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Turning Over the Tractor Boys? Ipswich Preview
Ipswich Town are the next team to come to St Andrews on Saturday afternoon with both teams looking to pick up their second league win of the season.
Ipswich Town
Mick McCarthy has almost a full squad to choose from, with only Tyrone Mings suffering with injury. However, his team are in a similar situation to Blues having only won one game this season – 3-0 against Millwall at home – and are only ahead of Birmingham City on goal difference.
Whilst Ipswich have only failed to score in one league game this campaign, they have only scored one goal in three away matches in all competitions and were the victims of a cup upset in the League Cup, going out 2-0 to Stevenage in the first round.
Blues
Blues welcome back Darren Randolph, Mitch Hancox and Shane Ferguson to the squad after injury and will have to make the decision which of the players who played in the fatiguing penalties win over Yeovil in midweek will play again today. Clark also has to decide whether to return to 3-5-2 or to stick with a 4-4-2 which created lots of chances against the Glovers.
Akwasi Asante and Nikola Zigic remain out which means that Matt Green and Lee Novak remain the only strikers who are likely to play with Peter Lovenkrands completely frozen out of the first team set up. Ferguson could well come in for Paul Robinson at left back/left wing back and the big question is whether the club skipper will retain his place having played 120 minutes plus in midweek.
Last season the home game against Ipswich was a tough game that Blues should really have won and yet contrived to lose; this year it’s another game where we need to start picking up points – especially at home. It’s vitally important that the team continues creating chances and starts taking them or the fine lines that Lee Clark talks about will continue to go against the team.
Tags: Darren Randolph, Ipswich Town, Mitchell Hancox, Paul Robinson, Shane Ferguson
65 Responses to “Turning Over the Tractor Boys? Ipswich Preview”
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The biggest problem in the game last season was we won nothing in the air for 65 mins until Zigic came on. Hopefully, with the increase in height throughout the spine of the team (Burn, Bartkey, Adeyemi, Green) hopefully we will be able to cancel out one of their prime threats. (and no need to worry about Robbo if he’s in, the smallest player in ourside (maybe?) but always wins the ball in the air!) As ever, Mick McCarthy is one of our boogey managers, so hopefully we can change our luck against him.
44 2 and attack them !! fans will accept home defeats if you put in 100% effort and create chances, must include burke and allan – our best players surely
Time to give Robbo a rest and see how they cope without him for a game. My XI would be:
Randolph
Eardley Bartley Burn Hancox
Burke Spector Allan Ferguson
Novak Green
Need to keep a close watch on McGoldrick for Ipswich… and also match their busy midfield of (probably) Hyam Tabb and Skuse. If we do that, I’ll go for a 2-1 win to Blues.
Feeling positive about this one. Narrow home win I reckon.
I am going down to Stans today so they better win!
Clean sheet,,
Blues to win 2-0, novak to score……
There are a few players who need to get off the mark in the league.. like Novak, Shinnie, Allan, Elliott to name a few. I think they all owe us a goal. Today would be a good time to start lads. :-)
Does anyone know how long Zigic is away from playing?
I never thought i would say this but we could REALLY do with him right now……
I thing Green or Novak would be a given a real chance to show their worth with him in the team. The amount of little knock downs and deft touches the big man offers goes unnoticed for the most part and they naturally would be given more opportunities.
Get well soon Z-man.
QPR away has been the guesstimate by the club. I would think more like Sheff Wed at home on 21st Sep for me.
Chaps. Big Zig will be out for a large part of the season. He ain’t interested in playing for us. Lets face it big pay packet is all he is interested in. He can pick that up regardless on the treatment table.
Might put in an appearance to get himself in the shop window but he has had his pound of flesh from us
Evesham
He is injured. You can’t fake an MRI scan.
Stupid comment
Stupid response. I doubt you will see much of him which was my point
To add to the bookings so far… Robbo booked again after 15 minutes.
We are certainly in a relegation scrap
We’re holding on to the ball too long… we’re like Arsenal (only) in the fact, we want to walk the ball in.
The whole of the next 2 weeks should be devoted to shooting on sight…. from any angle.
Another poor performance. Why no Ambrose ? Why no Green ? Why Novak ? We’re in for long hard relegation battle. We were lucky today. We didn’t deserve anything from that game. Ipswich weren’t all that,but were better than us.I really don’t know where we go from here without new owners.
hi all….just back from the match……….disgustingly bad the first half……shinnie was on another planet…..
when ferguson came on we had a bit of a go…he crosses the ball really well……………..but the manager must have a rethink over the next two weeks……..
Unfortunately,the majority of the players at Blues now,are not up to championship standard. Unless the club are sold soon,we will struggle to avoid relegation this season. On saying that, Ipswich were a poor team and in fact, i haven’t seen a good footballer from any of the teams,that have been to Stans this season. Lee Clark,when being interviewed, dosen’t sound too bright,or inspirational,but in fairness to him, he has been let down badly by Pannu,who,by the fact that no one knows where he is,shows that he has no interest (apart from financial) in B.C.F.C.
Listening to Tom Ross this evening he says he can not understand why the takeover has not progressed. That got me thinking. As we know due diligence has been carried out by two parties. What if during this process they confirmed that CY funded part of the purchase of BCFC. If this was the case and CY is convicted in Hong Kong, could it be that the funds CY used to buy BCFC would need to be returned to the Hong Kong authorities. Thus any purchaser may end up owning something that is part the property of the Hong Kong authorities. I am not a lawyer but could this be possible almajir ?
right, point by point
1) We know Carson part funded the purchase of BCFC – that’s why he owns 26% of BIH.
2) We know that the accounts that are in question in the money laundering trial were involved. That’s been established a while ago (and reported on here)
3) Carson’s stake in BIHL as far as I know is in the restraint order. However, the authorities aren’t going to have a problem with the club being sold provided the proceeds are held in an account pending a decision in his trial.
As for what Tom said… ref the takeover not happening … is it possible that it’s just not as advanced as he thinks it is? I will tell you once again my belief that the sale of the club isn’t imminent and I will now add to that I think we’ll be lucky to see the club sold before the end of the year – maybe not before the end of the season (provided we haven’t gone into admin).
Thanks for that.
I didn’t hear him say the takeover wasn’t happening. He said it had all gone quiet,but he was digging to see what was happening.I feel sorry for Tom,he gets misquoted a lot and some people do their best to make him look stupid. Makes me wonder if some people get just a bit jealous of what he might know.
Like you misquoted me pal, I was replying to a point made by someone else. I didn’t hear what Tom said so I couldn’t quote him directly…
Read it again. Eamon said not progressed. You said not happening pal.
Semantics.
But, FWIW, it’s not happening any time soon.
We may have different interpretations,but he didn’t say it wasn.t happening.FWIW,i don,t think we’re near either.
No, he probably thinks it is. I disagree massively with him
He gave this blog a name-check on the show tonight. :-)
Yeah, people have mentioned.
Tbf to him,since the club came out with that statement he hasn,t said a lot. Like you he must have contacts that he relies on. One thing i,m sure we’ll agree on is that it can,t come soon enough.After what i,ve seen so far this season we are in big trouble because i can’t see how this squad can improve.
New buyers will proceed with extra caution in case there is any kind of claw back from the authorities in HK – you can’t blame them as it would be like buying a second hand car only to find out that it has outstanding finance on it. It is a case of buyer beware and that is not good for the plight of the club.
With the players that are available it will be a long struggle to the next window and there will probably be no signing then either. If Administration comes along and a 10 deduction, relegation could be confirmed by Easter.
Thanks a bunch Carson!
KRO
Antony
Would administration for BCFC solve the problem of any claw back later ?
Don’t think so. It could mean that CY is prevented / estopped from agreeing to a CVA, so we couldn’t come out of Administration other than through liquidation
Just a thought but, if anyone does buy the club, whether part of that payment is due to the Hong Kong authorities or not, should have nothing to do with the buyers….. should it?
If CY asks for £20m… and a buyer pays that £20m, surely it’s between CY and the HK authorities as to where that money goes.
CY put monies directly into BCFC in the form of a loan, originally £7m. Whatever price paid for BCFC shares, presumably payable to BIHL, would be discounted by the amount repayable to CY/HK authorities for the loan. Do not know whether BCFC, as the recipient of the £7m could be charged by the HK authorities.
Isn’t that a bit like paying for a mars bar with stolen money… then blaming the mars bar? Stupid analogy I know, but you get my point?
You are right, but we are talking about authorities here, who possibly will feel the need to make a point. I think that the FA/Football League have fined Watford for misdemeanours long after the misbehaving owners moved on. BCFC’s ownership is held in HK.
You could be right… wouldn’t be fair to penalise the club, but I suppose that wouldn’t stop them. I remember the injustice at Luton Town… all those points deducted (20+) and the board that were responsible were long gone.
Incorrect.
There isn’t one loan – there are two. One between the parent company and BCFC for £7mil, and one between Carson and BCFC for £14mil.
which kinda nullifies most of the rest of what you said.
Hi Dan I stand corrected on the scale of the CY loan and the existence of the BIHL loan. Don’t see how that nullifies what I have said. Does it not make the prospect of a “normal sale” even more remote.
Well, the thing is Bobble there never was a “normal sale” on the horizon. A lot of people seem to think it’s a case of bosh, here’s some money, I’ll take the club and it doesn’t work like that. I think you need to look past the who loaned what for what reason and boil it down to brass tacks.
The big issue is the loan between Carson and the club – £14mil. It’s worth more than the club is arguably so is Carson going to be happy taking a percentage only? What if that loan is part of the restraint order – then you’d be negotiating with the HK judicial system too – which adds another bump into the road.
Hi Dan It appears that all access to funds in HK are frozen to CY and any monies generated by a sale would be similarly frozen. Further, his only access to cash for living and meeting legal fees etc is by bleeding BCFC thro’ his loan account, originally £7m and orchestrated by PP. In which case, the point at which a sale will occur is, something coming out of the trial, BCFC running out of cash or a massive bid for the Club. Can’t really see a routine sale happening.
On the playing front, the game today against McCarthy’s pushing, shoving, elbowing, snap into the tackle, hit and run merchants was very similar to many played in Alex McLeish’s promotion season. If Lee C and his staff can get Lovenkrands and Ambrose fit and interested and the team learns how to free up Burke and Ferguson then maybe we have a chance of a half decent team.
Also, having failed to get certain players off the wage bill, maybe the cash will dry up before the January window and admin and a forced sale will take place.
Whatever, keep up the good work.
It’s certainly seems that we were pushed and shoved around a bit today, with a fair bit of shirt-pulling. But, as always the ref never saw it. I do think that it’s time our midfield manned-up a bit and started to give as good as they get. The Ipswich tactics meant we never really got hold of the ball, which invariably meant passes went astray a fair bit. That’s why I still think we need a midfield enforcer-type. Thing is, we can’t afford one… so we need to look inside the club and find one pdq.
Hi Staffs Blue
Agreed, and the free kick leading to the Ipswich goal looked a gimme by the ref, given all that McCarthy’s lot were up to. Also a lot of the pressure came when Ipswich pushed up on our fullbacks preventing the roll out from Randolph. Would you put the enforcer in front of the back four or further up the field.
Definitely in front of the back four. It needs someone with experience, someone who can read the game. Someone who can break up opposition play and set attacks in motion. A kind of Scott Parker type… or even Robbie Savage….. or even Paul Robinson.
Interesting, I like the idea of Robbo in there. Do you think that he could come and pick up the ball from the goalie if the fullbacks are blocked off.
I also think our full back need more support. Playing Shinnie in front of Robinson was a recipe for disaster… and I don’t think Burke did Eardley any favours today either. This is why I like the Hancox / Ferguson combination on the left. They compliment and cover each other as they should. But we don’t have that on the right… which means Eardley is loften left hung out to dry.
Robbo himself said in a webchat last week, that if he wasn’t a defender, he’d like to be the “holding midfield player.” I think he has enough experience to do an all-round job in there. And what perfect place for a captain to be, at the hub of the team.
Have to agree Staffs the Hancox – Ferguson combination down the left worked really well last season. Now with Eardley injured and a less effective right side this season could we move for Caddis on loan?
There is the makings of a team there, bit thin on numbers and would require a fair wind. But could make for a few enjoyable afternoons out.
The only player really that has disappointed me so far, is Andrew Shinnie. With his record, especially for goals, I suppose I expected more. But he’s pretty indecisive, a bit of a ditherer. He could, and should, have had at least 3 or 4 goals to his name by now. I hope he begins to make better decisions on the ball as the weeks go on.
One other thing… I think Kyle Bartley should get extra coaching with his heading. The amount of times he put the defence back under pressure, by heading out straight to an opposing player. That’s his weak point at the moment I think.
Hi Dan Not sure where this is going to end up on the website. With regard to the club changing hands, I am with you all the way. I have probably missed some detail from earlier blogs. What it does mean is that I can settle back to enjoy my football or tune out of BCFC. I shall say it again, keep up the good work.
Is it me or was the performance of Scott Allan something o be excited about. Him fergie an Burke with another canter mid looks the making of a good side. I thought he was superb. He problem we had was 2 full backs who cannot attack!
Regarding holding midfield someone we are missing in the mould of Stephen clemence, calm and scored goals too……..
Not too disheartened by the draw, sometimes a point better than a loss imo.
How things change 21.04.03 birmingham beat southampton 3-2 christophe dugarry scores two goals at home. Attendance 29,115. Our System 442 playing against 4411. It was a superb bank holiday feast.. Kro
The only difference between today’s team and Tuesday’s, was Randolph and Lovenkrands.
I know it’s what they get paid for, but 4 days earlier, they had travelled all the way down to yeovil, played 2 hours of battling football, plus another 10-15 minutes of penalties, plus all the emotions that go with that…. then travelled all the way back to Brum. Surely, that has to have some effect on the players, because at times, we seemed very leggy… flat. I think the 2 week break might do us some good.
I agree players would have found that tough, I personally would have taken draw in those circumstances…….
TBH,
The atmosphere today was awful. As fans right now I know its hard but seriously worst atmosphere of the season so far.
Come on blues we can do better
Sorry to say “the atmosphere will only get worse and will not improve untill we have a change of ownership and management”
Just over 13000 Blue supporters turned up yesterdaty to witness a perfomance which under Clark mirrors many home performnces of last year.He will trott out the usual spin to the media on Monday but nothing will change until we have a complete clear out.
Think it could be a long wait though and survival in this league is the best we can hope for.
Actually,
something else that is bugging me is this;
Lee Clarke has made a lot of signings this summer (as he had to), but how many chances do some of them get before the plug is pulled?
Even the laziest of eyes can tell he has signed a couple of decent players this summer that are playing well above their pay grade. Unfortunately, (and there was always going to be this situation with a flood of “speculative” signings) some of them are clearly under par.
Now im a positive blue nose and im not going to name anybody and call for their head, mainly because it doesnt do the team, the club or even the fans any favours, but how long does LC perservere with the few that arent working?
Please dont reply and say that we dont have a big squad and no alternatives because ive been to every game home and away apart from one this season and those that arent working out are clearly replaceable by anybody/any formation and are not on a scale of “poor now but might come on in a while” in fact its the first time in my block that weve all agreed on the winners and the losers!
I dont like negative posts on forums but i think its fair to say we have a few players playing for us that i would rather see youth/bench players playing because at least that is trying?
Those that have worked, great, well done. Those that havent , sorry, but you arent ever going to.
First game down there this season. I agree with the comment about the atmosphere being dire but the team has to give us something to shout about. Think that it is the worst toothless team I have seen in quite a while.
Lets be honest without randolph we should have lost by a few more. He is class and must be sacking his Agent soon for signing for us.
On the positives I think the CB’s looked good. I think the young boy Adyemi puts himself about to. Ipswich just out muscled us which is our problem again in midfield.
My main worry tho is where are the goals coming from? Strikers are toothless. You don’t score goals you go down. I think only hope is there are maybe 3 worse teams than us?
It’s a vicious circle. No money to spend quality of player goes down and sell your best players to survive. Then next season you start again with a total new squad of frees and loans.
One other comment – why did LC start with Loverkrands and ferguson on the bench? Why play Shinnie left midfield? He had his back to goal most of the time falling over
A crowd of 14,000 is not going to cover the operating costs. Ticket sales would generate around £350,000 and say with programmes and all other sales, it would probably gross £500,000. Bear in mind that this is for 3 weeks really as there is no games now until 21st September. If there are 24 players earning say an average of £10,000 a week, which is conservative, then the weekly wages for players is around a quarter of a million and then there are the other overheads and salaries to cover. A loss must be accruing every single week and there will be more loans required to cover the operating costs – it is a slippery downwards spiral I fear and administration will be on the cards sooner rather than later.
I know the argument is that more fans should go and support the team and that puts more money into the club, but so far this season the football being dished up is nothing to encourage fans to want to go down. A sorry state of affairs I feel.
Yeung and Pannu are the main culprits but Gold and Sullivan must take some of the blame for selling to them in the first place. We thought that they were bad, but look what they have done at West Ham.
KRO