1 week Ago
Ipswich Town lost 2-1 at home to Wolves on Saturday. Blues fan Karl Fuller gives his thoughts. It is typical that this column should come off the back of such a disappointing defeat to Wolves.
Why could it not have been after that fabulous win at Bournemouth? It is also typical that I missed my first game of the season last Wednesday due to a work meeting. To find out that we had won 2-1 was a pleasant surprise. With Wolves opening a 12-point gap the night before, this victory lured us into a false sense of hope that we could beat Wolves and cut that lead in half within two games.
Alas, it was not to be. Saturday was another in what is now a lengthy line of woes at Portman Road this season. In the second half, we simply did not turn up.
Dara O'Shea and Cameron Burgess look dejected during Ipswich's 2-1 home defeat to Wolves. (Image: PA) Look, a win would have been great and kept the slimmest of all hopes of survival alive. But, aside from that, every victory means more than just keeping those hopes going.
There is a difference in finishing position prize money for example. There is a matter of keeping confidence up that no doubt would have elevated after that win at Bournemouth. Besides, we want to win every game no matter the situation, don’t we? On reflection, Wolves were far superior to us in the end.
We can have no complaints about the result. They showed that, despite being the fourth worst team in the division, they are still too much for us bottom three strugglers. The first period was a tighter affair where we applied ourselves well.
But it got scrappier without a doubt. VAR once again showed its tedious ide. I will not be sad to see the back of that.
Thereafter, we did not lay a glove on our visitors. Wolves match-winner Jorgen Strand-Larsen celebrates at the end. (Image: PA) Whilst they deserved their win, Wolves were not pleasant to watch.
You can see why they have had their share of disciplinary issues this season. They looked like ticking time bombs at times and showed plenty of petulance. I am not sure what Jean-Ricner Bellegarde was flipping himself around on the ground for.
And I am not sure how many rolls one of their players made late in the second half – his identity escaped me. As I said recently, it is all dark arts stuff that we have lacked in ourselves this season. Kieran McKenna has taken a lot of flak recently with some decisions.
The latest will be around how late he made many of his substitutions. His success of the past two seasons has been around making them near the hour mark. Should he have done that more this season? We will never know how that would have panned out.
Is it fair to compare what should have been done this season to what went before in the Championship and League One? Another thought gaining increasing noise on social media is whether we should have made a change at the helm when looking at how Vitor Pereira came into Wolves to replace Gary O’Neil. That remains a ludicrous notion with me. Sure, things could have been done differently, but the bottom line is, I will remain rooted to the thought that promotion came very quickly for us in our journey.
Everyone is on a steep learning curve. With reflection on the story of the last five years, I would like to see what the next five years will bring. Kieran McKenna has overseen just one home win in the Premier League this season.
(Image: Steve Waller) It really is as good as over now, if it was not already. All we can do now is enjoy these next seven games hoping that this time next year we will be looking forward to coming back to join the elite. The players should play with the shackles off and enjoy their football too.
No doubt with the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle on the horizon, there are some big games ahead to savour. I am sure that there will still be the usual fervent support on the road, starting at Chelsea on Sunday. In other news, it is great to see that Fabio Wardley has finally got himself a bout booked at Portman Road on Saturday, June 7 when he takes on Jarrell Miller.
I will look forward to watching that..
