Under Kieran, McKenna Town have played some scintillating football at times, but our tendency to give silly late goals away has often ruined the party. Anticipation is high that next season will be different, and this might depend on who he recruits? I would like him to keep Macauley Bonne and Kayden Jackson, but Pigott and Norwood should look to pastures new. Maybe next term is when Ben Morris or Tyreece Simpson pushes through, but the likelihood is that Simpson will have moved on by then.
That means that we need to urgently address the striker’s department. Forwards are notoriously expensive, and we may have to go down the leagues again to recruit someone with promise. I would hope McKenna still has good contacts at Old Trafford because he might be able to entice one of their young talents to join us here – either on loan or on a permanent deal. It is good to see us playing attacking free-flowing football these days, but possession alone does not win you football matches. We need to be much more threatening up front, and this applies to set plays and corners.
Next season could be a defining moment for Ipswich Town football club. If the manager and his squad can hit the ground running, then he will be assured of some wonderful support. This season we could finish as low as twelfth, and that would be the worst league position in our history, so the game tomorrow is important if only to erase that fear. More to the point, supporters deserve more, and if Town wants to boost season-ticket sales yet further, then an emphatic victory over Charlton Atheltic at Portman Road might just do the trick! More than 25,000 fans will be watching on.
It will be interesting to see the side that McKenna picks tomorrow. He will want to finish the season on a high, so I would not expect to see wholesale changes. There may be more room on the bench for some of our most prodigious talents, and Elkan Baggott can expect to be sitting this one out too. McKenna knows the importance of this game as well and said on the subject this.
“We all want to give the fans a positive feeling to go away with. I think it’s a one-off game, to a certain extent. I don’t really buy into the idea that this game will have a really big emphasis on how we start next season or how next season goes. Charlton will have a different team on the first day of next season and we will have a different team on the first day of next season. But it’s a home game against a team in pretty good form, and we want to go out on a high in terms of performance and result.”
Starting with the positives. Cracking good 4-0 win today against an in-form Charlton side. Well done lads.
An excellent crowd too of 26000. That makes it half a million over the season at Portman Road. Not bad for an upper middle of the table team in the 3rd division of English football with nothing to play for.
Wes Burns brace today makes him our leading scorer for the season. Says a lot about the shortcomings of our forwards. Forwards excepted, Paul Cook recruited well. Just couldn’t organise them effectively on the pitch.
Nice send off for James Norwood, getting another good poachers goal. Talented but wayward in equal measure. What a waste! Wish him all of the best for the rest of his career. You wouldn’t bet against him punishing us next season though if as seems likely, he joins another League 1 team.
Another Macauley Bonne goal ruled out for offside. If he stays in Suffolk, this is an opportunity for McKenna and Pert to put their coaching skills to good use.
Next season will be fascinating. If as I think, MK Dons go up via the play offs, League 1 will include:
Bolton
Charlton
Derby
Ipswich
Portsmouth
Sheff Wednesday
Sunderland
It’s a very ‘diverse’ league when you consider that it will also include the likes of:
Accrington
Burton
Fleetwood
Forest Green Rovers
The two groups are worlds apart in terms of history, crowd support, past achievements and financial backing and yet League 1 is littered with banana skins around the corner. Results are often far less predictable than in the Premier League.
I’m already looking forward to next season. With season ticket sales for 22/23 already exceeding 15000, looks like Town fans are generally.
Enjoy your Summer. In this part of the world, Winter beckons!
Thanks for that Richard and I will publish it in its entirety so that more people can read it. As usual, we seem to agree on most things, and I feel sure next season will be better.