Ipswich Town v Leicester City 
Tuesday 26th December 2023 – 19:45
Portman Road
Pre Match Thoughts - Mike
The much anticipated return fixture with Leeds Utd turned into a bit of a nightmare as we were comprehensively beaten by a far superior team on the day, I think it was pretty much the first time in Kieran McKenna's time at the club that we genuinely looked lost for ideas in how to combat them and by the close of play I for One was happy that it was only Four, they crashed the ball off the Crossbar twice and missed other opportunities too so as disappointing as it was it could so easily have been much worse.
While defeat was deserved it was somewhat galling in how they took the lead as there was clearly a foul in the build up on Connor Chaplin which was waived on and boy were we to pay for that decision, the subsequent corner wasn't defended at all well and despite Hladky pulling off a good save to keep out Piroe's header Tuanzebe was caught napping at the back post as Struijk ghosted past him to head home. It really went from bad to worse after that as a cross from the left wasn't cut out by Burgess which resulted in Leif Davis firing into his own net, it was very poor defending all round with Clarke beaten by Summerville who got in the cross before the aforementioned c*ck up pretty much sealed our fate.
The Third came just before the break with Davis again very much involved as he gave away a penalty having been put under pressure by Summerville. It was probably the worst half of Football from Town for many a long day and to be honest it looked very much like it was Men against Boys for much of the half. Not long into the second half more poor defending by Clarke & Tuanzebe saw the home side go Four up, both Town players had chances to clear before Piroe smashed home. Thankfully that was to be the end of the scoring which saved Town's blushes from further embarrassment but even so what we had witnessed was not pleasant.
While we were all very disappointed and somewhat surprised by Leeds dominance it has to be acknowledged that it is One game in half a season where we have struggled to compete, there is no need for mass panic or wholesale change to what we have done so well for much of the campaign, we still sit in a cracking position and all of the pressure is still very much on Leeds to close us down, clearly some new blood in the Transfer window will be needed to bolster the ranks and to cover any loss to some of these ridiculous tournaments that loom large, Players will also be on the way out and we just know that Ashton & McKenna will be bringing in better than what we currently have, it's how it works.
The good news is we have am immediate chance to right some wrongs and get ourselves back on track as Boxing day see's us back in action, the bad news is that it is current League leaders Leicester City who come to town looking for the points. To be honest I ahve felt for some time now that we will have the beating of the Foxes, for some reason I just see us turning them over, I am convinced that Leeds will prove to be the harder of the Two games, yes Leicester are winning games and are currently Six points clear but no way have they been overly convincing in quite a few of their games to date.
With their strength of squad it is little surprise that they lead the table and are hot favourites to go up but they are beatable, Town at home are a different animal to what we saw at Elland Road and all the boys will be hell bent on a positive reaction to a bitterly disappointing showing last time out. Clearly another defeat could see our lead dwindle down to a mere Four points and that will be very much evident in the players thoughts going into such a big and important game.
While on paper this should represent our sternest test of the season I will stick with my heart and go for Town to turn Leicester over and show the watching world that the last game was indeed a blip and that we are going nowhere anytime soon. Thankfully our skipper Sam Morsy still sits on Nine Yellows and is available, other changes are possible though and it wouldn't surprise me to see Woolfenden back in alongside Burgess for this One. It promises to be a cracking atmosphere and an excellent advertisment for the Championship, let's just hope Town can return to something approaching their real saves and get a very hard job done. Town win for me, just.
The Opposition – Leicester City FC - Honours
League
First Division / Premier League
Champions: 2015–16
Runners-up: 1928–29
Second Division / First Division / Championship
Champions: 1924–25, 1936–37, 1953–54, 1956–57, 1970–71, 1979–80, 2013–14
Runners-up: 1907–08, 2002–03
Play-off winners: 1994, 1996
League One
Champions: 2008–09
Cup
FA Cup
Winners: 2020–21
Runners-up: 1948–49, 1960–61, 1962–63, 1968–69
League Cup
Winners: 1963–64, 1996–97, 1999–2000
Runners-up: 1964–65, 1998–99
FA Charity Shield / FA Community Shield
Winners: 1971, 2021
Runners-up: 2016
The Manager – Enzo Maresca
League Table as at 24.12.2023
Form Guide
Ipswich Town
2 Dec Ipswich Town 2 - 1 Coventry City
9 Dec Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Ipswich Town
12 Dec Watford 1 - 2 Ipswich Town
16 Dec Ipswich Town 2 - 2 Norwich City
23 Dec Leeds Utd 4 - 0 Ipswich Town
Leicester City FC
2 Dec West Brom 1 - 2 Leicester City
9 Dec Leicester City 4 - 0 Plymouth
13 Dec Leicester City 3 - 2 Millwall
18 Dec Birmingham City 2 - 3 Leicester City
23 Dec Leicester City 3 - 0 Rotherham
Head to Head
Match Referee – Sam Barrott
IPSWICH TOWN 1 LEICESTER CITY 0
^^^^ you’re probably right VR. 
0-1
