The Lads travelled to high-flying Ipswich and were pretty much the architects of our own downfall. After taking a deserved lead, we missed a tackle for the equaliser in the first half and then gave away a needless free kick in the second and failed to defend it. Add to that and open goal missed, and that was our night summed up with Aouchiche probably wishing he'd stayed on the bench. I do.
By way of a novelty, it was light as we departed the Aclet/convenience store and headed into the sun. Some had made the journey south the previous evening, conveniently popping into Meadow Lane for our U21s 5-0 win. That was a nice warm-up, and we even had our own police escort from Stowmarket to the ground, where there was a moving minute’s applause for those fans and former players who’d passed away in 2023.
Patterson
Hume O'Nien (c) Ballard Alese
Ekwah Neil
Bellingham Pritchard Ba Clarke
... and a bench of Bishuuurrrp, Rusyn, Triantis, Seelt, Aouchiche, Burstow, Semedo, Bennette, and Matete.
In the stripes and defending the end to the left of our travelling fans, Pritchard set things away as we in the seats wondered what Rusyn had done to miss out on a start. We had the first meaningful attack after five minutes when we broke down the left, but the cut-back was fired against the keeper's feet. The next action, after a couple of what were to become trademark Ipswich fouls, was at Patto's end when a low cross flashed across with nobody there to do us any harm. Ten minutes later we needed a great tackle from Ekwah to halt a break, but there was still a bit of ping pong in our box before we got it away. Both sides seemed to have decided that passing it straight out for a throw was a good idea, meaning that most attacks faltered out wide while we sort of settled into a 4-2-4 formation. Jobe was drifting between centre forward and midfield and was clattered on the halfway line on 23 minutes, bringing the first yellow of the evening, so we played it to Ba, O9, Bellingham and then Clarke – whose shot was saved at the expense of a corner. It was sort of cleared, then Ba did well to hold off his marker and carry the ball along the edge of the box and roll it to Clarke, who made the most of some poor goalkeeping to pass it into the left hand side of the net with the aforementioned keeper half-heartedly leaning the other way. Get in, you beauty, and probably no more than we deserved with 23 minutes gone.
It was our game to win from there, but we had to defend a corner soon after, hoofing it away and joining the home side in a spell of fast-paced stuff. Unfortunately, it took less than ten minutes for the Tractor Boys to draw level when a low one came in from their right, we looked to have the tackle in the bag but were a fraction too late and it was swept past Patto from a yard or so inside the box. Bugger.
We kept at them, with Neil directing operations in the middle and Pritch looking to prise open the home defence, and with a couple of minutes to go to the break one of his free kicks curled into the box and caused havoc – but we couldn’t get a shot on target. Two added minutes were announced, they racked up a few more fouls to make the count at the break 9-0, and the home crowd were noticeable only for their complete lack of noise. Oh, apart from the bloody drum. Level at the break when we should probably have been ahead.
No changes for the second half, but Ipswich seemed to have been given a good kick up their collective backsides, as they were far more positive. Or was it us being less positive? Who knows, but the first goalmouth action was Patto palming away a fierce high shot. Another yellow came for a fairly agricultural foul on Clarke 20 yards out, and Pritch fired the free a foot or so over the bar before there was a cynical pull on Ba and we were calling for the ref to flash a red instead of another yellow. The home players then indulged in some pretty embarrassing play-acting, forcing the ref to stop the game and give us the drop ball, but he really should have taken stronger action. We eventually got it forward, with Ba firing high, then Patto made another save.
With the home side beginning to move through our midfield a bit quicker, we brought on Aouchiche for Ba – not a popular decision. While I’d have preferred Rusyn in the starting eleven, Ba’s contribution had been a good one, and taking him off reduced our attacking options. Adil had only been on the field a minute when their keeper faffed about, Sunderland style, we robbed him and rolled it to the Frenchman – and he somehow contrived to place it carefully wide of the post. Oh dear.
Having spotted a potential weakness, we pressed onto the keeper, with Pritch almost nicking the ball again but falling awkwardly as he challenged. Ipswich brought on three subs with twenty to go and we had to fling some bodies in the way of the ball when a corner caused a bit of confusion in our box. When we got it out to the right side of the field, Adil had no need to clamber all over their man as he was facing the seats and not the goal, but he did and they got a free – which the shortest man on the field thumped home with his head. Poor work, Lads, and it even raised a bit of noise from the home fans for the first time.
We should have been level five minutes later when we played it down the right, but the low cross found nobody. A duplicate Ipswich free kick brought a shot that whacked off Patto’[s right hand post as we sand “we want a striker.” We got one, but only when Rusyn replaced Pritch. Sorry, I’m not one to pile into the coach but he got that one wrong. Pritch, Ba, and Rusyn should all have been on the field at the same time and we might have got something. As it was, I don’t think our Ukrainian touched the ball in the box before Bellingham made way for Burstow and we sang “we’ve got a striker” but by then there were only a couple of minutes left. Just to give us a bit of a chance, they added another five minutes but we were dead and buried by then – and had been since the second goal went in.
We’d only managed one corner all game, Bellingham kept dropping away from his centre forward role when Pritch was looking for a target, and we simply didn’t have a body or bodies in the box when Clarke did his usual thing and danced in from the left. It’s not rocket science, we can all see what’s needed – and there were three of them on the bench. All in all, a very disappointing performance and result. There were moments of brightness, mostly from Neil in midfield and Ba and Clarke out wide, but we can’t keep relying on goals from our left wing. We have enough pace in the side to cause any opponents problems, but spent too much time trying to look like Man City across the middle – just get it wide and let the lads with legs do the damage. Goals don’t have to be picture perfect, they just need to be goals.
Man of the Match? A good bit of work from Ba, a solid evening from Neil, but another goal means that Clarke gets my nod. Plenty to moan about on the disco bus home, but I’d rather we were singing in celebration than just out of daftness.
