Do you remember Steve McClaren’s Wally with the Brolly moment? Or Graham Taylor substituting Gary Lineker in his last ever England game? Or Ruud Gullit leaving Alan Shearer on the bench? These events defined their managerial careers with England and Newcastle United and spelled the end of their respective reigns.

I reckon our recent game against Barnsley may well have been a similar turning point for Roy Keane. Although there have always been doubters about his suitability as a manager and particularly as a manager at Ipswich Town, fans had mostly been supportive of him. There was a positive relationship of sorts and the “Keano, give us a wave!” chant normally received the expected response from the enigmatic Mr Keane.

Phone-in programmes and message boards have also largely been pro-Keane up to the Barnsley match. I am sure that there has been some self justification going on there rather than objective rational judgement. Think along the lines off “we should consider ourselves lucky to have such a high profile world famous ex-top player as our manager and he is eventually going to get us to play Manchester United quality football and into the Premiership where we belong” rather than “we are playing no better than we did under previous managers and even after spending quite a lot of money on players who are no better than the ones he has got rid off, there is little prospect of competing for promotion”.

I think the Barnsley match changed all that and a specific event in that game in particular. Fans suddenly realised that Barnsley, a modest team with a low profile manager and fairly anonymous players, actually played much better football than we did. More than anything else, it was the substitution of Tamas Priskin, my man of the match, which in my opinion will become Roy Keane’s Portman Road P45 tipping point. The entire stadium gasped in horror and a sudden realisation dawned amongst the crowd that he really doesn’t know what he is doing.

Consequently, on the phone-ins and message boards, the mood turned and Mr Keane looks doomed. A manager who loses the support of the fans can only last so long as experienced by Gary Megson at Bolton.

itfc12 added 18:34 - Nov 18 Good blog. Agree with your points as well. I think it may have been a turning point also.
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bluesnightorg added 19:06 - Nov 18 Turning point? How flattering. We have been on a low simmer throughout his stewardship. WHEN (not if) it becomes mathematically impossible for us to make the playoffs, he will be sacked.
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bluesnightorg added 19:06 - Nov 18 Turning point? How flattering. We have been on a low simmer throughout his stewardship. WHEN (not if) it becomes mathematically impossible for us to make the playoffs, he will be sacked.
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obliquewordsmith added 19:14 - Nov 18 Having been a fairly vocal supporter of Keane, that moment changed things for me. I now think it's only a matter of time before he goes, and rightly. Gullit, Taylor, McLaren... Burley's moment was Grimsby away. This was Keane's I think.
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tom_the_blue added 19:55 - Nov 18 I have tried to support every decision Keano has made, and I have done up to now, I do remain pro-Keane and think that he is the man to take us forward, though taking of Priskin, our best player, when losing 3-0 at home to Barnsley was just plain bizzarre. Shocking, really shocking to be honest. I just hope he doesn't make a decision like that again, or my view of him may go seriously down hill.

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bluearmy4life added 20:30 - Nov 18 Thats a really good blog pretty spot on! Keane does'nt have many more mistakes to make he has made to many already. Crowds are dropping due to the poor quality of football and poor tactical management. The only way things will improve is getting results and trying to play football the right way. I really hope Keane and co can give us something to cheer about in a couple of weeks wins over Hull and Naarwich would im sure put some postivity back around the club. Over to you Keane.

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runaround added 20:50 - Nov 18 Spot on blog! I agree with every word
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alfromcol added 21:00 - Nov 18 Spot on, a significant moment indeed. There was a pretty general feeling of disbelief in the stadium at that moment and it brought the spontaneous reaction of boos from what appeared to be a significant number of people.
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julesbda added 21:19 - Nov 18 i came to see the coventry match ..travelled 7,000 miles to see a poor performance by the team ..but a worse performance by the manager ..playing at home with 1 up front ...( scotland is a good goal scorer but as mobile as i am aged 46 ) , we get behind and then he brings on conor to help !! suddenly we look like a football team ....and it's only 1-2 ...then he takes off our 2 best players on the day ..townsend and peters and we never have another kick on goal !! players tried their hardest ..but the manager had a shocker .... time to admit we have got this wrong and let's change it around ....It has been 20 months and we have a better team now ..but we haven't gotten better at all . I take my hat off to all the ipswich fans who go week in and week out ....i'm not sure i could do that right now and i love this club as much as the next person ...!!

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austractor added 05:48 - Nov 19 All of a sudden 1 and a bit seasons is a long time at Portman road? If a new manager came in and didnt change the world in a season everyone would be back scrutinising every transfer, formation, draw and loss and calling for their head again. Without norris, leadbitter & McAuley the barnsley result shouldnt be surprising
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TractorRoyNo1 added 10:01 - Nov 19 Do you remember when town supporters used to SUPPORT the team?
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SouperJim added 17:14 - Nov 19 austractor there is little evidence to support your theory. See Magilton's first season, not to mention Keane's, both with very little quality on show and no clear signs that improvement would come. The fans still backed both regimes and gave them time and support. No, given the players out the result wasn't that surprising. I would have taken a point before the game. However, the performance WAS surprising, as was Keane's biggest showing of tactical ineptitude to date. The moment I saw the line-up during the warm up I thought "unless we really get at them we could be in for it today" and unfortunately I was correct. No effort on the wings, totally exposed full backs, players out of position, inexperienced loanees accross the middle and no holding midfield player to shore up the defence in McAuleys absence. Until we were 3 goals down of course. Then he brought one on! Lastly TractorRoyNo1 (amusing name), sometimes supporting the team means having the balls to say "this is broke and it needs fixing".

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oldegold added 22:03 - Nov 20 Where do we go from here ? It's hard to get away from the feeling of sterility at the club. Boring football, shocking results, a youth team manager being suspended - it's all so unlike the Ipswich way. I feel as a club we are losing our way and it's hard to identify with it any longer. Apart from a half decent run in 2007/2008,We haven't had a decent season in almost 6 years. Such a shame...

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Back_The_Boss added 07:10 - Nov 21 Another defeat against Hull. Just how much more time is he going to be given.
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HadleighBlueBoy added 11:00 - Nov 21 Good blog - couldnt agree more. I think Barnsley was the beginning of the end, which could come very quickly if we really get turned over by the scum next week. Its a shame but the Keane 'experiment' has failed and the club need to move on before more damage is done!
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Vexorg added 15:21 - Nov 22 Excellent blog. My only comfort these days is the fact that Keane has to watch every 90 minutes while I can choose to miss some if I want to. Sadly I haven't done so for a while but after Hull I'm really looking forward to not going to Preston
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BrettenhamBlue added 08:13 - Nov 27 Good blog
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