After the positivity that has engulfed the club over the last few months, yesterday, it was time for a reality check. Seven days before the League One season starts and there is much work to be done!
We knew that disposing of so many of our under-performing squad and replacing them with a new batch of players would mean that it would take time for them to gel. At Portman Road, our worst fears were realised, as we succumbed to a 0-3 defeat at the hands of our Championship opponents.
Patience, they say, is a virtue, and we will need lots of it in the first few weeks of the season. Defensively we still look a bit frail, but of course, our new centre-back from over the border did not play. George Edmundson has yet to appear in an Ipswich shirt, but he looks to be a nailed-on starter for an Ipswich Town team, who confront Morecambe this coming Saturday afternoon.
It is nice to start with a home game. Even nicer if you win it and with the greatest respect to our seaside visitors from Lancashire, they are literally not in the same league as Millwall, who defeated Town comfortably yesterday afternoon. In many ways, I share manager Paul Cook’s assessment of the situation. Getting a right bloody nose might be the best thing that could have happened!
I would like to see Vincent-Young moved to the right side of midfield, as he did when we were trailing to The Lions. I think we could afford this little experiment with the players Cook has at his disposal these days. Janoi Donacien has crept tentatively back into the manager’s thoughts of late and Corrie Ndaba is on the fringes of the first team too.
I think the first few weeks of the season will test us all. It will not be as easy as some people might think. We may struggle to get points on the board because it takes time for players to get to know each other on the field and be able to read each other’s games. This, I believe, is why so many passes went astray yesterday. If we start the season slowly but finish it strongly, then that would do.
I will leave the last words to the gaffer, who said, after our defeat to Millwall this. “This will be rocking next week, this place will be absolutely rocking! I think today’s result could do us the world of good going forward, it just brings everyone down to earth with a little bit of a bump.”
