Town Hoof Ball Is A Pointless Exercise

When I looked at the team sheet prior to kick-off there was adequate cause for concern. Teddy Bishop was still out injured.

Our manager had decided to draft in Richard Chaplow along with Cole Skuse, who had recovered from his back spasm in time to play.

It was obvious from the start how we we were going to approach this game and although we would have all taken a point before the game, the truth is we got exactly what we deserved which was absolutely nothing!

Manager Mick McCarthy often waxes lyrical about a point away is good news any day but if we had have approached this game a little more positively we may have got all three.

The decision to play hoof ball denied us any chance of this because Town played the hit and hope strategy that you would expect to see from lower league teams.

We might have sneaked a goal from a set piece, when Jay Tabb lumped the ball up in the general direction of our forwards but they were feeding off bread crumbs for most of the afternoon because of the tactics we employed.

We did get one genuine chance though that was created without the need to hoof it forward and that was when Kevin Bru fed Daryl Murphy who expertly laid the ball into the path of an onrushing Freddie Sears who was in acres of space.

Sadly his first touch let him down and it gave Norwich keeper Ruddy the chance to narrow the angle and that was that.

Freddie Sears was playing for the most part like a lone striker and he was the only player in a Town shirt that impressed.

Three times he riffled in shots from distance but all to no avail and apart from an attempt from Jonathan Parr that was deflected away for a corner Town had very little goal threat all afternoon.

In fairness to Norwich they looked the part. The goal from Bradley Johnson was top draw and came at the worst possible time for the blues who were easing their way into the game.

The lack of creativity in midfield was the cause of most of our problems. Cole Skuse was commissioned to sit in front of the defence as usual but only Kevin Bru showed any creativity in the middle of the park and I think we got our tactics woefully wrong.

There are of course mitigating circumstances because we were without a number of attack minded players, which of course included Darren Ambrose, Teddy Bishop and Stephen Hunt but our style of play played into the hands of The Canaries and we were destined to come away with nothing from this local derby.

We can only hope that we can go on another run just like we did the last time we lost to them there Norfolk folk.

Thankfully we have a chance to redeem ourselves quickly too with another away game against Leeds United on Wednesday night and who knows, we could still get revenge if we end up playing Norwich in the play-offs which is a real possibility now!

McCarthy said that there was not much to choose between the teams but goals win games and we never really looked much like scoring.



Frank Weston – Editor Vital Ipswich