EFLC (R4) - Ipswich Town vs Fulham FC Preview & Matchday Thread

[Charnwood]

We’re so exposed and stretched to the limits especially down the left. It looks like Christian Walton is in for a busy night.

[Charnwood]

17 mins and Jackson creates himself a great chance to put us level. But OMG we look so fragile at the back tonight.

[number 9]

Fulham are a very good team and have a very good manager. Not sure our first team could even win.

[Charnwood]

As was just said in commentary playing our B Team against a Premiership side is a risky strategy. What it tells me is our strategy and focus is clearly defined and it doesn’t include the EFL Cup. That said I’m sure we’ll give it a go albeit so far we look poles apart

[Charnwood]

I can’t believe Portman Road looks almost full to capacity and 3000 fans from Fulham for a midweek EFL Cup game, how times have changed.

[trimleyblue]

I can’t believe Portman Road looks almost full to capacity and 3000 fans from Fulham for a midweek EFL Cup game, how times have changed.

I guess if you don't have a season ticket or a membership, this is your best chance of getting to see the team play.

[Ricco]

Any word on how some of the players are looking, Tuanzebe and Clarke interest me mainly, maybe the centre mids too??

[Charnwood]

Barring a miracle that looks like game over 0-2 and further defensive errors with the ball passing at least 3 defenders whilst crossing the 6 yard box from right to left before reaching the goal scorer Muniz Carvalho who fired the ball in from close range.

[Charnwood]

I can’t believe Portman Road looks almost full to capacity and 3000 fans from Fulham for a midweek EFL Cup game, how times have changed.

I guess if you don't have a season ticket or a membership, this is your best chance of getting to see the team play.

I don’t know what the ticket prices are but it’s a lot of fans to watch a B Team match.

[trimleyblue]

I can’t believe Portman Road looks almost full to capacity and 3000 fans from Fulham for a midweek EFL Cup game, how times have changed.

I guess if you don't have a season ticket or a membership, this is your best chance of getting to see the team play.

I don’t know what the ticket prices are but it’s a lot of fans to watch a B Team match.

£10 for an adult ticket, I think.

[Charnwood]

Any word on how some of the players are looking, Tuanzebe and Clarke interest me mainly, maybe the centre mids too??

The only player who really stands out for meis Sone Aluko. Centre midfield looks fragile without Morsey and Luongo. Jack Taylor started well but has faded away Ball hasn’t impressed. As I write McKenna has replaced Sone Aluko with Cameron Humphrey’s and Elksn Baggott replacing Cameron Burgess.

Fulham really are cruiseing this game and we look completely outclassed. Again as I write Fulham are strengthening their team with substitutions and for me if we keep this at 0-2 we’ll do well.

[Charnwood]

Hutchinson and Hurst coming on for Donacien and Ladapo so maybe we are going to give it a go.

[arana peligrosa]

We didn't field a strong a team as able. There's certain key omissions and pivotal players rested or not involved. May be an indication as to why we're two goals behind. Really expected more out of today. Maybe we've been poor and haven't tried as much as fans would expect but got to be disappointed with progress thus far.

One or two more robust names on the bench. Best guess we get them involved quick and attempt to salvage something from this.

[number 9]

Probably a blessing if we get knocked out, to be honest. Our priority is promotion. If indeed that happens, we’ll have to recruit another player like Morsy.

Btw, I think you meant Jack Taylor…Paul Taylor is a c*ck.

[Mauswara]

Baggott. That'll perk up their breakfasts in Jakarta.

[Charnwood]

Baggott. That'll perk up their breakfasts in Jakarta.

… and a well taken goal it was to completely against the run of play and a shame we’d gifted them a third goal with even more shocking defending.

[JohnnyB]

Baggott. That'll perk up their breakfasts in Jakarta.

I was going to say... it's bad enough when he's not even playing, socials will go proper crazy now

[Charnwood]

Jack Taylor had a great opportunity to score a second, now that would have made for an interesting finale.

[Charnwood]

Probably a blessing if we get knocked out, to be honest. Our priority is promotion. If indeed that happens, we’ll have to recruit another player like Morsy.

Btw, I think you meant Jack Taylor…Paul Taylor is a c*ck.

Of course 9, that’s what happens when you try watching footie, posting and doing other stuff all at the same time.

[Charnwood]

…. and another chance for Hutchinson from a Humphries cross. If only we could score a 2nd especially with 8 mins added time.

We’re really having a go now.

[Charnwood]

I’m sure I just heard MOTM awarded to Sone Aluko which takes some doing having played only 61 mins but maybe I misheard it.

[Charnwood]

Official attendance 28,221 that’s pretty impressive for an EFL Cup game, well done town fans

[Charnwood]

We were well and truly beaten on the night by a much better team, but in a strange way instil enjoyed it and wish we’d played a stronger team from the start and given them a better game.

According to commentary had we won it would have taken us into the QF’s for the first time since 2010.

[hallamblue]

KMcK clearly wasn’t taking the cup as serious as he is the league. That was a Town “eleven “, not in any way a “ team”. They was no leader out there tonight. No presence throughout the side at all.

Walton at fault for 2 of the 3 goals .
Clarke all over the place : he lacks positional awareness often getting caught up field.
Axel got better as game went on, but was clearly doing the simple things tonight . But has a good tackle on him and reads the game well.
Burgess was getting caught because Clarke was all over the place leaving huge gaps … JD looked ok but whole defence was being pulled apart .

Midfield : … was there one??

Freddie had nothing to feed off so can’t judge him.

Baggott : looked class when he came in and the senior CB’s need to take a leaf out of his book on how to get on the end of balls in the box when we’re attacking!

Overall a nothingness of a performance. Disjointed , lacking movement ahead of the defence trying to bring the ball out. Walton looks like Bambi on ice with the ball at his feet - he tended to hoof it in the end. Not good enough frankly!

Taylor ? Really not sure about him yet . Will need to up his game Considerably to dislodge Morsy / Luongo.

As the fans are singing

f*ck the Cup, we’re going up

[Blue Wilf]

Hallam's view pretty much matches my own. That was not what we have become accustomed to as an 'Ipswich' performance. They were better all round than this ipswich 11. Some positives were Tuanzebe and Baggot which shows we have good strength at CB. There was no attacking threat until the subs came on. Ref was awful too... All in all - a poor night and move on.

[Charnwood]

I’m not sure how many of us managed or even bothered to watch tonight’s game ? Personally I was disappointed with our line up which looked far too weak to give Fulham a decent game and proved to be so. That said it clearly shows we have one priority to focus on and nobody can really criticise that. Once Hurst, Humphrey’s and Hutchinson came on we looked a different team especially going forward and if we could have scored a second late on it would have made for an exciting finish. For me Morsy and Luongo are simply must haves in Central Midfield and our defence simply were shockingly poor. Ellen Baggott looked good too and will be pushing Kieran for a place in our defence and did exceptionally well to score our only goal. Roll on Saturday and back to the Championship Campaign which I hope will be totally different.

[Mauswara]

To be fair one of the reasons Clarke was all over the place was because he spent the first two-thirds of the game as left back and the rest as right back.

Other than that, thought Walton could have had a better day, Tuanzebe looks to have some class and had a solid game, Aluko for MoM was a fair shout though Harness would have run him close. Nice finish from Baggott.

Not the result we wanted or even a great game to watch but I still enjoyed it. Roll on Wayne Rooney's Birmingham.

[marko69]

To be fair one of the reasons Clarke was all over the place was because he spent the first two-thirds of the game as left back and the rest as right back.

Other than that, thought Walton could have had a better day, Tuanzebe looks to have some class and had a solid game, Aluko for MoM was a fair shout though Harness would have run him close. Nice finish from Baggott.

Not the result we wanted or even a great game to watch but I still enjoyed it. Roll on Wayne Rooney's Birmingham.

Wayne will certainly roll into the stadium.

[arana peligrosa]

We have to be philosophical about this, we were unlikely to go on and win the goddamn thing, elimination would have occurred at one stage or another - but - would have been better if the manager had fielded a full strength team to allow the team that chance to progress. Never imagined Baggott to score, you can tell we're not taking it seriously when that name is included but a goal's a goal.

Clearly they wanted it more, imagined they'd have a better chance of reaching or winning a final than ourselves and even though we maybe didn't appear to try as usual or provided something of an unsatisfactory performance it still hurts to a certain extent. This will be forgotten when or if we're EPL status by the end of season but there will be a section of the fanbase not happy about today's score or that we didn't put our usual best into it.

Maybe the standard between the top level and Championship is greater than we imagine but we're a damn good team right now, the league start has been a testament to it. Another off day was surely due, just a shame it had to be this particular occasion. Whether you want to agree or disagree, some for sure will view this game as a missed opportunity.

[Bluemike]

Last night was nowhere near a representation of the real 2023 Town side, the game was lost at 6.45pm when the side was announced, it just wasn't strong enough and KM showed he had little interest in it, I half wondered if I should jump off the bus and give it a miss, what was to follow showed that would have been the best call.

What last night did show was that some players are not in the first team for a reason, Clarke, Walton, Donacien, Ball, Aluko, Jackson & Taylor can all have few complaints on that score.

The defending was woeful from the off, Clarke was just all over the place throughout the game despite what side he played he was lost for much of it, Donacien struggled at the beginning of the season and you can see why, Ball and Taylor had no presence in the middle at all and where just outplayed, Aluko the odd bright spot maybe but nothing ever comes from anything he does.

Last night confirmed 100% to me that we have the best keeper currently in the first team, Walton actually jarred me off as it reminded me of just how poor his decision making is, yes exposed for the first goal but man the rush out off his line was just terrible, again the keeping for the Third was shocking but the biggest thing for me was the Three or Four times he ran into trouble with the ball at his feet, it was painful and he cannot do it, Hladjy puts us on the attack in an assured manner while Walton puts us into trouble.

Can't judge Tuanzebe on last night as that team around him was poor. Baggott as always looked excellent when he came on and got his goal, the substitutions made a difference but too little too late. Everyone around me laughed in disbelief when Aluko was announced as MOTM, for me it was Harness, the best of a bad bunch.

When all is said and done the League is without doubt our priority and rightly so but at the very least I wanted to compete and be entertained but I wasn't, I was actually very bored. We do have to remember that was a Premier league B side so it exposed our weaknesses more but I couldn't help but feel we missed a trick as our A side could well have taken them last night.

As long as we get the job done at Birmingham then it will all be forgotten but just as winning breeds winning losing can also breed losing, we need to get back to winning ways immediately. An excellent turn out for such a low profile competition and at least I won't have to put up with the f**king village idiot that stood in front of me, just why do I attract them, answers on a postcard.