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unstableblue added 17:03 - Jan 10

Well not a good day at the office for Town for a lunchtime game on Sky. It was a windswept stadium that was not as full as expected for such an important game, Sky coverage and ticket prices no doubt the cause. Derby's contingent was relatively small, but they were in good voice and will leave the stadium buoyed by this game.

Derby certainly didn't run away with this game, and the margin of victory was not vast, as there simply were not enough chances created. It was town who instigated their downfall with another defensive howler. Similar to the Saints defensive error, it was all about being decisive, and in this case Tommy Smith was the culprit. Our defence is so strong this term, but 2 recent errors must not become the norm, and we need to get back to consistency immediately.

Mick has done a cracking job at making our defence strong, and with the massively in-form Murphy and the wily McGoldrick, we have a strong attack this term. It is the midfield that remains the quandary. What is our best selection? Should we continue with the 4-3-3 that brought so much better passing football and the emergence of Bru and Bishop.

But there is no point getting carried away, I suspect this will be just a blip and normal service will be resumed against the sinking Millwall. We just need to get back to a bit more composure.

The question marks I raised at the start of the season were quite simple, do we go long too quickly and ineffectively in a poor system? is Paul Anderson up to it? is Stephen Hunt up to it? can Chambers be an effective right back? who will provide a Williams type attacking midfielder? Can Skuse and Hyam get goals and dominate the midfield? Many of these concerns have been quashed with some of our dominant and excellent performances in a fantastic run.

But today – and again let me repeat I expect this will be a blip – these concerns were all over this performance. The Derby midfield for a 30mins spell completely OUTCLASSED us – PERIOD, no debate, FACT. Hughes was sublime, purring, great ball skills, drifting about, pulling the strings. Great for the neutral. We were error strewn, Hyam was poor and Bishop could not come close to the quality of his young blonde adversary.

Anderson was muscled out of things too often. And Chambers, who has been excellent, was all over the place today, 2 or 3 missed passes and errors is OK, but 5, 6, 7, it’s not good enough in a big match, from the captain.

However, the biggest disappointment today was that we resorted to long ball for most of the first half. Snatched bangs up field, without composure. No taking a few touches and looking for the pass. Smith and Hyam, and at time Chambers, the biggest culprits. This negates the threat of Murphy, yes going long is good but when it is accurate and when you are feeding space. Murphy was kept quite with close marking, but it was exasperated by poor service, and our in for striker was not allowed to get into the game.

We did rally, and it was when we got it on the floor and got Mings into the game, alongside McGoldrick and Bishop that the blue army was buoyed. Pass and move. One of our best chances came in the first half with nice movement on the right, excellent pass, lay-off from Murphy and a banger from McGoldrick. If he’d have kept in down, perhaps a goal. Another nice move, led to a dummy and a great chance for Tabby, but he snatched at it rather than putting either side of the keeper for a certain goal.

Yes the ref had a shocker, and I thought it was a pen. Albeit many mates texted to say not. And it was the fact the town of recent performances didn’t turn up today, not the ref, that led to the defeat.
Mings was pretty good, and at least he gets it down, dribbles, brings players on to him. It was in the box today where he was failing. He seemed to lack of a bit of confidence, and those wonderful cut backs of a month ago, just weren’t coming. I think the Derby manager did something clever and put a winger right up-field and was encouraged to press up, effectively taking Mings raids forward in check.

Derby will go away with their view of us as long ball merchants and with limited ability confirmed – and certainly the ‘fans’ next to me who stated “we haven’t been for 4 years and we won’t be returning for another 4 years, £35 quid for this sh!t” will share that view. So such a shame town fell into there poor Sky performance mode of many years.

But I don’t think Derby were miles better, they just came across our midfield in a confused state, and looked far more cultured in that department – and of course we gave them a goal. I just hope Mick gets the team back on track and we murder Millwall – once the distraction of Southampton is out of the way. But are we to reliant on Bishop to keep our form going? Perhaps Marcus does need to invest in a Williams type player. A Hughes for Ipswich. I certainly don’t think Ambrose is the key.
Anyway onwards and upwards, lets get our shape and tenacity back, and let’s get Murphy in the game.

COYFB
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RomfordBlue added 17:14 - Jan 10

A hugely forgettable performance. To pick a man of the match for Town would be very difficult. They all seemed off-par together. Even Berra wasn't his usual rock-solid self - although he did do enough. There was acres of turf in the middle for Derby to play in. Our mid-field was again awful with hoof-ball having to takeover from the usual football we have come to expect from a confident Town. Add to that truly the worse ref we have seen at PR - and - well, I've almost forgotten it already. Derby will obviously be pleased with the gifted win - but then, to be honest, they were little better than Town! Let's move on to next weekend and get the points and performances flowing again. But please Mick, fix that mid-field!
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Marcus added 20:13 - Jan 10

A plodding game where the 'highlight' was poor officials and a defensive blunder.

Derby are a neat passing attacking team who deserve to be near the top but they did look like they were struggling against the tenacity of the Ipswich squad although they did a good job of keeping Murphy tightly marked forcing Town to attack down the wings rather than with direct balls.

No player really shone out, while no player was particularly poor - it was one of those games that just was and will not be remembered in that much detail in the long term.

Played in cold swirling winds the movement of the ball was somewhat unpredictable, no doubt this was a major factor with Tommy Smith failing to clear the ball when it bounced in front of him. It's the second game in a row when a defender has done this and the second time we've let a goal in this way. It's something we must tighten up.

The referee wanted to be the star and dominated the game. He was certainly noticed almost from the off. I say a good ref is one you don't notice so conclude he isn't a good ref! That's without considering the numerous blunders he made such as booking someone for being fouled and missing a stonewall handball that should have given us a penalty.

In goal - Bialkowski looks reliable, no blame with the goal and I can't remember a mistake.

Defence - Mings was often drawn into playing too deep and Derby used that for quick counter attacks so I wouldn't say it was one of his best games. Chambers is more cautious going forward and seemed less likely to take risks - as always it's good to have the two different styles on opposite side. Berra and Smith were solid as always apart from the one mistake by Smirth that resulted in the goal.

Midfield - Skuse was really missed today, I hope he gets well soon. Hyam was adequate but not outstanding in the same role. Hyam's a good played but is better in a more forward position, however he seems to be tasked with the defensive midfield position too often. Tabb helped Hyam out but in doing so wasn't always there to help Mings. Can't fault Bishop, he covered a lot of grass and looked exhausted in the second half. Anderson looked very average, he did what he did ok but didn't do anything that was that noticeable. Over the second half Bru and the Hunt brothers replaced Tabb, Bishop and Anderson. Bru showed some extra vision with passes and had a couple of half chances, he was ok - I'd like to see him play a full game. Stephan Hunt looked directionless, especially after he had a clash of heads with Ibe - I think he would have been subbed if we had any subs left. Noel Hunt only had a few touches of the ball so I can't really say much.

Forwards - Murphy was tightly marked and hardly touched the ball although this did give a bit more space to McGoldrick, who is looking like he's lacking a bit of confidence at the moment. We had a fair few chances but few of them were good chances.

It's one of those games - if I played it on Championship Manager it could have gone either way (or a draw). If the result went against me I'd be tempted to re-load and play again. Pity you can't do that in real life!
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RegencyBlue added 09:20 - Jan 11

In all honesty a forgettable match in which too many Town players had off days.

Chambers at right back is an on going weakness which costs us at times and yesterday was one of those times. Our four man midfield was overwhelmed by Derbys five for large parts of the match resulting in too much aimless hoof ball that only succeeded in giving possession back to Derby.

Quite how Hyam was on the pitch for 90 minutes I do not know. His distribution was awful, as usual, and he was poor defensively as well. I know he is 'one of our own' and can't do any wrong in some people's eyes but I just don't rate him. In the absence of Skuse give me Bru any day ahead of Hyam.

Overall a bad day at the office but having said that Derby could only score from a gift courtesy of a strangely out of sorts Smith so on another day we might have got away with it.

Our fantastic run had to come to an end at some point so let's put yesterday behind us and start another one!
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hampstead_blue added 09:29 - Jan 11

The first problem was the ref. Eustace should have gone before half time, the penalty, Martin getting decisions when he (Martin) kept falling over (due to his lardy backside and gut). The vast majority of petty decisions going to Derby.

The second problem was our midfield. We cannot compete against the likes of Hendrick and Hughes. They ran them ragged.
We missed Skuse and overall our midfield isn't as good a theirs. Simple. Hughes ran the game and we didn't get into him enough.

Up top, we could have been two up by 10 minutes. Tabb missed, Murphy the same, and McGoldrick curled a sweet shot just over the bar.

A draw would have been fair, but we made the mistake and that's the fine line you walk.

My inner chimp was climbing the walls, screaming like a banshee, but the logical side of my brain accepted they had a better engine room, which was, probably, the defining part of the game.
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Bluesky added 14:16 - Jan 11

Both teams started cautiously through fear. Derby shook that off by the second part of first half but Town never ever really looked comfortable. It was a physical game and McGoldrick uncharacteristically allowed himself to be rattled by Eustace who should have been off the pitch a lot sooner with his constant fouling tugging and pulling. Daryl Murphy was eclipsed by tight marking,
I feel sorry for Tommy Smith who otherwise had a strong game and saved a lot more chances than the the one he let slip.
This is not such a bad thing for Town to have lost. It puts more value on the game against Southampton as an opportunity to be relatively relaxed while getting back on the pitch after a setback and regaining confidence. If you cannot bounce back from a defeat that breaks a run then you are not yet ready for Premiership football. I believe this ITFC team IS ready. The manager obviously is.
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Pilgrimblue added 17:38 - Jan 11

I suppose it was going to happen sooner or later! My main concern was Town's inability to keep possession with too many players wanting to give ball away. Hyam Smith and Andro were all poor and need to improve. While defence looked solid against more attacking team we had no out let so resorted too often to long balls to Murphy who did well. For me McG is still very average. Ok he has some lovely skills but what does he do with them!! His shooting is still slapdash and link up with Murphy isn't good enough. I'd sell him if Prem team came knocking.
Bru looked good when he came on so hope he plays in Cup. We desperately need to resign JW or someone similar as Teddy can't do every game. Plus I'd revert back to Chambers on right centre with Parr at RB as Tommy gives ball away too often and his right foot isn't good.
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austractor added 03:22 - Jan 12

First game I have been able to watch in sometime, and very early on it was apparent that we waste way too much ball. Sides like Derby who like possession should have hurt us more than they did with the way we were handing them possession.

On top of that we didnt put away the good chances we did get (Tabb Murph in particular) so the result was who blinks first and it was us.

Bishop and Hyam didnt work for me as a combo. Bru Bish or Bru Hyam based on what I saw would have served us better in my opinion.
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paddypowell added 11:10 - Jan 12

too many wayward passes from chambers &smith in the first half murphy must have thought he done something to upset the others with the rubbish passes he was given hyam is a liability in midfeild with his tackling he is always going to get booked bru is a far more productive player,and i think mick has to tell didzy,he has to concentrate on playing as part of the team instead of getting frustrated at not scoring,after all that we are still the same 1point off the top as we were before this game,dare i say its down to our enemies in norfolk giving us a lifeline,and 2 losses out of 22games is not a crisis ,so come on lads lets pick up from here coyb
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