The View From Churchmans

And so - on a portentiously wet and windy afternoon - one of the least exciting seasons I can recall in 35 years of regularly watching Town spluttered to a quite pathetic ending. A two year plan to get promotion, said Messrs Evans, Clegg and Keane, but halfway through that time everyone (including the club itself) is talking about big clearouts and starting all over again. And well it ... More...

I know one or two people have a slightly outlandish theory that this season's disappointing performances have been at least in part due to a lack of motivation from many of the players to do well, because they're not happy. I've struggled to see any credibility in this, but there was very little evidence on show this afternoon that some of the senior players in the squad have ... More...

A result which Town and every supporter will have been delighted with, but a referee who was determined to be the centre of attention probably had more bearing on what happened than anyone else on the pitch. For the first 15 minutes Reading dominated, and it was quite clear which of the two teams was on a charge up the table. Slowly Town edged back into proceedings, but ... More...

A fortunate win, which the club and supporters will nevertheless accept gratefully, pushed Town up towards mid-table and, more importantly, safety. But with Keane wanting to know which players were prepared to stand up and be counted, an indifferent performance which still resulted in three points was the one thing he couldn't learn anything from. There's really very little to say about a forgettable afternoon. Keane's idea of ... More...

Scunthorpe are one of those unprepossessing teams who you'd normally have a soft spot for, but by the end of this one, after ninety minutes of them trying to kill the game as a spectacle, the Portman Road faithful were baying for blood. When the late, late winner went in, the sight of the Scunthorpe players slumped disconsolately on the pitch provoked no sympathy whatsoever, however much effort ... More...

At last - this is exactly the sort of performance this Ipswich squad should be capable of, and everyone who watched the match tonight must have gone away wondering why it's taken so long for Town to produce such a competent and confident ninety minutes' display. Whilst not world-beating, this was comfortably play-off quality, and makes you wonder why the fight is still at the wrong end of ... More...

Sometimes nil-nil scorelines mask a surprisingly decent game of football. But on other occasions, like today, they reflect the quality of the match perfectly. The second half was an improvement on the first, but it could hardly have been anything else. The first 45 minutes had been, quite frankly, boring. Town had a ten-minute spell where they played some super pass-and-move football, and another short spell where they ... More...

Town fans had additional reason to feel grateful for the signing of two new strikers after this one, because without the interest engendered by the new faces, this would have been a very dull afternoon indeed. Town showed an uncharacteristically efficient nature in the first half, but created few chances, then lost their way after the break. Boro seemed to have no appetite for the game at all ... More...

Yet again Town failed to kill the game when finding themselves a goal ahead going into added-on time, and the goals conceded this season in the 90th minute and beyond now just about make the difference between the club's poor position in the table and a play-off place. But even the most blinkered home fan would admit that West Brom were a class above and well worth a ... More...

What ended up as the first truly memorable match of a so-far forgettable season had already been an entertaining afternoon even before the remarkable last two minutes. Town had produced patches of sparkling passing and creativity, Coventry had looked threatening on a number of occasions, there were great saves, a horrible miss, a pantomime villain and even a mass pushing and shoving match to get the crowd animated. ... More...

Well, they couldn't have left it any later, but in the very last match of the year, Town recorded their first and only three-goal home win of 2009. Mind you, there was only one in 2008 too, which should underline the significance of this result. And if Jon Stead had taken either of his late chances and scored his first-ever hat-trick, everyone concerned would have been in dreamland. Town ... More...

A thoroughly enjoyable and thoroughly deserved win, with plenty of issues to debate, but one thing is not up for discussion; this was a definite step in the right direction. It's always a little uncomfortable for the football purist in everyone when an opposing team tries to play a decent attractive game and then gets put to the sword precisely because of that - however, if that's what ... More...

Not as bad as you might imagine from the scoreline, this one. For the first ten minutes, Town probably played as well as at any time this season at Portman Road, and the performance was pretty good for the rest of the first half too, with Garvan and Leadbetter orchestrating proceedings. But things fell away in the second half, and three substitutions added nothing to a game which ... More...

Who'd have thought a match where Town ended up clinging on to a one-nil home win against the worst away side in the division could have sparked off scenes of euphoria at Portman Road, the like of which probably haven't been seen since getting promotion to the Premiership nearly ten years ago? But the excitement at the end of this match was exactly what this game's all about, ... More...

Andy Pye writes: I'm sitting in for Chris Rand, and while Saturday's match may not stay in Chris' mind for long, this one will stay in mine, not just for the impressive way we played, but most of all for the sheer cruelty of the outcome. I guess conceding a win via an injury-time goal may not always hurt as much as this, but when it's the fourth ... More...