Three Points Vital For Town Tomorrow

Birmingham got a point. Bristol City got a point. Huddersfield got a point. Our last three games at home have all ended up as draws so it is absolutely crucial that we get back to winning ways tomorrow at Portman Road, where anything less is unacceptable.

Mick McCarthy knows as much and in his pre-match interview with Stuart Pearce for Ipswich Player he stressed the importance of turning the tide. He believes that if that game against Nottingham Forest last week is anything to go by, then perhaps we have scraped the barrel when it comes to deep misfortune.

We all hope he is right because to stay in the race for those promotion places and to kick start our season again, only a win will do – no matter how we manage to achieve it!

Lady luck has rarely shined upon us this season but there is an old adage that can be applied to football as much as anything else and that is that in this life you largely make your own luck and this has been sadly lacking.

There is good news and bad news on the injury front for the game against Cardiff City tomorrow afternoon. Jonas Knudsen has trained this week but with a tight hamstring will not be considered for this one – although there is a chance he could play against Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night – again at Portman Road.

Jay Tabb is fit however and so is Cole Skuse, who has recovered from the ankle injury that forced him off at the City Ground last week and was a serious injury doubt.

Both Luke Varney and Teddy Bishop are back in training and might get some game time for the under 21 team in the coming days but they are still a long way off first team duties.

I suspect that manager Mick McCarthy will stick with Dean Gerken in goal – if only to prove all his doubters wrong again and after getting a relatively easy ride at the A.G.M. last night, he will not feel under any pressure to move Luke Chambers from his wing back position either, I would have thought.

I do hope that McCarthy has his attacking head on though and plays Australian winger Tommy Oar and includes in his team Freddie Sears and David McGoldrick up front; with Brett Pitman assuming a position just behind them, which all those years ago was a position that Eric Gates used to play to such good effect, during our golden age of top flight football.

The manager will know that this game will not be a walk in the park but then again, when is it when it comes to Ipswich Town!

Cardiff are undefeated in five and have gone three games without conceding a goal so they must have quite a solid defence. In fact, it is so long ago I cannot even remember the last time we went three games without giving a goal away? It must have been pre-Gerken I would have thought and certainly not this season!


Oh well, I am hopeful that by 5 O’clock tomorrow evening we will all be in much better spirits.

I genuinely want Mick to succeed but perhaps more than ever before he needs a smidgen of luck to get us up and running again.


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich