CITY 1 IPSWICH TOWN 1
Written by Paul Weston
A big crowd turned up on Boxing Day for a match between two of the highest underachievers of the season so far. City fans, expecting an immediate upturn in fortunes on Nigel Pearson’s arrival, were getting frustrated at the team’s erratic performances and in seeing the gap grow between our mid table position and the top six.
The match started in action packed style but all in the wrong penalty area. City was half asleep from the beginning and Ipswich won a penalty in the first minute. Konchesky was alleged to have tripped Martin, although to us it looked like he might have got his foot to the ball first. If Konchesky did foul then he was lucky not to receive a red card- one of many strange referee decisions during the game.
Chopra took a good enough penalty but Schmeichel pulled off a great save in front of the Kop end. That should have acted as a kick start to City, but the defence, aided and abetted by Abe, looked all at sea and failed utterly to deal with a high ball in the box a few minutes later. Boyer drove in the loose ball. 0- 1 to Ipswich after 3 minutes and much Boxing Day optimism had evaporated already!
It seemed to take City players ages to get their act together. If there was a game plan it was not obvious! Dyer and Gallagher could not get into the game and the Ipswich midfield, older and slower than City, was bossing the match. Ipswich broke quickly on the break and the City central defence pairing of Mills and Bamba were very uncertain, often going for the same balls.
Beckford continued to make good runs creating space on the shoulders of defenders but rarely were these spotted quickly enough by the midfield. Later in the first half Sonko was extremely lucky to receive only a yellow card when he brought down Beckford when he was the last man- a baffling decision.
Not many chances were created in the first half apart from a few free kicks from Gallagher. Our corners, as usual, created more of an attacking threat for Ipswich than for City!
And so half time arrived, accompanied by a few muted boos of disappointment. How often does City let its fans down when there is a big crowd on Boxing Day!
Nigel made a change immediately for the second half, replacing Dyer with King. Bullard had already come on for Andrews for Ipswich.
The match started to swing City’s way with Konchesky in particular driving forward and Abe, recovering from a very shaky start, picking up loose balls in midfield. Nugent forced a good save from the Ipswich keeper from a Konchesky cross. However, there was little controlled play from City. Anxiety and lack of confidence still seemed to affect too many players who were playing below bar. Ipswich mopped up most of the play confidently in the centre.
Out of the blue City won a penalty when Scotland rather unluckily handled the ball when it bounced up on his hand just before he cleared the penalty area. Gallagher scored convincingly in his unique fashion. 1-1 and 20 minutes to go. Could City fashion a win out of a poor performance?
Howard and Schlupp came on in the last part of the half but despite having a lot of the ball, very few clear cut chances were created by City which was disappointing. The best chance of a winner came when Gallagher drove in a good corner hard and low. Mills lost his marker and missed the goal with a glancing header when he should have scored. The match fizzled out in a draw which was about right. On this showing neither team looked good enough for promotion.
So the short honeymoon period is over for Nigel Pearson. He has the support of most fans but expectation is so high because of money spent by Sven on players, many of whom though are midfielders. He has had a look at the players at his disposal but chose initially to favour those he knew already. He has tried to play the same way as when he took City to the play offs but it just is not working. Nigel has some big decisions to make to try and kick start City’s second half of the season. I think these are the issues he has to sort out quickly:
The Mills and Bamba pairing is not working. Mills distribution on the ground is awful and Bamba always makes at least one big mistake each game. Whilst his forward runs get the crowd going I would prefer that his defensive positioning and heading ability is improved. I have the feeling he just plays on instinct. No wonder Mills never seemed to know where his defensive partner was!
Gallagher and Dyer are both luxury impact players to have in the side at the same time. Both are poor headers and tacklers of the ball and can go missing for periods of the game. Consequently our midfield gets over run too easily with Wellens trying to both break up play and create moves. It needs Abe or Fernandes to carry out this role but where does this leave Andy King, one of our best players in breaking forward and scoring goals?
The Nugent Beckford pairing is also not working. Nugent gains support from the crowd because he seems to put in more obvious effort but is not a conventional target man. Neither is Beckford, who looks languid and still has not convinced the City crowd. However, so many times he makes the right runs and the pass never arrives- to his obvious frustration.
It is now a test for Nigel Pearson to make some big decisions which might not be supported by fans and might upset some of the players. However, that is why he is the manager. If he gets the decisions right then there is still hope for a better second half of the season If not, then we can write off promotion for another year. Happy New Year!
City: Schmeichel, Peltier, Mills, Bamba, Konchesky, Gallagher, Abe, Wellens (Schlupp 87), Dyer (King 46), Beckford (Howard 84), Nugent. Unused subs: Weale, Danns.
Goals: Gallagher 69 pen Booked: Gallagher
Ipswich: Lee-Barrett, Edwards, Sonko, Delaney, Cresswell, Martin, Andrews (Bullard 43), Bowyer, Murphy, Scotland (Ellington 83), Chopra (Emmanuel-Thomas 72). Unused subs: Wright, Wabara.
Goals: Bowyer 4 Booked: Sonko, Martin
Referee: Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire)
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation