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.

Walters Wonderland

My favourite Tractor Boy, Jonathan Walters, has been tipped for International football after hitting his first ever hat trick on Saturday, in another thrilling game at Portman Road.

When I was travelling back to East Anglia on a train full of grumpy commuters I began to wonder if I'd chosen the best game to come home to.

Bristol have had an impressive season so far and have the record of never having lost when they have scored the first goal. With our shaky defence I was concerned by this statistic.

But five minutes in and the nerves had worn off, Johnnie had scored and less than a minute later Pablo had an almost identical shot go just wide of the post. I started to believe we might be ok.

On the fifteenth minute a goal from unexpected source David Wright set us 2:0 up. Walters and Wright had created some clever moves on the right hand side, much to the crowd's pleasure, and the defender deserved to get on the scoreboard for his part so far.

Fifteen minutes from half time Jim Magilton substituted Alan Lee for Danny Haynes. Lee had controlled the Bristol defence until this point and I was a little concerned by his early exit - especially as Haynes seemed to look somewhat lost in the fast paced game.

Lee was suffering from a knock to his Achilles but has declared he should be fit for our next game in 10 days time.

The second half flew by in a flurry of goals, I almost didn't dare close my eyes in case the world had changed when I opened them again!

Walters, of course, added twice to the score and Pablo and Miller were the others on target.



Despite Johnnie's hat trick I believe that the best man on the field was Pablo Counago. As my Dad has said after every game, 'Chamionship defenders just don't know how to handle him', he's got skill, speed and an imagination that ties them in knots.

How wonderful is it to not have to worry about loosing him in the transfer window to raise funds for the club?

By the end of the game the 20,000 fans were singing 'We want 7...!'

How about at Cardiff next Saturday??!

Ten in a row, fourth in the league!

Town's defeat of Wolves on Saturday was quite honestly the best game of the season so far.

Three wonderfully taken goals and a clean sheet summed up perfectly an afternoon which saw us climb to fourth in the Championship.

Wolves could have taken the game in the first five minutes when a penalty was awarded for a foul by Neil Alexander.

Alexander told the East Anglian Daily Times: 'I had to go for the ball and I did touch the lad, so i didn't have any complaints over the penalty'.

Wolves' failure to convert the penalty gave The Blues a confidence boost - just as it had when Colchester made the same mistake. Whilst Wolves had played some nice football for the first half hour, Town were finally able to take control of the game.

Alan Lee looked to have taken the ball too far into the box but slotted it past the keeper calmly. The goal was timed perfectly by allowing Town to go into the break 1:0 up.

He later told BBC Suffolk that he believed the team should now be looking to move to second in the table. A little ambitiuos for my liking but aim for the stars and you'll reach the sky I guess!

Pablo also looked to have taken the ball too far on his own with Clarke to his left providing a more than viable option for a pass. But cleverly, if a little arrogantly, he side stepped two defenders and the keeper to put Town 2:0 up.

Jim Magilton told the Ipswich Town website: 'Alan's goal was a terrific finish and the first goal was always going to be crucial. Pablo showed great strength to get the second and that gave us the breathing space we needed'.

Haynes showed a touch of class too - so much so that his goal was featured in the early highlights of the Championship on Sunday morning!

Being the kind person that I am I will not mention the league position of our friends in Naaarfalk - I guess it must be hard enough for them, wayching us from such a long way behind!

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'.

Loosing the faith?

The attendance for Ipswich Town's impressive victory over Coventry was just 18,840, the lowest since March 2000 - when the stadium had a vastly smaller capacity.
As a season ticket holder, my pet peeve was the 'part-timers' that graced us with their presence for Town's bigger matches.
Unfortunately travelling up from London has proved to be too expensive on a student budget, so I am joining the ranks of my least favourite people.
However, I am beginning to understand the idea of having to choose one or two games a month to go to.
Coventry at home would not have been one that jumped out at me at the beginning of the season and with it being on Sky I decided to watch it from the comfort of the pub.
However, it seems a little telling that the lowest attendance of the season so far follows two defeats away from home.
Are there two many fickle fans loosing faith already this season?
Super Jim Magilton told the East Anglian Daily Times yesterday that he believes it is his duty to bring the fans back by winning the games.
But after seven straight home victories shouldn't we be showing him more confidence?
Would love to hear people's opinions...

Early kick-off

Ipswich Town's season so far seems to have been plagued by the rearranging of kick-off times.
Recently, the bringing forward of the Hull City kick off to 12:30pm has affected a number of travelling Blues fans.
To those of you who are making the effort to visit the delights (!) of Hull: Good on you. Its an arduous enough journey from East Anglia, without having people fiddling about with your travel times.
As part of his new regime Jim brought in the idea of pre-match training/ warming up sessions to allow the players to prepare physically and mentally for the game ahead. If we loose the pattern of 3 o clock starts - we equally loose the pattern of psyching ourselves up for the game. Perhaps this suggests why our away form has not been what it should be - a disruption to the pattern.

It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has been affected by this, in particular how the club's promise to refund train fares is being fulfilled.

Of course, I wouldn't mind all of this if it was for Sky, at least I'd be able to watch my boys, but when its for the flipping rugby I can't help but feel a bit miffed!