The KNIGHT-mare Reloaded - Ipswich home

[Prufrock]

So Lennon talked about the selection being three at the back so we could get two up top (and not have to play a flat 4 in midfield) which sort of makes sense assuming it would then be Clayton and Wilkinson up top....but then all the comments on here sounds like it was a back 4 with Dervite RB and Wheater with Mills, which sounds daft. Was that the case?

And yeah, we look soooo light up top.

[plymouth wanderer]

What I like about lennon is he says it like it is - ie says what most of us think! Admits we were light going forward! Wilko wasn't good enough and ream should of shot!

He'll learn from his mistakes

Could you imagine Coyle or freedman talking like that!

[thebish]

What I like about lennon is he says it like it is - ie says what most of us think! Admits we were light going forward! Wilko wasn't good enough and ream should of shot!

yeah - that is good. step two - after tell-it-like-it-is - sort it out!

and I am still confident he will do that - given time...

[plymouth wanderer]

Same here

He's a no nonsense manager who takes responsiblty for his decisions!

Instead of blaming this and that like the last chancer did!

[William the White]

So Lennon talked about the selection being three at the back so we could get two up top (and not have to play a flat 4 in midfield) which sort of makes sense assuming it would then be Clayton and Wilkinson up top....but then all the comments on here sounds like it was a back 4 with Dervite RB and Wheater with Mills, which sounds daft. Was that the case?

And yeah, we look soooo light up top.

It looked like a 4-4-2 until Clayton was injured - but it remained four at the back even then. With spearing (having another depressingly poor game) in front of them and CYL pushing up a little more.

A miserable day today. A fortunate point. Injuries are hurting us.

Get in the top half by the end and I'll reckon we've had a good season given the terrible start and the injury problems.

Blackburn likely to be more difficult.

And if Ipswich are the serious promotion contender of this league - on this evidence it just shows what a poor league it is...

[Spartan2]

Another talking point coming out of the ground today near me was around Heskey....

No one knew about the Mason injury, but several were saying that Heskey would have been much more of a threat today than Wilkinson regardless of his current fitness.

Final one from me on todays game, I watched him very closely in the 1st half and I thought as a 'so called' winger Feeney was very disappointing today, as he was against Huddersfield, he is a very limited average footballer, he always looks knackered and not arsed to me, he struggles to beat a man and more often than not comes inside or passes back instead of taking his man on the outside and if he actually manages to get a cross in its normally straight at or near the keeper - if we are to improve as a team going forward and if Hall isn't any better - a replacement for Feeney is required in January as based on recent form he's not good enough, unless that is he improves his overall game very quickly.

We really must see the game completely differently lol. I thought Feeney had the beating of their LB eveytime they were 1v1, if we had someone decent in the box he might have had a few assists. Regarding the defending we'll just have to disagree, clean sheet against second in the league and the league's top scorer, don't know what more you want.

The majority of their chances came when we went three at the back which was a mistake, they ripped us apart during that spell but we went back to a back 4 and other than that pretty rock solid IMO.

In general our defending I make it one goal conceded in open play in 540mins!!!!

[LeverEnd]

So Lennon talked about the selection being three at the back so we could get two up top (and not have to play a flat 4 in midfield) which sort of makes sense assuming it would then be Clayton and Wilkinson up top....but then all the comments on here sounds like it was a back 4 with Dervite RB and Wheater with Mills, which sounds daft. Was that the case?

And yeah, we look soooo light up top.

It looked like a 4-4-2 until Clayton was injured - but it remained four at the back even then. With spearing (having another depressingly poor game) in front of them and CYL pushing up a little more.

A miserable day today. A fortunate point. Injuries are hurting us.

Get in the top half by the end and I'll reckon we've had a good season given the terrible start and the injury problems.

Blackburn likely to be more difficult.

And if Ipswich are the serious promotion contender of this league - on this evidence it just shows what a poor league it is...

Not sure about that Will. I thought Ipswich were impressive, very solid organised and hard-working and with a couple of dangerous front men denied by our excellent keeper. They will win plenty away playing like that. They remind me of Cardiff when they won the league.
We were poor but there were plenty reasons for that. Losing both Davies and then our best chance of a goal (Clayton) and best performing midfielder (Pratley). To get a point in the those circumstances was more than we could have expected really.
Would have been good to have had Heskey on the bench to put poor Connor out of his misery.
Agree with PT that Feeney is a poor footballer, but not that he isn't arsed.
Great to see Eidur back and looking like a class act. I'm really excited about the rest of the season for him now, his class on the ball was there for all to see. I think he could link with CYL and do some damage with Cravies to play off.

[truewhite15]

Some very bizarre views on this thread, in my opinion.

We were playing a team who could have gone top with victory, and I don't think we embarrassed ourselves, or looked a million miles away from them. We certainly didn't look a team 15 places below them.

With regard to the back four (and yes, it was a back four); Vela wasn't risked because he was suffering from flu, and Lennon didn't feel he could stand up to 90 minutes. This was Wheater's first first-team game in...how long? And all things considered, he didn't do badly. Don't understand the comments labelling him awful. He was commanding in the air. I was far less comfortable with Dervite at right back - and the comments regarding the "massive hole between Wheater and Dervite" are incredibly daft, considering Wheater was playing left centre-back with one Matt Mills between him and Dervite.

The comments regarding the Spearing substitution on Clayton's injury, with some saying that Rob Hall was the better option; considering Clayton was playing up front, I'd argue that bringing Hall on makes less sense than bringing Spearing on and shuffling around the midfield (regardless of Spearing's poor performance).

Yes, Lonergan's made some excellent saves, but that's what he's there to do. We deserved the point.

[truewhite15]

Oh, and some of the stewards are cocks.

A ball the keepers were using in the warm up split a little. Because it then can't be used, Bogdan gave it to me. The steward at my entrance witnessed the interaction, and called me a lucky so-and-so. I thanked Bogdan, and shoved the ball in my bag.

About five minutes before kick off, the steward from two entrances to my left came down the track towards me, and beckoned me towards the gate at the front of the stand to ask me; "Did Bogdan give you that ball to keep?", in a tone that implied that I'd nicked the thing. I said that, well, yeah, of course it's to keep, he's hardly gonna ask for it back after the game. The steward walked off disappointedly, but then had a word with his supervisor on the way back, who then started looking up at me. I called the supervisor over and told him that if my story wasn't believable, he could ask my local steward to back it up.

The supervisor then started with the high and mighty tone, saying that he didn't know anything about any football, and that it didn't concern him, and he wasn't arsed. He then proceeded to have a word with my local steward.

The local steward told me later on that the first jobsworth who came over had accused me of stealing a ball that had come into the stand, and that if I tried to walk off with it, I could be arrested.

[jonnycooper]

I see Eagles scored for the lashers (again)!!

[thebish]

I see Eagles scored for the lashers (again)!!

<cough> other footy??

[Armchair Wanderer]

We were playing a team who could have gone top with victory, and I don't think we embarrassed ourselves, or looked a million miles away from them. We certainly didn't look a team 15 places below them.

Especially with the injuries! If Ipswich are a top 5 team we should be able to beat everyone the same level or lower with a striker or two based on that performance.

I thought Spearing did ok when he first came on, obviously a different kind of player to Clayton, but I would even go to say that I thought in the first half he was quite good.

All the players looked a bit sheepish at full time, possibly expecting an unhappy manager... or just wet. Either way I'm fairly happy with that under the circumstances.

[Peter Thompson]

I'd like to know what Medo has done wrong not to even merit a place on the bench....is he injured ?, surely a better option than Spearing

[TKIZ!]

Maybe Lennon doesn't like the cut of Medo's jib?

[TKIZ!]

With the striker 'crisis' do you think it's likely that Heskey will be drafted to 'help' us out?

[Jugs]

Put it this way, Heskey was the kind of striker we could have done with yesterday. If there is no one else out there as affordable as Heskey, then Heskey it is for me.

Medo aside, I'd have thrown Vela into the middle instead of Spearing yesterday. He is a centre-mid after all, and Spearing, as much as I've backed him in the past, is having a shocker of a time atm. May as well call him Jay 'Sideways Pass' Spearing.

[Peter Thompson]

Put it this way, Heskey was the kind of striker we could have done with yesterday. If there is no one else out there as affordable as Heskey, then Heskey it is for me.

Medo aside, I'd have thrown Vela into the middle instead of Spearing yesterday. He is a centre-mid after all, and Spearing, as much as I've backed him in the past, is having a shocker of a time atm. May as well call him Jay 'Sideways Pass' Spearing.

Its not just that - I don't mind the sideways passing as long as its to a white shirt, for me its the amount of times that he misplaces his passes, loses possession or more often than not passes the ball straight to the opposition when we are trying to go forward which then allows them to counter quickly with players out of position - he's dangerous at the moment and something of a liability.

Our midfield yesterday was shocking once Spearing came on to partner Danns - who I thought was awful all game (who by the way I thought was excellent against Huddersfield a few weeks ago), Danns inconsistency must be another cause for concern for NL, he only seems to play well every 1 in 3 games

[bobo the clown]

I’ve wondered for a while what has happened to Spearing. Without doubt our best player the season he was on loan, last year it was all a bit stodgy and unconvincing, but then again the whole club was. This season it was more of the same and Lenin dropped him pretty soon after arriving. Quite a statement, especially as he wasn’t using Medo at all and my boy Vela was getting game time but out of position at full-back.

Yesterday when he came on for Clayton (who, yes, I fear suffered a really bad injury) and so the game shape changed but he was, quite simply, awful. Very like PT describes it wasn’t so much his back and sideways passing which are safe, but kill momentum, but that he so often misplaced his passes. When you are attacking and people are moving forward, to hit a pass straight to an opponent and thus have our players out of position and flat-footed is potentially disastrous. He did it 4 or 5 times. He also fouls far too often, and in dangerous positions. That loses possession, breaks up momentum and offers the opposition opportunity. He was, for 70 minutes yesterday, very nearly Ipswich’s best option.

It’s not lack of will or effort. Maybe he really was a fan of Freedman and is shaken by his exit. I wonder if he’s trying too hard and is tightening up in his play, scared to make mistakes. Right now however he’s not worth a place in the starting XI. Possibly not even on the bench if yesterday’s performance is what we can expect.

[TKIZ!]

Totally agree with the views on Spearing. If we could get rid in January and raise some cash then I'm hoping that we would.

He totally kills the momentum of the attack and I'm sure Lenny will have noticed. I honestly believe that Medo does offer that bit more going forward but then Lenny obviously doesn't think that. Might see more of Vela in the midfield with Patters going off as well.

[NiceHotCuppaTea]

Great to see the return of Eidur