Maybe that’s what Ipswich Town have been missing since the Joe Royle days – a Scouser in charge.
It’s only a month since Paul Jewell took over as Ipswich manager, yet in such a short time, the new boss has brought about a brand of positive, entertaining football that Blues fans have seen little of since the tenure of the last Liverpudlian to hold the helm at Portman Road. Town’s 6-0 thrashing of Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday harkened back to the time of Darren Bent, Shefki Kuqi et al., whilst the 3-2 home victory over Donny a few weeks earlier rang of that ‘we’re gonna score one more than you’ mentality that provided such great entertainment in those days.
But it’s not just about entertainment – more importantly, the rejuvenation of Ipswich under Jewell has brought with it newfound success. With 13 points in 6 games since Jewell took over, Town’s form has been bettered by only 3 other Championship teams – namely Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City, all of whom are right in the promotion shakeup. And after the cracker at the Keepmoat, not even the best can beat the Blues’ 16 goals in that time.
Promotion might be a leap too far for the Blues this year; the likes of Blackpool, Hull City and Crystal Palace have proven that a struggling mid-table team can turn a campaign around for a successful charge towards the top flight in the second-half of the season. Even so, 11 points to the playoffs is a pretty hefty deficit to overcome with only around a third of the league campaign left. If nothing else, it is hard to imagine a team that managed a run of 6 straight Championship defeats being good enough to reach the Premier League.
Even so, whether or not any miracle materialises this season, things definitely seem to be looking up. In 18 months under Roy Keane, Ipswich never won three matches in a row, but Jewell guided them to a hat-trick of triumphs at the first time of asking. In 18 months under the Irishman, Town never scored more than three goals in a league game, yet Jewell has now overseen a tally of double the magnitude against Donny, and with pretty much the same team. Furthermore, if the Blues boss can bring about a win against Hull City on Saturday, his side will have earned 16 points from a possible 18 – something that neither Keane or Jim Magilton before him ever achieved.
All that might have Ipswich fans dreaming that the good days are back at Portman Road, and if not this time around, maybe next season could see Jewell go one further than Royle did six years ago. Indeed, even before his team were hammered by Connor Wickham & Co. on Tuesday, Doncaster manager Sean O’Driscoll had implied that a revitalised Town could become next season’s QPR. (Though he might be feeling a little less charitable right now.)
The question is, can such success really prove to be sustainable at Town, or are Jewell’s early achievements just the product of the oft-cited honeymoon period?
Let us not get carried away. It has been merely six games. Moreover, in the time Jewell has been in charge at Town, Ipswich have picked up their wins against Doncaster (twice), Derby County and Sheffield United – none of which are exactly in sparkling form at this stage. 10th placed Hull pose the next test (one for which Jewell will be without Jimmy Bullard) before Town face daunting trips to both QPR and Cardiff within a fortnight. Maybe those encounters will demonstrate what the Blues have to match up to.
Even if the games at Loftus Road and the Cardiff City Stadium go Town’s way, the squad still looks a little short of the standard of their rivals. Admittedly, Jewell worked miracles back in 2005 with a Wigan Athletic team that did not exactly represent the best squad in the division, but at present there remain some notable gaps in the Ipswich lineup which need to be plugged – particularly at right-back. Not only that, but strength in depth is a must for any team trying to maintain enough consistency to challenge at the top. If Cardiff are struggling to keep up the pace, can we really count ourselves among the likely contenders just yet?
Future prospects aside, the main objective for Jewell at this stage has always been Championship consolidation. After the spectacular slide in the sunset of the Keane era, Town had been dangling precariously over the precipice of the Championship relegation places. After a good start to the season, that slide had demonstrated how a few good games count for little if they are in the minority.
Despite the positive impact of Jewell’s arrival, the Blues players and fans alike would do well to remember the danger of getting carried away with a good run. Up until Tuesday night at Doncaster, the Blues remained closer on points to the dropzone than the playoffs. The job of staying in the Championship remains the top priority, and that job is still far from complete. As such, the biggest challenge is yet to come; once the honeymoon draws to a close and Ipswich end up losing games here and there – which they almost certainly will do – how will this team respond under their new leader?
There is nothing wrong with optimism, but a healthy dose of reality is good for keeping feet on the ground. Jewell has shone up to now with his team flying, but maybe the real test of his management skills will come when things aren’t going so well.
After all, as they say, one can learn far more from failure than success.
By Darren Campbell
How do you feel about Town’s turnaround since the arrival of Paul Jewell? Are the good days back at Portman Road, or is this merely the managerial honeymoon? What do you believe the Blues might yet accomplish this season, or indeed next season?
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