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Town Back in the Dogfight
Monday, 28th Jan 2013 06:00

Mick McCarthy’s repeated warnings that Town could yet find themselves drawn back into the thick of the relegation dogfight were shown to be prescient after Saturday’s last-gasp 2-1 defeat at bottom-of-the-table Bristol City. That result and away victories for Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham saw the Blues drop to 21st in the Championship, six points from the danger zone but with the bottom three all having a game in hand on them.

McCarthy said: “That was always going to be the case and I kept saying it when we were doing well and everybody was patting us on the back.

“That was nice, but it could happen because you can lose two or three games on the bounce in this league.

“That wasn’t a game we should have lost, but we have. They’ve now come closer to us and the others have jumped over us and concertinaed the league up again.”

McCarthy made his anger all too evident after the game and felt his team only had themselves to blame: “Our result didn’t go our way, we f***** it up, nobody else.

“We can’t do anything about Birmingham, we can’t do anything about Sheffield Wednesday, we can’t do anything about anyone around us, Bristol City. We should have won the game and made a b****** of it.”

Meanwhile, winning goalscorer Jon Stead dismissed suggestions that scoring against his old club was particularly sweet: “I’ve enjoyed my time at all the clubs I’ve been at and it’s never nice to score against them.

“If you’ve had a really bad time at a club or you’ve been treated badly by the club then it might be the case, but that’s certainly not the case for me. I loved it at Ipswich.

“More importantly, it was nice to score for the position that we’re in and obviously my situation of wanting to get more games and more goals. The manner of the goal and the points that it’s put on the board for us is the most pleasing thing.”

Similarly, Stead played down the idea that scoring against his old Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy meant more than usual: “Does it heck, no! If anything I let him down when I was at Sunderland, so it’s not one of those at all.

“It’s about Bristol City and getting three points and whatever the manner that that came about, it’s obviously pleasing.”


Photo: Action Images



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Ole_Pablo_Ole added 06:41 - Jan 28
Top stuff from Jon Stead there, shows what a class guy he is. It's easy for me to say we never should have sold him now, but for the record I did big him up before the game!

He wasn't the best at Ipswich but he always gave it his best try and had the ability to make something from nothing. Would probably be a useful player to have around right now.
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Popeye added 07:26 - Jan 28
Barnsley & Bristol play their games in hand tuesday night and if they win then they'll close the gap even more! IMHO how MM does in the transfer market in the next 4 days could define Town's season. If we get in the creative midfield players we desperately need we'll be okay, if we don't then i think it will be squeaky bum time until May 4th. Wouldn't waste a loan space on Henderson as outfield players more important. Also do we need a rb when we have Hewitt? If Hull want McLean back then he might as well go back now and lets get someone else instead!
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airliner added 07:42 - Jan 28
A few bad results we strat getting at the players, the fixtures list looks daunting without DJ we need to get behind the team and maybe somehow we will get out of this.
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RetroBlue added 07:55 - Jan 28
[above Report] Tell us something us fans dont know eh!

Pity the players havent taken on board our situation , or at least play like they feel we need to pull away from the dnager zone.
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brittaniaman added 09:13 - Jan 28
I would be happy IF we could finish the season with the position we are in now !!
In fact I wish the season was finished with all these nail biting times at the moment !!!
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bluefeast added 09:31 - Jan 28
stop picking our two useless wide midfielders and two defensive cental midfielders then MM. The lowest goals scored in the league is because we have no contribution from 4 midfielders. They dont even get close to our strikers. And when they do they miss from 6 yards Mr lee Martin , yes you.
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gazmangaz added 09:51 - Jan 28
The defending for Stead's goal was comical and Loach looked pretty average for both. It's obvious we have an average keeper, a poor defence, a clueless midfield and the lowest scoring front line in the championship ! Thats's what you get when you try to build a squad with other teams cast offs on the cheap. I was hoping and expecting we would spend money on some quality players in the transfer window but it's looking less likely now. Relegation is surely very likely with this squad, it's doubtful that any of them would be a regular in any other championship side !
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algarvefan added 10:17 - Jan 28
I think it's beginning to sink in with most fans that relegation to Division 1 is a real possibility now, there are only a few days left in the transfer window & like it or not we have a very poor squad.

I think it would also help if the players even looked like they cared, this club has been a disaster zone since Marcus Evans took on the debt......oh and earned a pretty penny from it too!!

The futures not bright and it's not blue and it breaks my heart to see us in this mess!!!!

All we can do as fans is try to lift the team and support them
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Wickets added 10:25 - Jan 28
I suppose we should not be too down, before Mick i would have taken this postition now! but i long for positive news about the club i love.
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Kesgraveblue57 added 10:36 - Jan 28
it's your team now Mick McCarthy do something
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carlo88 added 10:45 - Jan 28
I can see a predictable pattern emerging here. Club employ manager with excellent Championship record, majority of fanbase happy. Manager starts well, fans upbeat. Things start to go wrong fairly early, with usual lack of quality in side. For whatever reason manager finds it hard to get hold of quality signings. Fans turn on team, manager eventually sacked with his reputation in tatters.

We should carry a health warning.
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WhoisJimmyJuan added 10:58 - Jan 28
Carlo88 - I couldn't agree more. We just have to hope that MM and TC break that pattern by finding the nuggets and inspiring the youngsters that can gradually pull us out. We have to be patient with transfer signings, and we do know the new mangement team is looking in the football nooks and crannies, because there have been some interesting triallists lately. Interesting in terms of where they came from. The romantic in me hopes for the likes of Hewitt, Hyam, Nouble, Mings, Carson, Loach to turn it on - i.e. home-grown or near home-grown youngsters who want to play for us, whilst your Chopras, Martins, JETs watch ruefully from the bench. But that is the romantic in me.........
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RRanger added 12:32 - Jan 28
There is no instant fix. We hang on this season, gradually blood our youngsters, find a couple of creative midfielders/wide men (yes,probably on loan) and trust MM to assemble and improve the squad in the summer when I am sure ME will back him with cash.
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JWM added 12:40 - Jan 28
it's your team now Mick McCarthy do something
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Are you for real Kesgraveblue! Did you have a cheeky grin when you typed that? MM has been here 3 months and inherited the worst Ipswich Town squad of players in 25 years and all you can do is come out with this BS! This squad of players was put together by Keane and Jewell in case you hadn't noticed and it will take more than 3 months to sort out the major mistakes that have been made over 5 years!
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fugliblue added 12:46 - Jan 28
now is the time for all of us to get behind the team and with a little bit of luck we will get out of this. i just hope some of the players look at these post and see how much this great football club means to us the supporters
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BuckieBlue added 13:17 - Jan 28
We're 6 pts clear of 3rd bottom, i think we were 6 pts adrift at foot when MM took over= big change already. Even without major signings this week don't see why we can't keep progressing till summer when we see start to build more of his own team.
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Lightningboy added 13:31 - Jan 28
We got out of the bottom 3 over a month ago and since then no win in the league...too many of our player's probably thinking job done?
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Talbs77 added 19:52 - Jan 28
Whats all this "could yet find themselves drawn back into the thick of the relegation dogfight", we ARE in a relegation dogfight, we always have been this season!

What we have to do what we were doing previously, what Barnsley did to us at PR and thats fight for every ball, closing players down and working for each other.
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Ipswichbusiness added 20:23 - Jan 28
The difficulty with making quality signings is going to be our record over the last couple of years. If you we're a good Championship player which would you rather sign for; a club competing for promotion to the Premiership or one with a track record of relegation battles?
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TimmyH added 20:36 - Jan 28
Yep never been out of it, at one stage we looked like we could be drawing away from the relegation zone then 2013 started and so far the players haven't!
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