Ipswich Town vs Bristol City Preview & Matchday Thread

[patthegimp]

Watched it on I Follow or whatever they' re called. Our defense is crap. Drop Bart, Spence, Chalobah. Send Chalobah back from whence he came. Chambers tries to make up for his defensive failings with his fist pump and his hail fellow well met club captain crap. Sorry , get rid. Buy a decent right back and centre back, Pennington is probably ok with a decent experienced back beside him. Knudsen , not my favourite, is ok and does link well with Sears. Dozzel and Bishop if fit need to start sooner rather than later. Skuse is good despite all the sh..t laid on him. Good defensive and link up play. keep Sears up top but needs good support. Intelligent runs usually which most of our suppliers are too dim to see. Kayden, Roberts, get rid- not good enough. Money needs spent as well as introduction of Lankester et al. League 1 next season but with hope

[Blue Wilf]

So pissed off right now. On way home from what was a pretty awful night. 3 main emotions - sadness, disbelief and anger. Sadness to see our great club brought to this week after week. 13000 fans for a must win game tells a story for me - football is earing itself by money grabbing fools who run it. Years of Evans under investment and Paul Hurst incompetence. I dont buy the 'players wanted to leave' scenario. They are (were) under contract and sorry but until i get a replacement lined up, you dont move on. Disbelief that we can be a team who cannot score goalls and then we start to score them only to give 3 away! Anger as Bialkowski has to go. He was totally responsible for at least 2 of the 3 goals in my view. He has never owned his area and stands on his line time after time - it drives me nuts and he MUST be dropped saturday. Spence is hopeless week after week. Knudsen is average at best and Chalobah tries but has such a poor first touch. Sears' resurgence is the only shining light. I said to my daughter when they brought the big guy on at half time that we would have issues and sure enough (as has happened time after time over the years), such a player punishes us. Bristol were there for the taking and we blew it as we always do. I am very rarely this low and despondant and am very much a glass half full guy but our capitulation was awful to see. I dont blame the manager - i do blame bialkowski. Still a long way to go but tonight was a wake up call for me that what we have to achieve is looking like a very tall order unless something starts to click. Sorry i cannot bring any better news....

[marko69]

From the WBA preview after watching the game on Friday night.

ITFC 4 BCFC 2 (because two will be conceded; Bart is sh*t)

Got the prediction wrong (as always) ....... but certainly decided that Bart was sh*t.

Can you serve the next game with Gerkens please.

[patthegimp]

Aylesbury Blue- Your Gran any good?

Yours

Paul Lambert

[Bluemike]

Word perfect Blue Wilf

[number 9]

I was just driving down the road in Dallas...thinking about how many pissed off Ipswich fans there must be right now all over the world. At least in my life time, I think this is the lowest I've been as a fan. I thought for sure we'd get the win tonight. I'm afraid the writing is on the wall: we're done. I can't see us recovering from this. Sad day for ITFC.

[marko69]

Just managed to catch all three BC goals. I think PL will be crying into his pillow tonight. Jaysus H. The words to describe the defending haven’t been invented yet.

[nicscreamer]

Just back from the game and couldn’t feel lower.

Jesus h Christ that was some poor goal keeping from Bart and Spence is a f**king liability!

We are going down, as there really are not 2 teams worse than us in this league.

[Kerry Blue]

Watched it on I Follow or whatever they' re called. Our defense is crap. Drop Bart, Spence, Chalobah. Send Chalobah back from whence he came. Chambers tries to make up for his defensive failings with his fist pump and his hail fellow well met club captain crap. Sorry , get rid. Buy a decent right back and centre back, Pennington is probably ok with a decent experienced back beside him. Knudsen , not my favourite, is ok and does link well with Sears. Dozzel and Bishop if fit need to start sooner rather than later. Skuse is good despite all the sh..t laid on him. Good defensive and link up play. keep Sears up top but needs good support. Intelligent runs usually which most of our suppliers are too dim to see. Kayden, Roberts, get rid- not good enough. Money needs spent as well as introduction of Lankester et al. League 1 next season but with hope

Agree with almost all of that, we have played four games under PL and three were so winnable and we only got 2 points the future looks grim.

[Bluemike]

Skuse and Sears were stand out, Skusey was superb and shock horror another manager who thinks hes fantastic, I'm not going mad.

Still seething with Bart now, not just for tonite but all season long, he's been utter dross, living on past glories which for me have always been overhyped anyway, take the shot stopping out of his game, which he has now done himself and he's utter sh*te in all aspects. Get rid and take Spence with you, as Derick says they should never play again. Also look at the woeful effort yet again from Edwards as he pretended to be interested in closing down their player during the build up for the third goal, f*ck off mate it was laughable !!!!

There is absolutely no getting out of this mess. We are fooked.

[AzzurroMark]

Quite simply heartbreaking!

[barmy billy]

It must be dsheartening for Lambert watching what happened this evening and January clearly can't come soon enough for him. What concerns me though is how much he will be given and secondly where best to spend it as he will probably not get as much as he feels he needs.

Sears aside, last years Championship players seem to have gone down to the level of those Hurst signed from the lower leagues. PL has a mammoth task in hand: I sincerely hope pulls off survival from relegation, but if not, stays with us and take what comes next season.

[marko69]

Quite simply heartbreaking!

Yep. And not just for the older generation who remember the SBR days....... But heartbreaking for everyone. Not many on this forum remember the Division 3 (South) days. Heartbreaking indeed. My head has started saying, "shiiiiit! League one! Only two divisions away from the "Vauxhall Conference!" or whatever it's called now.

But......, still 27 games to go. All to "START" playing for.

And Chambers........, try and get yourself and that defence sorted out, pal.

[arana peligrosa]

All right let's keep it short. Bialkowski seems a poor imitation of his once impressive stature. Gone from one of the most inspired goalkeepers of the Championship League to something of a Gary Sprake figure.

Bristol only supplied 300 of their own, which did little to improve an overall disappointing crowd. Maybe some had a vision of what was to occur and stayed away, make no mistake about it you would have thought a few more could have made up today's attendance.

Won't subscribe once again to the "we're f*cked / relegation is imminent" philosophy once again. Maybe I got my head stuck in my as* and can't appreciate, or view, how severe the situation is or perhaps it's too premature to provide any last rites while it's still only November.

All told seems like another scenario where an opposition team were there for the taking, problem is we conspire to play worse than even than they are, and too many team players were nowhere near their expected workload. One response on OTIB suggested that they wished to play us every week. (Such were the ineptitude of certain Town figures and disarray at certain duration of the game)

Hard to dispute.

[number 9]

If that’s your idea of ‘short’ my willy is bigger than I thought...

[derick_ipsw]

Bart - May as well put my f**king gran in goal........................................................Gerkin
Spence - just shoot the prat .............................................................................Donacein
Pennington - recovers well, but wouldn’t need to recover if he knew where to stand.........Pennington
Chambo - good sh*t good sh*t good sh*t.................................................................Chambers (because there is know one else)
Knudsen - crap talentless tw*t............................................................................Kenlock
Chalobah - does he know what colour we play in? .....................................................Dozzell
Downes - creates absolutely f*ck all ......................................................................Bishop
Skuse - every pass was 2 yards behind the player........................................................Skuse
Edwards - couldn’t beat an egg since week 4.............................................................Lankester
Roberts - honeymoon period is over .......................................................................Harrison
Sears - only player who is actually playing well...........................................................Sears

Jackson - good if we sign a relay team, no football brain
Lankester - wants to makes things happen, start him

AND WHY DO WE START SMASHING IT LONG THE SECOND WE GO BEHIND. Relegate us now. Play the youth team.

My team for Saturday, I would also put Edun on the bench.

[AylesburyBlue]

Is kenlock back fit? If not Cotter.

Only other change I would do is Folami for Roberts. Looked good end of last year.

[Tangfastic]

I can’t see PL making many changes. We saw PH making dramatic changes at the end and it looked and felt like panic. I think PL knows we have to have some level of consistency in selection and to work with what we have.

I have a feeling that Lankester will come in for Edwards ... and maybe PL will rethink Donacien as a RB. Spence is awful defensively and it angers me the lack of effort he puts in to stop crosses coming in. And needless fouls in dangerous areas.

Not a Knudsen fan, but he was better than Spence and seems to have some understanding with Freddie. I think Mike mentioned it, but I thought Skuse had a decent game. I thought some of his forward passing was excellent . Wouldn’t criticise Freddie or Skuse last night.

[Bluemike]

I'm not overly defending Chambo or Pennington but playing alongside the likes of Spence and Bart would make anyone look sh*te cus your always trying to compensate for their misgivings. Bart, Spence and Edwards have to be dropped on form alone but as Tang says we all chastised Hurst for continually changing the team, sometimes one or Two bad players affects others performances and I think this is the case.

[Blue Wilf]

One final negative observation from me before I get my positive 'we can do this' head back on.... why oh why can we not get our set play kicker (if it is Downes - fine) to actually practice taking corners time after time? I dont mean on a training pitch but actually at Portman Road where he will be taking them (and actually has to account for the physical restrictions of size of off pitch area, corner flag etc? Put a cut out 10 yards away and another somewhere near where an attacker may be and take them time and time again? Its not rocket science is it? How many times have we all seen corners not clear the first defender? I can understand it once in a while but its almost every time we have a set piece. Makes my blood boil every time! OK - back to positive now....

[rossi]

Well I can honestly say that this is by far the worst 1st team squad I've seen in the last 60-odd years.

Absolutely no quality - we have to be realistic, the players we have are simply not good enough at this level.
It doesn't really matter who is manager - the damage is already done, and not just done over the last few months but over the last few years.

Nice to see Freddie come good again - he has been unfairly ridiculed by many on this board and it's great to see he still has potential given the correct management. Knudsen, also, has played much better under PL, and he and Freddie work well together down the left. Also I have to say that Skuse had a really good first half last night, although second half he reverted to the negative inaccurate sideways and backwards passing I have come to expect from him. But Bart, Spence, Chambers, Pennington, Downes, Chalobah, Edwards, Roberts - none of them good enough at this level. Downes in particular - if he ever plays again there is no way he should be allowed to take a dead-ball kick.

Will we be relegated? I honestly think we will - even if ME miraculously makes funds available no decent player is going to want to come here.

The buck stops firmly with ME - he has made disastrous managerial appointments in the shape of Keane Jewell and Hurst, and refused to financially back MM especially in the January of our play-off season.

You get what you deserve - under Evans we have degenerated into the worst club in the Championship, and I'm not sure that the downward spiral will end in League 1.

[nicscreamer]

I can’t see PL making many changes. We saw PH making dramatic changes at the end and it looked and felt like panic. I think PL knows we have to have some level of consistency in selection and to work with what we have.

I have a feeling that Lankester will come in for Edwards ... and maybe PL will rethink Donacien as a RB. Spence is awful defensively and it angers me the lack of effort he puts in to stop crosses coming in. And needless fouls in dangerous areas.

Not a Knudsen fan, but he was better than Spence and seems to have some understanding with Freddie. I think Mike mentioned it, but I thought Skuse had a decent game. I thought some of his forward passing was excellent . Wouldn’t criticise Freddie or Skuse last night.

Regrading this part... I was next to the dugouts last night , and Lee Johnson was screaming at his right wing to hassle Spence because "the lad cant defend".. He is soooo right. Spence was dreadful... And Flynn Downes Corners !!!! Damn, my sister would be better taking them. Amateurish in the extreme.

I am now resigned to League 1, but I truly hope PL stays here, he has the ability and skills to get the right players in to get us promoted back quickly.

[Blue Wilf]

Harsh but fair, Rossi. I would like to disagree with you but in my heart of hearts, I can't. I do remain hopeful but as I said in an earlier post, last night was a wake up call for me - and i suspect a few other 'glass half full' fans.

[Kerry Blue]

I think the problem with the defence goes back to losing both Berra and Smith, a left footed replacement has not been made also so many right backs have just not been good enough, I think on the left we are ok I know Jonas is not great but as several had said he works well with Freddie as to Bart it's hard to believe how bad he is.
It will now take a miracle to get out of this I only hope that we can keep Paul Lambert as our manager.

[Tangfastic]

Such a disappointment.

Looking back... were we out-played? No, just that lack of quality and not doing the basics right. There was definitely three points there if we’d shown more back-bone. Kudos to Freddie.. got us ahead twice. Then his team-mates allowed BC back with terrible amateurish defending.

Come Saturday I’ll still hope for that win. I haven’t given up, although it’s looking seriously bad. Two back to back wins and it will look totally different. Where those wins come from... havent a clue.

I do wonder though if our situation is so bleak by January whether Evans will be willing to put in some cash. If that is the case, might be better to tie Lambert in for next season with money he can spend in the summer and plan for making a fist of it straightaway in League 1.

[charlton837]

what a night last night but for the wrong reasons. It certainly felt like a day when any last belief was drained out of the club. That 3rd goal knocked the stuffing out of the players and the ground fell flat as a pancake, it was a decisive moment for me where the whole club lost its hope of clawing our way out of this, one of the saddest 20 mins I have known to be honest at PR in recent history. The Mick era towards the end was horrible and apathy had set in, this was sad for a different reason, I think fans understand this isn't really the players fault, they just aren't good enough is the honest truth. The argument with Bart is different, he has shown he is good enough but for some reason has decided to become a complete liability, his confidence is rock bottom, he looks like he has no idea how to sort himself out either. I did also think that Knudsen, Chambers and Spence (more on him in a bit) were also poor and these are the more senior players we have. The only 2 players to get credit from me for last night was Skuse and Sears who I felt were both excellent for most of the game.

Back to Spence, how is this guy still playing professional football, he is a fraud, i don't want him at our club even in League 1, he is useless. I think he was at fault for goals last night, for goals against West Brom, goals at Reading. Every game he is costing us, that being said Knudsen isn't much better. I feel most teams are just attacking us down the wings because they know we are hopeless there. Not many teams are playing through the middle, its all down the flanks. For the moment i think we are stuck with Knudsen until Kenlock is fit and able to get in but Spence must be dropped now, Donacien isn't perfect but he didn't look that bad defensively. He cant do any worse he really cant. Edwards was also rubbish for the most part in the match last night, since the opening month hes not been at it for me, again i would take him out of the team, that 3rd goal last night was because he didn't get close enough to his man and allowed him to cut in and shoot. These are such basic errors, its infuriating!!

4 points minimum from next 2 games, but lets face it that aint going to happen, 1 at most but i would suggest 0 is likely. Where do we go from here? This club is rotten from the core and needs a complete overhaul/restructuring. That is not just the playing staff, until we sort out the top of the pyramid we will never really break out of this rut. If it becomes obvious that we are down i think ME will start to feel the heat as im sure there will be protests against him and his ownership however im not sure he will care that much, in League 1 he will be able to put even less in to keep us afloat. We need a miracle, PL is the best man for it IMO but I think he has an almost impossible job to save us this season.

[jimmyt]

Yes very very disappointing. It must be so frustrating for a manger to get a team on the front foot playing OK only for all the good work to be undone by a few minutes of catastrophic, cretinous defending. You literally couldn't make up that passage of play, Bart and Spence have totally lost the f*cking plot.

My advice to Evans is to spend what ever he has available in Jan in an effort to stay up. Going down would be a total and utter disaster and I do not buy in to the 'regroup and come back stronger' argument, at all....I think we'd be doomed to a long spell in League 1 - or worse.

[charlton837]

Yes very very disappointing. It must be so frustrating for a manger to get a team on the front foot playing OK only for all the good work to be undone by a few minutes of catastrophic, cretinous defending. You literally couldn't make up that passage of play, Bart and Spence have totally lost the f*cking plot.

My advice to Evans is to spend what ever he has available in Jan in an effort to stay up. Going down would be a total and utter disaster and I do not buy in to the 'regroup and come back stronger' argument, at all....I think we'd be doomed to a long spell in League 1 - or worse.

Lets be honest what player in their right mind would want to come to us in January unless no other championship club wants them. Its all well and good us saying we need to sign some quality in the next window but to be honest if a player had the choice of Rotherham and us they would likely go to Rotherham, that's how low we have fallen! Also I suspect that ME will decide not to invest as a gamble because he may feel even with reinforements we are likely to be relegated. I do wonder whether Evans will ever show some leadership, in some terrible times for this club he hardly ever hear from him apart from a letter once a year in the ST packs to say I am committed to getting this club back to the premier league at the earliest opportunity, that is literally it.

[nicscreamer]

Unforntunatly I agree about the tough job we will have getting out of league 1. That makes the January budget decision very difficult though!!

By Jan we may be even further adrift, so do we say , OK, we are down, lets stick with what we have and try to blood the youth for next season. Save any money we might have and buy as big as possible in League 1 and hope for a quick return?

If we spend big in Jan, we may just be throwing good money after bad - and that's IF Marcunt evans even decides he wants to put any money into the club.

Above all else, we MUST keep Paul Lambert at the club. The guy has been a breath of fresh air and reminds me so much of the days of Joe Royle.

On a bright side... At least we scored 2 goals from open play last night, if we can keep that going and somehow sort out the defending, we may at least get a few wins under our belt. Im going for a hard fought draw on Saturday, despite the fact Forest would well thump us 6-1

[Frosty]

Some really sad and downbeat posts in this thread.

Full credit to you guys who make the effort to go to these games every week, I really admire you, especially as I imagine for some people it's a considerable expense out of your earnings for little reward.

Because of where I live I cannot attend games, (I hope one day to be able to come up to the UK and attend half a dozen on the trot, and buy you all a drink)

Please regardless of the results, keep posting, no matter how disheartening it can be at times as for people like me your thoughts and insights help to get a better understanding than a vanilla match report from other sources.

I can't actually remember another time when the posts have been more in sadness or resignation rather than the more common odd angry post after a bad result.

Chin up guys, at least we don't live in South Sudan, or like one of my best mates wife who grew up in Chernobyl (and is now suffering brain tumours) or have Marko as a neighbour.

Cheers Dave