What A Difference a Week Makes In Football

Mick McCarthy was forced into making four changes after the F.A. Cup defeat to Sheffield Utd last week. This included Dean Gerken starting in goal for the first time this season.

Despite all the doom and gloom of last week and the speculation about players leaving the club, there was still a great atmosphere inside Portman Road, thanks in part to the nearly 4000 Leeds fans who had made the journey to Suffolk.

Ipswich started off on the front foot and played like the home team for a change, passing the ball around nicely, though without often looking dangerous in front of goal. Much credit should go to the management and players as this 11 had not played together before and the game was good to watch.

Leeds were rather uncompromising and very physical and it was this that led to to key turning point, which was the sending off of Eunan O`Kane, who elbowed Jonas Knudsen in the face, in an off the ball moment of madness.

Playing against ten men gave Ipswich more confidence and led to waves of attacks that eventually built up to the wonderful goal from Bersant Celina from distance.

The crowd exploded into life. This was a very entertaining afternoon from start to finish and Ipswich did not hoof ball and instead played proper football. Praise where it is due, I think.

It was interesting to hear a Turkish fan on the radio after the game, who hadn`t attended a match for a long time say that although he`d been told that the team were “awful” on the basis of what he saw we are actually ‘quite good’. It`s worth hearing what he said, as even on a day when we won against mighty Leeds, some supporters seemed more interested in continuing their crusade suggesting that it is not good enough, rather than admitting that it was a good performance from their team.

We go to Ipswich matches to have an enjoyable afternoon of watching sport. It`s not cheap and we want it to be entertaining and worthwhile. Yesterday it definitely was for us and that is how it should be seen in my view.

We are four points off the play-offs and performing well above expectations based on our tight budget. I am not sure what more fans can expect other than a change of ownership – or a big injection of cash of course!

Mick may be offered the Ireland job and if he is, who would blame him from taking such a prestigious role and getting away from the negativity he has endured at Portman Road. If he does go then I for one would like to thank him for rescuing us from relegation and then building a team, without significant cash, that has been there or thereabouts each year, (bar one) to the play-offs. A quite remarkable achievement given our limited resources.

A bigger crowd that normal, left the ground excited and entertained and I really hope that the next four matches – which include games against three teams near the bottom of the table, bring us a high points return.

If they do, despite all the whingeing, we are in with a real chance of the play-offs again!

CMC.