League 1 - Ipswich Town vs Gillingham AFC Preview & Matchday Thread

[Charnwood]

It’s a good job we have Christian Walton in goal, at least he commands his six yard box.

[Charnwood]

... again we give away possession, this time Thompson.

[ashfordblue]

Where's this 90+ 9 minutes coming from ?? thank God we held on 3 pts

[arana peligrosa]

How much additional time needs to be played, just want this damn thing over. There it is , finally, we have a victory.

Made hard work of it, feel some sympathy for the opposition and their relegation battle, they deserved more from today but other than that just relief we got a victory from it. More hard work needed and focus than today if the team really are to entertain any last promotion chance.

[Charnwood]

As Mick Mills just said, “a performance to forget a result to remember”.

[mendipblue]

To many Town players under performing.
Carroll, Evans, Edmundson, Thompson, Norwood, Piggott and Burns. That is to many for a team. KMC needs to sort this ASAP. 3pts luckily move on to Tuesday.

[Kerry Blue]

Hopefully when Morsy is back we will improve we certainly need him, the forwards got no service at all today I assume Aluko has picked up a knock.

[Shed on tour]

Best thing about today was the full time whistle. Absolute crap.

[ashfordblue]

I'll Bet we will struggle at Donny next up who just beat the Mackems 2-0.
So against Donny play Simson who had a brilliant goal disallowed against Colchester Under 23's in a 2-3 win, with Pigott or Bonne, drop Carroll and Edmunson, bring in Burgess for Edmundson, Aluko, Celina, into the midfield with Chaplin and Burns

This really shows McKenna's naivety to the manager's position, why oh why does he continue with liabilities Carrol and Edmundson put both in the Under 23's there is no place for idiots who seem desperate to try and F**K things up for us, and we still continue to show our selves up with inept performances against opposition we should be brushing aside with ease, I cant wait to get Morsy back to bring in some backbone.

[MasseyFerguson]

A dreadful performance but three points in the bag. Let's just take that and move on. Season still alive. Just!

[kevkeates]

Never been more fuming after winning 3 points!
Don't get me wrong i wasn't expecting another 4-0 but the quality of our squad is miles better than that of Gillingham and therefore should have breezed this game. I honestly feel that the introduction of Thompson and loss of Morsy has upset our flow.
Based off todays game and even the Wednesday/AFC Wimbledon games last week this Thompson from Brentford is hopeless. I know players need to time to gel with new teams etc but he can't even do simple football, absolute liability! Penney is leagues ahead of him in every aspect.
I thought Bakinson looked lively enough when he come on, and feel he could fit in with this squad pretty comfortably.
Edmondson seems to be dropping off form lately, whether its a lack of confidence or what I'm not sure but it's worrying at such a crucial time in the season. NOW PIGGOT! he needs to go, I've been in the "give him a chance camp" for a whilst and today really has shown how useless he is. It speaks volumes when the likes of 5 foot nothing Chaplin can hold the ball up better than the significantly larger Piggot.
With Doncaster doing over Sunderland at the SOL, I'm very nervous of our midweek fixture now, at what should have been another comfortable 3 points. We need a huge confidence boosting win @ Doncaster before going to a difficult Stadium MK next week otherwise 100% our season is dead.

Let me finish with a positive:
Next season could be the success we've all been craving, especially with a summer transfer window to look forward to for McKenna to build/Improve on our current squad. Can't be any worse than this seasons start can it?

Its the hope that kills us!

[hallamblue]

We constantly over play the ball … tippy tappy football in our own half , rarely looking for the quick option to get the ball forwards.

Then when we do get it the opponents half we p*ss around with it again instead of getting to the by line and getting a cross at the first opportunity. Little wonder our strikers aren’t scoring goals , we’re not giving them the ball!

This is LEAGUE ONE, not the bloody Premier League! Stop trying to “play it out from the back “ every time. Edmundson isn’t good enough for a start and there’s a mistake in either of our CB’s EVERY game .

Midfield is lightweight and has no physical presence , ( Morsy remains a massive miss for us ) and although it’s “early days” for Bakinson and Thomas the pair of them don’t look comfortable on the ball and Bakinson especially when he came on looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights .

Pigott looks a good technical player and needs service and games to get into his stride IMO. He and Norwood weren’t as effective as I’d hoped today , but I think that’s because they weren’t getting the service and unlike Bonne don’t go in search of the ball as much .

Suspect Burns is out for Donny game and would expect KVY will slot in that place ( please God not Edwards … I’d offload him in the summer tbh, useless ) .

Overall a physical , scrappy war like game that I’d expected ..,, we got the 3 points that’s all that matters . We move on, if not up ….

[number 9]

Intelligent post match comments from KM. I really like this guy:

https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich-to ... -0-8671386

[Bluemike]

Absolutely, he's gonna be a top coach, I just hope our bloody impatient fans give him time and see the bigger picture, sadly there's a lot of thickos in these parts.

[marko69]

Think playing it out from the back is a must these days, Hallam. If coaches are going to bang on all week about philosophies & technical stuff, tactics, analytics and f**king metrics ---->> they're going to look a bit daft instructing the "punting it up field" method while hoping for flick ons with their fingers crossed.
Think it's pass pass pass pass pass pass Inter Milan style until something happens. It is happening at Easter Road whereby Maloney & his philosophy thinks he's arrived at Edinburgh AJAX. Maybe McK thinks ITFC aren't a million miles from being able to be taught the Man Utd way. Who knows.

One thing that has slipped into the "modern" game over the years (and it is getting worse) --->> managers saying "we" more often when describing the feckin rebuild. "We need to all be patient"...... we this, we that. It's like sharing out the blame for all the things that COULD go wrong with EVERYONE.
No.
WE......, go to work and earn money and then WE PAY for YOUR services ok??
YOU...., go to a training park all week and learn to play football for 90 minutes, ok?

But anyway......, pity Oxford came back from 2-1 to win 3-2 in the last 8mins. That was huge. Could've been 6 from play-offs. But 9. Not good

[hallamblue]

Marko, I’m not advocating launching / hoofing forward. I’m saying get the ball forward quicker … our tippy tappy style needs to be crisper and forwards more than it is sideways snd backwards . Switch the ball more frequently … change the PACE of our passing and movement off the ball.

Often Pigott had made a move early but he didn’t get the ball coz it looked like it had to go thd thf little routine of passing between the CB’s s couple of times , then the midfield , then bs into the CB again instead of looking up and putting a slightly longer forward pass in .

We’re too slow in our build up … and we edge forward only to pass the sodding thing backwards again!! It SO frustrating to watch . And easy to defend against us think .



Edit: guess it’s down to this really isn’t it……

https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich-to ... -0-8671386

[marko69]

We’re too slow in our build up … and we edge forward only to pass the sodding thing backwards again!! It SO frustrating to watch.

I can definitely imagine. Not good at all. Not many supposedly “entertainment based” events leave people frustrated, but the “mawwwdern sawwwker” will do it.

[marko69]

Edit: guess it’s down to this really isn’t it……

https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich-to ... -0-8671386

And yes, 9 had posted that further up the thread. Sort of vented a bit on the “we need to be patient” BS!

[arana peligrosa]

viewed highlights but there wasn't really much on offer. McKenna, many would have questioned his appointment, but to take five wins from seven games is highly commendable. Had we remained with Cook there is no chance that would have come to pass.

should be a top half finish for sure but the teams above us from 5th down all have games in hand over us. Going to be tough, real tough to finish in a promotion berth but lessons should have been learned from today. Some say it's a mark of a good team that you can win even without playing well although not entirely sure that includes ourselves.

[AzzurroMark]

Ok, had not been able to take any of this game in, but reading the comments it seems obvious we had a very off day.

Has Neil Harris and his Gillingham team battled/played so efficiently that the pure frustration of not scoring for fun today (against a team which for most of the season have appeared to be relegation fodder) only served to make our performance seem even worse?

I guess the history books will tell us we have started pretty decently, results wise. Indeed the points average over KM's tenure to date, if continued, will leave us in a fairly healthy finishing position. It does however worry me that we are seemingly struggling to score goals!

[hallamblue]

AM it was my first game F2F as they say for quite a while, and the thing that struck me was how slow and laboured our build up is and the simple fact that we don’t get the ball to our strikers. If they haven’t got the ball in / around the opponents box , they ain’t gonna score .

[Shed on tour]

AM it was my first game F2F as they say for quite a while, and the thing that struck me was how slow and laboured our build up is and the simple fact that we don’t get the ball to our strikers. If they haven’t got the ball in / around the opponents box , they ain’t gonna score .

Spot on. When you think when we played at their place how quickly we moved the ball yesterday was the complete opposite. It reminded of how we often played under Cook and Lambert. We even struggled to do the basics yesterday, when the ball was played to players they often had problems controlling it and at times even simple passes seemed to go astray. Certainly going to need to improve and quickly otherwise any slim chance of making the top 6 is going to end quickly.

[marko69]

AM it was my first game F2F as they say for quite a while, and the thing that struck me was how slow and laboured our build up is and the simple fact that we don’t get the ball to our strikers. If they haven’t got the ball in / around the opponents box , they ain’t gonna score .

Spot on. When you think when we played at their place how quickly we moved the ball yesterday was the complete opposite. It reminded of how we often played under Cook and Lambert. We even struggled to do the basics yesterday, when the ball was played to players they often had problems controlling it and at times even simple passes seemed to go astray. Certainly going to need to improve and quickly otherwise any slim chance of making the top 6 is going to end quickly.

Think your post here, Shed is the main reason I personally question players a LONG time before a manager. The vast differences between performances over a few weeks (for me) is a player issue. And if its a “missing Morsy” issue……. that is NOT good, and it’d be a sign of a failed january window. Opinion of course.

[AzzurroMark]

I think what i was trying to get at was; How much credit can Gillingham be given for throwing us out of our stride? While i haven't really given much attention to reports, i did pick up that Gillingham often had 10 men behind the ball defending. I have seen some fairly decent Ipswich sides in the past struggle to breakdown a heavily defensive team.
I was at a family party yesterday and must admit when i consulted the BBC website to see it was 0-0 at 54 minutes i was very disappointed. Even the stats (barring possession) looked pretty grim! It's that near expectancy to win which makes even a 1-0 victory seem almost unsatisfactory. Had we played with that same lack of potency at home to Wigan would we still be feeling as bitterly disappointed by the end result? Had we played this game prior to NH's appointment, even a poor performing Ipswich side would surely have won more handsomely?

[Tangfastic]

AM it was my first game F2F as they say for quite a while, and the thing that struck me was how slow and laboured our build up is and the simple fact that we don’t get the ball to our strikers. If they haven’t got the ball in / around the opponents box , they ain’t gonna score .

Spot on. When you think when we played at their place how quickly we moved the ball yesterday was the complete opposite. It reminded of how we often played under Cook and Lambert. We even struggled to do the basics yesterday, when the ball was played to players they often had problems controlling it and at times even simple passes seemed to go astray. Certainly going to need to improve and quickly otherwise any slim chance of making the top 6 is going to end quickly.

Think your post here, Shed is the main reason I personally question players a LONG time before a manager. The vast differences between performances over a few weeks (for me) is a player issue. And if its a “missing Morsy” issue……. that is NOT good, and it’d be a sign of a failed january window. Opinion of course.

I agree, Marko. We need to look at the players as well. In retrospect, whilst the summer transfer window was exciting…. we didn’t get it right. Really overloaded in some areas and threadbare in others. And even though much is made of coaching and formations, all our players have had so many years of coaching and playing under many other managers in their past - they should be able to work stuff out for themselves on the pitch. It’s not as if they hadn’t seen a football before McKenna arrived.

And this Morsy thing. If we can’t cope without him for a few games, then that should have been red-flagged months ago and we should have brought in a similar player in the window. Fans were concerned we’d miss him if he played for Egypt in the African Nations and said the same thing. Ironic, that we lose him anyway during that tournament. I thought Bakinson was tidy yesterday and saw the game out ok, but he’s not a Morsy type player.

Moaning about Morsy feels a bit weak since we signed so many midfielders. Should have a like for like replacement.

On the other hand, 5 out of 7. I’ll take that anyday, but against many better teams we’d get beat easily if we don’t up our game.

[rossi]

Well, it was 3 points, so I'm happy. We would have no doubt lost that game under PC.

Not concerned by the terrible performance at all, KM will have observed and realised the following:

• We are not half so good without Morsey and Aluko and Celina

• Carrol is just as negative and a poor passer of the ball as was Cole Skuse

• Pigott is not gonna be the answer up front

• Edmundson is like a scared Berra, and needs to be replaced

Address thos 4 issues and I think we're good to go

[Shed on tour]

Marko totally agree with you about the Morsy situation. At this moment in time we don’t have a replacement for him and as tang says this really should have been flagged up by the time the January window came around. Let’s face it with his disciplinary record it is quite possible he will be missing quite a few games in the future as well.
The other concern I have is if teams stop Burns playing we seem to struggle as well. Certainly a couple of things that KM needs to be looking at in the summer window.

[Bluemike]

Well, it was 3 points, so I'm happy. We would have no doubt lost that game under PC.

Not concerned by the terrible performance at all, KM will have observed and realised the following:

• We are not half so good without Morsey and Aluko

• Carrol is just as negative and a poor passer of the ball as was Cole Skuse

• Pigott is not gonna be the answer up front

• Edmundson is like a scared Berra, and needs to be replaced

Address thos 4 issues and I think we're good to go

Bang on, only thing I'm not sure about is the Edmundson thing

[Shed on tour]

Well, it was 3 points, so I'm happy. We would have no doubt lost that game under PC.

Not concerned by the terrible performance at all, KM will have observed and realised the following:

• We are not half so good without Morsey and Aluko and Celina

• Carrol is just as negative and a poor passer of the ball as was Cole Skuse

• Pigott is not gonna be the answer up front

• Edmundson is like a scared Berra, and needs to be replaced

Address thos 4 issues and I think we're good to go

Rossi I agree with you that under PC we would have probably lost that game but feel that we won’t get away with too many performances like that. What did you make of the decision not to have Aluko on the bench? Seemed a strange one to me unless there was a injury concern or some other reason.

[rossi]

Well, it was 3 points, so I'm happy. We would have no doubt lost that game under PC.

Not concerned by the terrible performance at all, KM will have observed and realised the following:

• We are not half so good without Morsey and Aluko

• Carrol is just as negative and a poor passer of the ball as was Cole Skuse

• Pigott is not gonna be the answer up front

• Edmundson is like a scared Berra, and needs to be replaced

Address thos 4 issues and I think we're good to go

Bang on, only thing I'm not sure about is the Edmundson thing

Ha - I remember saying to you Mike on more than one occasion pre-game that I could always see the fear in Berra's eyes when the ball came anywhere near him, and I see the same with Edmundson. But that aside, I think the real thing with both of them (and why Edmundson reminds me so much of Berra) is that they can play in a back 4 but not a back 3 - neither of them seemed not to like having no cover to their left side