SOBS V IPSWICH (A)

The Lads trundled to East Angulo and basically gifted three points to Ipswich. A defensive mistake allowed their first, Angulo scored the goal of the season (so far) with a free late in the first half, then a loose pass out of defence let Ipswich set up sub Jack Clarke in added time. Outcome? Inevitable.

After a comfy journey that began at daft o'clock we did a tour of an Ipswich housing estate before a pleasant couple of hours in the Man On The Moon, where our two coach loads plus a few baffled the local Man U TV fans. The new coach park wasn't that far from the ground, but the warning that the digiticket equipment was "being trialled" brought an unwarranted feeling of dread. Thankfully it was straight in, no hassle. 

Pre-match pyrotechnics out of the way, we lined up, pretty in pink.. 

Roefs 

Meunier Ballard O'Nien Reinildo 

Xhaka (c) Sadiki 

Hume Le Fee Angulo 

Brobbey 

... and a bench of Elllborg, Talbi, Isidor, Mukiele, Alderete, Jocelyn, Diarra, Rigg, and Mundle.

We faced right as our fans occupied our usual position in the Cobbold side and gave their drum some serious competition. BB kicked off, and we were away on our new adventure. Angulo was banged off the ball twice in the opening minutes without the ref being bothered and our left winger saw a lot of the ball in the early exchanges. Unfortunately he didn't get the better of the home defence that often. Enzo showed some good strength to set him away but his cross was cut out. He did get a decision after quarter of an hour when he was blocked again.m, but we didn't produce anything from the free, and when Enzo poked one through for Brobbey his shot was blocked by a sliding challenge on 22 minutes. Corner, which came in from Xhaka on the right and was cleared.

A couple of minutes later we messed up getting it out of defence (Luke, man!), they galloped down their right to cut it in low, and it was scooped into the net from a few yards with Roefs bypassed.

Ah, bugger.

We worked a headed chance for BB, but it was saved, bringing a couple of corners that we failed to convert. With our defence regularly going to three as Meunier and Reinildo took turns in getting up the wings - the latter even spending a little while just behind Brobbey. Ballard, who'd obviously been instructed to stick very close (too close in my opinion) to his opponents was retrospectively booked for a headlock. 

We did produce some nice passing on about 37 that ended with a foul on Xhaka in the inside left position twenty yards out. He and Angulo stood over it, I said "I think he's right footed" and in it went - over the wall and off the underside of the bar to the keeper's right. 

An absolute beauty, which brought about a repurposing of the Julio song. Inevitable, really.

We played the remainder of the half, including two additional minutes, as if staying level was the most important thing in the world.

Level at the break? Well worth it, and Ipswich deserve a points deduction - not for their drum, as it at least had an unusual rhythm - but for waving a mag shirt to our left. Not the current abomination, obviously.

No changes for the second half, and Ipswich must have done their homework as they stifled our traditional second half increase in pace and "intensity." An Ipswich flick went close five minutes in, but I'm sure Roefs had it covered anyway as it bounced past his right hand post. Two minutes after that, how we didn't score was a complete mystery as at least three shots from inside their box were blocked. 

Just before the hour Angulo was booked for failing to get out of the way of a free kick - a tad harsh, I thought, but one of the ref's less mad decisions of the afternoon. He made way for Talbi, then Luke got caught in possession again and was lucky to get away with a yellow for the rugby tackle that followed. Unsurprisingly, he made way for Alderete as Brobbey did likewise for Isidor.

Rather surprisingly, they took off their pesky number 7 and we took advantage of the extra space that created on our left with Reinildo, Sadiki, and Talbi getting down that side. On came Jack Clarke, then, with ten to go, Rigg and Diarra replaced Enzo and Hume. Meunier hit a cracker from the touchline with the outside of his right boot which needed saving before another Sadiki ball set Talbi up to win a corner. 

Just as the added time (four minutes) had been announced, Alderete - who'd been brought on to remove lax defensive moments - produced a pass as sloppy as soup, and Ipswich set up Clarke.

We all know what happens when he has a chance to shoot from the edge of the box, and it did.

Nooooo!

There was still time for another wobbly decision as the ref penalised Issy for being tripped by their keeper, then that was the end of a disappointing afternoon. A pretty average home side had taken the two chances we presented them with, so we can hardly complain that we deserved anything, because we didn't.

Man of the Match? I'll give it to Meunier, who was just ahead of his defensive marra Reinildo.

Please don't ask Dan to play like that again, eh?