McCarthy’s Ipswich Badly Need Another Win

Historically November has been a good month under the Mick McCarthy reign and given our poor league position the same is called for now.

We have two home games coming up and if we were to win them both than all the doom and gloom that has been hanging around the club since the start of the season will be quickly forgotten.

Two draws on the other hand, would see us fall further behind the leading pack and supporters would once again be questioning the tactics and the methods employed by the manager. We don’t want to even think about what would happen if we incurred two defeats!


“We want to win games, we want to entertain the fans that come and watch us,” the Blues Town boss told the press.

Sadly, this is a well worn mantra and more often than not, when he says it, we perform even more poorly than before so a lot will depend on which side he picks for the live game on Sky Sport One tonight and how he manages to motivate his players?


Jonny Williams is now fit to start having made a number of appearances from the bench since his ankle problem but I think we might see him on bench warming duties as he was with Wales.


Bartosz Bialkowski will again be in goal, with the Blues boss having confirmed already that Josh Emmanuel will come in at right-back and that skipper Luke Chambers will move back to centre-half in Adam Webster`s absence due to his hamstring injury.

This move may have been forced on McCarthy but I think it is a good one. Luke Chambers will always be a centre back and not a wing back, as is so blatantly apparent to us all.

The rest of the defence will comprise of Christophe Berra accompanying Chambers in the centre and Jonas Knudsen resuming his role as left wing back.

I do not think the manager will make any significant changes – unless enforced – as in the case of Webster and we can expect to see Freddie Sears as our central striker supported by David McGoldrick, who appears at long last, to be coming into some form.

I predict a 3-1 won to the Tractor Boys and if we have any real desire to make up for lost ground in the Championship race then simply nothing else will really do.

Portman Road will resemble a grave yard this evening though, with more of us watching on tv than at the ground so McCarthy will have his work cut out motivating the players to play with passion.


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich