Short lived celebrations in Huddersfield as Town 'stop the rot'

On Saturday, I headed to Huddersfield fully expecting to see Ipswich lose. It's an occupational hazard when you are a Town fan.

Town had lost four of their last five games (five from six if you include the cup exit at Portsmouth), a poor run of form that has seen a large number of fans and even boss Mick McCarthy fearing 'our play off hopes are slipping away'. Add to that the memory of a disappointing defeat last season at the John Smith's stadium that saw our hopes for promotion very nearly crushed and you can see why a defeat felt inevitable to me.

So, to be honest, I felt a little numb heading to catch the train back to Leeds after the game: I hadn't been at all prepared for the joy of seeing my fourth away win of the season and, of course, the famous Luke Chambers' fist pump.

I think I was in shock. Sadly this wasn't because we'd performed like a promotion chasing side, scoring with ease and playing our opponents off the field. The shock was simply because the previous visit to Huddersfield had been such a terrible experience and, in recent weeks, us Town fans have become rather accustomed to expecting the worst.

You might think then that our loyal supporters would be over the moon with the three points, particularly as the match had been billed by so many as 'must win' (even at this early point in the season). Alas, that doesn't seem to be the case.

I felt a little deflated when I found that even before I had returned home a number of social media users seemed to be belittling the performance already, angry that we hadn't produced a Barcelona-esque performance in this vital Championship tie.

I exaggerate, of course, but it was disappointing and the low mood seems to have continued among a few during the following days as well.  I mean, come on, are we not allowed at least a 24 hour period to bask in the enjoyment of a victory before we are forced back to earth with the reality of the precarious position we find ourselves in?

I ask myself, why are some of our fans feeling this way? Why would you not just be happy with three points away from home to 'stop the rot' of the recent bad form?

Well, they can't really be blamed, it wasn't the greatest game of football I've ever seen. The match report stats speak for themselves:

Shots on goal: Huddersfield - 22, Ipswich - 6
Shots on target: Huddersfield - 5, Ipswich - 1
Possession: Huddersfield - 67%, Ipswich - 33%

Viewed in that format, the lack of shots on goal is really worrying and adds to a trend that we have seen in recent matches: against Hull we had not one shot on target (although Daryl Murphy did hit the inside of the post).

We seemed to struggle going forward, that much is clear from the numbers, and, in the first half at least, I personally felt the defence allowed Huddersfield to come too far forward before making any challenges.

A nervy one goal lead was all we really deserved and for the duration of the second half you could sense that the away end were expecting an equaliser at any moment.

But that equaliser didn't come. We defended confidently and, despite the lack of activity going forward, I did feel we looked the stronger side. It seems to have been easy for some to overlook these points, as well as the fact there were some very good individual performances:

Murphy's assist for the goal was fantastic, beautifully taken and controlled with a pinpoint pass to Pringle for the winner. It was testament to how much of an influcence he was on the game and it was the first time I have seen him play that well so far this season (with the exception of Rotherham and Charlton, where he was phenomenal). Hopefully this is something that he can now keep up, too often I've seen comments that he has been invisible in our matches and he clearly hasn't hit the form we so adored last year.


Bialkowski once again turned in a performance that looks set to see him named as Town's 'Player of the month' for February. Bart kept us in the game, something that has become a habit since his return to the side, with some heart-stopping saves. Early in the first half, he faced strongly into a one-on-one situation with Nakhi Wells and stopped the shot with his legs, what a very different game it might have been without his input.

Though I'm happy to see such great performances from our big Pole in the goal, I'm concerned by how often we seem to be saying 'the keeper saved our skin today', with Gerken in previous games as much as with Bart this month. What has happened to the solid defence that we had last season?

On Saturday, Berra was okay for the most part but made some terrible errors when clearing the ball and I felt Knudsen stepped in to save him a few times. Smith made no obvious errors during the game but he was perhaps a little too quiet for my liking, while a Chambers error just in front of the goal late in the second half had my hands covering my eyes.

However, Knudsen had the best game I have seen him play in a Town shirt so far. Strong on the left and stepping in with confidence when needed to clear the ball, he still has a tendency to 'hoof' the ball far and high up the wing, whether there is a player there to collect it or not. But he was hard working and reliable, the pure passion on his face as the referee blew his whistle in the 95th minute was clear to see, something that has certainly endeared me to him. I know you can't win games on passion alone, but I do believe you should be grateful when you can see that it is so very clearly there.

Such passion, of course, could also be seen among over 900 fans in the away end. The final ten minutes were a familiar slog of nerves, with half an eye on the clock counting down behind us.

As we neared the final whistle, a repeated round of 'Singing the Blues' roused the crowd to see the boys safely past that final whistle with three points in the bag. It was one of those moments that make me proud to be an Ipswich fan and will be firmly placed in my bank of away day memories.

Pure relief followed at the final whistle and a somewhat subdued fist pump due to the way in which we had managed victory. A friend said to me as we were leaving the stadium that he thought we had earned that win... 'but my god it was boring'. A perfect summary in my opinion: It wasn't pretty, but we achieved what we set out to do, probably more so, and you can't ask for more than that.

My friend's thoughts were echoed by a Huddersfield fan who I spoke to after that game. Understandably, he was disappointed that they had come away empty handed, but not a bad word was said about McCarthy's side. He told me he felt we had played intellegent football: 'you knew our weaknesses and you played to those'.According to him, the stronger side won in the end: it was a kinder report than I've heard from several Town fans since the end of the game and I'll happily take it.

No, we didn't play the prettiest of football.

Yes, we should be putting bottom half teams like Huddersfield in their place if we want to have a serious go at this promotion race.

But it was, after all, a win and three points. Three points that keep us well within the race for the play offs (particularly with Birmingham, Derby and Preston all losing).

All we can do is take one game at a time and that, my friends, means we achieved our goal for this weekend. Can we just be happy about that until the next one please?

Transfer window? More like supermarket sweep for Town fans!

Interesting theory on Twitter this week: davegoods reckons there's seven places to fill in the Ipswich Town first team this summer. Quite a task for our PJ.

I think you've got to consider even more than that. Our starting 11 could literally be anything next year: and trying to figure out who it will be is proving to be quite exciting!

Firstly, there's the ongoing saga with Jimmy Bullard. This story has more twists and obstacles than the A14 and it seems unlikely to be resolved any time soon. Word has it he wants to stay, Paul Jewell has said he wants him to stay, and we know already how much the fans want him to stay... yet there's still now word on an actual contract.

For me, it's all a bit too 'been there done that': remember Frannie Jeffers? The man was a legend at Portman Road for a few months and my god we wanted to sign him permanently. But when it came to the crunch he chose Sheffield Wednesday and the bigger wage packet. At the moment I don't see Jimmy playing in Blue and White next year. Sadly.

But what else does the boss say? Jewell's told reporters he's after a proven scorer - Hallelujah! He says the type of player he's after is Watford striker Danny Graham: the Championship's top scorer this year with 27 goal in all competitions. I fear we'd be shooting out of our league with this particular line of enquiry because there's reportedly Premiership interest too. But I like the way Jewell's thinking:

'I want a striker who will do anything to get a goal. We haven't got that devilment, that type of player who will kick his granny to score a goal'.

Isn't that exactly what the Town fans have been wanting all along?! My confidence in Jewell grows a little bit more every day, thanks to comments like this. It does make me wonder how different things might have been had Keane left at the end of last year and given Jewell some time with 2010's summer transfer list.

Speaking of strikers, there is, of course, the rejected bid for Billy Sharp. Here's a striker with a good reputation in the Championship, who has shown signs of that 'anything for a goal' attitude. There's plenty of time for Town to come up with another bid, but again the rumours of Premiership interest may get in the way. Isn't it annoying?!

Then, there's also talk on fan site Those Were The Days that we're targetting belgian midfielder Germinal Beerschott. He's a very tall midfielder who's been capped for his country. Even if it's not true it serves as a reminder that Paul will have his fingers in pies we've not even thought of. So trust the big man I reckon.

With all these rumours flying around I was feeling a bit dizzy, so I turned to twitter and the ITFC Tweeps! 'If you were PJ who would you spend your pocket money on?' The response was a full blown shopping list from dave_harrison, though as he said it was 'more fantasy football than realistic football'.

Bullard, Goodwillie, Sharp, Coppinger, St Ledger, Montgomery, Westwood, George, Boyd .

Now, defender St Ledger's a very interesting idea that I've not seen anywhere else yet. We were linked with him in January but it was decided that the requested £2.5 million was too high. A strong defender with experience in this league and a good reputation could be just what we need with our McAuley heading to pastures new. Perhaps that asking price will have gone down now his club Preston have been relegated?

Join the Town Tweeps and follow me on Twitter @tractorgirlamy

Elsewhere, I've just discovered http://www.lewis-mitchell.com/ which kicked up some more 'realistic' ideas. Blogger Lewis suggests Shaun Derry; a midfielder who came close to a deal with us last summer but financial issues put a stop to it. Lewis also ponders the possibility that, now QPR have been promoted, Derry's 33 year old legs and stamina would be better suited to the Championship than the Premier League. Lewis also comes up with Sheffield United defender Nick Montgomery. Another player with a good reputation... previous to this year anyway! However, I am reliably informed by my boyfriend (a life long Blade), Montgomery's a true United-ike, most likely, would want to see them back up to the league they've just been relegated from.

Of course all of this speculation will come to nothing if Clegg and Evans don't back Jewell with the necessary finances. I do get the impression they understand that is what's needed to get out of this league. But, will they deliver on that? Was the lack of support from the board the reason Keane left? Did he just feel he wasn't given the money? Were McAuley and Norris not simply looking for a move to the Premiership? Could there have been more to it, more going on behind the scenes than we know?

We'll find out soon enough; but I am reminded of what one fan said on Twitter in response to shouts for 'Clegg out'. What is everyone worrying about? The football season still hasn't finished; there's plenty of time.

So, bearing all that in mind, who would I pick? Any of the above and more besides.

For me though, the important thing is not who the players are but how well they gel together next year. Town have to enter August with a confidence and total desire to win every game. In the pit of my tummy I'm getting the same feeling I was getting in the mid nineties - that we were at the start of something good. It may take us a few years to get there. It may take us four attempts to win the Play Offs. But one day we will, once again, be Premier League.