We’ve Found Another One in the Academy

Virtually everyone who predicted the order that the Championship would finish in, at the start of the season, predicted Ipswich to be first, based almost entirely on the fact that they gave the Premier League a decent go last season. When I say decent, I mean that they were a lot better than us.

That of course, wasn’t exactly difficult. What was difficult is what they did before that. If you rewind, you will remember that they spent a few years in League One, got promoted and then smashed the Championship as a newly promoted side and took one season to land in the Premier League. In the process, they were promoted automatically at the end of the 2023/2024 season whilst we ourselves had to go through the playoffs. They got promoted by building momentum early on in the season and never really letting it go. A couple of small wobbles here all there but they basically defied the predictions of everyone and didn’t fall away. It was a very good example of how big a deal momentum is in football, because when I looked at the team they had out on the pitch, I could never really work it out how they were that good but team spirit and will to win took them a long way.

So, momentum is a huge and if your team believes in itself and the fans believe in you and everyone is pulling in the same direction, it can make a huge difference up to a point. It may have only been six minutes but Saints have momentum going into this game and will be believing in ourselves a lot more than we would’ve been. Had we lost to Wrexham, we’d have been pessimistically looking at two defeats out of two, bottom of the league and zero points (again). As it is there’s not as much pressure on this game than there could have been. Ipswich scored late in their game as well to grab a point against a Birmingham team who are expected to be one of the better sides this season, so that will ultimately end up being a good point.

Last year, of course, Ipswich had Liam Delap as their headline player, and he seemed to be a great signing when he hit the ground running in the Premier League, having not been outstanding at Hull City in the season that Ipswich got promoted. Saints were allegedly interested in him, but instead of sealing that deal, we, of course, decided to go into the Premier League without any serviceable strikers at that level. Sadly for Ipswich, they lost Delap in the summer because of a relatively modest £30 million release fee, and he decided to go into the Chelsea meat grinder and then immediately saw them sign another centre forward for double the amount of money straight after he arrived. That leaves Ipswich with George Hirst, son of former Saint David Hirst, as their main man up front, and it was his penalty that rescued the point against Birmingham.

Omari Hutchison was another big player for them last season but he’s in the Dibling vortex at the moment and not in the right headspace to play for the club that he’s contracted to because he wants to be off to Nottingham Forest to replace Anthony Elanga, so we are unlikely to be bothered by the England Under 21 man this afternoon. Elsewhere, they have lost the talents of Sam Morsy from midfield. A player who committed more fouls per game than anyone I’ve ever seen apart from N’Golo Kante and seemed to wear the cloak of invisibility which meant referees never penalised him. He of course scored the last-minute equaliser as they robbed a point off of us at St Mary’s when we had largely outplayed them, though he was powerless to stop us recording one of only two Premier League wins we achieved all season, when we went to Portman Road.

Saints fans who travelled last year, saw that win for the princely sum of £30, whereas those who make the trip this year will find that Ipswich have seen fit to raise the price to £43, which is an absolute fucking piss take. I’ve said this before, but I hope the travelling Saints fans who go, do not spend a single penny inside the ground or anywhere that is run by Ipswich Town FC. The people who will mainly suffer from this pricing policy are of course Ipswich travelling fans who will be subject to this sort of pricing at a significant number of away games that game they go to. Saints fans for example will be paying £43 for one game whereas Ipswich away fans will be playing £43, probably at about 10 games as tit-for-tat will apply. Ed Sheeran bastards. As part powner of the club, he’s probably responsible – like he’s responsible for the death of decent music. Actually, that’s Simon Cowell but I digress.

Ed Says “Charge the bastards forty-three quid”

Back on the training ground, the Tyler Dibling situation took another turn, when the player returned to training in the aftermath of Everton signing Jack Grealish on-loan and presumably dropping their interest, for now at least. It remains to be seen whether he will be involved in this weekend’s game. Johannes Spors and whoever else is involved, are still playing hardball on the fee and so they should. As I write, Ben Doak is going to be joining Bournemouth for £25 million, off the back of half a decent season in the Championship. Every case is different of course but bidding the the £20 millions for Dibling and Fernandes, is always going to be laughed at. I’m still enjoying fans of Everton and West Ham giving it the “but you’re a Championship club” bollocks. Yes we are and it’s the best league in the world if you’re a match going fan (despite today costing 43 bastard quid).

With just over two weeks of the window remaining, it occurs to me that Rasmus still needs to unshit himself in other areas of the squad however, with Joe Aribo, Sam Edozie, Will Smallbone, ABK and a few others still hanging around, seemingly unwanted by the new manager. There have been a few rumours of incoming players (Jack Rudoni and Edouard Spertsyan), in the positions that Tyler and Matty play, so maybe we’re seeing how things progress over the next few days before committing to anything. We have signed a 16 year old from Chelsea. I wouldn’t usually talk about this but he has one of the greatest names I’ve ever heard from a modern day footballer – Walter Nutter – proper name that. A few years ago we had a player called Armani for fucks sake. Here’s wishing Walnut every success and if he makes the first team, maybe he’ll join the likes of Jimmy Case, Terry Hurlock and Oriol Romeu as our resident nutter in midfield.

Will Still’s pre-match presser hinted at both Tyler and Matty being in the squad for the Ipswich game, which can only be a good thing. THB also suffered no reaction to the hour he played in the Northampton game so it’s good news all round. The other fallout from that Northampton game was Scouse Whingebag Kevin Nolan getting annoyed at Will for labelling his team direct, which they undoubtedly were. It was hardly flowing football was it Kevin? Maybe Kevin wants to distance himself from Sam Allardyce, who basically made his career.

Back to today and as said, Ipswich have lost a few of their better players and the replacements are of course bedding in, so surely it’s a good time to play them. Hopefully we go for it and we all remember the season we got promote under Nigel Adkins when we came here and smashed them 5-2 at a similar time of the season. That was a result that gave us the belief to have a great season that year and ultimately go up. Hopefully history will repeat itself this year but that only happens if we go for it.

Team news and it’s pretty much as expected. THB comes in for Ronnie Edwards and Matty Fernandes starts, with Wee Man going to right back and Sugawara dropping out. Away we go and four minutes gone at a fervent Portman Road and Baz knocks the ball short to Josh Q, who takes just a little bit too long to clear it and he gets closed down by Szmodics. The ball bounces to Welington who knocks it back to Q, who lets it run past him and Hirst is onto it and he pulls it back into the middle where Clarke, Captain Jack and THB are all present and this clusterfuck results in the ball hitting THB and bouncing into the net. For fuck‘s sake, absolute fucking clown show.

Saints continue not making it easy for ourselves and THB gives away a pointless free kick out on the right wing for a foul on Hirst and when the cross comes in from the free-kick, it’s Hirst who rises, behind Josh Q to glance it wider the far post. We got a bit lucky there.

Saints begin to quieten the crowd down and work their way into the game. Welington finds Fernandes in field, who turns well and gets to the edge of the area before knocking it into Armstrong and wide it goes to Wellington, coming steaming in for the shot but either he doesn’t understand English or J-Rob doesn’t understand Portuguese and so the two of them fuck it up between them and the ball goes wide, in shit fashion. The two of them need to get on Duolingo.

The tide does seem to be turning a bit however and we’re back at it straight away with Fernandes carrying the ball forward and he clips the ball in and Robinson should head for goal but knocks it back across towards Charles and the danger is cleared. No matter though with Jack Stephens stepping in and stopping an attack and sending Fernandes away. He knocks it onto Wee man who sees his cross blocked back to him. He lends it to Fernandes who rolls it back to him, allowing Wee Man to put in a wonderful first time cross along the 6 yard line and there is J-Rob to rise and put his header low, straight through Palmer in the Ipswich goal.

Saints consolidate with THB bringing the ball out of defence and getting tackled on the halfway line like a fucking idiot, and Hirst picks it up and drive towards goal but luckily he gets greedy when faced by non-challenges by Stephens and Josh Q’s back and the eventual low shot, hts Baz’s foot and away.

Pick That Out

Bobby Madley is today’s referee and he’s shit. The reason we all know this is because he used to be a Premier League referee and someone decided he wasn;t good enough to do that any more so here he is, the big I am. He hasn;t done much so far but there is a strange incident as we approach half-time as Welington puts in a shit corner which is cleared and then Fraser hangs the ball back into the box and it gets smashed up in the air and with Arma trying to get underneath it, Matasiwa grabs him by the shoulders and throws him over. I mean, this is Bobby Madley so it won’t get given, but you could clearly argue that it maybe should’ve been.

It’s time for peak Bobby straight after as he attempts to even up his genuine incompetence as Matusiwa tangles with Charles and it’s a clear six and two threes, but he gives it our way and books the Ipswich player. Fernandes hangs the free kick into the box and THB heads powerfully down but the goalkeeper gets there before Stephens.

Half-time and after a shaky opening 10, we have actually done well to get back into it and look the more likely side to go on and win it. Be interesting to see which team starts the second half the strongest.

And it’s not us. Hirst again turns away well from Stephens in midfield and plays it to Szmodics, who’s behind Josh Q and he goes on and drills across the goal and it hits the post and bounces back to the keeper. They are attacking Josh Q at every opportunity and you can see why, as he makes another mistake out on the left and this time the cross comes in and is kicked up in the air by Stephens and Philogene meets it on the volley and is trying to score goal of the season and lashes it into the crowd.

We are finding it very difficult to create much and so it’s with great anticipation that we get a throw in in the corner and big Josh Q is up to take it. He hurls it in but it’s too high and loopy and it’s easily headed out to the edge of the box where Welington comes steaming in and no doubt he can see his name up in lights as he swings a massive haymaker with his left foot and totally misses the fucking ball and all of a sudden Szmodics is clean through about 65 yards from goal. On he goes with Downes and Welington in pursuit and luckily he runs out of gas and turns the wrong way and Welington manages to get a foot in to knock it back to Baz.

Manning is on for Welington soon after and the new man finds J-Rob on the corner of the penalty area and he goes directly at goal, past a player and hammers it at the near post but Palmer gets down well to block. Fernandes and Robinson are off for Archer and Matsuki, while Ipswich bring on Connor Chaplin-Skate and it’s good to know that with all these changes, some things remain the same as Josh Q makes yet another mistake, ballooning the ball up in the air and Stephens header back to Baz is a little bit short, but he gets there just before Szmodics, who clatters into him. The bottom line is that Baz has got the ball and Szmodics has run into him. I have to reluctantly give Bobby Madley some credit on this one because he’s got it spot-on, despite George Hirst giving him incredulous looks as he explained his decision and the Ipswich faithful all chewing on their carrots getting very animated.

More changes as Wee Man picks up a knock and goes off along with Armstrong and we see the reintegrated Tyler Dibling and Yuki Sugawara. Tyler’s first contribution is to file Jacob Greaves out on our right or to put it more accurately, get sucked in to going somewhere near Jacob Greaves, who collapses like a little bitch. The cross comes in from Leif Davis, headed back across and the leaping skate heads over the bar. And it’s all over.

At the end of the day, that’s a decent point away from home against one of the strongest teams in the division. It’s especially good to get a point away from home when you don’t play well and we, for large parts of that game, certainly did not.

The game started in the worst way possible of course with the horrendous own goal which goes down to THB of course, but he was the least to blame after some horrendous fuck ups from Josh Q, who didn’t learn the lessons from last week at all. Too slow and cumbersome to control the ball and get passes away and then bizarre decision-making to let that ball run beyond him. We were lucky that this was the only time that he got caught out because he was pretty terrible all game and the question has tobe asked if it would be better to take him out of the team and give him a chance to get up to speed because he is certainly not there yet. Once he made a mistake, his physicality seemed to go missing as well as he failed to win several headers and challenges.

Josh Q has Skate for His Lunchtime Snack

He wasn’t alone in struggling though as THB had a game which was only marginally better than the ‘hooked at halftime shit show’ that he produced at Portman Road last year. Like Quarshie, he doesn’t look suited to playing in a back three where he gets pulled into wide areas and I think we need to go to a back four as soon as possible. Will Still’s interview after the game suggested that we don’t have the wingers to play in that formation and that is true but I don’t think it’s doing us any good defensively playing with the back three. Head and shoulders above the other defenders was Jack Stephens who made one mistake with that back header which he dropped short in front of Bazunu but other than that, he was excellent. Mond you, he’s the only central defender we have who is better suited to a back three than a four.

Flynn Downs and Shea Charles showed signs of a dominant midfield partnership with the pair of them taking turns to drive forwards and press the opposition in their own half. Matty Fernandes had a decent first half but faded from the game badly in the second, which is probably down to him lacking a little bit of match fitness. Welington did okay in the first half though we did pick up a booking from one of Bobby Madley‘s more random decisions. He didn’t offer a great deal going forward but I feel he is hamstrung by having Josh Q playing behind him. Meanwhile,on the other side, the Wee Man was excellent and until he was forced off with an injury, putting over a few decent crosses and of course the one which led to Jay Robinson‘s equaliser.

Robbo was lively with a continual desire to take players on and burst into spaces. He turned down a couple of shooting opportunities that he could’ve taken in the first half, but he was there when it mattered to attack Wee Man’s cross and head it under the goalkeeper. It is worrying in a way that this is shaping up like last season when the Academy graduate who is only 18, is the main attacking threat. That happened last year with Tyler Dibling and Robinson is carrying the threat this season. Adam Armstrong worked hard and he was better at holding the ball up then he usually is but the end of the day he just doesn’t offer enough. If one of Damien Downs or Ross Stewart had been fit, I don’t think Armstrong would’ve started but we absolutely need more attacking threat to score some more goals obviously but almost as importantly, to occupy the opposition more because of the moment we just don’t ask enough questions or make life difficult enough for them. Longer term, one of Arma, Archer, Downs or Stewart has to step up and score 20+ goals this season.

Like ourselves, Ipswich are short up front as well, which is no surprise given the players that have lost. They scored today from an own goal and didn’t create that much despite the fact that two of our three central defenders were having absolutely shocking games. Unless they pull off some transfer market masterstrokes in the next couple of weeks, I certainly don’t see them running away with the league or being nailed on shout for automatic promotion.

So, it wasn’t great, but we got a result and so onwards for the next game which is looking more difficult than it would’ve done a few weeks ago because Stoke have won their opening two games of the season, albeit against poorish opposition. St Mary’s needs to be a fortress this season after being more like a sandcastle in a thunderstorm last season, and having beaten Wrexham we need to carry that momentum (that word again) into next week.

Up the fuckin’ Saints