And Mick Knows A Draw Is Not Enough

Town play tomorrow at Rotherham United and here are the facts.

We are playing a team that is bottom of the Sky Bet Championship and have conceded to date this season a staggering 28 goals in just fifteen encounters – which is almost two goals a game and the worst defensive record in the division.

Rotherham have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last six league games, which consist of five defeats and one draw.

Ipswich are thirteen points ahead of them in the championship and have scored goals in eleven of their last twelve games against The Millers but interestingly, it was our last game there last season, when Town went down to a Rotherham side, who had lost their last five previous encounters with the blues.

Was it complacency that caused our downfall previously, or perhaps the fact that we had not played at their brand spanking new New York Stadium that gave us the jitters?

Whatever it was, we must just hope that it does not happen again because the home side are in desperate need of a win.

If we get all three points tomorrow, then we could be homing in on those play-off places again and suddenly the gloom and doom that has dominated the last few months will be quickly forgotten.

With another enforced two week break from domestic football on the horizon, a victory would be a nice note to end on for a change!

I do hope manager Mick McCarthy thinks positively because we have the fire-power to do some serious damage if he does.

He must surely play Brett Pitman and Freddie Sears up-front again because they seem to marinate so splendidly and with Daryl Murphy also finding some long forgotten form, these three have the potential to cause havoc to a decidedly leaky defence.

I would assume too that there will be nothing more than a bit of fine tuning to the team that were victorious against Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night.

That means the defence stays and probably too the midfield, if of course Ainsley Maitland-Niles passes a fitness test?

David McGoldrick, if fit, will be on the bench as will Tommy Oar and Bartosz Bialkowski and the other subs will probably include the unlucky Jonathan Parr, Jonathan Douglas, Piotr Malarczyk and I guess Jay Tabb.

This is a game that we must do everything in our power to win. We are playing catch-up now on the leading pack having had such a promising start in August but we are one third of the way through the season so a draw would be seen by everyone – including the gaffer himself I might add, as a huge disappointment and we have had more than enough of them this season to last us a lifetime!


I believe that this is our best chance of continuing the good run. We could not have picked a better away match than this given the lack of confidence of the opposition and our rekindled form.

Their manager Niel Redfearn is bidding for his first win in six games but be warned, they surprised us last season so we must ensure that lightening does not strike twice!


Frank Weston Editor of Vital Ipswich