Ipswich Town v Brighton & Hove Albion
Tuesday 27th September 2016 – 19:45
Portman Road
Opening Thought – Jamma
The weekend’s trip to Elland Road had the feeling of watershed moment in Ipswich Town’s season even before kick-off. The Blues had reacted strongly to the defeat at the Madejski Stadium with two impressive outings against Derby and Aston Villa. If the win at Pride Park had largely been the result of a long-overdue change in luck, we were unfortunate not to take more than a point against the Villans. Having proved once again that we could live with the big boys of the division, we had the chance to build up some further momentum against an in-form Leeds side on a run of three successive wins. A positive result would have propelled us up the table, while setting us up nicely for the two matches prior to the international break. As it was, there only looked to be one winner from the moment Chris Wood hit the post with a venomous long-range effort in the 10th minute. Somewhat predictably, Wood was to prove the thorn in our side, and looked unrecognisable from the player who had failed to make an impact on loan at Portman Road at the back end of 2014/15. There have been some periods of games so far this campaign when Town haven’t lived up to their high standards – the second half at Brentford and the first half at Reading come to mind for me – but Saturday was the first time that we appeared clueless in possession throughout and completely devoid of ideas in an attacking sense. To reach the 89th minute before seeing a shot on target says it all, and, perhaps most worryingly of all, there seemed to be no urgency to get back on level terms, as we continued to lack penetration as the clock ticked down. Mick is usually the first to defend his team in the wake of a setback, but even he struggled to find any positives in his post-match interview. He may have started out by giving credit to Leeds but he knew that wasn’t going to wash with Town fans this time, repeatedly admitting that it had been a poor performance. After such an anaemic display, and with a further three injuries to key players to contend with, the two home fixtures coming up this week suddenly don’t look quite such an appealing prospect…
Although the season is still very much in its infancy, the table is slowly starting to take shape, with Ipswich closer to the foot of the table than we are the summit. Our tally from the first nine games, of three wins, three draws and three losses, paints a fairly accurate picture of our campaign so far, with inconsistency once again a prominent feature. You could argue that the defeat at Reading should have been a draw, and that the individual points picked up against Wolves, Norwich and Villa would on another day have been all three. But likewise, the Blues could count themselves fortunate to claim victory against both Preston and Derby. In short, we are where we are for a reason – in amongst a clutch of similar-standard sides, with just 4 points separating Barnsley in 7th from QPR in 16th. As much as it pains me to draw comparisons with our arch rivals, our form since the derby compared with that of Norwich shows what a difference putting together a string of results makes in this most relentless of leagues. Whereas Town have interspersed those fortuitous wins with a draw and two defeats, the Canaries have followed up a surprise 3-0 reverse to Birmingham with four consecutive league wins – as well as impressive League Cup successes against Coventry and Everton – to soar to the top of the league. The challenge for us now is to produce a 90-minute performance, and then maintain that level over a succession of matches. One of the more surprising statistics to come out of the weekend was that we have now failed to score from open play in eight of our last ten away games. As one of the three joint second lowest scorers in the division, finding the net is obviously a concern. Things don’t get any easier as we welcome two of the top three to Portman Road this week, starting with the Seagulls…
The Opposition - Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. were founded in 1901 and, in 1920, they were elected to the Football League's new Third Division, in which they played until 1958, when they were promoted to Division Two. Within 5 years, they had been relegated down to Division 4 and took another 3 years to achieve Division 3 status again.
Mike Bamber was the Chairman of Brighton from October 1972 until 1983. He famously brought Brian Clough to the club later that year and then appointed former England player Alan Mullery as manager. Mullery led the football club to the First Division in the 1978/79 season. The 1982/83 season saw a wildly inconsistent start for the club, with victories over Arsenal and Manchester United mixed in with heavy defeats, ending in relegation at the end of the season.
Despite their relegation, Brighton reached their first (and to date only) FA Cup final and drew 2–2 with Manchester United in the first match. Brighton's goals were scored by Gordon Smith and Gary Stevens. This was the final that featured the "miss" by Gordon Smith with virtually the last kick of the game in extra time, prompting the well- known phrase "and Smith must score". In effect, it was actually a save by the Manchester United goalkeeper, Gary Bailey. In the replay, Manchester United won 4–0.
In 1996, the club's financial situation was becoming increasingly precarious and the club's directors had come to a decision that the Goldstone Ground would have to be sold to pay off some of the club's huge debts. After a terrible start to 1996–97, Brighton were stuck at the bottom of the league by a considerable margin – they seemed certain to be relegated from the Football League just 14 years after they had almost won the FA Cup. They ended up being saved by a relatively unknown Manager in Steve Gritt and a late goal in the last game of the season against the bottom side Hereford, which kept their 77-year history of being part of the Football League intact.
A lifelong fan named d*ck Knight took control of the club in 1997, having led the fan pressure to oust the previous board following their sale of the club's Goldstone Ground to property developers.
The sale of the Goldstone ground went through in 1997 and this led to Brighton having to play some 70 miles away at Gillingham's Priestfield stadium. Micky Adams was appointed Brighton's manager in 1999. For the start of the 1999–2000 season, the Seagulls moved back to Brighton and started playing their home games at the Withdean Stadium, a converted athletics track owned by the local council.
2000–01 was Brighton's first successful season for 13 years. They were crowned champions of Division Three and promoted to Division Two. Brighton maintained their good form the following season, being crowned Division Two champions, winning a second successive promotion, just five years after almost succumbing to the double threat of losing their Football League status and going out of business completely.
In the 2002/03 season, they were relegated to what is now League 1, but came straight back up to what is now the Championship at the end of the following season and, in 2005/06, once again Brighton found themselves going back down to League 1.
During May 2009, Knight was replaced as chairman of Brighton by Tony Bloom, who had successfully secured £93 million funding for the new Falmer Stadium and secured 75% shareholding of the club. Building of Falmer Stadium (known as the AMEX Stadium) was started in December 2008. On 31 May 2011, the club officially completed the handover and were given the keys to the stadium, with an initial capacity of 22,374 seats, signifying the end of 12 years without a home. (Since then, the ground has been developed to include additional facilities and capacity has increased to 30,750 by May 2013.)
They stayed in League 1 until the 2010/11 season when they achieved promotion back to the Football Championship where they have played for the past 5 seasons.
Last season, the Seagulls narrowly missed automatic promotion, finishing in 3rd place, but stumbled in the play-off semi-finals, being knocked out by 6th-placed Sheffield Wednesday for a play-off final spot.
The Manager – Chris Hughton
Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev
Media Watch - K L Blue
Chambers on "position" debate
http://www.sudburymercury.co.uk/sport/i ... _1_4712678
MM on Best
http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/30347/
Chambers Back in the centre
http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/30344/
Injury List now up to 9
http://www.sudburymercury.co.uk/sport/n ... _1_4711850
Trialist plays in U23's (You never guess what position)
http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/30342/
Form Guide
Ipswich Last 5 Matches - Currently in 14th place on 12 points
Leeds United 1-0 Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town 0-0 Aston Villa
Derby County 0-1 Ipswich Town
Reading FC 2-1 Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town 1-0 Preston NE
Brighton Last 5 Matches – Currently in 3rd place on 17 points
Brighton 2-0 Barnsley
Brighton 1-2 Reading FC
Burton Albion 0-1 Brighton
Brighton 1-0 Huddersfield
Brighton 0-2 Brentford FC
Fixtures of Interest
BRENTFORD VS READING
BRISTOL VS LEEDS
FOREST VS FULHAM
Match Referee – Andy Davies
Final Thought - Bluemike
It's not often I lose my cool with MM or the team for that matter but the events of Saturday at Leeds would have tried the patience of a saint. I have aired my thoughts already on the defeat so no need to repeat them again, suffice to say that garbage cannot be replicated again, a lack of effort and commitment just won't wash with me, playing poorly is one thing but appearing to not be putting in a shift will just not do.
Our injury list goes from bad to worse right now, McGoldrick, Hyam, Smith, Webster, Williams, Bishop, Varney, Ward, Pitman......that is Nine players who could all well be First teamers, people wanted change and that is what we are going to get, our striking options in particular are looking pretty thread bare and suddenly the onus is very much on Leon Best to lead the attack while kids like Kenlock, Emmanuel, Dozzell and even Ben Morris may well be called upon should the situation worsen.
One thing we do know about this team is that they have the ability to bounce back after disappointing us and I hope Tuesday nights game against Brighton will be no different, man do they owe us a performance, we have to remember we are unbeaten at home and but for a bit of luck would have taken the scalps of Norwich & Villa too so it is not all doom and gloom just yet, however if we go another 90 minutes without even creating an opening or effort at goal I think my head will implode. Brighton will be tough and with the obvious lack of confidence that seems to have reared it's ugly head and an injury list longer than your arm I think this may well be our first home defeat of the season, all I ask is we give it a go and ditch this 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 nonsense !!!
IPSWICH TOWN 1 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 1
