As the new season approaches with ever-increasing rapidity, expectations are on the rise and this in spite of some indifferent performances abroad. New Town striker James Norwood opened the scoring yesterday after just four minutes but it proved to be a false dawn, and Ipswich succumbed to the pressure imposed by Fortuna Dusseldorf and went down 4-1 in the end. In this four-team tournament called the Interwetten Cup, the Blues were to finish last, after losing on penalties to the hosts Meppen. A week earlier Town lost narrowly to newly promoted Bundesliga side Paderborn 3-2 so there is not a lot we can read into this.
Town’s young centre half Luke Woolfenden insists that the Blues aim is to win the league but this will be anything but easy. I will put a bet on them to do so as it is a bit of a tradition – regardless of what division they may be in, and although it is usually a case of my heart ruling my head, this time around who knows? I am hopelessly devoted to the Blues and have been since the days of black and white television, so here’s hoping that we can make an immediate impact at last!
I am pleased to see that Ipswich apparently turned down an offer from QPR for Alan Judge and as things stand Bartosz Bialkowski is still a Town player but for how much longer I wonder? Ipswich have also hired versatile left-back Luke Garbutt from Everton and let us hope he adapts to the third tier of English football quickly because he could be a real asset.
I never read too much into pre-season friendlies but it would be nice if we could register a win of some sort before the season commences.
F.W. editor of Vital Ipswich
