I met one of the first-team squad on the train home from Stratford the other day, wonderful fella, very pleasant and gave me the time of day for a quick chat before returning to his wife and kids.

During our brief chat we discussed the Town, as you of course would, with the main crux of the conversation started by a statement I made, “It’s a bit s**t at the moment isn’t it?”

What could he say to that? Well, the answer he gave is what inspired me to write this piece. He said, “We’re a victim of our own success, people expect us to be in the play-offs but when things haven’t gone away, it’s hard to explain”. So here it goes.

Ipswich are currently eighth in the Championship – three points off freefalling Derby and five points off high-flying Sheffield Wednesday.

Ryan Fraser is out injured for at least six weeks – Teddy Bishop and David McGoldrick look less and less likely to feature before the end of the season and the overall depth of the squad is looking remarkably thin.

Over the last few weeks, results have gone south and the team has dropped out of the play-offs without really cementing a place in it like we did last year.

A lot of fans are expressing their feelings over the lack of investment in the team during January, the consistency of the squad selection, not playing others and the general style of play.

So let’s start from the beginning. We were all agreed with the additions of Ryan Fraser, Brett Pitman and Bishop in his second season that Ipswich could really kick on and challenge further up the league. Couple that with the flying start and fairly attractive football we were playing, it was all looking rather optimistic.

Then came Reading – that beating set us back months, the team needed to regroup and solidify.

Since then the season really has been up and down, strings of good results and strings of bad results. Fans upset by the lack of investment, the manager, the owner etc.

Now to why I’m writing this. Rightly or wrongly, Ipswich did not invest in January – Boro, Sheffield Wednesday and Derby have all spent mega millions for a division not renowned for its spending, whilst Burnley and Hull still have their Premier League squads.

Ipswich fans need to accept the fact we have not been able to do this, the constraints of Financial Fair Play having followed the excessive spending in the first few years of Marcus Evans reign under bad managers, with the club now making a concentrated effort of promotion on a shoestring budget. That’s how it is – let’s not forget, money thrown at the wall doesn’t work – look at Derby!

Now let’s look at our team.

The Keepers - Fans moaned at McCarthy for dropping Bart when his father passed away, because they think he is the better goalkeeper, yet nobody really complained when Gerks got injured

I agree Bart is the better of the two, but in a squad like ours, mentality and togetherness is paramount. Mick sticks by his goalkeepers and to be fair, it proved its worth as Gerks kept us in many games during his last spell. Bart will now be the goalkeeper for the rest of the season with the full support of Gerks should he be needed.

The Back Four – It’s the best we’ve got. In a team pushing for promotion, fighting and scrapping, youngsters at the back are not what is needed.

That back four know each other inside out. Yes, conceding goals is our problem but from now until the end of the season it’s about sticking to your guns and toughing it out.

Luke Chambers is inspirational and counts for two players with his leadership. I wasn’t a fan of Jonny Parr, a good footballer but not a great defender.

Jonas Knudsen is certainly not a step forward, but he is the best left-back we’ve got. With Christophe Berra a shadow of the player he was last season, the back four need support more than ever.

Midfield – This is just as much of a problem area right now with our injuries. We were crying out for a creative footballer and we have two – unfortunately it looks like neither will play again this season.

So, the type of football we need to play is solidified simple football. No, long ball is not great, but percentage football might well do it again – the ball into the channel and a good cross can provide goals as seen with QPR, Leeds and Reading at home.

Strikers – The great conundrum of who plays where. Freddie Sears is fantastic wherever, potentially wasted out wide, but then who is good enough to replace his work rate and ability out there?

Brett Pitman can score goals – but not from the start. Why is this?
Daryl Murphy was never going to have the season he had last year, but every team is now marking him with two players – this creates us space for someone else on the pitch, we just need to learn to utilise it.

And personally, I think Luke Varney deserves his place in the 18 – work-rate, not bad ability and a helluva leap make him a different option.

All in all, this post is a rallying cry. Your team is three points off the play-offs. The January window has closed – we’re not going to get any decent players in on loan now.

From now until the end of the season, I beg you as Ipswich Town fans, get behind the team, come support them at Portman Road (the away support is undeniably good), generate some noise and push this united team, this united club into the play-offs and pray we make the Premier League.

Yes something must change next year if we don’t succeed, but let’s reassess that in the summer.

Cut the whinging, cut the criticism and support the Town from now until May! You never know what can happen in this ‘Bonkers league'!

TractorCam added 17:30 - Feb 22 That comment sounds very Chambers!
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Toronto_Tractor added 17:30 - Feb 22 I agree completely and would be there if I could. We need to reassess in the summer if we don't make the top six as something has to change. Hopefully others will respond to your rallying cry!
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SouperJim added 17:58 - Feb 22 What would you reassess in the summer? I don't see ME putting more cash in than the considerable amount that he already does. Our transfer policy won't change and as a result, Mick McCarthy is absolutely the best man for the job from now until he no longer wants to be here. Some of us get behind the team year in year out.
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EssexTractor added 18:29 - Feb 22 Souter Jim That's quite a statement " until he no longer wants to be"! Having been a regular at Portman Road since before God was a boy, I have seen all the great ITFC sides, and I have been there when Man Us Best and Charlton overwhelmed us 7.2 at home on a Tuesday evening back in the mid1960s, seen Stockport on that lonely cold Tuesday evening, and have seen our current run of Tuesday evening successes, have been a sitting season ticket holder since those early 1990s when old fashioned terracing " faded away". Brilliant wonderful days, great victories, sometimes sad but justifiable losses, and a looking forward to the next game. Yes football has changed, those behind it have made it often good and sometimes inexplicably bad, we can't bring back the past, aside from those videos and recorded Gerry Harrison Match OF The Weeks! But some of us do want that old word "entertainment". Loyalty is an important and admirable word, blind loyalty is a sad, sad phrase. Now I am loyal to those that believed " entertainment" is key to this national sport, to the traditions of Ipswich Town. We will never win every match, we may now never reach the PremierLeague, but I want to go home from Portman Road saying " that was a great cross" , " a super passing move", a " fabulous diving header", A GREAT GAME".... My fear is that with the current playing style many, many days will follow before that becomes true and only those who are blindly loyal believe otherwise.

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EssexTractor added 18:30 - Feb 22 Apologies SouperJim name mistakenly written
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armchaircritic59 added 21:02 - Feb 22 That is an Excellent post EssexTractor. I've not been to Portman Road for quite some time, but how i remember that Tuesday night Best (in particular) and Charlton Party! Of course i remember the great times and the less than great too. But correct me by all means if you think i'm wrong. By all that i hear, read and deduce (sometimes between the lines), there seems to be a SERIOUS lack of ambition at the club these days!

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EssexTractor added 22:45 - Feb 22 Armchair critic my fear is that the blindly loyal are not just the paying customers!
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carsey added 09:31 - Feb 23 I like the tone of the blogg and the rational manner in which the author sets it out and frankly find much of what is written hard to argue with. I too wish that people would get down to Portman Road on match days and support the team as I have for the last 40 years during which time I have tried in vain to get my 3 lads to do. The problem is that the quality on offer is dross and no matter how you dress it up until there is something good to watch which gets you buzzing the casual non-committed football fans won't keep paying over the odds to stand/sit in a half empty stadium to spend their time looking up into the sky for the ball. As I have said many times before I am grateful for what McCarthy did for the club in keeping us from league 1 and making us at least competitive but since then nothing has changed and there is little sign of it doing so. Brentford's manager last season proved you can have a team playing attractive progressive attacking football which doesn't cost a fortune and gain success. Had the Brentford chairman/board not gone down the route of stats based football and retained the services of Warburton who is to say they wouldn't again be challenging for the playoffs. I shall be there on Tuesday vs Hull hoping to see a Town victory but fully expecting to see the team get spanked and drop further away from any chance of promotion. The reality is Town are a "2nd" division club at best and I can't see that changing anytime soon with the current manager/owner.

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SouperJim added 10:32 - Feb 23 EssexTractor it's all relative. I've seen more entertaining football at Portman Road than what we have currently (under Burley and Royle), but I've seen much worse too (Keane and Jewell). What pleases me about Mick's side is that every player just about gives absolutely bloody everything each time they take the field. The attitude and commitment is unparalleled in my time watching Ipswich. Yes the football is pretty ugly much of the time, but the will to win on display gives me a lot to shout about. Football fans always want more and I am no different, but can we realistically expect better than what we've got under the circumstances? We can argue about ME putting more money in until the cows come home, but until he does, like it or lump it, Mick McCarthy's playoff chasing battlers is as good as it's going to get and at least that's something. For that reason I am 100% behind the team and I find it pretty disappointing that any "rallying cry" is needed. It would be fantastic to see Luke Chambers lift the playoff trophy, surely no player in recent history deserves it more, and it just might happen if we all stick together.

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BackTheBlues added 11:55 - Feb 23 I suppose the term 'rallying cry' is not aimed at the vast majority - however, more often than not, the majority of the posts on this forum, the ones with the most positive likes are the ones where fans are criticising the team and asking for the manager to go! In my eyes and clear from some of you, there is no-one better for the job than Mick McCarthy and I empathise with him that he tried to play football this term, we looked good early on, but the one or two heavy defeats have beat him back in to his old ways - what can you do but do what you know? I'd love nothing more than to see Chambers pick up that cup at Wembley as well - hence why the 'rallying cry' has come... Anybody at that Reading game a few weeks back will remember the flat atmosphere during the game in which not a lot happened - arguably the worst game I;ve ever been too! They say that the fans need the team to give them something to shout about - well at home until the end of the season - I think our boys need the fans to gain some inspiration!

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SouperJim added 12:30 - Feb 23 Well said BackTheBlues. It's a two way relationship and of course it's hard to roar the team on when they're not quite performing, but we have to try. We've lost some key players and that has had a significant impact on our side. I think that is what has caused Mick to go back to his old ways as you put it, but it is a very well proven method of grinding results out that the sum of our parts would not otherwise be able to deliver. If 15 games of dogged, determined, ugly football is all that is left for us this season then yes that is disappointing, I want to be entertained as much as the next man. However, you can't polish a turd and so long as the players give us everything they have, they deserve our backing. I for one will do my best to roar them on and if they can finish in the playoffs then that will once again be a remarkable achievement of which we can rightly be very proud.

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MattinLondon added 13:54 - Feb 23 I agree with your blog that we need to get behind the team but not entirely with the way you argue it. What I do not understand is that we got beaten (albeit comprehensively) by Reading and we revert back to our previously tested long ball style. But how many awful games have we seen whilst playing this brand of football? This suggests to me that MM heart was never in playing passing entertaining football as he dismissed it after just one bad game. We are capable of playing passing attacking football and for me the frustrating thing is that we look threatening when we keep the ball on the deck. MM is a defensive minded long ball manager In terms of the defence - it’s a MM back four and not one of them is good on the ball. You mention that ‘it’s about sticking to your guns and toughing it out. So in other words make the same mistakes and hope for a different outcome? We invite danger by simply launching the ball into the air allowing the better teams to regain possession and mount another attack. It may well be the best we have and this is why we are not in the play-offs – its not good enough. To me Luke Chambers is the very spirit and identify of the current Ipswich team – when we are leading its inspirational, it is heartening to see good old fashioned honest footballers grafting out three points with 100% commitment. But for me its all or nothing. If we go behind I can’t see a way back as we lack style and creativity. I back the need to stay behind the team but don’t expect people to tow the MM party line.

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BackTheBlues added 15:14 - Feb 23 MattinLondon - the back four reference is more of the fact that it is what we are left with. Time and time again on here I see fans ask to put the kids in - maybe at the start of the season and hope they inbed - but not at this stage, not now - you need experienced heads (albeit mistaken ridden for some reason) because they will eventually get it right and their attitude never alters. We should buy another defender or two but that won't happen now until the season is over - what I hoped to achieve is that people get off their back and give them some confidence!

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MattinLondon added 15:59 - Feb 23 I understand what you are saying but if a player makes the same mistakes time and time again then they should be dropped regardless of experience. And the defence makes an awful lot of mistakes. The longer you keep the younger players on the side-lines the more chance of them not progressing to their full potential. The greatest strength of this team is its team spirit but it is also its greatest weakness. MM does seem to have some players who will never be dropped regardless of performance and this is wrong. I know that I am coming across as negative but I will always back the team in the stadium. I think that MM was doing a fantastic job until and including the play-off defeat last season. But since then the MM has recruited poorly with the football in general being poor

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Fatcatevans added 16:35 - Feb 23 You state that Chambers is like having 2 players in the team. Really? You are buying into all the spin coming out of Portman Road theses days. The man has no idea at how to play full back, other teams target him constantly as his weakness in that position is blatantly obvious. MM needs to cut out players his favourites and play players in their proper positions. He may shout a lot ,kiss the badge and fistpumb but I'm afraid he's a real weak link.

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monty_radio added 16:40 - Feb 23 "Midfield – This is just as much of a problem area right now" - Not sure about the "right now". It's been lacking in promotion quality for years. Skuse apart, nobody picks himself (not counting Fraser here unless we play 4-4-2).
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BackTheBlues added 10:50 - Feb 24 Out of the back 4 - Smith has been the best player this season and the second by Chambers. He should play centre back it's well documented - but his leadership has counted for more than its fair share of points in the last 2 years. Well - you know what I'm saying with the midfield - it's been not great for year but the recent injuries really have put it into the mire. Fraser, Skuse, Hyam all fit I think it's not too bad.

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statto added 07:59 - Feb 26 Almost given up on this 'supporters' site - but at last a little reality and commonsense. It's the Chumpionship, not Champions League, and if direct football gets us near and in the play offs, so be it. There are 4 clearly superior squads who will be in there(we know who), but 5 and 6 are up for grabs. Injuries to key men have hurt us, but there are enough games and points to be fought for and we have got enough about us to stay in this race. Give up if you want, have a moan, but come Saturdays/Tuesdays) keep the faith. 6 points is this league can be hauled back in 3 games - admittedly we need to put together a strong run in, starting with Huddersfield. Every thing to scrap for, COYB

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atty added 14:29 - Feb 26 Absolutely spot on EssexTractor. I would rather have us be in League One player decent football and Debt FREE, than where we are now. At least then we would have the potential to climb up to the Prem. The debt is a millstone round our neck.
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BackTheBlues added 13:55 - Mar 2 @atty - we would never recover from going down - that debt will only ever go away by going up.
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Currie10 added 08:17 - Mar 3 " Jonas Knudsen is certainly not a step forward, but he is the best left-back we’ve got. With Christophe Berra a shadow of the player he was last season " I didn't read on from there - Berra is still head and shoulders our best defender. Knudsen does have some decent games at LB but often enough he's bloody awful. Foley has looked more than decent in his wrong position - I'd have no doubts about playing him LB and him doing a better job. As for " shoestring budget " something again I don't buy into. Okay transfer fees, yes, we don't spend. Wages, we do. Signing on, we do. Last season we did have the sixth highest wage bill. Dids + Bishop + Murphy have all gotten new deals since then. Where our season has unfortunately fallen by the wayside to a degree is injuries. Then we've players like Oar who seemed a great fit who don't have the mentality to be in a tough league and want an easy life.

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