Don’t bet the farm on beating the Imps, Tractor Boys.

 

Oh what fun we had bringing Ipswich Town down a peg or two. We like that don’t we? Talk about they don’t like it up ‘em. One irate fan declared he was fed up getting turned over by “tiny” clubs like Doncaster and Lincoln. Town’s manager, the bemused looking Paul Lambert stated it was all the referees fault and he was going to report him. Good luck with that.

Before the game, watching the excellent matchday live show, Lamberts interview with the local press was shown. I got the sort of optimistic feeling I used to get when managers started off their press conferences with “We know what to expect from Lincoln”. They don’t tend to say that anymore. The Ipswich manager didn’t say anything really. “ Lincoln have got off to a good start haven’t they” “Er, yes”. He might as well have said “have they?” No, a win is confidently expected on the basis that, well we’re Ipswich aren’t we?

As the game started maybe Town did have an inkling of what City are about as a couple of Imps players were clattered. Then the game settled down into a depressingly familiar  pattern, if you’re from Suffolk that is, for us Imps despite not having as much possession as Ipswich the passing was crisp, purposeful and above all, mainly forwards. Town by comparison were crab like. Sideways it went, back it went, sideways again. The keeper was hopeless but at least he was getting plenty of kicking practice.

All that was missing was of course a goal. I started to become concerned that all that dominance would come to nothing if City couldn’t fashion a goal then along came the inevitable penalty, inevitably from the guile of Brennan Johnson. I’ve an idea these opportunities might become a bit few and far between as word gets out that City get a lot of penalties from the same source. Anyway, the Imps don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and, almost as inevitably Jorge Grant put it away.

Like you, I suspect I was more than a bit miffed when Forest recalled Tyler Walker but then again they let us have him in the first place. Jorge Grant was of course a Forest product but a lot of the credit for his resurgence surely rests with Michael Appleton and now we have Johnson. I presume the intention is he’ll go back to the City Ground a better player. I don’t mind that and if he were to stay I’d be delighted.

As for Ipswich, maybe they’ll get back up maybe they won’t. Plenty of former big clubs have failed to recover their former status. Coventry and if you want an even more extreme example, Stockport County spring to mind. Everything about Portman Road says big time. Big time forty years ago that is. Yes, Ipswich are a big club in league one. As we found out when we were a big club in the national league you’ve got to come to terms with that before you can make progress and realise reputation is not going to get you anywhere.

Ipswich Town may well show I’m wide of the mark but they’ve got some way to go before they do that on Saturdays showing.