10 points from 12 in those 4 games……. 6 impressively bagged so far and just MUST be 6 more for the 12/12.


Caption

Leam: (picture)
Ref: LEAM! NO! Too many Netflix WW2 documentaries. Stop it.

[number 9]

Southampton drew 1-1 with Rotherham at St Mary's in Oct. Leeds beat Rotherham 3-0 and Leicester won 3-0. Southampton are a lot better now than they were in Oct. We can't afford a draw, obviously. I'll feel much more confident about the rest of the season if we dominate this match and win comfortably, hopefully keeping a clean sheet as GD is very important from now on.

In a sense, I believe this match is pivotal as far as indicating our chances of automatic promotion. For that matter, I think as minimum we really need to win all of our home games until the end of the season.

[Charnwood]

Thinking back Andy I can now recall the 4-1 win at PR. I may well have missed the other one though due to numerous operations which meant I couldn't go to PR. I've certainly never seen us win at their place, and I've been there about 3 times.......you'd think I'd learn wouldn't you lol

I think I met up with you and Mike at one of the Rotherham games, in fact the only time I’ve ever been to their place.

[Charnwood]

Southampton drew 1-1 with Rotherham at St Mary's in Oct. Leeds beat Rotherham 3-0 and Leicester won 3-0. Southampton are a lot better now than they were in Oct. We can't afford a draw, obviously. I'll feel much more confident about the rest of the season if we dominate this match and win comfortably, hopefully keeping a clean sheet as GD is very important from now on.

In a sense, I believe this match is pivotal as far as indicating our chances of automatic promotion. For that matter, I think as minimum we really need to win all of our home games until the end of the season.

The problem is 9 every game is pivotal whilst Leeds and Southampton keep winning. We simply can’t rely on making up lost ground especially against Leeds who have run in games equally as soft as ours apart from this coming Friday night when they meet Leicester City.

[marko69]

Thinking back Andy I can now recall the 4-1 win at PR. I may well have missed the other one though due to numerous operations which meant I couldn't go to PR. I've certainly never seen us win at their place, and I've been there about 3 times.......you'd think I'd learn wouldn't you lol

I think I met up with you and Mike at one of the Rotherham games, in fact the only time I’ve ever been to their place.

I can see maybe why Hallam forgot. Rotherham is nearly as memorable as Dundee…….. Other than remembering how much of a shithole it is.

[Bluemike]

Ahhhh the infamous Rotherham away day, leaving the stadium after another shitfest performance and result the four of us are walking down the hill from the stadium with HallamBlue slightly behind the rest of us, suddenly and out of nowhere she comes literally flying through the air right through us, feet off the ground and moving at pace having tripped on one of those metal cats eye things sticking up from the tarmac.

What followed wasn't great as she crashed down face and chest first into the solid pathway, hitting it with some force, wind knocked out of her sails and other painful bangs to limbs and torso as she lay motionless on the floor.

Needless to say it was worrying to say the least, crowds walking past and around us as we attended the wounded soldier. A call for assistance by the medics followed and we waited for what seemed like an eternity.

It was a cold day and laying on the floor wasn't pleasant I had little option but to use my coat as a pillow for my fellow Tractor Girl, selfish sod but I guess she needed it.

The funny part was a few of the players appeared and pretty much literally stepped over Hallam as they glanced down at the crumpled heap. Anyhow after god knows how long she had been checked over and while clearly struggling was able to get to her feet.

"Take it easy and get her home" was the message, yep great advice except for one thing, she was the f**king driver !!!! We made it back some time long into the night and Hallam lived to tell the tale.

Yep, I hate f**king Rotherham!!!!!

[Shed on tour]

Gone for a Town win. If we don’t get an early goal hopefully the crowd will show some patience and not start to get on the players backs.
2-0 to Town although we may have to wait until the 2nd half for the goals.

[Dazzz67]

Mike, you should seriously consider changing careers and become a writer, I loved that read even though poor Liz suffered an awful accident you did put a smile on my old and saggy face lol, sorry Liz.

[shabba]

I suspect there will be some rotation tomorrow. I’d be very surprised if Masimo starts, Clarke might dip out too.

[Bluemike]

After recent displays I'd be surprised and somewhat disappointed if Clarke wasn't in.

[hallamblue]

lol, yip that’s pretty much how it happened at Rotherham that day. Never felt so much pain and definitely couldn’t breathe, for what felt like an eternity. The mist nibble foot work all night by the Town players, was them stepping over me as I fought for breath - the arse holes!

I went into work Monday morning feeling like I’d been run over by a steam roller…. At 9.30 am my mobile phone rings and it’s a member of staff at Rotherham FC checking to see how I was, and did I want file a complaint. I didn’t but I did say please fix the raised caps ( the ones they put over the holes left by the removable poles) ….

What Mike didn’t say was when the medic came down the hill to where I was laying, he tripped over the same blooming cover I’d tripped over!!


… I hate Rotherham too! lol

[number 9]

Were they serving wine at halftime?

[shabba]

After recent displays I'd be surprised and somewhat disappointed if Clarke wasn't in.

Yes he has been great but he is managing that Achilles injury.

[Charnwood]

lol, yip that’s pretty much how it happened at Rotherham that day. Never felt so much pain and definitely couldn’t breathe, for what felt like an eternity. The mist nibble foot work all night by the Town players, was them stepping over me as I fought for breath - the arse holes!

I went into work Monday morning feeling like I’d been run over by a steam roller…. At 9.30 am my mobile phone rings and it’s a member of staff at Rotherham FC checking to see how I was, and did I want file a complaint. I didn’t but I did say please fix the raised caps ( the ones they put over the holes left by the removable poles) ….

What Mike didn’t say was when the medic came down the hill to where I was laying, he tripped over the same blooming cover I’d tripped over!!


… I hate Rotherham too! lol

I spent a few years as a Regional Director based in Leeds responsible for branches from the Scottish Border to South Yorkshire and one of the places I least liked to visit was definitely Rotherham. It really was/is a dump albeit with some nice if people if you can find them. One of my very good mates spent more than four seasons playing in goal for them and still visits the ground regularly but he never actually lived there which tells me a lot.

[Mach_Polish_Blue]

Travelling down from North West to see and 1-0 will do for me.

Rotherham may put 10 men behind the ball but it would be a bit pointless in their very critical state. A draw wouldn't do them any favours.

Ideally a comfortable win and plenty of changes throughout the game to keep the team fit.

[hallamblue]

lol, yip that’s pretty much how it happened at Rotherham that day. Never felt so much pain and definitely couldn’t breathe, for what felt like an eternity. The mist nibble foot work all night by the Town players, was them stepping over me as I fought for breath - the arse holes!

I went into work Monday morning feeling like I’d been run over by a steam roller…. At 9.30 am my mobile phone rings and it’s a member of staff at Rotherham FC checking to see how I was, and did I want file a complaint. I didn’t but I did say please fix the raised caps ( the ones they put over the holes left by the removable poles) ….

What Mike didn’t say was when the medic came down the hill to where I was laying, he tripped over the same blooming cover I’d tripped over!!


… I hate Rotherham too! lol

I spent a few years as a Regional Director based in Leeds responsible for branches from the Scottish Border to South Yorkshire and one of the places I least liked to visit was definitely Rotherham. It really was/is a dump albeit with some nice if people if you can find them. One of my very good mates spent more than four seasons playing in goal for them and still visits the ground regularly but he never actually lived there which tells me a lot.

It reassembles Beirut on speed, Andy

[hallamblue]

Travelling down from North West to see and 1-0 will do for me.

Rotherham may put 10 men behind the ball but it would be a bit pointless in their very critical state. A draw wouldn't do them any favours.

Ideally a comfortable win and plenty of changes throughout the game to keep the team fit.

I fear that's exactly what they'll do Mach, and aim to hit us on the break in the first half, then second half bombard our box with high balls ...neither approach do we deal with particularly well. So this is not going to be an attractive, easy game I fear. ...UNLESS we can get that early goal. Then its open warfare lol !

[ashfordblue]

I Have a feeling Rotherham will have a 4-5-1 defensive lineup, so we might need two wingers Burns and Sarmiento to keep the play wide with Moore, Broadhead or Chaplin through the middle. play 4-1-2-3 with Travis protecting just in front of the back 4, but we do need to come out of the blocks like against Swansea and get an early goal, so I'm going for another 4-0 win more goals the better and let's see Williams and Axel on the bench