Play Off Hopes Diminishing For Town

After this disappointing display our hopes of making the play-offs are once again in very serious doubt.

We should have known that throwing away a two goal lead at Bolton the other night would have its consequences and sadly so it was to prove.

It was Christophe Berra who was at fault with the goal, when he failed to stay close to goalscorer Bruno Manga, after a corner was delivered with pinpoint accuracy from danger man Peter Whittingham.

Bartosz Bialkowski got a hand to the bullet like header but could not divert it away from its ultimate target and after a promising start, the blues found themselves chasing the game.

Cardiff manager Russell Slade believes that his side are finally winning over the fans after a tepid start to his career as boss. Saturday’s victory against Ipswich made it three wins out of four and now the Bluebirds are only one point behind the play-off places themselves!

As for Town, promotion seem a long way away again – although the blues played better in this one than against Bolton but this is small comfort when you come home with nothing.

We may have had lots of possession but we lacked a cutting edge and re-introducing Daryl Murphy back into the firing line hardly helped our cause.

Last season was an exceptional one for the Irishman when it seemed that everything he touched was goal bound. Sadly this season he has reverted back to the Daryl Murphy we are more familiar with.

He works his socks off but does not score a lot and the same can be said of Freddie Sears, who has not scored in sixteen games.

In Freddie’s case there are mitigating circumstances. Far too often he has been played out on the wing and yet everyone (apart perhaps from the gaffer) know that his best position is through the middle and this is where he gets most of his goals.

Town find themselves four points adrift of Sheffield Wednesday in sixth and losing to play-off rivals Cardiff yesterday adds further salt in the wounds, as they too are three points clear of us with ten games remaining.

Winning on Tuesday night against Blackburn Rovers is now an absolute must if we are to stay on track with the chasing pack.

This time a draw would simply not do so we must hope that another Tuesday night under the lights at Portman Road will aid our cause because anything less than a win and we can forget the play-offs.


Frank Weston – editor of Vital Ipswich