Could Good Town Performance Sow A Seed?

I was pleased with the Ipswich Town display on Saturday away at Sunderland, and although the opposition looked fairly feeble, this should not detract from a good team performance from the Blues.

I was particularly pleased for Freddie Sears. Many strikers may have faked scoring when their teammates embraced them but Freddie is too honest for that and instead he looked quite embarrassed by it all.

He badly needs a goal that’s for sure but what was encouraging on Saturday at Sunderland was his all round game. We know he is not a winger and we know he does not like playing there but he gave it his all from start to finish and made the best of a bad job.

Joe Garner too is in a rich vein of form just now and the goal that he scored to set Town on their way was an excellent effort – which of course he created all by himself.

Interestingly both Garner and Waghorn are on ten goals for the season now and with sixteen games still left to play, it will be fascinating to see who is the clubs top scorer this term?

Both David McGoldrick and Bersant Celina are on eight so it is still very much a four horse race, and wouldn’t it be delightful in a season full of disappointments to see our four main strikers all on double figures! In fact, I cannot remember the last time this happened can you?

So then, even through all this doom and gloom there are reasons to be cheerful and this season manager Mick McCarthy has tried to play in a much more attacking way in the main.

Next up is Burton Albion; who like every side in this division are no pushovers and although they leak a lot of goals they also score a fair few too so we can certainly expect some goals.

In their last match they lost narrowly to high flying Aston Villa 3-2 away so we can expect another game full of goal scoring opportunities at Portman Road on Saturday I would have thought.

Their manager Nigel Clough was understandably disappointed with the outcome away at Villa but took positives too from their overall display.

He explained,’Given our present circumstances I do not think the team could have done any better, I think it was a brilliant performance. What we will try to do for the next 16 games is to play as we did against Villa. We will try and play with a smile on our faces – even if we are bottom of the league!’


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich