THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

THE APL MELTDOWN – IPSWICH TOWN
In the build up to this my overriding fear was losing, I really didn’t fancy Ipswich coming away from this game with their tails up going into the last third of the fixtures buoyed by victory over the Mighty Franchise.

I appeared on Talking Town on Friday night which is a highly successful Vlog run by the fans of Ipswich Town, and I have to say it is superbly run, it’s on just about every night, and it’s made me think we should possibly consider the rebirth of Matchday Live, something that we started up during lockdown to try and engage with the fans.

Anyway, I digress, the presenters and guests were fairly bullish with their attitudes, but I’m pleased to say I held my own and gave as good as I got, none of the “who did you support 20 years ago bullshit” for these people but I did get the feeling that the result was a foregone conclusion in their eyes, backed by 7,000 fenland fans, how could they not win. I of course pointed out that it could work against them recalling how they booed their players at Portman Road earlier in the season as we went searching for the win, which to be fair to them they acknowledged, but they really couldn’t see anything other than a result for the Tractor Boys, for the record, I predicted a draw.

So, I am chuffed with myself that I called it right, makes a change, but I told them I thought the two teams would cancel each other out, and I think that is a fair assessment of yesterday, personally I’m happy with the point, it keeps them at a respectful 9 points away from us, what’s not to be happy about.

There are a few points I’d like to cover though, Ipswich thought they were going to outnumber us…. they didn’t, well not officially, and I just felt it was all a bit cringey from their fans. Considering there were just shy of 7000 of them I thought they were remarkably quiet, yes they had their moments, but they hardly sung out a tune for any period, the Ole, Ole, Ole song hardly did two choruses which I thought was amazingly poor as it was their Big Day Out, their Cup Final, with all the trappings of fancy dress, balloons and inflatables….funny I thought they were a big club, but obviously not, and the kid that let the flare off at the final whistle, well that was just pathetic. I’m sure if we had the ability to attract that amount of travelling support the noise would have been deafening, and I’m sure we made more noise than that at Wycombe, and with a third of that following. So, if there are any Tractor Boys looking in, you ain’t massive, and you aren’t a big club anymore, even though you have tried to buy the league, get over it.

Over the years we have had some superb away followings at SMK, and although they have been creaming themselves for two or three weeks over their ticket sales, the likes of Coventry, Wolves, Sheff Utd, and Man Utd have all been louder, and they might not be the biggest following this season, with Bolton and Sheff Wednesday fans waiting in the wings.

The team selection news was nothing surprising, as it was the same line up as against Lincoln City, and whilst talking about Lincoln City, what the hell were the MKFM team going on about when in the pre-match show they announced we were playing Lincoln United…really.

I felt we had the first 20 minutes or so well covered, good possession, good pressing, and we broke them down quickly and mixed it up, which must have been a big wake up call for the travelling support, they were quiet so I’m guessing they were having a reality check, but what really pissed me off was Corbeanu playing on the left side.

There was a good reason for it probably, confuse Ipswich with our set up, but I’d take some convincing that it was the right move, especially after Ipswich worked it out and changed themselves to counter it. He has in my eyes he has been one of our better players going forward, and I just couldn’t understand the desire to negate our goal threat, in my eyes it was a bloody waste of his talents as other than having a goal bound effort denied he was a shadow of the player we know. Once the Tractor Boys changed their set up, we might as well have moved the Canadian back to his normal starting position, makes no sense to me.

Watson was pushing up on the right, but I never got the impression that he put the wind up their defenders, he might have got one or two crosses in, but Corbeanu has more in his locker, he’s an exciting player that gets the crowd going, and can open the door where others fail.

Like I said those more tactically minded may have seen the logic, probably they wanted the defensive nouse of Watson covering that side, but Corbeanu I felt was wasted, and when he did trudge off later I felt sorry for him as he failed to fulfil the brief Manning had set him, a brief that he is not naturally familiar with, and isn’t that how we managed to liberate him from Sheff Wed, because they weren’t playing him to his strengths and how his parent club saw his future with us.

So, there you go, he might be better than Cristiano, but we will sacrifice his talents to accommodate others or tactics.

Parrott, while I think he is getting better…. well, I think so, well he still frustrates the hell out of me. The occasion he broke into the box after some great stuff in the second half and then tried some fancy back heel to nobody was painful, the sighs and derision were deafening, yes he would have been a bloody hero if he picked someone out and the goal was scored, but that happens rarely, yes I know he picked out O’Hora last week, but you must get what I mean, he flatters to deceive on too many occasions for my liking…but he is 20, I said that last week, hopefully his decision making will improve with us as I can see no possibility of him going back to Spurs, or a team in the Championship, currently we must be his best offer.

I think the transition of Coventry into the team is shaping up well, he is no O’Riley, but I think he gives us something after a dodgy debut a few weeks ago. I felt he did ok today, my only criticism would be I felt he gave some of their midfield too much room in the second half, but when you are faced with the class at this level of someone like Morsy, I can cut him a bit of slack.

As I’m sitting here typing away for your pleasure it’s just occurred to me the wealth of talent Ipswich have at their disposal up front, namely, Chaplin, Jackson, Celina, and they can afford to have the likes of Bonne and Norwood on the bench, that’s bloody mental, if we had that sort of firepower, I think we could have been planning a tour of the Championship even at this stage of the season.

For me the MOTM for us at least was Harry Darling, although I’d have O’Hora running him close, they rolled the dice with their best four strikers, but I don’t think Darling at any point looked in too much trouble, he dominated just about everything and hardly gave them a sniff.

Both teams had a chance to win it with both keepers making decent saves with Walton probably just about working the harder with notable saves from Corbeanu, the “Boat”, and Twine in injury time, and the latter would have been a beautiful ending to what was an entertaining game, I was willing that in, and it would have been doubly painful since I understand they fancied Twine to join the ranks at Portman Road, and would have dealt them a hammer blow to their playoff aspirations. I suppose I should also mention Harry s*** housing their keeper by mimicking his directions to the wall, I don’t know if he has been instructed to do that, but it’s an enjoyable watch, and if it works all the better.

Certainly, before the game the conversation in both dressing rooms must have been not to lose, and I think we settled for it before they did as I think our substitutions reflected that, although we had the better chances late on. Manning probably could have been more adventurous and gone for it, but it would have been ripped if it had all gone wrong. For me I would have swapped Corbeanu to the right wing and pinged in a few with Wickham waiting on, probably even bought on Kesler, but what do I know, I’m just some amateur hack, and Wickham has shown us next to nothing so far, so there is no guarantee he would have converted anything anyway.

For me sooner or later Wickham must go for it, currently he offers nothing…nothing at all, if he is brought on to win headers, or hold the ball up, it’s not working, not even close, he’s doing neither. Ok he might be occupying a defender or two but that’s about it. If he is trying to protect himself from further injury, I’m sorry but we haven’t got room for passengers, or provide some sort of rehabilitation facility. We did some good stuff in the Transfer Window, but not bringing in a forward threat could catch us out sooner or later. As I’ve mentioned, the Ipswich alternatives are mind blowing, ours are the same but for all the wrong reasons, Mo is out of form and we don’t utilise his skills, Parrott continues to frustrate, and Wickham, well you know my feelings, so really that just leaves us with Twine…not good if we are going to continue to push for a playoff spot, and we can’t rely on goals coming from elsewhere.

It must be said the ref was totally hopeless, two or maybe three challenges should have seen the yellow card, two on Lewie and one on Darling, and then surprise to nobody Watson was booked for a nothing challenge, you knew it would happen, as did you when Lewie gave the ref a mouthful, makes no sense to me, anyway bloody poor ref, don’t come back.

So, in conclusion, both sides nervous of defeat that cancelled each other out, a good game, to me an even better result against a team I honestly thought in August would run away with the league and they have failed to beat us in two attempts, not bad in my eyes. We are still in third with the results not going too badly, but we have some tough games coming up starting with Sunderland next Saturday, swiftly followed up with a visit to the Valley, and then Bolton arrive at SMK the following Saturday and they are in form and again will be backed by a big following, interesting and nervous times, I’m a mess already.

Catch u later.

WD

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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight

For that same free kick, did you see Morsy and another Ipswich player (I don't know who) messing with Twine whilst the ref was sorting the wall out? Morsy was saying loads of shit to Twine, Twine laughed about it, and both the Ipswich players moved the ball back, scuffed the grass where Twine had placed it etc. Never seen another player try and fuck with an opposition player's free kick as much as that before.

Fair play to him for still getting it on target and making the keeper work as that was some mighty fine shithousery.

Thanks WD, good read as usual, I'm off to visit their forum now for VFTOS. Might be a bit late coming out though this evening, trying to squeeze it in while away at the in-laws.

Typing this for my pleasure?

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

The wolves fans point is an interesting one because a few people have been saying that. Am I misremembering by feeling they were poor (other than at kick off) up until they scored? The celebrations and after we’re impressive but j don’t remember them being anything special until then.

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Cuboid of bum fluff

"backed by 7,000 fenland fans". Ipswich is in the Fens now?

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Have a look on their forum…..they bit ……I am aware they get a bit sensitive. I know a few lads from around there and they get a bit defensive when I say that …….
I will say they have short memories…..what was their home support like at PR, we pulled it back and looked the more likely to win, meanwhile their superb support was booing their team, that was when they weren’t sitting in their hands.
I acknowledge they are a good team, but they are in League 1 for a reason, just like us. They can say what they like, but we are third for a reason, not because we have been gifted it.

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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight