League 1 - Ipswich Town vs Cambridge United Preview & Matchday Thread

[Charnwood]

Thompson is sh*t. Just shepharded out a ball for....... a corner. Bloody useless.

Catalogue of errors every match.

Are you suggesting McKenna isn’t as good as we think he is when it come’s to team selection ? Aluko just made a massive mistake putting the ball out of play and conceding possession but he doesn’t get slated. It just seems we have players who fans love to blame.

No, im suggesting Thompson is sh*t

But it’s McKenna who picks him every week ?

[Denny61]

In reality what's making us look good was the quality of the team in this division . These teams would even struggle in division 4 .even jst put in a
Decent performance in outside league status ..the players know they are a division 3 quality at best and maybe resigned to the fact if we by a miracle had gone up .a lot of them be shown the door ..its a though old station but mckenna needs to build his own team and hopefully go up automatically nxt year. Only two things certain in life death and taxes

[marko69]

I dunno, thats an absolute shocker of a result at Portman Road. Im blaming Ashton for this. Every time that guy does a 40 minute interview with Phil Ham, Ipswich lose.
Get out the fkn limelight, clown. The fans know you’re doing a job but its behind the scenes…… stop giving interviews. Wasnt a real job anyway a few years ago.

[Bluemike]

We were awful today, simple as that, Thompson and Carroll are indeed abysmal and its about the only thing I don't agree with KM about.

[Dazzz67]

Disappointed like all with that shocker of a performance and result, but we do have to look at how well weve done under KM, and we are going to get the odd cluster of a game every so often.

There are few players that do not seem good enough so now the playoffs are a def no-no now we can plan for next season in LG1 and start looking at replacements, which im sure thats happening already, and im looking forward to seeing who goes and who comes in.

Chin up all, 2023 is going to be a good year and ww will be going up!

[Blue Wilf]

We were awful today, simple as that, Thompson and Carroll are indeed abysmal and its about the only thing I don't agree with KM about.

This exactly. If carroll never plays for us again, it will be too soon - he is sh*t

[Denny61]

Is it possible mckenna is too nice a guy and too quiet in so far as motivating a team...Good coaching is one thing but often at half time a team needs a good rollicking. And I just feel he is not in to that...it helps to focus the job in hand
.sometimes if the team see the manager as laid back. It can have detrimental effect on the minds of players .only saying

[Rodenbach Ex-pat]

In reality what's making us look good was the quality of the team in this division . These teams would even struggle in division 4 .even jst put in a
Decent performance in outside league status ..the players know they are a division 3 quality at best and maybe resigned to the fact if we by a miracle had gone up .a lot of them be shown the door ..its a though old station but mckenna needs to build his own team and hopefully go up automatically nxt year. Only two things certain in life death and taxes

In my opinion the inconsistency of results like today is that several players know they are not good enough for a higher division. Therefore whether intentional or not, their performance drops. Maybe a psychological aspect. A club must have players who are and believe that they are capable of promotion AND sealing their own place in the higher league. Promotion and then initiating required major improvements also just doesn’t work. Re goal-scoring, I watched some brilliant finishing in German Third Division live on TY today. But my first love remains ITFC since standing on the old wooden terraces for my first game in 1947!

[Bluemike]

I don't think we need any major inquiry into the first home defeat under KM, sometimes it ain't your day for whatever reason and the opposition are better, today was that day. Just as any win doesn't make KM the greatest manager ever nor does a defeat make him lacking.

[goldandblack]

In reality what's making us look good was the quality of the team in this division . These teams would even struggle in division 4 .even jst put in a
Decent performance in outside league status ..the players know they are a division 3 quality at best and maybe resigned to the fact if we by a miracle had gone up .a lot of them be shown the door ..its a though old station but mckenna needs to build his own team and hopefully go up automatically nxt year. Only two things certain in life death and taxes

In my opinion the inconsistency of results like today is that several players know they are not good enough for a higher division. Therefore whether intentional or not, their performance drops. Maybe a psychological aspect. A club must have players who are and believe that they are capable of promotion AND sealing their own place in the higher league. Promotion and then initiating required major improvements also just doesn’t work. Re goal-scoring, I watched some brilliant finishing in German Third Division live on TY today. But my first love remains ITFC since standing on the old wooden terraces for my first game in 1947!

theirs a lot in what your saying there Redenbacher, great managers can convince average players they are good enough, average managers can convince average players they are not good enough, but this manager i believe will turn out to be a great/ good manager in time, lets hope he does it at the Town,
Town fans should keep behind this one i think,

[goldandblack]

I don't think we need any major inquiry into the first home defeat under KM, sometimes it ain't your day for whatever reason and the opposition are better, today was that day. Just as any win doesn't make KM the greatest manager ever nor does a defeat make him lacking.

I think the Town and all clubs need 30,000 BlueMikes supporting the club, On the down side imaging the ques at the chemist for Paracetamols and ear plugs

Exit Wolfie stage right

[Andym]

I don't think we need any major inquiry into the first home defeat under KM, sometimes it ain't your day for whatever reason and the opposition are better, today was that day. Just as any win doesn't make KM the greatest manager ever nor does a defeat make him lacking.

I didn’t see the match - managed to listen to the away commentary on Radio Cambridgeshire. But I agree completely. You can’t really expect consistency at league 1 level. Before today the football had been there best for years, and the results haven’t been too bad either. I certainly wouldn’t condemn him for one poor performance.

[barmy billy]

I don't think we need any major inquiry into the first home defeat under KM, sometimes it ain't your day for whatever reason and the opposition are better, today was that day. Just as any win doesn't make KM the greatest manager ever nor does a defeat make him lacking.

Well said Mike & I completely agree with you.

Our first poor performance in months & out come the usual suspects with their derogatory remarks. Pathetic, especially as they think they know more than the manager.

[number 9]

Surprised no one is having a go at our strikers for not scoring again! That’s what needs a major inquiry… and to question KM’s ability to motivate the players at half time is silly. If any player wearing the shirt today didn’t know the importance of this game even a KM BOOT UP THE ARSE wouldn’t have helped!

I hope all the strikers are replaced for next season. You can’t get promoted with clean sheets alone.

[shabba]

Disappointed like all with that shocker of a performance and result, but we do have to look at how well weve done under KM, and we are going to get the odd cluster of a game every so often.

There are few players that do not seem good enough so now the playoffs are a def no-no now we can plan for next season in LG1 and start looking at replacements, which im sure thats happening already, and im looking forward to seeing who goes and who comes in.

Chin up all, 2023 is going to be a good year and ww will be going up!

Spot on. We aren’t far away from being a top team at this level.

[ashfordblue]

Firstly why in the F**k change a winning team, bad move KM, some advice KM swallow your pride and give Simpson a crack upfront, secondly end of the season get rid of Bonne, Norwood, Jackson, Carroll, Thompson, and for F**K sake bring in some strikers who know where the back of the F*****G net is also 20'000 plus fans don't pay good money to watch sh*t performances, I thought we had got rid of this problem we had where sh*t teams can us turnover had to stopped, the one weakness we have is we have strikers on our books that couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo and have been included in our squad week after week, so KM now that we have no chance of the playoffs can you please F*****G play some of the under 23's who score goals for fun.

[MasseyFerguson]

We were poor against Cambridge. It happens. We've had a really good run and one bad game does not undo the progress we have made under KMcK.

He is young and still getting to grips with being a manager. Of course he will make mistakes. Of course the team is not going to play well in every game. Yes, we have weaknesses in certain areas. The bottom line is that, apart from this match, we are unrecognisable from the shambles of a team that we endured before McKenna. He is a very good young manager who will get better. We will strengthen the team for next season with players who will be capable of playing the game the way he wants it played. Our future is bright.

This result was depressing but it does not alter the fact we are on the right path.

[Bluemike]

Here here

[arana peligrosa]

playing with only one up front from the start was a mistake. Why implement such a measure in a home game where three points were essential.

Today was a real letdown, the score, the inability of so called strikers to find a target, not to mention the performance of game officials including a sumbitch linesman who denied us a goal at the very end. He did the same with the opposition far earlier in the contest but that doesn't make it so.

McKenna has done well, very well, easily one of the best since Joe Royle in his short time here but we lack a cutting edge and just aren't ruthless enough. Took an own goal for them to win it, lo and behold we couldn't score except past our own goalkeeper. Played them off the field for most part in terms of possession but not for the first time, no end product.

Won't give up on any promotion objective, you got to try until the very end but make no mistake we've made it that much tougher for ourselves now. It's been largely good up until now with the new manager. Today was a sh*t score, can feel the disappointment but instead of regrouping for next season, one more time so long as a top six finish is within distance you just got to go for it.

[rossi]

We were awful today, simple as that, Thompson and Carroll are indeed abysmal and its about the only thing I don't agree with KM about.

I would add Chaplin to the abysmal list. KM has done a wonderful job with the squad put together by Coq but which is not half as good as most of us thought it would be, but I cannot understand the roration he plays which means that these 3 play at least every other game. They are clearly not good enough.

[Tangfastic]

We were poor against Cambridge. It happens. We've had a really good run and one bad game does not undo the progress we have made under KMcK.

He is young and still getting to grips with being a manager. Of course he will make mistakes. Of course the team is not going to play well in every game. Yes, we have weaknesses in certain areas. The bottom line is that, apart from this match, we are unrecognisable from the shambles of a team that we endured before McKenna. He is a very good young manager who will get better. We will strengthen the team for next season with players who will be capable of playing the game the way he wants it played. Our future is bright.

This result was depressing but it does not alter the fact we are on the right path.

Don't see much criticism of McKenna - apart from Simpson's agent.

We were under-par - but the truly top teams win when they play badly. We're not there yet. And to score we really have to work our hardest to create clear-cut chances. Don't necessarily think it's just a bad day at the office. Again- McKenna gets it right in his assessment

"At the moment we probably need to play very well to win a game and we need to put together a very good passage of play to score a goal,” McKenna said.

“We’ve played very well and won plenty of games but we’ve also played well and drawn games and now we’ve played not so well and lost a game, and that’s an area that we need to really look at and investigate the reasons why and work on that.

“Certainly there are not many teams in world football who can play well every week. We’ve played, performance-wise, to a really high level consistently but it’s important that on the days you don’t play so well, you find a way to win games and we’ve managed to draw games and today lose games when we haven’t been at our very, very best.

“That’s clearly something for us to work on, to investigate and to very much have in our heads for the rest of the season and to go into the summer.”


A good honest assessment and the one real positive is that it emphasises where we need to improve on. To win, we're having to play much better than other teams. The truly top teams dig out wins when they're under the pump. We need new strikers, but how many clear-cut chances do they get? I think the way it is now for a striker to get on a run he'd have to make things out of nothing. They're living of half-chances or nothing. Things to work on, but it's probably the addition of 2-3 players in the right areas we need most.

[hallamblue]

Very disappointing result yesterday, but in truth we had no slack left in the fixtures for a “ blip”. And a blip it was . Many factors contributed towards it too. The choice of Carroll was a strange one for me. He offered absolutely nothing and left Morsy trying to control midfield virtually on his own. And don’t get me started on Thompson. I just don’t rate him sorry to say .

But let’s not underestimate Cambridge. If you look at some of their results this season they have beaten just about every one of the top 6 teams ( something we can’t say)! They came here with a game plan of high pressing combined with periods of packing out the midfield and defence. They nullified our only attacking threat this season, Burns. We had nothing else to offer. Walton kept the score respectable frankly. We simply were unable to deal with their physicality- a problem that we have struggled with at this level time and again tbh, which made the choice of Carroll evdd we n more strange.

So, that’s another league season over with . Maybe in truth it was “ over” after the first 6-8 games with the brand new team as it was then. In my view this season was always one of bedding only .

Next season we’ll see what McKenna can really do - expect a fair few players out and in to complete that jigsaw. But I’ll say it here right now , next season will be far from a walk over and we’ll have to fight every inch of the way to make those play offs or automatics, but we are light years away from the club we were under Evans. We are emerging as a much stronger Club !

COYBs

[shabba]

Exactly! You can clearly see we are moving in the right direction - there was a lot of rot around the club and that doesn’t go away overnight. The club is being run properly now and we are exciting to watch with exciting players, as said before we really aren’t too far away from being a real force. The season was over after those two draws against Cheltenham etc.

Exciting summer ahead and let’s get behind this team from the off next season, I also don’t agree we will walk the league but we should be right in the mix.

[marko69]

Read this entire thread and just cannot get on board with the attitude. I know you lot will be pi$$ed off NO DOUBT MORE than me as home town supporters, but FUUUUK. Just ever so slightly getting peed off with the abundance of love. I think he’s great, he’s going to be better and he’s refreshing after whats been before…….. but ffs, Cambridge Utd @ PR. Jaysus fkn H. Honestly thought it’d be Morecambe & Cheltenham that’d be the ultimate play-off let downs……. But now the club who should only really excel in rowing boats come to “Fortress” Portman Road and win.

Why the changes after the Plymouth game? Not asking KMcK , but asking anyone who knows on this site? Any of the older guys maybe? Why?
ALL of you could name an Ipswich line up years ago, born out of ability, effort and professionalism, ….. was virtually unchanged from week to week in a much tougher game (fkn pussies these days with their tissue injuries) …… and now they apply analytics and Cambridge previous videos and come up with a plan.

Just play the fkn team with the ability to press press press and win LIKE THE REPORTS READ V PLYMOUTH.

Enjoying the new era. Cannot get on board licking the guys ring-piece because yesterday was a shocking result. Nope, agree, CANNOT win every game…….. but CAMBRIDGE @ PR. Thats a win.

[Bluemike]

Who knows why Marko, but it happens, look at your boys, 0-0 against bottom of the league Dundee and turned over 2-3 at home to bloody Livingston (Meadowbank) ! It happens

[marko69]

Oh its happens, i said that, it definitely happens…… (like the Meadowbank reference ) but there are a whole host of other factors in regards Hibernian, mainly, MOST haven’t got a bloody clue what Maloney is all about…… he thinks its Ajax Edinburgh, (never will be) ……

….. but in the context of Ipswich Town, and recent results, and performances, and styles, and bloody Ashton getting up onstage again () ….. losing at home to Cambridge shouldn't be met with . Wholeheartedly agree that one, maybe two players have off days……. But IN CONTEXT with previous games, not the whole team??

[MasseyFerguson]

Read this entire thread and just cannot get on board with the attitude. I know you lot will be pi$$ed off NO DOUBT MORE than me as home town supporters, but FUUUUK. Just ever so slightly getting peed off with the abundance of love. I think he’s great, he’s going to be better and he’s refreshing after whats been before…….. but ffs, Cambridge Utd @ PR. Jaysus fkn H. Honestly thought it’d be Morecambe & Cheltenham that’d be the ultimate play-off let downs……. But now the club who should only really excel in rowing boats come to “Fortress” Portman Road and win.

Why the changes after the Plymouth game? Not asking KMcK , but asking anyone who knows on this site? Any of the older guys maybe? Why?
ALL of you could name an Ipswich line up years ago, born out of ability, effort and professionalism, ….. was virtually unchanged from week to week in a much tougher game (fkn pussies these days with their tissue injuries) …… and now they apply analytics and Cambridge previous videos and come up with a plan.

Just play the fkn team with the ability to press press press and win LIKE THE REPORTS READ V PLYMOUTH.

Enjoying the new era. Cannot get on board licking the guys ring-piece because yesterday was a shocking result. Nope, agree, CANNOT win every game…….. but CAMBRIDGE @ PR. Thats a win.

I read that with a Scottish accent in my head. It really adds flavour to your posts when you're in rant mode!

In truth, I agree with you. I'm guilty of exactly the attitude you are highlighting. I think it is just a coping mechanism for masking how, yet again, we are going to fall short this season.

McKenna may not be the Messiah but he's much more than a very naughty boy. Some if us might go slightly over the top in our praise of him but I think most must recognise that he has the potential to be one of our best managers. Certainly he is far better than any we've had for many years, yesterday's result notwithstanding.

Love the angry posts. It shows your passion for the club Keep them coming.

[Bluemike]

The thing is unbeaten in 12 prior to yesterday and numerous clean sheets is unheard of in recent years where ITFC are concerned so in some contexts he is a bloody Messiah compared the sh*te fests of recent managers, I think its the whole package at the club too, not just Mckenna, everything is going in the right direction.

[number 9]

The ITFC structure is the best it has been in over 20 years. Ashton & the american’s vision is refreshing from the head-banging leadership we endured for so long. In my opinion, KM is the messiah in a figurative sense. He’s breaking bread in football management and has already impressed everyone in so many ways. All of the above, is what’s right with the club now. So, what does that leave to fix? Once again, in my opinion we still need to fine tune the squad. Once KM has all the puzzle pieces in place, I think draws and losses will quickly transform into wins.

Marko you bring up the negative of losing to Cambridge at PR, right? That’s fair, but what about more than 26k in attendance for a league one match? Brilliant!!

COYB!!!

[marko69]

Carroll in, could blow this today.

(More bum licking alert)……. I do value your opinion and read your previews, and do believe you rarely get it wrong.

^^^ That is your post pre-kick off. ^^^

That MUST irk you that you took a look at the pre-match line up, thought , not sure about that in such an important part of the season —->>> And it went on to be zero points in a play-off push campaign. (Ashton had alluded to that in his interview with Ham)

I also don’t buy into anyones attitude of ….. “well, , if he got it right, he’s a genius” BS.

Not the right time to tinker with a winning line up and you knew that pre kick off.