Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Penney: The Game Should Have Been Done at Half-Time
Wednesday, 18th Aug 2021 10:00

Goalscorer Matt Penney admitted the Blues should have had last night’s game at Cheltenham won by half-time and says they need to eradicate the costly errors which ultimately allowed the Robins to win the fixture 2-1.

Penney netted a brilliant first goal for the club - and in English football - in the ninth minute and Town were dominant for most of the first half and for a period of the second but were unable to add to their lead, with Macauley Bonne missing a golden opportunity not long after the left-back’s strike.

“Devastated. I thought the lads were excellent, especially in the first half, I thought we played well, created chances,” Penney said afterwards.

“Even for 15 or 20 minutes of the second half I thought it was great but then we’re just making sloppy mistakes and giving teams a chance and it’s killing us. I’m devastated but we move on to Saturday and work harder.”

He added: “We’ve got to eradicate those mistakes as soon as possible because when we keep clean sheets it gives us a chance in games.

“We know offensively we’re a threat, so we need to hurry up and show that the door as soon as possible and then it gives us a chance to build on. As I say, I’m devastated and so were the boys in there, we’re gutted.

“It was a great start from the boys. We scored and we were creating chances. Realistically the game should have been done at half-time, but even in the second half we [were on top for a spell] but then made costly mistakes and again it’s come to bite us in the foot.”

Regarding his goal, he said: “It’s nice to score but ultimately we want the three points and it wasn’t to be today. We’re all gutted.”

While he scored once during his loan spell with St Pauli in his spell on loan in 2. Bundesliga in 2019/20, the 23-year-old hadn’t previously found the net in England: “In Germany I scored but it’s my first one in English football.”

Asked whether that’s a type of goal he scores a lot in training and whether there are likely to be more similar strikes, he said: “That’s me all over, fingers crossed I can get a few more goals like that, but ultimately we want to win games. If it’s not winning us games, it’s not helpful.

“The manager wants his full-backs getting forward. I’m all for getting goals and assists but as a back four we need to give ourselves a chance instead of giving teams a leg up. We’ll go back to the training ground and we’ll work harder.”

He added: “The performance was there, especially in the first half, but ultimately we need to put these mistakes out to win games. That’s what we’re here for, to win games and get promotion and that second-half performance was nowhere near good enough. We need to buck our ideas up and get rid of these mistakes.”

The former Sheffield Wednesday man believes there’s more than enough talent in the squad and enough time to get the campaign on track.

“Of course, we’re only three games into the season,” he said. “There are a lot of new boys in there, so we go again, we learn from the mistakes, watch it back and then we go again on Saturday, work harder and hopefully we can get those three points.

“It was Kyle [Edwards]’s first start and Cammy [Burgess]’s first start. I thought they both did well, especially Cammy, I thought he was excellent. It’s going to take time but ultimately we need to get the three points and start winning games.”

Regarding Edwards, who was pretty much unplayable for much of the first half he said: I’ve played against him a few times over the years, so it’s nice to be with him rather than against him.”

Penney has started all three of Town’s League One games this season but now has competition for his spot with on-loan Middlesbrough man Hayden Coulson having been on the bench for the first time since joining the club last night.

“There’s competition in every position now, which is only going to make us better and stronger.,” he said. “It’s a long campaign, so there’s a lot to come.”


Photos: TWTD/Pagepix



Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.



SouperJim added 10:08 - Aug 18
Watched it on ifollow and agree completely, we were so much better than them for a large period of the first half and should have had the game sewn up. It's no coincidence that defensive reinforcements have been slowest to arrive and it's that area of the pitch where we are struggling.

Results have been hugely disappointing, but there is still much to be optimistic about once we find our feet and become more solid as a team. Unfortunately that's going to take time, I just hope my fellow fans can manage their disappointment enough to (as big nose would say) be on the inside p!ssing out, rather than on the outside p!ssing in. This is a massive overhaul and we need to be patient.

COYB!
43

blue86 added 10:08 - Aug 18
Keep it going, the wins will come. Was always going to be a slow start with the amount of change in players/staff etc. I'm going Saturday, so let's start by getting 3 points then!!! Coyb.
30

Stato added 10:34 - Aug 18
5 of the next 7 games are at home which gives Cook the perfect opportunity to turn results around. I'm hoping we can grab at least 15 points from those games and start to look like we are in for the season we all hoped.
17

Jugsy added 10:35 - Aug 18
I was there last night as it's a small hop from where I live - great to be back at football with full crowds (my first game in 2 years I reckon). There's a lot of quality in this team but it felt like the tempo was a bit unsustainable and for some reason we played over the midfield in the second half which made no sense - Cook acknowledged this. Some of our players looked real class at times (Edwards and Harper), and some others are clearly still finding their feet (Pigott and Fraser for my money). Desperately disappointing to lose against a 'work-hard' team, Cheltenham had no real quality. Agreed with SouperJim on the defense recruits comment and also to give the boys time, we really need to get behind them at this stage and full credit to those who traveled last night because they were in full voice.

Saw a lot of negative posts from fans in the immediate aftermath of the game, especially about Cook's comments. I don't understand what you expect him to say? Some of the issues are the same game-to-game, but they don't get fixed overnight. Still bringing in new recruits when the season has started is not a great recipe for settling a team, but i'd rather this positive activity to bring in the right players and give them time to work together than what we've been 'treated' over the last few seasons.

COYB!!!
35

filobiz added 10:39 - Aug 18
good to see people (above) talking sense and being realistic. i am hugely excited by this coming season, from what i can see we've brought in some really good looking players, and of course it's not going to click right away. the highlights i've seen look great, and it will not take long before we get it right and when we do, we will be a force to be reckoned with in this league. i still think we'll win it this year. but please everyone don't start getting on cook's and the team's backs!! it is ludicrous. - flying the blue flag for 40 odd years, last 20 in Bondi. #ITFC
29

Monkey_Blue added 10:48 - Aug 18
The fixture list has already been very kind to Cook. Why does his dire performance last season not count? JFH took over Burton with a lesser squad and their record over that period was significantly better. Also sick of hearing him make ridiculous excuses then say there are no excuses. He tried to throw out two players being on the bench for the first time as an excuse. One didn't get on and the other came on with a minute to go. He's got a poor record here. 4 wins in 20 games. Lambert was average but never this bad in this division.
-15

itfcserbia added 10:56 - Aug 18
A lot of people voicing over last night, some watched the game some obviously didn't. What is fascinating to me is no one is commenting on how much those long throws killed the game. Okay everyone is fascinated by how far Tozer can throw, but my god each and every take took about half a minute at least. Ten minutes of the game went to those throws which btw were literally the only threat Robins had.
PS
Bonne ffs lad. It'll come. COYB
4

BlueRuin69 added 11:07 - Aug 18
Yeah l was one of those last night who had abit of a rant, born out of frustration and disappointment but l think this team will come good. Its not just the results but the manner but for a defensive error, missed pen, missed open goal could easily have been different. Roll on saturday. Coyb
7

TimmyH added 11:17 - Aug 18
'Should of could of would of' where have I heard that before? oh yes from last season and the one before and before...
-7

Jugsy added 11:55 - Aug 18
@itfcserbia - you're absolutely right, Cheltenham pulled every trick out of the bag, including buying the ball dinner on every throw. I thought the ref was very good with the throw-ins the only exception, no way should a team be allowed so much time on each throw. Annoyingly, we didn't learn how to deal with it.

@timmyH - what would you prefer the club to say then?
3

Jugsy added 12:05 - Aug 18
@monkeyblue - so what do you suggest? Lots of moaning, no positive actions...?
6

TimmyH added 12:12 - Aug 18
@jugsy - to be honest nothing, Paul Cook has said his piece in the post match interview (which is similar to other matches). It's typical to players to come out in these type interviews and over exaggerate, in the first half we created only 2 other chances - 1 obviously the guilt edged chance which 'might' have sealed the game and we played okay 1st half and had a good 10 minute spell but the rest was pretty 50/50 to be honest without Cheltenham threatening...the second half let's not go there.
0

brendenward35 added 12:22 - Aug 18
PC need an assistant to bounce ideas off and someone with the balls to tell him his totally got the tactics wrong. Until he has this I can't see much changing as I think Richardson partnership worked well but we only got half of the duet and the one we've got thinks he knows it all when he really doesn't. So Ashton get moving on appointing an assistant and make sure they have the balls to stand up to PC when the going get hard
1

MickMillsTash added 12:23 - Aug 18
We need to get our better players on the ball more regularly. They look good
We need to work out how we are going to score. Im not sure
We need to better on the ball at full back - I think that involves changing the players.
We needed better game management last night- keep the ball - don't smash it over their full back and hope for Bonne to run and give them possession. They were dangerous from crosses during our first half domination and this should have been picked up on at half time.
Burgess, Edwards very good
No one awful, Bonne scores and we win 3-0
3

Billysherlockblue added 12:31 - Aug 18
I was really peed off last night but my opinions have not changed. We had no plan B and with the players at our club now we could have changed system easily? No real subs till very late on when the world could see us struggling. I like mr cook and what players he has brought in but tactics are his job and they were woeful. I do think he should get a no 2 for a seperate pair of eyes in the heat of a match. Someone reliable like liam richardson was. These just my thoughts? Anyone agree? Super blues forever 💙
5

Suffolkboy added 14:05 - Aug 18
These remarks from Penney probably represent an accurate assessment from ‘the pitch' level ; but they are unfortunately typical of what's been said many times over during the last two seasons ,and as such don't make a really different impact !
Of course he's right in many respects – BUT these are supposed to be professional sportsmen ,who should be experienced enough by now to gather their wits together ,sort themselves out on the pitch and automatically adapt to situations and tactics !
They are not robots needing reprogramming on the training pitch ,or shouldn't be : where's the spunk ,soul ,spirit and determination ( plus self awareness and drive ) which we all hope for ,especially this year ?
Come on you Blues ,we're all behind you ,we all want you to perform ,we're all so so disappointed when it doesn't come together , BUT you're well paid to get it right and we'd love you to do just that !
COYB
-2

ITFCOYB added 14:09 - Aug 18
It'll come. I watched the game last night and we played good football in spells - we now have some real quality all over the pitch (though perhaps, as has been said, not enough at full back on either side yet, though Penney and Donacien didn't let us down per se).

I agree that in the second half Cheltenham did a better job of closing down and we started to miss the midfield out, which meant we couldn't get up the pitch and they just slung it up top in hope of getting a throw - sh!t football, but at least we don't have to watch it every week. We need to manage that sort of thing better. We didn't actually defend the throws so badly, there were just too many of them - they are easily as dangerous as corners and we gave them 20 or so, which led to the inevitable goal from an unlucky bounce etc.

The thing is, we are not like Chelts, and good luck to them, they will do fine this season playing like that, a la Stoke defying expectations to stay in the Prem so long. I would be devastated if Town played like Cheltenham did yesterday, and if that was our plan, our identity, because it wouldn't be enough to get us promoted. Our mission is different to Chelts. What we are building is a team that passes the ball properly, dominates possession and plays itself out of this league with the building blocks for next season in the Champ. We will see off Cheltenham and teams like them and Morecombe once we gain a bit of confidence and get a few results on the board, i'm sure.

It's tough to suffer a poor start, but i hope we stay behind the team and trust the process, because then the results will come, then the confidence and the goals that put this kind of game out of reach of the oppo much sooner and turn into comfortable, expected wins. We've lost three on the bounce, the cup game despite laying siege to their goal for 90 minutes, one league game because of a missed pen and cheap pen decision conceded, and last night because we missed a tap in and then didn't cope with a sh!t game plan of winning throws, hurling the ball in and hoping. All games that any right-minded neutral would have said we didn't deserve to lose, and any self-respecting Town fan should accept as being the rub of the green, not a reason to doubt the plan or personnel.

Over 46 games, our style and quality will out unless we turn on the team and Cook and destroy their confidence. This team will get us promoted this season unless we change manager or create an atmosphere so toxic that our players are afraid to make passes. I, for one, am really pleased with how we are playing - we look like Ipswich for the first time since Magilton was in charge. On the evidence of the season so far, from a purely footballing perspective, i would rather be a Town fan than support any of the other teams we've played. We haven't come up against any real footballing sides yet but we've bossed the ball in every game, completed more passes at a better accuracy rate, we've had shots on goal and we've not got the results we deserve. But we will, and it will be brilliant to be a Town fan again, because we'll play great football and win a lot.
It'll come.
10

BurleysGloryDays added 14:12 - Aug 18
Agree. We demolished them in the first half but only went in 1-0 up.

I saw nothing to concern us tonight except fans getting on the club's back, and the players losing confidence.

If those two things don't happen, we will be a steamroller on the league. Some of the talent we have now is eye opening.

As the commentary team for Cheltenham said at the end, this is special, because this team is going to be very very good!
10

blues1 added 14:29 - Aug 18
Monkeyblue. Are you really that stupid? I'm sure ur not. Comparing the squad of players cook took over to what hasselbank did is ridiculous. Apart from the fact you, like most of us have been saying for the past 2 years, the squad we had were all rubbish, jfh took over a squad that wanted to play for him. Cook took over a squad that downed tools bcse cook told them exactly what the fans had been saying for 2 years. That's why last season shouldnt be considered against cook. He may have been a bit more tactful in public maybe, and kept those comments behind closed doors, but the results would likely have been the same. Dare say that would have saved him the criticism from some fans a d the blame would have passed to who really were to blame. The players. I do think there was a simple change he could have made last night bcse clearly we lacked some width at times. But the fact is, and the vast majority of fans realise, it will take a bit of time for a team of almost total strangers to gel. Whether u like that fact or not. It will, simple. There are good signs in the performances. Burgess showed last night what he is gonna bring to the defence. Woolfenden looked much better with him alongside him, tho I would expect the rangers guy who's name has escaped me just now(old age), to come in alongside him. Do think maybe we still need another striker in and need to get Fraser into the number 10 role and play 2 wide men. So why not instead of just constantly wanting to slag cook off dont you just look at the positives there are rather than just concentrating on the results which will improve. Strange isnt it that Lambert came out every game saying how great we were even when we were rubbish but cook comes out and simply tells it how it is, and hes accused of making excuses. What I would say to those who think the team dont need time to gel is this. Go out onto the street and get 16 guys to play in a game against an established team and see what the result if the game is. And before you say but morecambe signed 15. Yes, but they werent all playing against us. They had previous players alongside them. We are pretty much in the scenario I used. A team of random players. Once settled, let's see what happens.
9

DavoIPB added 16:46 - Aug 18
TimmyH - I think is the only person who actually took note of the facts. We only had three shots on target the whole game, they had more! We played some lovely exciting football to watch in the first half without being a real threat. We had to bypass the midfield in the second half because their manager saw what was happening and moved five into midfield and crowded us out, we couldn't adapt to it.
0

senduntd added 16:54 - Aug 18
Nice to see you keeping up your record of talking tosh Monkey Blue.
4

ThaiBlue added 16:55 - Aug 18
Well it was not done at half time or full time,the only thing yhat got done was us,stop the exuses and get it done.
1

budgieplucker added 17:37 - Aug 18
I think most people understand that the team needs sometime to get up to optimum performance and fitness. Especially with new recruits coming in late.

But let's consider a few other things, International teams have very little time together and are expected to gel for major tournaments and there isn't a luxury of say having an eight to ten game run in and a six week pre season schedule.

Many of the players Cook has sought out to sign are players who should fit his style of play, the same way an International manager selects club players for certain roles.

Thirdly if many of these players are considered the cream of Division 1 and have Championship pedigree then one would expect them to be far more highly adaptable than the Joe average for this standard.

Not many on here had sympathy with Lambo when he had ten arguably first choice players injured last year for several weeks. The reality is that we are trying to build a robust and flexible squad.

I think most reasonable fans accept that we are not in the early stages going to be dominating teams for 90 minutes and scoring freely but hope that comes after a few weeks.

However, the reaction from some is understandable because we shouldn't be loosing games like we are to the teams we have played so far. No disrespect to any of these teams and some may point out that Burton could be a promotion contender this year so perhaps are deserving more respect.

We played well in the first half last night so we're we “gelling”? If so why couldn't we do it in the second half.

1700 fans travelled to Burton and 1200 fans to Cheltenham so the 12th man has turned up and delivered, the fact that many should question the other 11 players and manager comes with the territory, why we offer good money is because big expectation comes with the territory.

Looking at the number of incoming players on average most teams have brought in 8 to 9 new players, Morecambe nearly as many as us at the point in time we played them and a few other teams have brought in players in to the double figures. Morecambe even had a new manager in pre season.

So we shouldn't be sucked into not expecting improvements and very soon, ultimately the fate of the manager rests with the owners and I like many don't think they will judge him in the near future having made the investment in Paul Cooks system and Paul Cooks chosen as players. There will be a tipping point though should the outcome radically appear to be out of kilter with expectations, but also fans will stop turning up to away games (and home) if they continue to suffer the disappointments of the last two away matches and you can't really blame the fans for that if they are investing that time and money into the project without no return. It does make me smile to see the reaction of fans who say we need to be patient and they have only listened to the match on the radio, I am not saying it is not a reason argument but they are not just about to get back into their car for a 4-5 hour drive back to Ipswich on a midweek night and have to be ready to get up early for work earlier next day.
3

Taricco_Fan added 18:28 - Aug 18
Town played some lovely football in the first half. Should have been 2-0 and the game put to bed. Lots to be optimistic about if the defensive issues can be addressed. But...it is going to take time for this squad to settle. Some teams can have a squad overhaul and everything falls into place straight away. That isn't the norm. We need to be patient.
0

jas0999 added 19:12 - Aug 18
Great interview. Hit the nail on the head. They need to ‘buck up and stop the mistakes'. Completely agree with him. Nothing to do with gelling, but awful, consistent mistakes. Not just the defenders of course. Striker Bonne missed an open goal from a yard out. A gelling issue? No - a dreadful miss. Individual error.
2


You need to login in order to post your comments

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© TWTD 1995-2024