Sunday 19 August 2012

A View From The Stands: Ipswich Town vs Blackburn Rovers

After a divisive season last year and an equally frustrating summer, it was nice to see the Ipswich Town faithful united once more.

For a few hours at least.

We do have a talent for debating and arguing over manager, owner and players outside of match day, but once we cross the threshold of Portman Road all that is left behind and we have one goal - back the boys.

From where I was sat, at my computer in Barnsley listening to the action on Ipswich Player - as I do every game that I can't attend in person - it seemed that all the right noises were coming from Suffolk. 

A lap of honour for the county's Olympians set the tone nicely for a day of being proud of our home grown talent. Jewell's new young side (as described on the BBC's Football League Show) more than measured up to their opponents on the day; newly relegated Blackburn were given a shock treatment in the need to bury a lead early when you are in this league.

Having not been able to be there myself, I asked Jordan Mitchell (who sits in the Sir Bobby Robson Lower) to pass on his thoughts after the game:

We started well, attacking right from the off but faded as the half went on. When Blackburn scored we went into our shells. Then in the second half we didn't get going at all, but we got what I feel we deserved eventually. 

Before the game I'd have taken a draw for sure, even more so after not playing our best.

Can you see any improvements from last year?

It's hard to tell at this stage, you can't base a summer's work on one game. Early signs show that we've improved our passing game but, at times, this seemed to have been focused on too much.

Conceded from a corner, did you see much of that?

That was at the other end to me, so wouldn't want to say too much. We looked shakey from set pieces as a general note though.

How about our goal? I know it was an own goal but was there good build up play?

That was a result of constant pressure for a good 5 minutes from us. It wad well deserved though and the ball in from Hyam caused the own goal.

The noise from the crowd sounded impressive on the radio, what was the mood like where you are?

The atmosphere was superb. There are still the same old idiots popping up every now and then, but on the whole it was great support, especially in the first and last 15 minutes.

Finally: your Man of the Match and favourite moment of the day?

Luke Hyam ran non-stop, he really shone for me. 

Favourite moment of the day was the new anthem "My Way" being sung by the masses before kick off. This, followed by the roar as the players left the huddle was the stuff of hairs standing up. The moment that told me that football was back!

No matter what does or doesn't go on off the pitch this week, with regards to transfers, I'd really like to let Jewell and the boys do their talking on the pitch.

They did almost everything we've asked for on Saturday: Jewell played Hyam and he lived up to expectations, we managed a good draw against the promotion favourites, we looked fitter and showed the desire to go on and win once we'd equalised.

That's not even to mention how nice it was to hear of Scott Loach, proudly making his debut at the club he loves, celebrating 'like a fan' when we equalised.

Of course there are concerns, the defensive errors that led to the goal are worryingly familiar and I pray that JET was just having an off day and doesn't take half a season to get going again. But, in my opinion, the positives outweighed the negatives.

Whether or not Davies does sign this week, I think that's a great jumping off point for the season.



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