Championship - Ipswich Town vs Birmingham City Preview & Matchday Thread

[Frosty]

Ipswich Town v Birmingham City FC



Saturday 24th February 2024 – 15:00


Portman Road










Pre Match Thoughts - Mike



Just what the hell did I watch Tuesday evening ? that was the most bizarre Two hours of Football I can remember for many a long day, enjoyable it most certainly wasn't and I think I experienced just about every emotion possible with things ebbing and flowing from poor to decent to iffy to disastrous to absolute elation, I think it is fair to say the game had it all, usually a win in a Seven goal thriller would send you home glowing, I did not feel that at all, I felt bemused, confused, frustrated but most of all relieved at what unfolded at Portman Road.

The defending for the Rotherham goal inside two minutes was schoolboy at best, in real time I felt it was a monumental error from the struggling Luke Woolfenden and while he did not cover himself in glory it has to be said that most of the blame for that one has to fall at Harry Clarke's door. So once again we start a game poorly and gift the opposition the softest of goals, we just cannot seem to eradicate this from our game and boy does it make hard work of things as Rotherham were always going to be a stubborn obstacle in any case but to give them something to defend so early really did appear to make our task that much harder.

Thankfully on this occasion we responded swiftly and in some style as we had what was to prove to be our best, in fact only decent spell of the game as we plundered Three goals before the break which you would think would be job done. I thought Wes Burns was superb for Thirty Minutes as he tore into the Rotherham defence. His first goal coming via his header after a lovely cross from the skipper Sam Morsy had eluded the defensive line, next Burns became provider as he collected an exquisite pass from Harry Clarke before delivering a pinpoint cross to the unmarked Kieffer Moore who was never going to miss that chance.

Burns continued to terrorise the Rotherham defence and had already seen another effort graze the post before he got his Second and Town's Third, the welshman's original shot was saved but somehow it found it's way back to him and with the goal at his mercy he toe poked it home, game over, or so 99% of us thought. We did manage to get to the interval with the Two goal cushion and most of the talk was how many we could get to help the goal difference.

What was to follow was most definitely not in the script and was a bit of a shock to all in attendance. I think it is fair to say that for the entirety of the Second half we were Second best in every department, our play was so disjointed, we looked all over the place, we failed to retain any sort of possession, we misplaced dozens of passes, lost virtually every Fifty Fifty ball and were pinned back in our own half and box by the mighty Barcelona, err sorry bottom of the table Rotherham.

The Millers Second goal came after Harry Clarke again failed to clear when easier to do so leaving their player with a free shot which finds the net, momentum was definitely not with us as our poor play continued all over the pitch. You could sense an equaliser was coming and when they smacked one off the post you would have thought it was a wake up call but still we failed to play any football. We did get One real chance to put the game to bed when MOTM Wes Burns was played through and from the tightest of angles and under pressure his shot was blocked by the keeper, it has to be said had he gone down under the pressure he may well have got a penalty, alas we will never know.

With time ticking down hope was there that we may just see it out but this is Town and in injury time they get a penalty themselves, quite WTF Keith Stroud was thinking I have no idea but having seen it replayed I am convinced it was never a spot kick, however it was given and the Ninety Three year old Cafu made no mistake. Deflated and angry doesn't come close, we had thrown away Two crucial points and news was filtering in that Southampton had lost so the pain felt even worse.

The agony didn't last long, soon it was to turn to sheer joy, somehow and out of nowhere we create One final chance, that man Ali al-Hamadi provides some great work down the right to pick out kayden Jackson who must have been beside himself at having the spot kick awarded against him, Jackson plays a delightful ball to the supporting Omari Hutchinson just inside the box and the super sub drills home a cracker to send Portman Road into absolute meltdown, we just went crazy behind the goal as the whole place erupted, how the hell had we found it in ourselves to dig a win out of that shower of sh*te I will never know, my heart rate was really bad but i kind of didn't care, it felt so good.

Once the dust had settled you came back to wondering just how the hell we could make them look so good, expectancy ? Maybe, fatigue after a busy week and heavy pitch at Swansea ? Almost certainly but we looked a shadow of ourselves in that second half and I don't buy that it was Rotherham being good, I think they are so so poor and yet they ran us ragged. as I have said several times, we just never know when we are beaten and that character has to be applauded but man our defence needs to tighten up as they were all very poor on the night, maybe with the exception of Burgess again, the upshot of it all is that we are still right in the hunt for automatic promotion while Southampton start to feel the heat.

So that is Three wins on the bounce and the First Three of our Nine game winnable run have been ticked off, next up it is Birmingham City that come to Portman Road and will will One Hundred percent need to be better than we were on Tuesday. Tony Mowbray has definitely improved them and we wish him well, from a football point of view it could be a good thing he will not be in attendance this weekend. With a massive game Friday evening between Leeds & Leicester it could just be that a Town win will see us back in the Top Two should Leeds fail to win, or alternatively we could be as little as Six points behind Leicester should Leeds take the honours, either way all we have to do is our bit and not worry about anyone else.

It is a Town win for me but please please please no more scares like what we witnessed Tuesday, I don't think my heart will take it, I just hope the likes of Kieffer Moore and Harry Clarke's knocks are not too serious, losing Moore for any length of time could be disastrous although we do have super Ali waiting in the wings. Four on the bounce please Town. COYB'S



The Opposition – Birmingham City - Honours



League


Second Division / First Division / The Championship
Champions: 1892–93, 1920–21, 1947–48, 1954–55
Runners-up: 1893–94, 1900–01, 1902–03, 1971–72, 1984–85, 2006–07, 2008–09
Play-off winners: 2001–02

Third Division / Second Division
Champions: 1994–95
Runners-up: 1991–92


Cups


FA Cup
Runners-up: 1930–31, 1955–56

Football League Cup
Winners: 1962–63, 2010–11
Runners-up: 2000–01

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
Runners-up: 1958–60, 1960–61

Associate Members' Cup / Football League Trophy
Winners: 1990–91, 1994–95

Birmingham Senior Cup
Winners: 1905

Football League South (wartime)
Champions: 1945–46




The Manager – Tony Mowbray








League Table as at 21.02.2024






Form Guide




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

20 Feb Ipswich Town 4 - 3 Rotherham




Birmingham City




20 Jan Stoke City 1 - 2 Birmingham City

3 Feb West Brom 1 - 0 Birmingham City

9 Feb Sheffield Wed 2 - 0 Birmingham City

13 Feb Birmingham City 1 - 0 Blackburn

17 Feb Birmingham City 2 - 1 Sunderland





Head to Head









Match Referee – Gavin Ward







IPSWICH TOWN 2 BIRMINGHAM CITY 1

[shabba]

I’m worried about this result, it’s brilliant we got the 9 points recently but the performances haven’t been great and this will be a tougher test I think.

Last night was not exactly confidence inspiring!

Omari will likely start but you can’t drop Burns after Tuesday surely? I suspect Chaplin might move to the bench.

Masimo will come back in. Broadhead back in.

I’ll be there, my dad kindly got me Hall of Fame tickets for Xmas - we had to rebook from the Rotherham game that got replaced by Maidstone in the cup.

[marko69]

What an excellent preview. That was entertaining. Sorry Mike....., you describe your emotions beautifully, but I find those types of see-saw emotions funny in football. And the "bounce" description......, was like I was there! Also didn't realise Cafu was 93 Superb.

Really am hoping for a convincing win at Portman Road on Saturday. The "playing crap, but winning" reports are starting to get a bit tedious. Its about time the team, (Not Kieron), THE TEAM, get out there, get switched on from the OFF, and do a job on the opposition. Going for a 3-0 Ipswich win in this one. Maybe another "weathering the storm" type game with BRUM out to do a job for Mogga......., but Ipswich turn the screw second half. Come on, You Ipswich Blues......., show some real intent.

Caption:
HEADLINE:

"DYSLEXIC MR SPOCK ACTOR TURNED PRO REF, WARD STOPS MOGGA JOGGA AND CALLS AMBULANCE"

[number 9]

I can only imagine what it must have been like in the stands. One minute you’re rejoicing like you’ve witnessed the second coming, the next minute you’re thrown to the doldrums of demise. You probably didn’t realize, but you all experienced an AA meeting with your heads held high until something triggered your regression. From many thousands of miles away I also experienced the ups and downs of that match, but I still say we showed resilience to get the win. Birmingham are another monster to slay, but if we show incompetence in defence once again our quest for automatic promotion will be critically wounded. Our knights in blue armor have much to overcome, but I believe the sharpened swords of success will slaughter those other blues.

Ipswich 2 Birmingham 1

[marko69]

You been watching Jason & The Argonauts or something, 9?

[number 9]

You been watching Jason & The Argonauts or something, 9?

Working on a film script where Ipswich Town footballers save the planet…bare with me.

[marko69]

You been watching Jason & The Argonauts or something, 9?

Working on a film script where Ipswich Town footballers save the planet…bare with me.

[Charnwood]

I’m sure we won’t make it easy on ourselves but I really don’t care how we do it as long as we win and bag 3 more valuable points to make it 13/18 points during February and more importantly 12/12 in our last four games.

Just think if we can maintain our 2 points per game average we’d finish the season with 95 points. How incredible would that be especially for a newly promoted team.

I can’t believe when Fulham and Bournemouth took the two Championship automatic places in 2022/23 they did so with 90 and 88 points respectively which this season at the current rate would get you 3rd and 4th at best.

My prediction Town 2-1 Birmingham City.

[QldBlue]

"DYSLEXIC MR SPOCK ACTOR TURNED PRO REF"

There are a lot of funny comments on this forum, that’s one of my favorites!

Great preview Mike as always.

[Charnwood]

I’m travelling to a golf match this morning with a Birmingham nut case who travels back to the UK to watch them. It will be interesting to chat about the game and listen to what he’s expecting. We have a Bristol City fan in the car too, that’s another tricky fixture coming up fast, but all we’ll hear from him is how they hammered Southampton. Just hope and pray they don’t do the same to us. I feel two 10€ bets coming up but can’t say I’m overly confident with either if I’m honest but I’ll definitely be keeping faith in our boys. Pride wouldn’t allow me to do anything else.

[Charnwood]

An interesting Stat I’ve just read this morning,

Ipswich Town are the only team in the Championship that have dropped zero points after the 75th minute of any game but have won 13 points during this period.

This tells us a lot about the effectiveness of Kieran McKennas substitutions many of which are driven purely by in game match data analysis.

[marko69]

I’m travelling to a golf match this morning with a Birmingham nut case who travels back to the UK to watch them. It will be interesting to chat about the game and listen to what he’s expecting. We have a Bristol City fan in the car too, that’s another tricky fixture coming up fast, but all we’ll hear from him is how they hammered Southampton. Just hope and pray they don’t do the same to us. I feel two 10€ bets coming up but can’t say I’m overly confident with either if I’m honest but I’ll definitely be keeping faith in our boys. Pride wouldn’t allow me to do anything else.

Stick to the 10euro bet for the Bristol City guy, but make that brum bet more interesting. 100 bucks. Confident!! Just tell the Mrs its McDonalds for dinner if the unthinkable and Kieron the FK OUT happens!

[Dubai Blue]

An interesting Stat I’ve just read this morning,

Ipswich Town are the only team in the Championship that have dropped zero points after the 75th minute of any game but have won 13 points during this period.

This tells us a lot about the effectiveness of Kieran McKennas substitutions many of which are driven purely by in game match data analysis.

That's interesting. Also might indicate our high levels of fitness that Burns alluded to in his interview earlier in the week. Memories of seeing the WBA players flaked out after our recent game with them also. Certainly we seem to always have a high energy level late in the game.

[hallamblue]

I thin that's largely down to the 4 or 5 subs ( mostly all forwards), that McKenna brings on at 70 mins. It seems to work everything. But the squad does have a huge level of fitness it's true. Opposition can usually only manage a 20/ 25 min press in first half, then tail off and we get more space. If the opposition are quick , and we're attacking, that's when we tend to concede, as they hit us on the break.

That's my obs anyway!

Edit. Blooming predicted text !!! Lol

[marko69]

The fitness is SO good, the club need to offer Hugh Kevel a new contract.

[valleyroad]

Got to expect Ipswich win is this match, especially if they tighten up in defence. Birmingham better than their league position but at PR and really a must win if serious top 2 contenders

[number 9]

Every game is must win now, cuz Leeds aren’t gonna slip up. I even think they’ll beat Leicester. Have to say I know Leeds have a massive budget, but Farke is a very good manager.

[valleyroad]

Every game is must win now, cuz Leeds aren’t gonna slip up. I even think they’ll beat Leicester. Have to say I know Leeds have a massive budget, but Farke is a very good manager.

I agree on all of that, even think that Leeds may end up winning the league. Time will tell.
Leeds have a good one in Farke and should hold their own much better in Premiership next season under him rather than a joker like Marsch

[Dubai Blue]

If Leicester lose to Leeds then that will be 2 on the trot won't it. Any chance they could implode?

[Bluemike]

Leicester have tough fixtures, should they lose and we win the gap is a mere six points, not insurmountable by any means.

[Charnwood]

Whereas I posted elsewhere about Town being the only team in the Championship not to drop any points after the 75th minute in any game this season, Leicester City have dropped 10 including 4 against us.

[hallamblue]

If Leicester lose to Leeds then that will be 2 on the trot won't it. Any chance they could implode?

Every team has a dodgy period in the season. Maybe Leicester are just about to get theirs. Leeds run in is mostly against bottom Lahr teams, so I can see them continuing their run, like we did last season. Saints I’m not really impressed with and never have been .if we beat them at PR, I think that’s them out of the picture. But it’s currently a 4 horse race for this top two slots isn’t it.

[Charnwood]

Leicester have had a few dodgy spells when they’ve not played well but somehow that seem mostly to get away with it.
There’s no doubt about it that a Leicester win would suit us better than a Leeds win as we would then be in complete control of our destiny. Even a draw wouldn’t be too bad as it would give us a chance to claw back two points on both team with a win on Saturday v Brum.
What we definitely don’t want is got Leeds to win as zi dong see many more games where they’re realistically likely to drop points.

[marko69]

MASSIVE game tonight in the Championship. I mean does it get any bigger than Partick v Dunfermline? Im thinking not.

Ash?

[arana peligrosa]

We're back on track after some lousy scores up until recent and will doubtless start as favorites to collect another three points against this opposition. Still a long way to go in the season but the second city team don't seem to have much to play for other than finish as high as they might be able. No real chance of promotion, no real threat of a relegation. It's not like they're gonna hand us three points for their trip here though. If or when we win, we ought to have earned the right to it.

Guess we hope LCFC takes a victory at Elland Road later today, not sure we'll catch or overtake them and depends how much any fan here really wants to finish first place and be champs. Second position will see us up and Leeds are the direct obstacle in the way of it. Guess a draw wouldn't be so bad, both teams drop two points that way but we'll just let it play out.

[valleyroad]

We're back on track after some lousy scores up until recent and will doubtless start as favorites to collect another three points against this opposition. Still a long way to go in the season but the second city team don't seem to have much to play for other than finish as high as they might be able. No real chance of promotion, no real threat of a relegation. It's not like they're gonna hand us three points for their trip here though. If or when we win, we ought to have earned the right to it.

Guess we hope LCFC takes a victory at Elland Road later today, not sure we'll catch or overtake them and depends how much any fan here really wants to finish first place and be champs. Second position will see us up and Leeds are the direct obstacle in the way of it. Guess a draw wouldn't be so bad, both teams drop two points that way but we'll just let it play out.

Would it not be better to have a picture of the Ipswich Town squad rather than Celtic ? Not quite getting that ?

[marko69]

He's an Argentinian Toffee flavoured Tim from Madrid, via 'Murica.

[shabba]

I’m travelling to a golf match this morning with a Birmingham nut case who travels back to the UK to watch them. It will be interesting to chat about the game and listen to what he’s expecting. We have a Bristol City fan in the car too, that’s another tricky fixture coming up fast, but all we’ll hear from him is how they hammered Southampton. Just hope and pray they don’t do the same to us. I feel two 10€ bets coming up but can’t say I’m overly confident with either if I’m honest but I’ll definitely be keeping faith in our boys. Pride wouldn’t allow me to do anything else.

What was the lowdown from this?

[hallamblue]

Clarke likely to be out I see. He's got a dead leg jnjury.

My shout for replacement would be Axel. He's right footed, can tackle, bring the ball forward and can header.

Any other suggestions guys/ gels?

[Bluemike]

The only other one who's played there this season and available is Jackson so yes if Clarke doesn't make it then it has to be Axel, unless of course Brandon Williams can be peeled off the ceiling overnight.