A crowd of 26,515 watched a tame performance from the home side at Portman Road yesterday, which effectively consigned the club to life in League One for another season. We all knew that we would need a miracle to make the playoffs, and any lingering hope that we might just get one disappeared, as a resolute Cambridge United side, went home with all three points, and perhaps deservedly so.
It was a powderpuff display by the Blues, who could not break down a very well-organised Cambridge back-line. If you are wondering why Sheffield Wednesday managed to do it six times recently, then you must look to the side that played that day and the formation they employed. Against The Owls, they had three at the back and used a 3-5-2 system. None of their backline survived that particular nightmare result, and that included – perhaps, not surprisingly, their goalkeeper! It was all change at Ipswich where the visitors played a very effective 4-2-3-1 formation. We knew that their strikers would be a threat, but in the end, it was our very own Dominic Thompson who scored their winner, as he stooped to head past Christian Walton under pressure from Ironside after a needless free-kick had been conceded by Luke Woolfenden just outside the box. It was a poor foul to give away.
Town huffed and puffed but were largely ineffective throughout. James Norwood had a clear-cut chance for Ipswich but he placed his shot straight at goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov. Sam Morsy’s hit a 25-yard thunderbolt which struck the keeper in the chest and spun away to safety but there was very little else to report – apart from the goal that never was. Substitute Macauley Bonne turned the ball into the Cambridge net from point-blank range in stoppage time, but his effort was deemed to be offside. We are clutching at straws here, I know, but I am not convinced that he was. Anyhow, a draw would have not been enough to save our fight for promotion but would have kept manager Kieran McKenna’s undefeated home record intact. Norwood got his obligatory yellow card for getting involved in a brawl that had nothing to do with him and he has convinced me more than ever that he is playing the wrong sport!
And talking of strikers, I do think McKenna should give Macauley Bonne a chance to play himself into form. He was outstanding at the beginning of our campaign when he was an automatic choice, and to come off the bench for the last twenty minutes, is not enough time for a player of his ilk. All forwards rely on confidence, and putting him in from the start would serve as a big boost to his ego, and I believe, we would begin to see the best of him again. Now that the season is effectively over, McKenna has time to experiment, and playing him from the start might just persuade him that he is worthy of a long term contract, after all. He still thoroughly deserves it in my view.
