The View From Churchmans

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 increasingly looked like it was either going to end up scoreless or be decided by an undeserved fluke.

Town tried five different central strikers in this game, and apart from a promising first 20 minutes from Jon Stead, none of them looked remotely threatening. The quality of the service was never stunning, but the midfield did create plenty of half-chances, which a decent forward might have made something of. Sadly, we simply don’t have one in the club at the moment. On the other hand, the defence, which might not look inspiring on paper, is going through an impregnable run; five goals conceded in nine games, and just one in the last four, is pretty impressive in anyone’s books. But with three of those four matches having ended up nil-nil, and with Town having drawn more games than any other club in the country, it’s hard to argue against anyone who suggests we’re the division’s most boring team at the moment. The frustration of the fans at the end was quite evident.

Overall Town performance:
5/10 – Started very brightly, but gradually became less creative, and degenerated into nothing by the end.

Opposition quality:
3/10 – Another very poor side which Town failed to beat at home.

Referee:
6/10 – Fairly competent, although didn’t look too confident when the pressure was on. To be fair, he quickly called an infringement (for a push) when Town ‘scored’ in the first half.

Match excitement:
5/10 – Not bad, certainly by this season’s standards.

Opposition supporters:
4/10 – As quiet as any this season so far.

Player ratings, as ever 1 to 5 for each of effort/achievement…

LEE-BARRETT 7 (3/4) was far better than anyone has any right to expect, and although he had a quiet evening, he did what he had to do calmly and competently. A nice surprise.

ROSENIOR 6 (3/3) had a pretty solid game; McAULEY 6 (3/3) and DELANEY 6 (3/3) worked well together, and rarely looked troubled; and WRIGHT 5 (3/2) didn’t do anything much wrong, but just seemed curiously uninvolved throughout.

WALTERS 5 (3/2) had another ineffective game, and continues to provide ammunition to those like me who think that trying to find a place for him in the team is just throwing the whole side out of balance (and has been doing so for the past 18 months); LEADBITTER 7 (4/3) worked incredibly hard for much of the game, and was probably man of the match; GARVAN 7 (3/4) provided most of what little class was on display, but faded when moved out wide; and EDWARDS 4 (2/2) made good space, but seemed unable to provide anything like a decent ball all evening.

JOHN 4 (2/2) did one thing well, which was to receive and control the ball with his back to goal, but that was the sum total of his contribution; and STEAD 5 (3/2) had a half-decent first quarter of the match, but made very little impact after that.

From the bench, COLBACK didn’t make any real impression; WICKHAM didn’t make much impression; and PRISKIN made absolutely no impression whatsoever.