All is not lost, but last night’s goalless draw with Cheltenham Town at Portman Road felt almost like a defeat in the end. And in truth, it almost was! Having dominated the first half with almost 75% of possession, we nearly succumbed to a sucker punch late on as the visitors grew in confidence. The familiar adage that you don’t win if you don’t score was further amplified in this match, as Ipswich completely controlled proceedings from the off, only to miss the target numerous times. Worst still, news that former hat-trich hero Lee Evans will be on the sidelines for some weeks just adds to our woes.
Our lack of goals upfront is something that has concerned me for some time. When we faced a side without four regular first-team players who decide that they will defend en masse, we seem incapable of overcoming them. It’s not the first time this has happened. The same thing occurred against Oxford in November last year. Again, it was at Portman Road, and again it ended 0-0. Of course, that was under former boss Paul Cook, but we have now drawn two of our last three League One matches 0-0, so why have the goals dried up? Football is not rocket science so it’s quite easy to explain.
The answer is simple. All our main strikers have hit a bit of a goal drought. Macauley Bonne appears to be a pale shadow of his former self. James Norwood is far too preoccupied with officialdom to focus his mind on scoring whilst Joe Pigott seems better at preventing others from scoring than scoring himself. Last night Town had a clear-cut chance in the dying embers of the game when Wes Burns’s low cross from the right was met by Pigoot awkwardly, whilst Celina, just behind him, was much better placed to tap home from close range. There did not appear to be much talking going on between them, and our last big goal-scoring opportunity had disappeared.
Defensively we are strong because that’s five clean sheets on the bounce and eight in eleven under Mckenna, but you don’t win football games by not scoring. We cannot expect Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin to chip in every week so it must come from our front players too. And although Kayden Jackson was outstanding against Burton Albion, he was not so impressive last night. Was the Burton game a fluke? Perhaps not, and if he can replicate the form he showed against The Brewers, then he can adhere to the manager’s directive that all his strikers have the chance to nail down a team place. Town boss Mckenna said afterwards that everyone was frustrated with the result. “It can happen over the course of a season, but with the position we’re in, everything is amplified a little bit. The need to win our home games is amplified. One point is rarely going to be enough for us. We’re disappointed. It’s two points dropped and we have to recover quickly and make sure we’re ready for Morecambe (away on Saturday). We’ll have to try and catch those points up further down the line.”
4 points away from the play offs with 12 games to go and Frank Weston is having another meltdown. We’ve made up 7/8 points on the play off places since KM joined and with a number of teams above faltering you think now is the time all is lost. Honestly you need to sleep on it before you post this tripe.
This is not rocket science Redhottitfc but hard facts. Sportclubstats.com have given us a measly 4% chance of a play-off place based on our current form and the points that we need to reach a top-six spot. Betting websites are rarely wrong. They cannot afford to be! Goals win games and we are not scoring enough at the moment. We would need seven or eight wins from our last eleven games. It could be done but it is highly unlikely.
Come on RedHot, even though, they are on a good run themselves with one loss in 10, we should still have beaten a depleted Cheltenham side. Despite two lost points it is a good wake up call for us. We are still well placed for the play offs but not as well placed as we should have been.
Frank is right though about the goals drying up from our forwards. If this doesn’t come right in the next 12 games we won’t go up. Simple as that!
Thanks, Richard for coming to my defence but it is our attack that needs to strike it hot just now! Simply put, we are not scoring enough goals, and that is what the striking department is paid to do. It is why they cost so much, and we cannot rely on our midfield – or indeed our defence, to help us out all the time.