When Paul Cook arrived on the scene, it was immediately after Paul Lambert had taken the Blues on a five-game unbeaten run. Timing, they say, is everything. If you recall, we had just beaten Accrington Stanley away and before this, we had defeated Doncaster Rovers at home and beaten table-topping Hull City away!
They were all impressive results – even if the performances did not entirely match the points haul we accrued. A 0-0 draw at Home to Northampton was arguably our worst display of the season but we followed that up with another much more impressive 0-0 draw at home to in-form Oxford United. Owner Marcus Evans must have been busy tying up the loose ends on the Cook deal as all of this went on, and I suspect most of the players were already in the know. This is perhaps why they performed so well in the latter days of the Lambert reign. Contrary to popular belief, they were playing for the manager and it showed – once they realised his days were numbered!
Under normal circumstances, a new manager comes in when a team is really struggling, but ironically this was not the case with Ipswich Town! After that splendid Accrington result, we had moved to seventh in the table, and we were just two points adrift of sixth-placed Doncaster Rovers and fifth-placed Portsmouth, who had played a game more than us. The same applied to all the other clubs above us in League One, and this included Hull City, who had played three games more!
Cook, who has signed a two-year deal following the departure of Paul Lambert, was in the stands at the Wham Stadium, as Ipswich chalked up a third successive win in a row and he must have thought much of the hard work had already been done! How wrong he was. How wrong we all were!
They say timing is everything, so was the arrival of Cook met with joy and some relief or distrust and despondency by the players? We might never know. What we do know is that we were very poor against Gillingham in the 3-1 defeat in his first game in charge and we have been pretty poor ever since. His five games have consisted of three defeats, one home draw, and one solitary win by a single goal to Plymouth Argyle at Portman Road. Is there resentment in the camp to the sacking of Paul Lambert? Is there discomfort in the knowledge that the new gaffer means business? Nobody really knows, but I think Cook would have felt a lot happier coming into a club on a long losing run than they way things have unfolded.
Now I know what Marcus Evans meant when he said, “Be careful what you wish for.” I guess Paul Lambert might allow himself a wry smile now.
