@Shev said: @uptheblues - good to see you take such delight in Wycombe losing.
How have I taken such delight geezer I was saying how it was atmosphere tonight appalling Ipswich sung there hearts out non stop think you need new specs geezer
Actually, you are right - you seem ever so upset we lost. Mind you, it's hard to tell, as you never actually talk about the football, just anything related to noise.
I’m not upset geezer there always another game to win mind is set on next game so everything all good I’m not crying more to fact you seem bit sad we lost
@micra said:
Did you share the taxi with two other guys @Malone and get dropped off at the junction of Dashwood Avenue and Mill End Road ?
Near the Hour glass yep.
The older fella didn't look like your pen pic, but was it a pal of yours? Although I thought I saw him head to the terrace but could be wrong.
Great to be back inside Adam’s Park and watching the team live for first time in almost two years!
Shame about the result. Was impressed with Ipswich and thought our performance was pretty patchy, but plenty for me to still enjoy having not seen the team for so long, in particular really enjoyed watching Hanlan play.
General observation was how much more athletic the team looks then when I last saw them.
Slept on last night's performance, still can't find much to cheer up about but a few specifics.
Spoke to some Ipswich fans before the game when the teams came out. Their immediate consensus was 'we are going to overload the wings and attack with pace and then use 43 (can't recall his name, he scored the equaliser) to control the midfield to attack from there'. And they did. So random Ipswich fan saw what the plan was and 90 minutes into the game we still hadn't sussed it.
Big fan of Jason McCarthy but I am not sure if his fitness suits the role he was trying to play. About 30 minutes in he did a run down the wing, lost it, tried to run back and was doubled up. And that was him done. A couple of times shortly after that players offered him the ball and he indicated he didnt want it. I assumed he would be subbed at half time as he look like he was struggling. Nope, we stuck with him and his game was not the standard we know he can achieve.
As for the rest of the team Hanlan aside it was a collective poor day. The midfield did not work at all. Wheeler playing more advance left us completely exposed and that made the other 2 look lightweight and chasing shadows.
And I always find it 'funny' how when the silly mistakes start happening it becomes infectious. Kaikai can deliver a ball like only one other player in the club from a corner. He comes on, takes corner and doesn't clear the first man (one of my biggest pet hates in football).
Yeah yeah it's a blip against a good team. But our stats against the teams in the top 10 is poor, really poor and if we want to achieve a top 10 finish we need to be better. Seven goals in 2 games is not a good stat from a team who got promoted by not scoring but not conceding either. For all our flair and quality in our strikers we need goals if we are going to play Keegan football and try and win 4-3 every week.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:
Slept on last night's performance, still can't find much to cheer up about but a few specifics.
Spoke to some Ipswich fans before the game when the teams came out. Their immediate consensus was 'we are going to overload the wings and attack with pace and then use 43 (can't recall his name, he scored the equaliser) to control the midfield to attack from there'. And they did. So random Ipswich fan saw what the plan was and 90 minutes into the game we still hadn't sussed it.
Big fan of Jason McCarthy but I am not sure if his fitness suits the role he was trying to play. About 30 minutes in he did a run down the wing, lost it, tried to run back and was doubled up. And that was him done. A couple of times shortly after that players offered him the ball and he indicated he didnt want it. I assumed he would be subbed at half time as he look like he was struggling. Nope, we stuck with him and his game was not the standard we know he can achieve.
As for the rest of the team Hanlan aside it was a collective poor day. The midfield did not work at all. Wheeler playing more advance left us completely exposed and that made the other 2 look lightweight and chasing shadows.
And I always find it 'funny' how when the silly mistakes start happening it becomes infectious. Kaikai can deliver a ball like only one other player in the club from a corner. He comes on, takes corner and doesn't clear the first man (one of my biggest pet hates in football).
Yeah yeah it's a blip against a good team. But our stats against the teams in the top 10 is poor, really poor and if we want to achieve a top 10 finish we need to be better. Seven goals in 2 games is not a good stat from a team who got promoted by not scoring but not conceding either. For all our flair and quality in our strikers we need goals if we are going to play Keegan football and try and win 4-3 every week.
To be fair to Kaikai, his first two corners (including the one Stewart almost scored from) were excellent! We just tend to focus on the bad ones
And JJ's corners were not a lot better last night. Pretty certain it was a tactic to go near post to try and negate their keeper, who claims pretty much anything with ease.
I'm wondering if the problem is Hanlan being too good.
The shape we played at the start of the season, with two creative attackers behind a target man, suited us down to the ground. Then Hanlan bursts onto the scene, shows us his talent, and we change from a 3421 to a 3412 to accommodate him and Vokes.
I can certainly see the temptation of doing that when you have players of that quality but it means we have one fewer attacking midfielder who can drop back into the centre when play is against us, and leaves the formation a little top heavy and reliant on the full backs being on form and doing a lot of the assisting.
Tough decision for Gareth but I think he needs to choose which of Vokes and Hanlan to start, and then play Horgan and Kaikai/Wheeler/Mehmeti behind that striker while we wait for McCleary to recover.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub we might be asking too much of Mccarthy and I'm certain he's not hit close to the levels he hit previously with us.
However, it's not a fitness thing. I'd be amazed if he wasn't top in all our fitness metrics. Players doing the little preview show mention him similarly too.
Maybe Obita could match him too but he'd be top of the fitness tree in our squad for sure
I think you are spot on @aloysius. Although last night was a bit of an eye opener for me and certainly made my rose coloured glasses slip a bit, we are still very much in the hunt. With 11 days until our next league game maybe we can rotate a bit at Hartlepool and give people a chance to refresh and hopefully get GMac back.
We are still in the race but I must say that Ipswich looked impressive going forward but seemed very nervous at the back when we pressured them when 3-1 down.
Come on you Blues.
P.S. I hate that up the Wyc thing!!!!!!!
Agree that McCarthy and also Gape were very ineffective last night. Jason struggled to keep the ball under control several times and god knows what Gape was trying to achieve by playing so high up the pitch (left is totally exposed in the middle.) Thought Wheeler played well for first game back - won everything in the air, but we needed Thompson in the middle to cover that formation.
This is perhaps controversial, but I thought Vokes was awful last night and worst of all, looked like he couldn’t be bothered. I fear we are playing him each match because of who he is, and not based on his performances. Would drop him immediately in favour of Hanlon (who is superb) as per @aloysius above.
I'm not sure why everyone is saying Ipswich looked so good. Attacking wise they were a threat but we seemed to stand off them way too much. Ipswich were making a lot of mistakes at the start and only improved once they'd scored the fairly fortunate goal. On another day I think we could have easily scored more but their keeper was good and we lacked a bit of composure. 4-1 massively flatters them and makes our performance look worse than it was. All in all though it is a big blow to our promotion hopes losing a game like that, hopefully we can use it as impetus to kick on next time.
@TheOldMan said:
Agree that McCarthy and also Gape were very ineffective last night. Jason struggled to keep the ball under control several times and god knows what Gape was trying to achieve by playing so high up the pitch (left is totally exposed in the middle.) Thought Wheeler played well for first game back - won everything in the air, but we needed Thompson in the middle to cover that formation.
This is perhaps controversial, but I thought Vokes was awful last night and worst of all, looked like he couldn’t be bothered. I fear we are playing him each match because of who he is, and not based on his performances. Would drop him immediately in favour of Hanlon (who is superb) as per @aloysius above.
I thought Vokes was marked out of the game by the Ipswich centre backs and was ineffective.
@TheOldMan said:
Agree that McCarthy and also Gape were very ineffective last night. Jason struggled to keep the ball under control several times and god knows what Gape was trying to achieve by playing so high up the pitch (left is totally exposed in the middle.) Thought Wheeler played well for first game back - won everything in the air, but we needed Thompson in the middle to cover that formation.
This is perhaps controversial, but I thought Vokes was awful last night and worst of all, looked like he couldn’t be bothered. I fear we are playing him each match because of who he is, and not based on his performances. Would drop him immediately in favour of Hanlon (who is superb) as per @aloysius above.
I thought Vokes was marked out of the game by the Ipswich centre backs and was ineffective.
Yeah, but it's easier to play the 'he couldn't be arsed' card.
I thought Vokes had a pretty decent game myself. Early on he was excellent and caused plenty of problems. Credit to Ipswich though, they marked him very effectively as the game progressed. He gave his all, as he always does. Not sure how anyone can comment on his commitment?
I thought Vokes was good last night but very closely marked. Poor team performance from Stocko to midfield negated our strikers so pointless to point the finger at The Bad player who lost it.
Tough night, much of which has already been covered. Very odd to see Gape played in the Bloomfield role, with a similar outcome of lots of running without much effectiveness. Hopefully a one off tactic.
@WanderingDays said:
I can't be the only one who thought we didn't play too badly tonight?
Bossed the first 25 minutes, but we were pegged back by an unlucky deflection from a potshot. The rest of the 1st half was poor, but we created plenty of chances in the second half and forced some great saves from their keeper, including one from Stewart which was one of the best I've ever seen live (if not the best). I'm still in disbelief that he saved it!
And let's be honest, the third goal came after a blatant foul on Hanlan (he didn't get any decisions all game). The fourth when Stocko was out of goal doesn't happen in any other situation either. Ipswich looked a good side and took their chances really well, but 4-1 was hugely flattering. If that ended 2-2 no-one would bat an eyelid.
It was just "one of those days" where all the little things you can't control went against us
The turning point seemed to be our goal. After that we gave them more space or they were able to play around or through the press. Unlucky with the equalizer, but after an hour that had the potential to be really ugly. However, although they still looked dangerous on the break, we still had the chances to being it back to 3-2, and then who knows. Glad Stocko pulled out of the challenge at the end - rather concede a comedy goal than have him sent off that late on.
Good to have a night game with a decent crowd and big away following (suspect Sunderland and Pompey will also be played midweek)
Also, liked the way the ref approached the game. He let a lot go, but was generally consistent, and I'd rather have that than blowing up every time someone falls over. There can be physical contact without a foul, every foul isn't a yellow card.
@Shev said: @uptheblues - good to see you take such delight in Wycombe losing.
How have I taken such delight geezer I was saying how it was atmosphere tonight appalling Ipswich sung there hearts out non stop think you need new specs geezer
One of the reasons the atmosphere is slightly down is because you've managed to get the useful drum banned due to your sheer selfishness.
Stop coming on here sniping after every game essentially gloating about how you've managed to damage the atmosphere, it's not a good look
@ReturnToSenda said:
Man City lost 5-2 at home to Leicester last season and won the league.
Liverpool lost 3-0 to Watford the season before - ending their chance of an unbeaten season - and won the league.
Oh, Wycombe lost 4-1 at home to Coventry in markedly more horrible fashion than tonight's defeat - then lost 4-0 at Sunderland less than two weeks later - and ... got promoted to the Championship.
Drawing grand conclusions - positive or negative - from isolated games is one of the most frustrating behaviours which football fans persist with. But it'll never change.
Agree 100 per cent. The over reaction to an individual result, good or bad, shows a lack of understanding of the vagaries of football, even at the highest level. Manchester United get thrashed at home by Liverpool then a week later go to Spurs and hammer them. The most important thing at this stage of the season is how many points we have won and 31 from 16 games is a very impressive total.
@ReturnToSenda said:
Man City lost 5-2 at home to Leicester last season and won the league.
Liverpool lost 3-0 to Watford the season before - ending their chance of an unbeaten season - and won the league.
Oh, Wycombe lost 4-1 at home to Coventry in markedly more horrible fashion than tonight's defeat - then lost 4-0 at Sunderland less than two weeks later - and ... got promoted to the Championship.
Drawing grand conclusions - positive or negative - from isolated games is one of the most frustrating behaviours which football fans persist with. But it'll never change.
Agree 100 per cent. The over reaction to an individual result, good or bad, shows a lack of understanding of the vagaries of football, even at the highest level. Manchester United get thrashed at home by Liverpool then a week later go to Spurs and hammer them. The most important thing at this stage of the season is how many points we have won and 31 from 16 games is a very impressive total.
You're right, although I'm not sure United beating that Spurs side 3-0 took anyone by surprise!
Not a lot to say on the game that hasn't been said already, so I'll comment on the match day experience instead as it was my first time at AP since Feb 2020.
Really really impressed all round - congratulations to the owners. The place looked superb - the floodlights and LED boards are very classy, and I could actually get on the Internet to read the gasroom at half time! The club shop was well stocked, the queue to get onto the terrace very quick, and the card payment for drinks inside the ground made sure a very long queue only took a few mins. Oh and the lightshow was a nice touch before kick off too. So many improvements have been made and they should be congratulated for the way they processed a relatively big crowd last night.
Drum or no drum, really surprised by how flat the atmosphere on the terrace was though. Even in the first half, when we doing well.
Comments
I am a bit sad we lost! Spot on.
Near the Hour glass yep.
The older fella didn't look like your pen pic, but was it a pal of yours? Although I thought I saw him head to the terrace but could be wrong.
I thought up the blues was a Portsmouth fan now?
Bit confused, wasn’t there food on the left as you go in? Looked very popular
Great to be back inside Adam’s Park and watching the team live for first time in almost two years!
Shame about the result. Was impressed with Ipswich and thought our performance was pretty patchy, but plenty for me to still enjoy having not seen the team for so long, in particular really enjoyed watching Hanlan play.
General observation was how much more athletic the team looks then when I last saw them.
Slept on last night's performance, still can't find much to cheer up about but a few specifics.
Spoke to some Ipswich fans before the game when the teams came out. Their immediate consensus was 'we are going to overload the wings and attack with pace and then use 43 (can't recall his name, he scored the equaliser) to control the midfield to attack from there'. And they did. So random Ipswich fan saw what the plan was and 90 minutes into the game we still hadn't sussed it.
Big fan of Jason McCarthy but I am not sure if his fitness suits the role he was trying to play. About 30 minutes in he did a run down the wing, lost it, tried to run back and was doubled up. And that was him done. A couple of times shortly after that players offered him the ball and he indicated he didnt want it. I assumed he would be subbed at half time as he look like he was struggling. Nope, we stuck with him and his game was not the standard we know he can achieve.
As for the rest of the team Hanlan aside it was a collective poor day. The midfield did not work at all. Wheeler playing more advance left us completely exposed and that made the other 2 look lightweight and chasing shadows.
And I always find it 'funny' how when the silly mistakes start happening it becomes infectious. Kaikai can deliver a ball like only one other player in the club from a corner. He comes on, takes corner and doesn't clear the first man (one of my biggest pet hates in football).
Yeah yeah it's a blip against a good team. But our stats against the teams in the top 10 is poor, really poor and if we want to achieve a top 10 finish we need to be better. Seven goals in 2 games is not a good stat from a team who got promoted by not scoring but not conceding either. For all our flair and quality in our strikers we need goals if we are going to play Keegan football and try and win 4-3 every week.
To be fair to Kaikai, his first two corners (including the one Stewart almost scored from) were excellent! We just tend to focus on the bad ones
Lost to a very good side last night. We weren't at our best and we needed to have been to get anything out of it.
Like Gaz says though 6 wins from 7 home games so far is absolutely exceptional.
Thought Ipswich looked very much like title contenders
And JJ's corners were not a lot better last night. Pretty certain it was a tactic to go near post to try and negate their keeper, who claims pretty much anything with ease.
I'm wondering if the problem is Hanlan being too good.
The shape we played at the start of the season, with two creative attackers behind a target man, suited us down to the ground. Then Hanlan bursts onto the scene, shows us his talent, and we change from a 3421 to a 3412 to accommodate him and Vokes.
I can certainly see the temptation of doing that when you have players of that quality but it means we have one fewer attacking midfielder who can drop back into the centre when play is against us, and leaves the formation a little top heavy and reliant on the full backs being on form and doing a lot of the assisting.
Tough decision for Gareth but I think he needs to choose which of Vokes and Hanlan to start, and then play Horgan and Kaikai/Wheeler/Mehmeti behind that striker while we wait for McCleary to recover.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub we might be asking too much of Mccarthy and I'm certain he's not hit close to the levels he hit previously with us.
However, it's not a fitness thing. I'd be amazed if he wasn't top in all our fitness metrics. Players doing the little preview show mention him similarly too.
Maybe Obita could match him too but he'd be top of the fitness tree in our squad for sure
I think you are spot on @aloysius. Although last night was a bit of an eye opener for me and certainly made my rose coloured glasses slip a bit, we are still very much in the hunt. With 11 days until our next league game maybe we can rotate a bit at Hartlepool and give people a chance to refresh and hopefully get GMac back.
We are still in the race but I must say that Ipswich looked impressive going forward but seemed very nervous at the back when we pressured them when 3-1 down.
Come on you Blues.
P.S. I hate that up the Wyc thing!!!!!!!
Agree that McCarthy and also Gape were very ineffective last night. Jason struggled to keep the ball under control several times and god knows what Gape was trying to achieve by playing so high up the pitch (left is totally exposed in the middle.) Thought Wheeler played well for first game back - won everything in the air, but we needed Thompson in the middle to cover that formation.
This is perhaps controversial, but I thought Vokes was awful last night and worst of all, looked like he couldn’t be bothered. I fear we are playing him each match because of who he is, and not based on his performances. Would drop him immediately in favour of Hanlon (who is superb) as per @aloysius above.
I'm not sure why everyone is saying Ipswich looked so good. Attacking wise they were a threat but we seemed to stand off them way too much. Ipswich were making a lot of mistakes at the start and only improved once they'd scored the fairly fortunate goal. On another day I think we could have easily scored more but their keeper was good and we lacked a bit of composure. 4-1 massively flatters them and makes our performance look worse than it was. All in all though it is a big blow to our promotion hopes losing a game like that, hopefully we can use it as impetus to kick on next time.
I thought Vokes was marked out of the game by the Ipswich centre backs and was ineffective.
Yeah, but it's easier to play the 'he couldn't be arsed' card.
I thought Vokes had a pretty decent game myself. Early on he was excellent and caused plenty of problems. Credit to Ipswich though, they marked him very effectively as the game progressed. He gave his all, as he always does. Not sure how anyone can comment on his commitment?
I thought Vokes was good last night but very closely marked. Poor team performance from Stocko to midfield negated our strikers so pointless to point the finger at The Bad player who lost it.
I think Hanlan was described as 'woeful' the otjer day?
I assumed Thompson was just being managed because of his apparent knee issue (it's been very heavily strapped all season).
What about the floodlights by the way?
Best I've ever seen. Absolutely magnificent
I think up the blues is an up the blues fan
Tough night, much of which has already been covered. Very odd to see Gape played in the Bloomfield role, with a similar outcome of lots of running without much effectiveness. Hopefully a one off tactic.
The turning point seemed to be our goal. After that we gave them more space or they were able to play around or through the press. Unlucky with the equalizer, but after an hour that had the potential to be really ugly. However, although they still looked dangerous on the break, we still had the chances to being it back to 3-2, and then who knows. Glad Stocko pulled out of the challenge at the end - rather concede a comedy goal than have him sent off that late on.
Good to have a night game with a decent crowd and big away following (suspect Sunderland and Pompey will also be played midweek)
Also, liked the way the ref approached the game. He let a lot go, but was generally consistent, and I'd rather have that than blowing up every time someone falls over. There can be physical contact without a foul, every foul isn't a yellow card.
One of the reasons the atmosphere is slightly down is because you've managed to get the useful drum banned due to your sheer selfishness.
Stop coming on here sniping after every game essentially gloating about how you've managed to damage the atmosphere, it's not a good look
Agree 100 per cent. The over reaction to an individual result, good or bad, shows a lack of understanding of the vagaries of football, even at the highest level. Manchester United get thrashed at home by Liverpool then a week later go to Spurs and hammer them. The most important thing at this stage of the season is how many points we have won and 31 from 16 games is a very impressive total.
@uptheblues
What is becoming increasingly apparent is that you think everyone attends football game for the drumming and singing to be centre stage.
Most people attend to watch the football.
If you want to be the centre of attention playing the drum, join a band.
You're right, although I'm not sure United beating that Spurs side 3-0 took anyone by surprise!
Not a lot to say on the game that hasn't been said already, so I'll comment on the match day experience instead as it was my first time at AP since Feb 2020.
Really really impressed all round - congratulations to the owners. The place looked superb - the floodlights and LED boards are very classy, and I could actually get on the Internet to read the gasroom at half time! The club shop was well stocked, the queue to get onto the terrace very quick, and the card payment for drinks inside the ground made sure a very long queue only took a few mins. Oh and the lightshow was a nice touch before kick off too. So many improvements have been made and they should be congratulated for the way they processed a relatively big crowd last night.
Drum or no drum, really surprised by how flat the atmosphere on the terrace was though. Even in the first half, when we doing well.