Ipswich Town fan Karl Fuller reflects on Town’s season a third of the way through
After the Hallowe’en horrors of our defending at Cardiff last Tuesday night, I was hoping for some fireworks on the pitch to ignite our stuttering season once more on Saturday.
The result certainly provided a sparkle to what was otherwise a fairly drab afternoon and for the first time since the opening three weekends of the season, we could celebrate winning on consecutive Saturdays once more.
This actually did not happen at all last season – so there’s an improvement of sorts!
I will not get too carried away because the first 45 minutes on Saturday were terrible once again.
Thankfully, Martyn Waghorn and David McGoldrick scored at opportune times to put aside an ordinary Preston outfit who are struggling with a number of injuries that we’ve been accustomed to ourselves all season so far.
I was pulled up via e-mail last week by an upset fan who thinks that I am on a constant negative witch-hunt against both the club and Mick McCarthy.
Thankfully I have an opportunity to put that particular record straight.
I would love Mick to prove me wrong, and I’ll be the first to wax lyrical about Mick if he can turn things around.
I hear what the inners are saying – seventh in the table, a point outside the play-offs, joint-third highest scorers in the Championship and now we’re a third of the way through the season, who honestly expected us to be in this position? I certainly didn’t and I say fair play to all of that but if I’m also honest, we’re stealing that place at the moment.
Yes, a win is a win, and you can only beat what is in front of you.
Saturday’s first period was dire though and nobody in the ground could see a 3-0 win coming.
We continue to show that we’ve got goals in us and I make it 25 between Waghorn, McGoldrick, Joe Garner and Bersant Cellina now.
It was nice to grab a clean sheet too but we’re just struggling still in the midfield area. Maybe the return of Emyr Huws and Tom Adeyemi will solve our problems but until we start to up our performance levels on a more consistent basis, I’m not sure that the missing thousands will return anytime soon.
Yes, I agree, Mick is doing a job on limited resources, but there is so much more that could be done.
Joe Royle had next to nothing to work with and while cutting our wage bill by several millions, he saw us to the play-offs in successive seasons with entertaining football to boot. I also felt a sense of unity with Joe and the fans.
Ok, there were some who let the small matter of his Norwich connections get in the way but in the main, we were behind one another.
Mick’s recent comments surrounding the vacant Sunderland job were the latest to go under the microscope and those not happy at these are being accused of being sensitive.
On one hand, you could say he was being matter of fact in that if he was available he would go back in a heartbeat but he’s not.
But did he need to say this at all?
This certainly did not go down well with many fans pretty much in the same way that if I said to my wife that my ex was free and looking for someone, I’d go back to her in a heartbeat if I was free.
What does that tell my wife where my mind could potentially wander to?
Nothing is going to change now until May at least.
The situation is what it is.
For now, we can go into this international break on the back of a win and enjoy being on the fringes of the play-off places before we return and the real acid test of our capabilities start in earnest with testing fixtures on the horizon.
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