A Tale Of Two Towns At Portman Road

As Ipswich Town go into their home match with Huddersfield on Saturday, they will be only too aware that they confronting a team who are unbeaten in five games and playing with a new found confidence.

In this run they have beaten Millwall and Blackpool at home and been victorious against Wolves 3-1 away; along with good results against both Brighton and Blackburn so on current form, they are another very tough challenge.

Conversely, Ipswich has hit a bit of a barren spell points wise at least. Having won four on the trot in September, this month has seen the blues glean a slender 3 points from four games, which has seriously dampened promotion aspirations.

Mick McCarthy says it is pure superstition to read anything into a dip in form when the Manager of the Month is awarded but the sad fact is that since then, we have picked up just the one point in two games and last night was a huge disappointment. It was perhaps the worst second half display all season.

The one highlight of course was that magnificent Daryl Murphy goal and yet after the interval we were a pale shadow of our former selves and changes are inevitable this weekend whether Mick likes it or not!

Tyrone Mings picked up his fifth booking of the season in Cardiff so McCarthy will have no choice but to change things at the back and he may move Luke Chambers to wing back again to accommodate Tommy Smith in the team – or risk perhaps other options?

He could also draft in the inexperienced Matt Clarke – or even consider recalling Elliott Hewitt from Colchester United but this is a very unlikely scenario it would seem.

Whatever Mick McCarthy decides he knows he desperately needs a win to stay in touch with those play-off places and I think that Stephen Hunt and perhaps too, Alex Henshall and Darren Ambrose will play some part in proceedings; either from the start or from the bench.

Anything less than a win on Saturday and all the hope and expectation of the last few weeks will be extinguished before it has even had time to ignite!

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich