Lambert: One We've Got to Win Friday, 1st Mar 2019 12:02 Town face 21st-placed Reading at Portman Road on Saturday chasing three vital points which could cut the gap to safety to six points plus goal difference. The Blues remain bottom of the table with only 12 games left to play, currently nine points and a goal difference of 16 behind the Royals in the last spot outside the relegation zone. Reading are ahead of Rotherham in 22nd, who they drew 1-1 with at the Madejski Stadium last week, by just a goal difference of five. The Blues have still only won three games all season - just two at home - but are unbeaten in their last three matches, drawing each of those games 1-1. A bigger than usual Portman Road crowd is expected with Town running a ticket promotion at the match. “If we win it’ll be great, it pulls everybody right back into the mire,” manager Paul Lambert said when asked about the importance of the game at his pre-match press conference. “The pleasing thing going into any game is that we’re playing well. “I don’t have a problem with how we’re playing, sometimes you go into these games and everybody’s frightened to take the ball and there’s apprehension in the stadium. “But the crowd are coming on Saturday and they’ll be absolutely jumping again. The atmosphere’s right behind us and there’ll be more than 20,000 people there. “It’s going to be one helluva an atmosphere and everybody’s coming really vibrant and we’ll try everything we can to win.” He added: “It’s one we’ve got to win really. If we can, it closes the gap to six points and puts us right in the fight." Asked whether he has had to try to reduce the pressure on the players going into what is a crucial match in Town’s increasingly desperate attempt to escape the drop, Lambert said: “They’ve played with pressure all season. They’ve played with the pressure of being at the bottom of the table for most of the season. “But it doesn’t show, that’s the beauty about them. Normally when you get a team at the bottom and it’s marooned and it’s only long ball, long ball, kick and rush football. “But we certainly don’t do that, we try and play football and to be fair, they’ve been brilliant at it. They’ve been brave on the ball when they’ve had to and from the last three games we should at least have taken seven points out of nine in my opinion.” Looking back at the 2-2 draw at the Madejski Stadium in November, Lambert, who will be serving the second game of his two-match touchline ban at the weekend, says the Blues really should have claimed all three points. “I thought we should have been three-up at half-time,” he reflected. “If we’d walked out of that stadium with a win I don’t think anybody would have questioned it, I thought we were excellent for most of that game. “We lost two poor goals but performance-wise it was really, really high. We should’ve taken more.” Lambert admits that that’s been the story far too often since he took over as manager at the end of October. “That’s where the frustration comes in because we have played really well in certain games and have walked away with nothing,” he added. “That’s football at times but the performances have been really, really good in a lot of the games, we’ve just not got the just desserts we should have done. “But that’s football, that's why the game is a great game. But if you keep doing what you're doing, you ultimately get your reward for it. As long as we don’t go away from what we’re doing.” The Blues will go into Saturday’s game without in-form loan striker Will Keane, who will be out for a number of weeks with the hamstring injury he suffered at Wigan last week. “We’ll still play the same way,” Lambert said when asked if Keane’s absence will make a difference to Town’s approach. “OK, the system might change but we’ll still try and play the level we play.” With Jonas Knudsen suspended following his red card against the Latics, Lambert looks set to return to a back four on Saturday which would see skipper Luke Chambers joined by wither James Collins - who the Blues boss has said is close to a return after his hamstring problem - or Matthew Pennington. James Bree, who caused Wigan innumerable problems going forward from right wing-back prior to Knudsen’s red card last week, will be at right-back with Myles Kenlock at left-back. Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal. In midfield, the Town manager could bring back Cole Skuse in his regular deeper-lying role with two of Teddy Bishop, Trevoh Chalobah, Jon Nolan and Flynn Downes ahead of him.
Alan Judge is likely to be in his now familiar role ahead of the midfield and behind strike pair Collin Quaner and Kayden Jackson, currently the Blues only two fit senior frontmen. Reading’s Portuguese boss Jose Gomes, who has led his side to only two wins in 11 Championship games since taking over from Paul Clement in December, says he believes Town have changed their approach in recent matches. “The Championship is a really balanced league. All the teams can beat all the teams. You cannot say a team will win 100 per cent for sure,” he told the GetReading. “We are expecting the best Ipswich side. They started the season playing really good football. “In the last four games they have been playing a different style and have shown they are able to play direct football. “This change is probably due to the points they didn't get. They've changed a lot in their past four games - their system, their philosophy - but we can't forget they started the season playing with a passing game. “Now they are showing a different style of football. But the players haven't forgotten what they were playing so they can play both styles.
“They have quality players but sometimes winning and losing is down to such a small distance. Small details can make a difference. “We are expecting the biggest and strongest Ipswich team and we are prepare to explore the weak points we have found in them.” Gomes, who was inspired to manage in England by watching Sir Bobby Robson coaching FC Porto as a youngster, is confident his team, who have won one in their last seven and only once away all season at Preston in September, can avoid the drop into League One: “Each week that passes I am more convinced and secure we will get what we want. “There is a very positive environment around the players, the intensity in training, the happiness you can feel in everything they do. “All these are positive signs for games. We just need to be there, to arrive on Saturday, and play our game. It doesn’t matter we are away." The Royals will be without midfielder Andy Rinomhota, who has an ankle injury, while Saeid Ezatolahi has had a quad problem. Sam Baldock (thigh), Anssi Jaakkola (achilles) and Jordan Obita (knee) are all longer-term absentees. Town have just about had the better of the Royals historically, winning 26 times (25 in the league), drawing 11 (11) and losing 23 (23). At the Madejski Stadium in November, Yakou Meite’s header six minutes from time prevented the Blues from claiming the first win of the Paul Lambert era as Town and Reading drew 2-2. Gwion Edwards volleyed the Blues in front on five as the game got off to a frenetic start, Meite levelled with his first of the afternoon for the home side two minutes later before Sears restored Town’s lead on 11. Reading improved after the break with Meite sealing a share of the spoils on 84 with his second of the game. Last time at Portman Road in December 2017, first-half goals from Callum Connolly and Joe Garner saw Town to what in the end was a comfortable 2-0 victory over Reading. Connolly’s low shot gave the Blues the lead in the third minute, then Garner headed the second on 27. Reading midfielder John Swift had a trial with Town in November 2014 when a Chelsea player. Like Swift, Dutch midfielder Van den Berg, who is on loan back home with NEC Nijmegen, similarly spent time on trial with the Blues, in September 2006 following his release by Heerenveen. In April last year, Royals boss Gomes said his representatives were in "early negotiations" with the Blues regarding the Town manager’s job following Mick McCarthy’s departure. Reading's former Colchester United keeper Sam Walker is lifelong Town fan who was a season ticket-holder when a youngster.
Saturday’s referee is Darren England from South Yorkshire, who has shown 114 yellow cards and five red in 30 games so far this season. His last Town match was the 2-0 defeat at Blackburn in which he yellow-carded Chambers and one home player and also awarded Rovers a penalty after Callum Elder had hauled down Adam Armstrong. Prior to that he was in charge of the 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest last April in which he booked Grant Ward and one home player. England, who is in his third season as a Championship official, also took charge of the 1-0 defeat at Bristol City a month earlier, in which he booked Knudsen and one Robin, and the 2-0 win at Sunderland a month prior to that, in which he cautioned Garner and one Black Cat. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Bree, Emmanuel, Spence, Kenlock, Pennington, Collins, Chambers (c), Nsiala, Skuse, Chalobah, Downes, Dozzell, Nolan, Bishop, Edwards, Dawkins, Judge, Quaner, Jackson.
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