markytitfc66
Thought about getting another car? ;0}

The result is everything, so a draw in the away derby is fine, but we were never really going to dare to take them on, with an attacking line up. Alex Neil is arrogant, why is he so dismissive of Ipswich, talking as if he's a manager in the Celtic-Rangers mould, taking on Queen of the South or Berwick Rangers. I hope he stays with them, as he is out of his depth. I wasn't there, don't live locally to Suffolk, do not have Sky Sports, it wasn't on 5 Live Sports Xtra due to rugby, but why was Huws quiet, no freedom to play box to box, was it an injury, tactical, man-marking, tiredness due to recently becoming our go to player, was he in Tettey's back pocket, or because Skuse was back and the Leeds loanee not playing from the start. Haven't seen a proper match report from someone who actually properly analysed the game.... Could do with better match reports and not having to read through so much pretty average stuff.

There's nothing new for Mick to say. He is keeping a lid on the crowd dismay at the football fare on offer. Can't see anything changing anytime soon. Marcus Evans is totally dependent on Mick to stay. People are right when they say we would go down without Mick whilst continuing with Marcus' current level of investment. £5M or £6M being injected every season, to keep the club afloat. That will not attract a better manager than Mick. Season ticket renewal invitations will have the February upturn in form as the encouragement to renew. Not much change out of £35 if you decide to go to a home match on the day itself. Woeful attitude to bargain bin Cup matches. Brighton did not pick their best team and went out to Lincoln too, how has their league form been since then? Not great, they could now do an Ipswich and finish 6th. Are Lawrence, Huws, and the Leeds man really out of our reach financially to buy as our players? Marcus made his statement in the recent match programme and online, so this isn't going to change. Investing in the academy, that is a gamble too, as there is no way of knowing who will come through. Why haven't eg. Bishop and Dozzell been good enough to hold down places in the team? I would be asking that question of the academy and what the academy is going to do to produce first team regulars, ready and tough enough, skill is not enough.

Also, I do not think Mick is the manager to entrust more money to. He can only play a certain way, that is confirmed by all opponent managers, eg. Steve Bruce's pre-match press conference recently. He will always play the way he does. And he does not trust the youth, although I sometimes agree with him on this.

All we can do is support the team and hope for some more entertaining home performances, by some miracle being able to get Emyr Huws and even Tom Lawrence to sign for us. For me, I would rather finish as high as possible in the Championship than put academy players in the team who are not ready. Staying in the Championship is now the sum total ambition of this club.

Show some ambition and sign Tom Lawrence asap.

Surco 72: Well done to Lincoln, but isn't that what the cup has always been about, lower division teams raising their game. Did they not follow it with wins over Brighton and Burnley. Does that mean Hughton and Dyche are hopeless and should be sacked? .

BTW I fully respect a non league team finding a way to win, and they have some players who can play as well as pace. But they also play direct to a big, physical centre forward, You cannot say their centre backs play out from the back and they deliberately and crudely took our best player Lawrence out of the game and were allowed do so by the referee. I cannot blame them for that, I would have done the same, but that doesn't make it right.

bbq ...really comparing Hughton with MM when Brighton are sitting on top of the table scoring goals for fun and we are among the lowest scorers in the whole league and both Burnley and Brighton play a much better brand of football than that being served up at Portman Road under MM .
The fact is in a one off game to raise your levels is acceptable but to be completely outplayed over 2 games is shocking , and wow their manager saw our only threat in the first game was Lawrence so his game plan stop Lawrence and it stopped us how did MM counter act this as a manager of 25 years experience ?
We set out every week to stop and try and nick something MM has always done it and will never change hence very average players like Nouble, Tabb, Skuse , Douglas have so much game time under his management .
And in the same aspect perhaps we have raised our game to play better sides recently putting in blocks and riding our luck but overall the season is a failure as MM stated this was his best squad in his time here and we are bottom half while the likes of Preston , Barnsley etc are 10 points clear of us

Since the play off games we have got closer to Norwich. We still need a target man ala, Murphy in his heyday. Willing to give him the benefit but can't forget Skuse , Douglas & Hyham , was it against Rotherham last season

"I'm not bothered what anybody else says - if we get a point there I'll be happy with it."

What MM really thinks, "I'm not bothered about the Norwich game, I don't care about the club or the fans, I do what I like. This job is just money and a steeping stone to a better job and line on my CV."

MM, when will we actually try and win a game? Against a non league team in the FA Cup? A team in the bottom six away from home? Against Brentford who like us have nothing to play for at home? NO Its always 7/8 players defending and a fluke goal. FGS, get him out and start again. No-ones getting promoted with a side that only manages one shot on target per game.

Why did you have a go at the fans/critics in the first place?The fans/ critics who have been proved right.

Sack Mick

Surco 72: I am comparing to Brighton & Burnley only in that they also lost to Lincoln. BTW over the past two seasons Brighton have spent over 11m and Burnley 40m, yet still lost to Lincoln, so I think we should close that topic.

I think you should distinguish playing a better brand of football with more exciting football. If you have good attacking players, you can play exciting attacking football. A better brand of football for me is having the composure to play from the back through midfield under pressure, and Fulham, Derby and Newcastle spring to mind as teams who have done that to us this season (all who have spent vast amounts of money).

I dont think the Brighton or Brighton defenders are much more capable than us of playing out from the back. Brighton paid 4.5m for Shane Duffy, a big strong old style centre back who plays direct football. Similarly the likes of Mee and Duff (now replaced by Keane) for Burnley. What they have is more quality in the likes of Knockaert, Baldock, Murray,etc for Brighton or Gray, Brady, Hendrick, Defour etc for Burnley, but check out their transfer value.

It's no coincidence that our play improved when a match fit McGoldrick is playing alongside Lawrence and Huws. BTW also, it was MM's welsh connections (Taff Evans) who got us the Welsh players, so you might give him some little credit for that and for free signings like McGoldrick, Murphy, Bart, Berra, etc and hopefully we will be saying the same about one or two of his January signings.

Prebbs, 1st upmark for you and it was by mistake

TimmyH I agree with BBG, Burnley are still not renowned for a passing style and certainly weren't during their first promotion season. Once they achieved that, even though they were relegated again, the fans stayed with the manager and team, they re-calibrated wisely using their Premier League money and went again.

I bet Burnley could pass us off the park...my original post still stands they have achieved a lot with limited funds, ok they did have money through the sales of Rodriguez and Austin (approx £8-9M but built a good part of the team on far less between 2011 (when Howe was manager) and their initial promotion season.

Don't be fooled you can't get promotion on limited financial input because that simply isn't true and have probably acquired a more direct style since they've been promoted (to be honest can't remember too much about them in the Championship pre-2014 other than Ings/Vokes scoring hatfuls.

Stiffy501 if only it was so simple!! The country would be awash with football managers.

Play the players in their right position and leave Douglas as far from the starting XI as possible and I'll be happy. Just need ME to realise more investment we could seriously challenge at the right end of the table next season

Perhaps Mick could admit he was wrong and release Douglas, Best and Williams.

Walberblue - MM admitting his wrong?, I can't remember that ever happening over the last 4 years!!

Swn98 disagree when you say that there are a lack of football managers out there, check out how many CV's land at clubs even from lower leagues when managers positions become available, hundreds from what I have read.

My fear if MM continues next season with his brand of football (unentertaining) is the attendances will keep on dropping. Fans like myself will pick and choose what fixtures they attend and with that the revenues will continue to fall. We have got to cling on to the hope that promotion is possible, with the right personnel at the club. I agree with others when they say the glory days won't return to clubs like ITFC, but promotion is possible IMO on a limited budget. There are at least a hand full of clubs in the prem that are smaller than us, which should show us that this can be achieved.

I think you missed the humour cat