Ipswich Town v Fleetwood Town 
Tuesday 3rd March 19:45
Portman Road
Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike
Groundhog Day !!!!!!!!
And so it goes on, pain, misery, disappointment and a general feeling of being constantly let down, yes welcome to the world of supporting ITFC, the team that so often loves to shaft you when you least need it. Yet again we somehow managed to grab defeat from the jaws of victory in another game that saw us on top for fairly lengthy spells only to succumb to the proverbial sucker punch right at the death. It was the latest in a line of so called "must win" games and once again we failed to win it. Talk about cruel though, within seconds it went from Freddie Sears looking all but certain to give us a last gasp win to them breaking up field to plant the ball firmly into our net following yet another piece of inept defending, the Blackpool fans went wild as us Town fans slumped to our knees once more, within seconds the party atmosphere that had prevailed all game turned to angry and fed up fans venting their frustrations towards the Town players and manager as they came over to applaud us, it was a very uncomfortable moment and you could see Chambers and co were visibly affected by it all.
For me the defeat all but confirmed us to another season in the Third tier, premature it may well be but realistic it most definitely is as our current run of form will just not be good enough to see us claim the seven or Eight wins we almost certainly need to force our way into the play off picture, as positive as I have always been I just don't see us cutting out the kamikaze defending that litters our performances enough for us to claim the wins required, yes we play well in patches but my god we are so inconsistent you don't even know what is going to happen from One minute to the next never mind game to game.
Much of the talk now is about Paul Lambert and will he still be here or won't he, for me it is not even up for discussion, while I think the Five year deal ultimately means nothing I do believe he is getting at the very least another season with all the Transfer windows that come with it to show he is the man long term to take us forward, not only is the honeymoon period well and truly over but the marriage made in heaven is rapidly falling apart too, the fans and the manager are definitely starting to fall out of love with each other. the first real signs of Paul Lambert being affected by it were there for all to see with him coming out publicly and blaming Luke Garbutt for defending that no place in the professional game, Lambert has always defended his players to the hilt so to name someone so openly shows the pressure is starting to tell and I am sure that will not have gone down too well in the dressing room.
Next up we see Fleetwood Town making the trip to Portman Road for another "must win" battle although for me it will be a case of going through the motions, if we win we win, if we don't hey ho, that is my mind set right now. I would actually welcome a few young faces in the starting Eleven but while there is a glimmer of hope I think there is zero chance of it happening, I suppose Dobra and Tyreece Simpson were a couple of positives to take from the game at Blackpool, in fact the kid Simpson looked very handy indeed despite his tender years, strong in the upper body and very quick, nimble with the ball at his feet too so maybe we have another half decent youngster coming through the ranks and let's face it next season we may well need them all if as is expected we are to ply our trade in league One once more. As for the Fleetwood game I can see this ending as a 1-1 draw with more angst from the terraces come the full time whistle.
The Opposition – Fleetwood Town
The current club was officially established in 1997 but, in two previous incarnations, the club's history dates back to 1908. The original club, Fleetwood F.C., were champions of the Lancashire Combination in 1923–24, and registered a hat-trick of Lancashire Combination Cup wins in 1932, 1933 and 1934. The side's goalkeeper in the first of those victories was Frank Swift, then only eighteen years old. After almost sixty years as a Lancashire Combination club, they were made founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968. The club finished in 10th place in its first season. As the NPL was one of several leagues immediately below Division Four of the Football League, this was effectively the fifth tier of English football, and the club would not surpass this success until 2010–11. Despite winning the Northern Premier League Cup in 1971, the club languished in the lower half of the table, finishing bottom for two successive seasons (1974–75 and 1975–76) and folded in 1976 because of financial difficulties. Its great players include the late Percy Ronson, after whom one stand is named.
The club was re-established in 1977 as Fleetwood Town F.C., with many of the original personnel. Initially placed in Division One of the Cheshire League, it was moved in 1982 to the North West Counties League Division Two in its inaugural year, and promoted to Division One in 1984. The team reached the final of the FA Vase in 1985, losing 3–1 to Halesowen Town in front of a 16,000 crowd at Wembley. The club was placed in Division One (second tier) of the Northern Premier League when the league established a second tier in 1987, becoming the inaugural Division One Champions in 1988. In 1990–91 the club finished fourth in the NPL Premier Division, at the time effectively the sixth tier. However, by 1996, this second club had also folded.
Re-formed in 1997 as Fleetwood Wanderers, the club was placed back in Division One of the North West Counties Football League (now the tenth tier of the English League system) and a sponsorship deal saw the club's name immediately changed to Fleetwood Freeport F.C.. The club was promoted to the Premier Division of the North West Counties League in 1999 and renamed Fleetwood Town F.C. in 2002. Tony Greenwood was appointed manager in 2003; soon afterward, Andy Pilley took over as chairman. Successive promotions, as North West Counties League champions in 2005 and Northern Premier League First Division runners-up in 2006, saw the club reach the Northern Premier League Premier Division.
Fleetwood Town won the Northern Premier League Challenge Cup in the 2006–07 season, beating Matlock Town 1–0, and finished the season in eighth place with 67 points.
In the 2007–08 season Fleetwood won the Northern Premier League, gaining promotion to the Conference North. Along the way they set a new attendance record for the division, and were easily the best-supported team in the Premier Division.
Fleetwood started the 2008–09 Conference North season poorly; with the club at the bottom of the league, manager Tony Greenwood, along with his assistant, Nigel Greenwood and coach Andy Whittaker, were sacked. Greenwood was replaced by Micky Mellon. His position at Fleetwood was made full-time in January 2009, a first for the club.
The demise of Farsley Celtic partway through the 2009–10 was detrimental to Fleetwood's campaign, as Farsley's entire 2009–10 playing record was expunged. Fleetwood were chasing promotion along with near neighbours Southport, and the ruling cost Fleetwood three points relative to Southport. Fleetwood appealed against the decision but the appeal was rejected the day before the last match of the season, leaving Southport one point ahead. Both teams won on the final day, giving Southport the championship. Fleetwood instead had to contest the play-offs, and after beating Droylsden on penalties in the semi-final Fleetwood won promotion to the Football Conference by beating Alfreton Town 2–1 in the final.
For the 2010–11 season the club made all of its players full-time professionals, though this resulted in a few players leaving the club, including club captain Jamie Milligan. The club spent most of the season in or near the play-off positions, eventually qualifying by finishing in fifth place. In the play-off semi-finals, against Wimbledon, a new attendance record of 4,112 was set in the home leg, but Fleetwood lost both games with an 8–1 aggregate scoreline.
Fleetwood's 2011–12 season was very successful, Fleetwood went on a 29-game unbeaten run, and were declared champions with two games remaining, giving them promotion to the Football League for the first time. At the end of the season Vardy moved to Leicester City for a fee of £1m, which subsequently rose to £1.7m—a record transfer fee for a non-league club.
Fleetwood had a good start to the 2012–13 season, and had risen to third in the league after 10 games. However, they only won two of the next 10 games, slipping to sixth position; chairman Andy Pilley and manager Micky Mellon fell out, after Mellon allegedly applied for the Burnley and Blackpool managerial vacancies. On 1 December 2012, following a 3–2 defeat against Aldershot in the FA Cup, Mellon was sacked as manager of the League Two side. Graham Alexander was appointed manager on 6 December 2012. Fleetwood were unbeaten for the next five games, and after a steady run of results had risen back to fourth place after 11 games. However, Fleetwood only won two of the remaining 15 games, and consequently slipped down the table to finish 13th in League Two; this resulted in a large rebuilding of the squad.
The 2013–14 season was another successful one. Having been in and around the automatic promotion places all season and getting to the League Trophy area final, the club narrowly missed out on automatic promotion, finishing in fourth place. After beating York City in the play-off semi-final, Fleetwood beat Burton Albion 1–0 from an Antoni Sarcevic free-kick in the play-off final at Wembley on 26 May to win promotion to League One for the first time.
Playing at the club's highest level, the 2014–15 season was very successful. After three games the team was top of the league for two games, and apart from a couple of games remained in the top half of the league all season, eventually finishing in a very creditable 10th place. Also in 2014, the club purchased a 57-bedroom hotel in Blackpool for the youth team; the following year, the club started to move into its new training ground in Thornton.
2015–16 was a difficult season. In July 2015, chairman Andy Pilley announced that the club's strategic direction would move more towards a self-sustaining model utilizing the development and sell-on of home-grown talent, rather than buying in players to attempt to climb the league pyramid further. The playing budget was trimmed heavily.
After a poor start to the season with only two wins in 10 league matches, Graham Alexander was sacked on 30 September 2015, with the club one point above the relegation zone. On 6 October 2015 Steven Pressley was appointed manager. After a season flirting with the relegation zone, Pressley guided the club to safety, five points above the relegation zone, with 10 wins in 35 league matches and an appearance in the league trophy northern area final. On 20 April 2016, Sir Alex Ferguson officially opened the club's £8m Poolfoot farm training ground complex with 18 pitches including a floodlit 4G artificial pitch, gym, cafe, bar, offices, etc.
Just before the start of the 2016–17 season, on 26 July 2016, Steven Pressley resigned from his position as manager. Uwe Rösler was appointed manager on 30 July 2016 who guided the club to its highest ever finish in 4th place but was narrowly beaten 1–0 by Bradford City in the play off semi-final.
However in the 2017–18 season Uwe Rosler was sacked on 17 February 2018 after seven straight defeats in all competitions with the club just outside the relegation zone by goal difference. On 22 February 2018 John Sheridan was appointed manager on a short term contract until the end of the season who successfully guided the club away from relegation and finished mid table in 14th place.
At the beginning of 2018–19 season Joey Barton was appointed manager on 2 June 2018 who guided the club to a 11th place with victories over local rivals Blackpool and giants Sunderland.
The Manager – Joey Barton
Form Guide
Ipswich Last 5 Matches – Currently in 9th place with 52 points
8 Feb Sunderland 1 - 0 Ipswich Town
11 Feb AFC Wimbledon 0 - 0 Ipswich Town
15 Feb Ipswich Town 4 - 1 Burton Albion
22 Feb Ipswich Town 0 - 1 Oxford Utd
29 Feb Blackpool 2 - 1 Ipswich Town
Fleetwood Town Last 5 Matches – Currently in 8th place with 55 points
1 Feb Wycombe 0 - 1 Fleetwood
15 Feb Fleetwood 2 - 1 Peterborough
22 Feb Fleetwood 1 - 0 Portsmouth
25 Feb Sunderland 1 - 1 Fleetwood
29 Feb Tranmere pp. Fleetwood
Match Referee – Neil Hair
IPSWICH TOWN 1 FLEETWOOD TOWN 1
Very frustrating.
I assume Skuse and Huws are injured even so I just can't understand that team selection, hope I'm proven wrong.