Fuller Flavour: Boos are unwarranted, but understandable

Well this isn’t going according to script is it?

The early fixtures on paper seemed to present an ideal opportunity of getting some wins on board. I’ve used the phrase déjà vu on too many occasions in the previous nine years of the column and already, I feel the need to bring it back to the fore this week. But believe me, in a completely different context to ever before.

Those same old, same old moments in the past were usually after another inept performance, at a time when the place was full of apathy and with an owner and management in charge much to the disgruntlement of the majority. That feeling that we’d been here before was simply out of frustration.

This one is tempered with excitement and hope, yet doused with a sprinkling of disappointment - as we all know, it’s wins that count.

Ipswich keeper Vaclav Hladky is beaten as MK Dons level at 1-1. (Image: © Copyright Stephen Waller)

Let’s rewind to the Cheltenham game. It was the first game I have watched on iFollow in the new era. I was hesitant about buying the game at first as I am still haunted by what the streaming service brought to me last season!

It was bad enough watching it for free for home games, let alone on the occasions when I parted with £10 to watch the away games too.

I’d got used to swearing at the screen and often vowed that I would never pay again for the privilege.

But that was a club of a different era. I was more than happy to pay £10 this time. The net result of my thoughts at the final whistle left me feeling as said above - frustrated.

After such an excellent performance for the first hour, how did we lose that game? I know it’s easy to point to that miss by Macauley Bonne, but as in common with the games prior to this, we did not help ourselves defensively.

Ipswich Town fans watch on against MK Dons (Image: © Copyright Stephen Waller)

Still, the overriding feeling was that there were positives to take from the game and another block to cement onto the building process.

The MK Dons game must have been a joy to watch for any neutral. It was in the main, a joy to watch as a Town fan. However, we’re not neutral and just want that first win of the season to come sooner rather than later.

Macauley said he would make up for his miss and boy, how he did. What an exquisite ball to him for his first goal too from Kane Vincent-Young.

Having taken the lead, we wondered whether this would be the game that three points would finally come our way. To their credit, the Dons played their part in an absorbing and often intriguing game.

In Scott Twine, they have a player I had hoped that we would sign. From my position in the lower North Stand, I was directly behind the ball for the free-kick he scored from.

Scott Twine scores from a free kick on Saturday - just as Karl Fuller feared he would (Image: © Copyright Stephen Waller)

I said to my friends that he would score. The distance from goal and Vaclav Hladky’s positioning both seemed to be the perfect opportunity to score once the ball was lifted over the wall and so it proved.

But once Bonne put us in front again, I really felt we would go on and win the game. As a side note, my seat in row B presents an awful general view.

I’ve admitted that to so many friends when questioning my choice of seat. But I used to stand in that position many times in the old North Stand days and so it has become kind of home to me.

But when Bonne came up to the wall, looked me in the eye and roared in celebration, it was the kind of moment that reminded me why I am there.

Then that déjà vu moment as yet another defensive error allowed MK Dons to score again. The boos at the end of the game were unwarranted but understandable.

I said it last week and I’ll say it again. There are long-standing fans wounded with misery of so many years. They just want it all stitched up and made better. Everyone has different levels of patience though.

The wins will come.