We would of course had grabbed it with both hands at the beginning of the season but being so near and yet so far from those automatic Premiership positions at this late stage of the season is cause for some frustration and perhaps even, some concern.
Now I must emphasis here that I think our manager Mick McCarthy has done a magnificent job over the last two years. That is not even open to debate and whatever happens next, there is no denying the man has done us proud!
When he came on the scene there was so much doom and gloom around the place that even his arrival did not fill us with much joy. We were teetering on the brink of Championship oblivion and looked almost certain to slip further into the football abyss.
He did the seemingly impossible and managed to pull the squad’s socks up just in the nick of time and last season we were on the very edge of those play-off places – which was a great achievement given where we were when McCarthy took over when a dark black cloud hung over Portman Road on the 1st November 2012.
Just two days after he took charge we were winning away 0-1 at Birmingham and apart from the occasional blip we have never really looked back on what has been a wonderfully inspiring term of office for the Yorkshire man with the Irish pedigree.
The down side of course is that as passionate football supporters we always tend to wear those tinted coloured specs and the fickle nature of your average footy fan means that we remember the bad times much quicker than we remember the good!
A person of sound mind would look back on the McCarthy reign to date and say the man has over-achieved and yet the first hint of disappointment often leads to frustration and unfair criticism directed towards the boss and his players.
I would be the first to admit that I fall foul of this unbalanced analysis but the truth is, he has had to make the best of what he has been given and like a good carpenter he has shaped some dead wood back into life and sometimes planed even against the grain.
The main criticism of Mick the Man is his stubbornness but as I have said before, this can be his strength and his weakness.
He will not be coerced into doing things he does not think are right and if he is ever to listen to anyone then it will be Terry Connor – but even then, probably only as a last resort!
Love him or loath him he is a man of substance and we are very lucky to have him at Ipswich Town football club.
Against Bournemouth it was clear for all to see how far we are away from the Premier league in terms of our quality and the Cherries were far superior in all aspects of their play.
Now it is time to dust ourselves down and go again for those play-off places. A win at Huddersfield would go a long way to making this Easter end on a happy note and with renewed hope that our season won’t finish up like a damp squib.
Frank Weston – Editor Vital Ipswich
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