 [Blog] Dick 'Watford' Turpin in Points RaidWritten by Karl_Fuller on Thursday, 22nd Oct 2009 14:12 I went to bed on Tuesday night reflecting on Dick Turpin turning up late at Portman Road disguised as Watford players minus the mask and no matter how I viewed the game and digested the season thus far as a whole, I felt nothing other than sick, gutted, angry, annoyed and in a total state of disbelief. I wondered how I would feel when waking up on Wednesday morning and other than the fact that my twins afforded me only about four hours' sleep and therefore left me very tired, I still felt no different about the events of injury time on Tuesday. We all have our opinions on whether Roy Keane is the right man for the job or not and that's another debate in itself. But whatever anyone thinks about that particular talking point, most Town fans were singing from the same hymn sheet against Watford - quite literally. I wonder how many clubs on a run such as ours would have received such an ovation when leaving the field of play as the Ipswich players did despite another game without a win? Both performances on and off the pitch were commendable and nobody leaving the ground left with what they truly deserved. In my 31 years of supporting Ipswich, I have never experienced anything like the current situation. On the few occasions that we have been a bottom of the league side, it has usually been in the Premier League and we were getting soundly beaten week after week and in all honesty were out of our depth. But can the same be said at the moment? Other than Newcastle, nobody is beating us soundly and although I am not naive enough to ignore the fact that overall we are in a position where we deserve to be, I still have hope based on recent performances alone that the tide is turning and surely results will come soon. If we can just stop conceding early as we did against Swansea more often and can then not concede late as we did against Watford and try and score a second goal to kill games off, then we might just get to where we would all like to be. Not too much to ask is it? Our last two games have shown how good we can be to hold a Swansea side that won at West Brom and to dominate a Watford side that won at Middlesbrough and football has a wonderful way of playing with the mind in making one look forward to see where we could be if we win the next game or two, and equally looking back and thinking 'what if?'. The late goals alone against Sheffield United, Barnsley and Watford have cost us five points and if we could have held on at Doncaster, then there was two more points in the bag. That would have made a rosier picture, but we can't keep looking back. If, no, make that when, we have avoided relegation, I will dedicate the escape to Tuesday night's game. Because no matter what the media-obsessed Keane detractors think, no matter what the smirking rival fan thinks, conveniently forgetting they are already in the third tier of English football where it is by no means guaranteed at this stage where we will end up come next May, Ipswich simply did not deserve to draw their last game. Other supporters conveyed their feelings on a radio phone-in post match and they all had a similar feel about them that it felt like that we had lost. In fact, the calmest person who displayed any sense of reason was Keane himself who simply said "that's sport" when asked to comment on the undeserved draw. I made him wrong on that one. For instance, if the Watford game had of been a boxing match, then we would have won! I tried to recall the last time I felt really as sick at the final whistle and wondered if it was when a certain Milk Cup semi-final in 1984 went bellies up or when Bosko Jankovic scored two second half goals for Middlesbrough back in May 1981. Sure we have had some major disappointments in more recent years, but with the exception of when Steve Sedgley hit the post against Sheffield United late in one play-off semi-final to see us lose on away goals, all the other play-off defeats were in the end perhaps as comprehensive as they could have been. A 3-0 defeat to Blackburn in a Full Members Cup semi-final once was disappointing but not even close. So, on the back of what happened at Sheffield United and Barnsley alone, it really was too much to take on Tuesday night. But after that performance, there is still plenty of hope for now and while the dandy highwayman rode out of town with our other two points, it really is now time for us to stand and deliver against Plymouth, Derby and Reading to get our season going once and for all! Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
|
   Blogs by Karl_FullerBlogs 296 bloggers |
