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(A) Forest 21:29 - Dec 1 with 1636 views

By a river the colour of lead, Town fans nursed a sense of dread. From County to Forest the walk between stadia of different teams and different levels, had the traveling blues traversing an asphalt tightrope as they chatted over Lambert’s first changes of his reign.

Bart, Spence, Chambers, Pennington and Knudsen understandably familiar. Skuse was the link between the defensive bank of four and middle bank of Ward, Bishop, Lankester and Sears as Jackson spearheaded what was a 4-1-4-1 in practice against Forest’s 4-2-3-1.

Town started well, and both goalmouths were stalked, as either side felt out the other.
Jackson was sent forward to see what 35 year old Dawson and his partner Hefele had in their locker. But it was Ward coming in from the left after a set piece who was felled cheaply for an early penalty shout. We’ve all seen them given, but the referee only rolled his eyes as the ball did the same off Colback’s clatter.

Any stench of unjustness from struggling Town fans could be masked by the accompanying desperation that such moments might be pivotal when you’re this rotten. The game turned a slow tide against the Blues as our defenders split, and Bart pushed the ball between them around the back looking for a gap in the Tricky Trees to exploit.

When facing Bart our back line cut diagonal passes in, when facing up the pitch the pushed them out to Ward or Sears via the full backs. This concertina possession did little to squeeze the life out of the home side, wary of making a mistake, waiting for us to inevitably do so.

It didn’t long, and it didn’t need much. Whilst the full backs had come under much scrutiny in recent weeks, every man had their equivalent for Town as the throw came in. Chambers nodded up and out, but Lankester clearly forgetting his position and the fact there was a lot of turf and Forest’s right back between him and the touch line, left the only man near the ball to collect it.

Unchallenged he drilled it at Bart, it seemed reasonable from behind the Pole for it to ricochet, but all the venom dripped from his gloves as Grabban took just nine minutes to be the Canary in the goalmouth and leave the home fans singing.
There was silence among the 1500.

It was back to more of the same from Town, careful play and static intent in our own backyard meant the lengthier pass and movements off the ball were needed. When Jackson unlocked the defence in what has become a hallmark of his ability, he brought down Lankester’s through ball with his standing foot. The one swinging for a shot arced through fresh air as the rest of the City ground filled with laughter and a rendition of “that’s why you’re going down”.

The game had little drama as the division between the strugglers and top six side only told in the subtlest of motions. Skuse ripped through challenges in uncharacteristic fashion. Leaving Lolley gagging and spluttering his shin in hand as he writhed, Cole merely trotted away as the game continued. Clearly many felt he deserved a card, but he’ll be off many lists in this shire despite winning the ball fairly.

Town grew into their role as underdog and slipped away from the team in the lead with a scintillating Ward cross. The build up and deeper play making Bishop via Spence fed the man in from the cold. His ball in from the right landed on the head of Jackson who should have been in the right place at the right time. But he could only glance it askew when a leveller looked easy.

There was a sense that everything the Blues tried was not going to come off. Corners and free kicks looked a good route back into the game. But all were blocked without too much manoeuvre from the home side.

It was Darikwa who would overlap again and find a deep cross with more whip than
Ward’s. The Forest playmaker danced into space but could only crash his effort against the post as all watched on holding their breath. It was not just as easy as Jackson’s, but similar, and despite the same result, like a lot of what other teams do in games; better.
It would not be long before Town would have their deficit smashed into the ground.

Again, all danger was designed and directed by the Reds’ right hand side, Darikwa allowed to get away from Sears when all others were marked. As he drilled it into the box, Grabban was now afforded time and space to despatch from point blank. If Town fans had felt like hostages in this 17 years of 2nd tier football, the Gods of football had clearly heard their pleas and were storming the building.

There were seven more minutes before the half came to an end.

Bart made his second decent save, as he tipped over again from arguably the man of match Darikwa, and then the corner was intricate enough that former loanee Colback slammed a drive over the bar. It was a game where it felt like nothing really happened, but either side had claim to more than one goal, perhaps two. Only the hosts had actually made theirs though.

The suffering and silence did not diverge until the whistle. It signalled to a fraction of the massive away support, who booed their side off. The frisson that can only come from verbal dissection echoing in the concourse, or the reflected warmth of a busy urinal, merely spiriting the rest of us away to our rituals and refreshments.

“What can he say at half time?” Said someone behind us. Hopefully it involved simple instructions and a reminder of pride and duty.

Ipswich came back out refreshed and undeterred. The game seemed lost to many, and to a few so did our chances of survival. Not just on what they had seen today, but against Bristol, West Brom and a lineage stretching back to August. Beyond that, the last time we were here, McCarthy had gone and Forest were heading down, all until a makeshift Town delivered 2 late goals and a sense of restoration.

Short months, become light years in fortunes, as no such ground was given by Forest.
Ipswich needed to do something within the hour, and neatly moved and played the ball around. Skuse and Bishop looked like the four years since their last regular dance together might help step up our fortunes. But it was only really half chances that had Suffolk eyes half racing to scoreboards, clocks and other results around the division all afternoon.

When Spence put a delightful Knudsen effort just wide, you sensed the chance for two players vilified in midweek to redeem themselves had gone begging. Sears too had not seemed to find a directness to his play that had yielded so many goals and so few points under Lambert.

Ipswich were going to have to dig deep if they were to fell Forest. Their lack of cutting edge again was becoming apparent. Sears looped a lovely dinked volley from distance over the giant Pantillimon, but a glove kissed it over. The bloke looks like a fluorescent crane, but even a decent corner was enough to have him punching it straight up like he was playing street fighter and it took a dirty block from Hefele to allow him to gather it unconvincingly.

Forest had their chances to add a third, and Skuse and the defence did well to ensure they didn’t with some industrious blocks and ball and chain defending when Forest had the upper hand. Lambert opted to put in Chalobah and Roberts, who had played in all of his matches so far and the rest seemed to do them good.

Chasing and careering through space and any one in their way, it added a verve to Town when they needed it most. But it also exposed how thin and weathered the squad is. Brittle like dried paper and stained by the events that brought them here, this is a side that can not take too much inspection from the rest of the league.

The 4-1-4-1 had not really worked, even if its parts had. Bart was lucky to see the woodwork save him once more when Grabban went hunting for a third, he probably deserved less than the man of the match award he was lazily given. It summed up his performance though.

Bishop was finding that like Spence and Ward, when he had the ball anywhere near 30 yards from goal he was shepherded by 3 to 4 players. As he bore down on the box, he was again fouled in a game where Town seemed dirtier and nigglier than they have more many years. I guess that’s inevitable when you’re up to your neck’s in sh1t.

Several players were leaving a foot in, a word in the ear of the ref and their opponent after the afters. It emanated a sense that if the draw was not to be today or ever from such positions, their leadless pencils might take an eye out of the odd team that looked on for too long, at least before the race is run.

Nolan joined the game and like Ward, raised little more than eyebrows with his announcement but soon had the odd sign of something. His bow for the Bish saw him almost like-for-like in more than just follicles and footwork. When he placed a cute pass behind Chalobah, it was the Chelsea man who had moved due to poor anticipation not the substitute. The home side broke through, and the neat and tidy aspects of our play were again swept aside by simple counter attack.

Karanka cycled through his bench, and there was little to delineate if they really made a difference, or just collected appearance fees and a chance to start more often in the busy festive period. The striker that replaced Grabban really should have scored when he laced a shot wide from what looked a reasonable distance.

There were seven long minutes of injury time. All it did was confirm and compound what had come in normal time. Whilst making us all late home as the traffic piled up with all the other woes and misgivings which we find ourselves in.

The one bright spot in all of this is the little bit of Blue Action we got at the back of the stand. When the player showed us something, they were given it back for 20 minutes or more. That anthem has become the soundtrack to our defiance “up or down”.

When you are cut adrift, you cannot control the waves that hit you. You can hold your breath, you can pray, you can kick and gasp and fight. Some of them will sweep clean the deck, some will engulf, some will break you and some will drown you. Every hole Lambert plugs in the line up seems to send the pressure elsewhere and splits open a new leak. Today the full backs were solidified, it was those beyond them that ultimately left us spitting and waving at the shore.

Perhaps in the distance a Yorkshireman sits upon a deckchair, watching on.

Poll:	If Cook had the full season where would we have finished?
Blog:	When the Fanzine Comes Around

(A) Forest on 01:01 - Dec 2 with 1353 views

bluewein

“Every hole Lambert plugs in the line up seems to send the pressure elsewhere and splits open a new leak.”

That’s the line that just sums it up, isn’t it? The evidence of the effort is there. It’s just stopping the inevitable in minor, and sotimes more painful ways. You can’t help but like Lambert and our only hope of bouncing straight back is if he stays for next season.

This really is a killer of a season though. The worst in my 29 years supporting this club. I may enjoy it a bit more once we’re there (I very much doubt it), but at the moment league one is a heart breaking thought. The same regurgitated crap from some about our “worst finish in 58 years” is nothing compared to this sh1t.

Seeing teams like Watford, Huddersfield, Newcastle (bollox to their “huge fan base”) Bournemouth and Brighton ponce about in the premier league. Boro, Sheff Utd, Birmingham, Blackburn...them... battling away for promotion and play off places. And we’re stuck fighting with the likes of Bolton, Reading, Rotherham, Hull... How the hell did it come to this? I know we’re not and never will be a big team, but seeing most of the above having the success we’ve been craving for so long...? All while pricks like Sutton, Max Rushdens mate and all those other clueless tossers who only care about the top 6 of the prem point and laugh like a bunch of tw@ts.

I’ll probably wake up, read this little rant again and see it as a pointless drunken Saturday night ramble and feel incredibly embarrassed. But fook me, what a time to be alive when Ipswich Town are heading for their worst finish in 62 years. (See? Anyone can use that fckwitted line...)

Poll:

What should you have your gammon with...?

(A) Forest on 06:54 - Dec 2 with 1267 views

carlisleaway

(A) Forest on 01:01 - Dec 2 by bluewein

Agree totally with both posts, it is sickening watching our beloved team. Men against boys, this is what we get for selling our best players over the years and Paul Hurst just putting the hatchet in and replacing with 1/2nd Division players who I think will still struggle when relegation is finally confirmed in the new year.
Marcus Evans has to look at himself over the past few years, fare enough he has tried to get his money back....but at what cost.

(A) Forest on 08:46 - Dec 2 with 1181 views

Mullet

(A) Forest on 01:01 - Dec 2 by bluewein

I do think some people need to look at themselves, this is partially "self-inflicted" from an Ipswich point of view.

People weren't willing to look at Evans, they weren't willing to accept what was happening because of Mick, Jewell, Keane etc. in that time. Change was important, but so less so than them getting their way in some tangible way. This might not have been inevitable, but decline of some sort was always the likely result.

Hurst has totally an utterly destroyed us. Do you remember our chat before Hull? I don't think I've changed my mind much at all since then about recruitment etc.

I do believe January will change us. It will define the next few years at ITFC. We were talking about who is going to come here, well I wonder if Lambert will say to Evans "Here's the cost of this transfer window..... here's the cost of relegation".

Apparently on his first day in charge the players got a rollicking. Sat around in their designer gear he told them to take their fancy hats off etc. and read them the riot act. It seems like this summer we regressed to the Jewell levels of ill-discipline very quickly and that's been the norm under Evans.

A city mate and I were discussing the plastic clubs taking up space in the top two flights and both agreeing on certain ones (he disagreed on City) but they are just another modern scourge we have to fight against. Those in denial about relegation being a bad thing need to wake the fcuk up though and get to every game they can.

We need backing from everyone.

Poll:	If Cook had the full season where would we have finished?
Blog:	When the Fanzine Comes Around

(A) Forest on 09:20 - Dec 2 with 1106 views

Mullet

(A) Forest on 06:54 - Dec 2 by carlisleaway

There is a different sort of sword hanging over Evans in many ways. Going down means a knocked down price for a sale of the club.

It also means he has to reassess what sort of project we are to him. Are we something that will suddenly occupy his night and day as he battles to get us back up (regardless of motive)?

I feel we are a source of fun for him more than a "tax fiddle" (the evidence doesn't add up to me) and he's got bored of the toy and there's no Facebook selling group full of chairmen, con artists, tycoons and Walter Mitty's to foist us upon.

Poll:	If Cook had the full season where would we have finished?
Blog:	When the Fanzine Comes Around

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