Captain Fantastic

I was trying to think today of all the Ipswich Town Captain's I have seen in my lifetime.

Of course there's Mattie Holland...

Our very own Jim Magilton...

Legwinski, Wilnis and Naylor in recent years...


And now Jason De Vos.

On the pitch he seems to have such a presence, and it's no different when you meet him face to face.

He is absolutely HUGE - and I was in heels!

He's very knowledgable of the game, the club and how to handle the media. But at the same time he came across as relaxed which helped me to do the same.

Reminded me alot of Jim in that way!

Whilst I was setting up he told me how wierd it was for him sitting at home watching the football on Saturday when he would normally have been playing.

It was like me telling my friends how wierd I felt staying in on Wednesday night when I'd normally be out with them.

Except this was Jase...

And he obviously wanted to be playing football as much as I wanted to be in the SU bar last Wednesday!


As for the game, well I think they are looking forward to it.

The captain feels confident that the boys have made the most of their time off over the weekend.

He told me that the schedule is so jam packed they don't really have the time to practice whats going wrong and iron out the creases.

This week gave them an opportunity to do that.

Also, of course, it gave them a chance to rest their bodies a little.


I had been dying to ask him about David Norris playing at Portman Road and how he thought he'd cope with it.

Its the thing I've most been looking forward to about tomorrow night.

I figured it would be our chance, as fans, to make him feel welcome and encourage him to pick us as a future team.

But their boss, Paul 'I'm too scared of loosing my best player to a better team' Sturrock, has decided to leave him out.

He feels that Norris would be under too much pressure and cannot risk him being distracted.

Thing is, I said this to Jason and he said that that wouldn't happen.

(Just want to point out he said this before we heard the news on the Plymouth team so he wasn't being rude or anything!)

He said that as a player, once you are on the pitch you forget about everything else. All that matters is the game and getting a win.

I think Sturrock should have given Norris the chance to prove his worth, personally.

Listen to the De Vos interview:




Quick note on those transfers - Jim seems to think it'll get busy again on Wednesday and Thursday with regards to our plans so hopefully by the end of the week we'll have some newbies on board.




Finally, the Sturrock article also included accusations that Ipswich have not handled the transfer very well.

Jim actually alluded to something along these lines in his interview. Saying that he felt we had been patient and fair.



But Mr Sturrock seems to think we have created a bit of a media circus.

Thing is I don't think the club have ever said any more than 'We have offered a million for him'.

As my very knowledgable Daddy pointed out: The biggest point for gossip was a Derek Davis article saying Norris had not been to training - which of course led us to think he might be on the way out.

But where did he get that information from? I don't think he decided to spend the day on the south coast watching a mid-table Championship team go through training, do you?

Maybe the Plymouth camp isn't as inaccessible as we seem to be finding it when it concerns transfers, eh?


Favourite line of the day:

Jim Magilton: "I couldn't care less who's playing for them to be honest... I just want to win".

Well said!

Need a bit of Magic

If you'd have been a fly-on-the-wall of my SU bar on Wednesday night you would have heard me declaring that the story would be entirely different if Jim Magilton were England manager.

Magic would not have kept De Vos out of the team, he would not have played Garvan if his previous performances had been bad and he would not have given Andrew Plummer a place if Supple was available...

Our Jim would not have settled for that first half performance, he'd have screamed and shouted and thrown some boots at their heads to get a result.

Turns out he and Steve McClaren have more in common than I would like to admit. Yesterday's performance in Cardiff was disappointing and though we improved in the second half we just couldn't pull out a goal.

Remind you of Wednesday night anyone??

Now I am in no way starting a man-hunt to get Magilton sacked - he's our greatest asset, I believe - but his interview following the match was as vague and full of cliches as McClaren had given on Thursday.

He may be becoming tired of answering questions about our away performance, but until there's an answer those questions won't stop: 'You sit here and I will ask you, because I have no idea.'(Derek Davis quotes Jim in the EADT)

Fair point Jim, no-one understands your frustration more than us - but it is not our job to sort this little problem out.


20 second highlights

Having been featured on the Championship two weekends ago it was sad to see us reduced this morning to just 20 seconds. Sadly that may have been all that was necessary.

Alan Lee hit the bar and the post in one shot twenty seconds after kick-off and Tommy Miller had a shot cleared off the line.

As unlucky as these were, no other chances materialised.

It's hard to believe we put six past Bristol just two weeks ago.


One thing got to me - Jim told the website 'We did not have enough leaders on the park. We cannot rely on Jason De Vos for that'.

The best leader other than Jase, and Alexander whose rants from goal have made me giggle, is Sylvain Legwinski.

But Leggi remained on the bench and the team remained unorganised.

Even McClaren figured out he needed the passion of David Beckham, maybe Jim should have taken note.

Saying that it made little difference in the end on Wednesday!


So Jim I will not for one second criticise your puzzlement on this issue as I have no idea what you should do either.

But please think of something quick before the Naaarwich catch up with us.

International Blues

The sports pages have been full this week of statistics on foreign players in the English Football league.

Arsenal, a team who used to be known for its youth training, fielded a completely non-english squad. Seeing as they are top of the Premiership it is a telling statistic of the direction in which the league is moving.

I had always believed that Ipswich, with their famous youth training academy, were an example to all with their home grown talent - Kieron Dyer, Richard Wright, Titus Bramble and Darren Bent have all done us proud (to some extent!).

But when I thought more about it I realised that our starting team actually contains a majority of non-English players:

Neil Alexander: Scottish
Tony Wright: English
Alex Bruce: English
Jason De Vos: Canadian
Dan Harding: English
Jonathan Walters: English
Tommy Miller: English
Owen Garvan: Irish
Billy Clarke: Irish
Alan Lee: Irish
Pablo Counago: Spanish

(N.B. English player Bruce has been called up for the Irish squad and Walters has been linked to the country's B team!)

6 out of 11 foreigners in the first team - and when Wilnis and Legwinski play that can go up to 8.

But is that a bad thing? Counago, De Vos, Alexander and Lee are all from foreign shores but Town's story this season may have been completely different without them.

So I say thanks to the Spanish for giving us Pablo and I raise my glass to the Canadians for Jason.

What difference does a player's nationality make if that player is passionate and committed to his team?

As for the worry that these international players will overshadow our own talent - perhaps the English should develop the mentality that a little competition never did anyone any harm and maybe it could even improve us.

So I say all for one and one for all - unless you are from Naaaarfalk!!!

Legwinksi goal should have ended away day blues

Sylvain Legwinski showed his team mates how it's done with the best strike of the game to put Ipswich Town ahead on 53 minutes.

His pinpoint volley from a Garvan throw in slipped inside the top right hand corner of the QPR goal and we really thought our poor away record had come to an end.

The first half had been a poor show from the Tractor Boys, QPR prevented us from playing our best passing game and no clearcut chances were created. Magilton moved himself from the dugout, to jump around at the edge of the technical box. I was glad I wasn't in the changing room at half time.

The second half saw much better football but a number of well created chances went without the end result of a goal. The play did eventually lead to the Legwinski goal, though.

The QPR goal seemed to come from nowhere; against the run of play, Nygaard had made his way through our defence and finished well. De Vos and co. looked gutted and angry with the officials, though I'm still not entirely sure why!

Town would have deserved three points had they taken advantage of the huge number of chances that came up.

Lee found the ball just a little out of reach on a couple of occasions, De Vos rose above the QPR defence to see his header go inches wide of the post, and Clarke pleaded to the heavens as shot after shot was too high, too low, or just completely miss hit.

Danny Haynes brought a new energy to the front line after he swapped places with Clarke on 80 minutes. A beautiful cross form Gary Roberts found Haynes but the striker couldn't get enough power on the ball to see it past the QPR keeper.

The mood of the Town fans after the game might have suggested we had been defeated, but a draw just did not seem enough. The disappointment was briefly lifted with the news of another home defeat for Naaaarwich and thoughts were turned to the derby in two weeks.

The coming week sees two home matches, against Colchester and Wolves, and there is a small hope that we will be 6 points better off afterwards. But thoughts are already turning to the local derby.

The one thing that got me through yesterday was the possiblity that our first away win of the season could be Carrow Road... dare i jinx it?!

Should we be getting our hopes up?

Queens Park Rangers are bottom of the league and Town are looking for their first away win of the season... maybe just maybe this will be the turning point for our boys in the road.

Captain Jason De Vos has overcome a knee injury, Tommy Miller will play his 150th game for Town and fellow midfielder Sylvain Legwinski is expected to return to the team as a result of his good performance against Burnley.

Add to that the fact that our last visit to Shepherd's Bush provided us with the first away win of the season, many would back us for a win.

Jim Magilton has spoken of his belief in our ability to move into the play-off positions within the next few games.

Mathematically we could do so next Saturday with a win at Loftus Road and a continuation of our home form against Colchester and Wolves.

But you know town, they like to do things the hard way and I for one am determined to remain pessimistic, I REALLY don't want to jinx us this year.

As Jim said 'I dream about us being in the top six, I wouldn't be happy if my players were dreaming about it, but I allow myself to'.