 | Forum
Thread | Vaz’s dad was behind me today I believe.
at 18:22 13 Apr 2024
Never seen a man look more stressed in my life when he made those two quick wonder saves.
The second was possibly the best save I’ve seen since Alexander at West Ham. Hope it was actually as good as it seemed to be from our angle. He looked beaten. |
| Forum
Thread | Football is so ridiculous
at 22:01 12 Apr 2024
That I wouldn’t even be surprised if Maresca was sacked whilst top of the league with 4 games to play.
Is that 6 defeats from 9 now? After being statistically the greatest Championship team at ever at many checkpoints over the season.
Could see them determining that another manager could get them over the line where this guy won’t. It sounds utterly utterly ridiculous but I wouldn’t even rule it out. Such is football and such are the sort of clubs that come down from the Premier League. |
| Forum
Thread | There is something really amusing about Norwich City
at 12:43 7 Apr 2024
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t enjoy standing in Carrow Road with hundreds of them screaming c*** at me whilst celebrating a win over us. But yesterday actually hurt a little less than usual.
All this 15 years stuff is hilarious. Obviously I wanted us to annihilate them every time we’ve played them. But I’m actually at the point of almost cringing for them.
For so long there were better than us. Two divisions better than us at times. We didn’t have a player that would get into their squad. We were told history didn’t matter. It’s all about the now.
Then it was attendances. Then it was this. And that. Now we find ourselves with a better history still, actual honours, bigger stadium, bigger crowds and a team that was top of league much better than theirs.
All they have is this record. Like the one we have against Real Madrid. Like the one Cheltenham have against us. Absolutely meaningless really in the context of a season but they celebrating a draw away to us like we celebrated promotion.
I hate them. And yes they could still go instead of us. But I was once jealous a tiny bit of them. Not much. But now I just laugh their whole existence is about us. |
| Forum
Thread | I know he’s got some vital goals
at 19:05 6 Apr 2024
The Sunderland winner, a goal at Swansea and a wonderful bit of skill at Blackburn leading to another winner. Plus the ball to Burns against Bristol City.
Now that’s led to a fair few points of course. But since Norwich at home Chaplin has been almost anonymous for 3-4 months now. At times it’s been like playing with 10 men.
Broadhead can be the same. Sarmiento has had games like that. Far too much lately we’ve had three players behind the striker that can be completely ineffectual. Moore today didn’t look right either so make that a front four.
Before Norwich at home it felt like Chaplin and Broadhead were so involved in the play. Getting into pockets, making things happen. It’s not Hirst or Burns or anybody else missing. But 1-2 players doing one or two nice bits of skill over 90 minutes is a massive issue. [Post edited 6 Apr 19:14]
|
| Forum
Thread | Kieran McKenna I f***ing love you
at 09:50 2 Apr 2024
I'm 44 years old. Have been to pretty much every home game since the age of 3. Been going away since I was 7, regularly as an adult, and if I had to compile my greatest 50 moments ever following Town, half of them would have come in the last 2 years of that 40 plus years.
I cannot even begin to describe how much I'd love to add another on Saturday. Just beyond any logic or comprehension what he has this squad of players doing week after week.
Last night was up there with anything I have seen at Portman Road. Comfortably since Bolton in 2000. That was better than anything against Norwich, the last minute Wigan winner, the Sheffield United comeback, the Exeter first half, Bent putting us ahead against West Ham in the playoffs. Topped the lot.
To see every single fan still in their seats 10 minutes after the game, to hear deafening chants outside the stadium post match, to see 70 and 80 year old women in front of me (I kid you not!) with limbs reminiscent of Barnsley away last season absolutely blew my mind.
Whatever happens between now and the end of the season, whether we lose McKenna or Davis, whether Morsy's legs go in a year or two and whatever crappy fate may one day befall us again in the decades to come, this manager, team, staff, ownership group and supporter base have something right now than other clubs will never experience in their entire existence.
I genuinely feel sorry for people who don't like or understand football when moments like this come along as outside of the birth of my children and my wedding day, no other feeling remotely comes close to the sort of thing that I witnessed last night.
One other thing of note - we sit directly in front of the players families. The reaction of their children, some of them really tiny, and their partners when that last goal went in was hard to begin to describe. Just added another emotional layer on top of what was already breathtaking. The only thing missing was Chaplin's dad who is usually in the seat behind me. Can't imagine how much he'd have enjoyed that!
UNREAL. [Post edited 2 Apr 11:40]
|
| Forum
Thread | Regardless of what happens now
at 11:17 17 Mar 2024
Continuously in a state of what is actually happening.
Every month watching ITFC feels like a compilation of the greatest performances / matches or scorelines from the previous decade. It is quite simply mad.
Regardless of budget, teams don't really do what we did last season in any division. 100 goals and one winning goal away from 100 points. To go and do it a level higher, with almost the same starting XI is beyond comprehension.
To then do it in a season full of 4-3 and 3-2 wins with last minute winners, amongst the odd 6-0 demolition of an old foe from last season or to play the football we did in a 3-0 win over one of the other team up there with us (Hull) just incredible.
Almost starting to believe now. 7 wins from 8 right around time we started a run of 13 in 14 last season. Norwich, Hull and Coventry feel like Bolton, Derby, Posh, Bolton.
Obviously still expecting Norwich to undo us in the league or even playoffs because no matter how much of a fairytale two seasons it I still can't find it in me to believe we could beat that lot. But I'm starting to think we are just destined to because the mentality is this squad is just beyond anything any other side in the league has. |
| Forum
Thread | Well that was odd
at 06:31 21 Feb 2024
So unlike us in every respect.
Fair play to Rotherham. Executed their plan brilliantly and drew us into playing how they wanted us to.
I’ve never sat there 30 minutes in, two goals ahead and only felt like two players had even been involved. Then we stopped finding Wes and playing the balls into Moore that got us joy.
Davis didn’t get forward once to supply any kind of cross. Morsy, Travis and Luongo never go going. The whole back five looked shaky in and out of possession.
Every time we looked remotely like passing the ball we absolutely carved them open. Then didn’t bother again for some time.
The old adage about not playing well and winning though. If anything maybe the dropping of standards that low in the only game we could get away with it ends up being a blessing. |
| Forum
Thread | What is it with us?
at 13:46 19 Feb 2024
Only 10 Championship teams EVER have had 66 points at this stage of the season before this season.
We are one of four to have done it this season.
Last season we needed 98 points to go up. Wednesday would have won the league in almost every other League One season.
As incredible as we are and as much as we got across the line last season, we have been bloody unlucky to be involved in one of those seasons let alone both!
|
| Forum
Thread | McKenna's 100 games
at 16:23 15 Feb 2024
202 points is mad.
Anyone know where it ranks in English football? I am guessing the likes of Man City, getting 90 points in 38 games a couple of years running must have surpassed it.
But has anyone in the EFL ever come close. Pretty much needs a team to get back to back promotions with close to 100 points. Teams get back to back promotions but not often as rampant champions both years.
To do it in your first 100 games in management is ludicrous! |
| Forum
Thread | Funny old game, Saint!
at 10:03 15 Feb 2024
Perfect night really.
Back to winning ways. Clean sheet. Thumping win. New striker off the mark. Goals shared round a few forward players.
How strange though that we had 3 shots on target and scored 4 when so many other weeks we have had 20, 25, 30, 35 shots and come away with a single goal.
Could easily have been well behind in the first 15 then Millwall just gave up.
Ref was absymal first 15 minutes and fell for all their antics to win set pieces, then had a great game - albeit I don't think it was inside the area. Contact outside.
Typical of us to get that penalty finally when it makes no difference.
Millwall were so poor we didn't have to play very well to hammer them and look dominant. We've been so much better in lots of games we have drawn.
Anyway, I've seen this one before. 13 more wins from the next 14 isn't it? |
| Forum
Thread | Weimann Handball
at 11:24 12 Feb 2024
Am I missing something here that was obvious to others?
The Sky commentary (let's not put any faith in what waffle Goodman comes out with) were full of praise for the assistant spotting the handball.
The Second Tier podcast were likewise. In fairness they watched it on Sky and have likely gone with Goodman.
I sit right behind that assistant. They were hopeless. Everyone of us shouted handball and the assistant didn't flag, didn't remotely gesture he'd seen it. He simply started to run back down the touchline as if the goal had been awarded.
It seemed to be the referee who gave it, with five of our players immediately appealing for a handball. The ref, several times on Saturday, waited several seconds before giving a decision, so looked as if he either spotted it or, given the delay, was unsure and was convinced by how many of our players reacted at once.
The assistant may have communicated with the ref but their behaviour says otherwise. Surely they flag or stay in place. Seems to me Goodman just talking nonsense again and guessing because the ref took a while but anyone actually see the assistant to anything?
We were stunned that the assistant had missed that as well as several other things and, I may be wrong, but can't see where he was involved at all in that call! |
| Forum
Thread | He's here
at 14:01 29 Jan 2024
Well he's not. But he is.
Didn't hang about. No sooner had a Jordan's huge pair of late goals condemned Iraq - we announced the boy.
Welcome Ali. [Post edited 29 Jan 14:01]
|
| Forum
Thread | I guess that’s the beauty of football
at 21:20 27 Jan 2024
Quite comfortably the biggest shock result in the clubs history has come amidst an incredible two year period where we seem to have literally beaten everyone every week.
The most embarrassing result in our history comes under the manager you’d probably say it was least likely to have been suffered under in the last 40 years.
Play that game another 9 times and we win them all comfortably. Just one of those days. We were nowhere near good or clinical enough. But at the same time a ridiculous set of circumstances, sheer bad luck, amazing saves and a referee who seemed to want to make the tie interesting, stopped us from winning at a canter.
As annoying as it is to know that this will be replayed every year now for decades like Hereford and Sutton and we’ve missed a great chance to make it very far, it’s also a reminder that anything can happen in football.
The odds of Maidstone beating us were higher than us winning at any ground in the country which just goes to show how any team can dream at any time. |
| Forum
Thread | If Deswbury-Hall is worth £30m and Wharton is worth £18m
at 20:06 26 Jan 2024
Then Leif Davis is already in the £15m - £20m category. Which is absolutely mad.
He's 24 years old, playing for the team in 2nd in the Championship and has more assists than anyone else in Europe or something daft from left back.
Davis isn't worth that. It's mad. But in the market he certainly is. A year and a bit after we picked him up for £1m or so. Worst case scenario he's a £10m player already based on the going rate.
Which is exactly where player trading comes in for Ashton and co. With an offer anywhere near that it already makes logical sense, especially if the season were one where we were not quite going for automatic promotion, to cash in and repeat the trick. I love Leif. But with FFP this is how we succeed.
Which is why it's funny that some people are turning their nose up at League 2 Al Hamadi. A 21 year old with 17 goals in 19 games. A player who'd cost similar to Leif and if he was even half decent at Championship level could be worth 20 times that in a season or two.
Would be more pleased going up that we kept this squad together than reaching the promised land itself. But any kind of bid now for any of these players close to what the market now says they are worth and we may have little choice but to cash in and use that money, like we did with Dyer, to improve the team overall.
|
| Forum
Thread | Is there a conversation to be had regarding Chaplin not starting now?
at 18:29 23 Jan 2024
27 goals last season was it? Been banging them in this season.
One of my absolutely favourite players. Love the guy. But probably his worst 5 of his worst 10 games for Town have come in the last half a dozen.
Thought he was very poor against Norwich and he's not improved since. With Hutchison, Broadhead, Sarmiento all able to potentially play that role, the goals having dried up, Sunderland aside which I hoped would give him a bit more confidence, and Chaplin doing very little to contribute to games at all it was a surprise to see him made captain recently.
I did wonder if it was of getting him to lift his game but hasn't worked out that way. Really do hope he finds his form again soon, but there's definitely a merit in saying he surely doesn't walk in the team now and is at risk of being replaced in the XI if he doesn't improve shortly.
[Post edited 23 Jan 18:31]
|
| Forum
Thread | Time to look at the positives
at 22:31 22 Jan 2024
We’ve come through a horrible patch.
7 points from 18 is very poor by our very high standards and yet it’s enough to keep us in the top two despite Southampton going on a club record run.
We’ve lost our star striker, our only championship striker, for the season. Our main creative force was out for weeks. Our captain and heartbeat was banned for a match and then two more.
Somehow we’ve come out of a period of playing the leaders twice and Leeds away with just one defeat as well during a spell where we’ve been miles off our usual standard.
The fixtures now start to look a little kinder with every game winnable with reinforcements imminent, Morsy back and confidence from another huge comeback.
I personally can’t see us holding on to the automatics but write this team off at your peril. Saints can’t keep this up. We could go up a gear with the right recruitment.
By the time the next league action comes around we will have some new bodies in and we’ve got an enjoyable FA Cup match and very likely 5th Round draw to look forward to.
|
| Forum
Thread | Hirst, Morsy and Burgess are such big misses.
at 21:01 22 Jan 2024
We look like a Paul Lambert side again.
Nothing sticks up top without Hirst.
Nothing is retained in the middle without Morsy.
As good as Fridge has been defensively of late he takes six touches where Burgess took one and by the time we switch from one side to another any space we had to exploit has been nullified.
We look a shadow of the side we were. What’s frustrating is that with eleven changes in League Cup matches we stuck to the system and the style of play and still created chances and passed through teams and now it’s like everything has changed since Norwich.
We’ve been largely poor since then. Chaplin has been shocking for five or six games now and he’s got the armband.
We look so un-McKenna like it’s untrue. The frustrating thing will be seeing the same players come out and not being changed until 65 mins.
I’d be throwing Broadhead or Sarmiento and Taylor on for Chaplin and Luongo and trying to force something going forward. |
| Forum
Thread | Sky's African Cup of Nations coverage is once again bizarre
at 13:56 15 Jan 2024
I get that the tournament is somewhat of a joke for an international tournament.
Must be 1,000 fans there for Senegal's match if that. Yesterday Nigeria played in a 60,000 stadium in front of no more than 2,000 I wouldn't have thought.
But surely Sky can afford a couple of pundits in a UK studio discussing the match. They have every game on yet it's just the local feed right up to kick off. Makes the red button for EFL coverage look sophisticated.
Why bother televising every match and making it quite clear you don't care?
Nonetheless, I'm very lucky to work from home and be able to have every game on in the background of a major tournament. Even if it is a completely bizarre one.
|
| Forum
Thread | Forget players you'd forgotten actually played for us
at 09:30 9 Jan 2024
How about players you remember playing for us that actually didn't!
In all my years supporting Town I have never had this, but was absolutely convinced yesterday that Elokobi played a handful of games for us in the early 2010's.
Obviously he never did and he was always a player I liked for opposition teams, but around that 5 year period or so that for me has melded together of Aaron McLean, Keith Andrews, Ben Thatcher, Ibrahima Sonko, DJ Campball, Ivar Ingamarsson, Bilel Moshni, Arron Lee-Barrett etc, I could have sworn Elokobi played a few times.
Never happened to me before. Even weirder as a season ticket holder of 35+ years so it's not like I wouldn't have seen him in action. Age catching up with me I guess lol. Anyone else initially thought someone played for us only to find they didn't? |
| Forum
Thread | Travis
at 09:25 5 Jan 2024
What a signing that is.
Anyway. In true TWTD style ... here goes.
Certainly not Driftwood despite being out of favour for a couple games. Always been impressed with him whenever I have seen him. Very much a younger version of Morsy and versatility too to play elsewhere! A signing to Sing about. Hardworking player that puts the team first. Certainly no Selfish Jean.
Will be a great fit in our Side. I'm so Happy. Got a Good Feeling. The Fear has been Morsy's absence and leadership qualities but here's hoping we have The Last Laugh of the Laughter come season end and our Pipe Dreams get a little Closer.
As You Are. Peace The F Out. [Post edited 5 Jan 9:28]
|
| | Asa
|
Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 1172 | | Comment Votes: | 9 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 1181 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.