Another Away Defeat Hurts Ipswich Town

Our first away game saw us comfortably defeated by Brentford and then we lost again at Reading. Yesterday was Town’s third away defeat in just five league encounters and it is not just the loss of points that is worrying but they way we are losing them.

We had just one solitary shot on target yesterday afternoon, as manager Mick McCarthy’s negative away philosophy of playing with one striker bit the dust yet again.

The side was unchanged from the one that drew 0-0 with Villa and the fact that we could not score at home last week, may have been an early indicator of what to expect at Elland Road.

There were mitigating circumstances though and the early departure of Brett Pitman to an ankle injury was certainly one of them. It could be argued too that his replacement Leon Best is still some way short of full match sharpness.

There can be no excuse however for the tactics employed by arguably the most stubborn football manager in the business these days. As usual he would have been content with a point and yet Leeds had their vulnerabilities in all departments but he decided instead to play to their strengths instead, which made their job so much easier.

Timing is everything in football too of course and I was always fearful that facing Leeds when their tails were up was always going to be a big ask.

At the start of the season Leeds could not buy a win and were at the very foot of the table but now they have won four on the bounce and former Town loanee Chris Wood is top of the scoring charts with seven strikes already to his name!

He was without doubt the standout performer yesterday afternoon and apart from his goal, he came close on a number of occasions.

Christophe Berra must take some of the blame for the winner because he lost his marker and fell flat on his face, as Wood thundered the ball home with his head.

These are worrying times. We seem to be missing Daryl Murphy much more that we first thought and we can only hope that Brett Pitman recovers in time for Tuesday when we host Brighton at Portman Road.

We have now fallen to 14th place in the table and if we are serious about getting out of this division for the 15th time of asking then we must take maximum points from our next two home games against The Seagulls and then Huddersfield next Saturday.


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich