Ipswich Town beat Morecambe 4-0 in a League One match at Portman Road last night. STUART WATSON reflects on the action.
PERFECT SCRIPT
You couldn't have scripted a much better night for Ipswich Town.
Score inside the opening few seconds to calm any nerves in the crowd. Tick.
Maintain attacking intensity and ruthlessly put the game to bed by half-time. Tick.
Two full debutants instantly catching the imagination. Tick.
This was just what the doctor ordered three days on from defeat at Oxford United.
The Blues emerged from the literal and metaphorical fog of that match with crystal clear focus. It was apparent, from the very first whistle, that they meant business.
Let's not dismiss this as 'just Morecambe' either.
The Shrimps had won their previous three games, scoring nine goals in the process. They're a side who gave Town a run for their money back in October and who have taken points off of seven of the current top half sides this season.
Ipswich, remember, had previously failed to beat Lincoln, Cheltenham and Fleetwood at home.
The pressure was on and Kieran McKenna's men delivered.
FREDDIE STAR
Freddie Ladapo has taken his game to a new level in 2023.
Maybe that's come from an added boost of motivation following the arrival of George Hirst to compete for the central striker spot.
He did admit that the prospect of new signings in his position was 'nerve-racking'.
Or maybe it's a case of a man at a new club playing in a different system simply beginning to find his groove.
The 29-year-old scored the game's opening two goals - the first an alert finish when the ball fell loose at a corner, the second an angled finish on the run that went in off both posts - and was denied a hat-trick thanks to a lunging block on the edge of the six-yard box.
Building on lively performances against Rotherham and Plymouth, Ladapo combined strength and subtlety to be a selfless pivot point at the tip of the attack.
He came off to a well-deserved standing ovation in the second half.
His nine league goals have come at a rate of one every 170 minutes on average. He's on 13 for the season in all competitions now.
"He's showing everyone that you can improve right the way through your career," enthused McKenna.
"He's a different player than he was six months ago. His all-round game and understanding of his role is improving all the time."
FRIENDS CONNECTED
Wes Burns played a sharp one-two with Sam Morsy to burst away down the right and pick out Conor Chaplin with a cool cut-back for goal three.
And when left-back Liam Gibson backed off the direct-running Welshman the next time around, Burns simply passed inside to find his buddy in the box for goal number four.
This was the pace and precision version of Burns from his stellar debut season. I'm not sure what the Macarena dance celebration was all about though.
Chaplin has a lovely knack of holding his run and finding pockets of space. More often than not he finds the corner of the goal with his shots too.
He's now on 15 for the season, including nine in his last 11.
No-one's scored that many in a campaign for Town since Martyn Waghorn's 16 in 2017/18. And there's still at least 19 games to go in all competitions.
Will he become Town's first 20-goal man since Daryl Murphy (27) in 2014/15? Fingers crossed.
EYE-CATCHING FIRST STARTS
The recent seven-figure fees paid out for Harry Clarke and Nathan Broadhead are undoubtedly long-term investments.
The hope is that they can also provide instant impacts too - and they certainly did that on their full debuts.
A big reason behind Burns looking so good was the constant supporting runs he had from Clarke.
The 21-year-old, back at his hometown club, played with athleticism and passion in that bespoke right-back role that Janoi Donacien usually occupies.
He won a defensive header ahead of Town's second goal, was involved in the build-up play for goals three and four and produced a thunderous 50/50 challenge that had the crowd fired up.
Broadhead, playing in the inside left forward slot, looked razor sharp.
He was constantly on the move, ran at people, showed neat footwork, crisp ball striking, tested the keeper on three occasions and set-up Ladapo for 2-0.
Both players look like they are going to bring some different physical and technical attributes to this team.
CHANGES AT THE BACK
McKenna made five changes to the team that had started the 2-1 defeat at Oxford.
Clarke, Broadhead and Ladapo (who replaced Donacien, Marcus Harness and Hirst) have already been discussed.
The other two alterations were at centre-back as George Edmundson and Richard Keogh came in for Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess.
It was only Keogh's third league start for the club since joining last August. Edmundson was making his first league start since the 1-1 home draw with Cheltenham back on November 12.
"Richard and George have been training well, played well against Rotherham (in the FA Cup) and played well against Morecambe in the reverse game," explained McKenna.
"Richard dealt with Cole Stockton really well in the away game and we thought his leadership would help Harry on his debut too."
Edmundson got his head on multiple Town offensive corners in this game. He and Keogh threw themselves in the way of a shot at 1-0.
This was the Blues' first clean sheet in six matches.
NOW BUILD ON THIS
McKenna was quick to ackowledge afterwards that this is just the first small step towards his team regaining some momentum and making up ground in the automatic promotion race.
On Saturday, the Blues host Championship leaders Burnley in the FA Cup fourth round. After that it's Cambridge United (a), Sheffield Wednesday (h), Bristol Rovers (a), Forest Green (h), MK Dons (a), Burton (h) and Accrington (h).
Five of those teams, like Morecambe, are currently in the bottom six.
"Tonight we're playing in good conditions to play football and Morecambe have come to be positive and play a football match because they've won three games in a row," said the Blues boss.
"We have to keep finding different types of performances and different types of qualities in different types of games.
"The challenges that we face week-by-week are varied and it doesn't always look like today. It's up to us to keep coming up with the solutions."
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