" Match Report IPSWICH T v CARDIFF C " Sat 18th Sept.

Over 900 Bluebird fans made the long and horrendous journey to the Suffolk town of Ipswich. Quite a few of those fans made their way to the Station Hotel pub opposite the railway station for thier pre-match drinks. The atmosphere within the pub was to say rather sombre and apprehensive for this game compared to the previous games. Sadly the next few hours were to justify this feeling amongst the travelling faithfull.

I walked into the ground about 30 minutes before kick off and made my way to the top of the stand. The Cardiff players were out on the pitch next to us doing their warming up exercises. I clocked into them to see Jay Bothroyd was there. Well thats 1 out of the 5 back which is better than none I said to myself. I would say most of us were hoping that Jays appearance would see a much improved performance from the previous Tuesday night game at Leicester. Sadly this was not going to be the case.

The City started off with 2 changes from the Leicester game. Blake started in central midfield and Jay up front, Koumas and Rae were left on the bench. The formation was 4 4 2 which was no surprise with Keogh supporting Jay up front. Burke was on the right wing with Whitts on the left although during the half Whitts made his way into the central area quite alot. Blake supported McPhail, who was just about to have a nightmare of a first half, in central midfield. The defence line consisted of Naylor, Hudson, Gyppes and MacNaughton. That was about as best as we could expect.

The game kicked off with City playing towards the left and attacking the near goal to us away fans. They started off lively and within a minute were awards a free kick just outside the area near to us fans. The ball was drilled into the area from a Whitts freekick and caused panic amongst the Ipswich defence causing a corner on the far side. From the resulting corner a nasty inswinger from the boot of Whitts again looked like it was going into the far post from where he took it. Somehow an Ipswich defender got to it and saved what looked like an early goal for the Bluebirds.

Unortunately thats the nearest Cardiff came in the half to a goal but for 20 minutes were the dominating team. Burke was a real problem for the nervious Ipswich down the right hand side resulting in one or two chances being made in the Ipswich area. Ipswich relied on the breakaway for their chances and although Cardiff dominated at first it was them who nearly took the lead. An Ipswich striker found himself in the clear after Gyppes missed the flight of a bounce. With only Marshall to beat Gypppes somehow got a tackle in from behind that brought down the Ipswich guy. What looked like a definate penalty was waved away by the ref to the relief of us Cardiff fans. After that incident the half really peatered away to nothing except for a comical chance by McPhail.

Cardiff were in good stead for this moment. The ball was at McPhails feet just outside the D area of the Ipswich goal. Their goalkeeper was off his line and a chip was on the cards. However McPhails chip just about reached the penalty spot and another chance had gone. Adding to his speciality side passes that ended up being an Ipswich throw ins then he really was not having a good afternoon. The fans started to get onto him and fortunately half time and that was the last we saw of him.

For the second half Rae replaced McPhail. The fact that no one went "oh no" just showed what a nightmare McPhail was having. Adams replaced MacNaughton for no apparent reason or should I say none of knew why but little did we know we wished it never happened as most already now know why. The game was evenly posed but the second half soon changed that.

Like Cardiff started lively at KO it was Ipswich who meant business at the start of the second half. The first move resulted in a throw in to them infront of us away fans. Their long throw specialist arrowed the ball right into one of their strikers on the 6 yard box. The ball was knocked on and beat everyone. Fortunately the ball made its way pass the far post for a goalkick. This was a sign of things to come.

For the next 10 minutes it was all Ipswich pressure. Adams was being to easily beaten down the right hand side in front of us fans. The crosses coming from this area were causing panic stations in our 18 yard box and one such attack saw an excellent block from Gyppess that should have been the first goal for Ipswich. The best chance though came from the left where Naylor was beaten quite easily leaving the striking Ipswich guy just to beat Marshall. Somehow Marshall got down to the shot which even more somehow saw the ball go over the bar. Cardiff weathered the storm and started to get back into the game. What us fans did not expect was for us to give Ipswich a helping hand.

Although Cardiff started to venture more into the Ipswich half after those traumatic 10 minutes they did not create much but kept giving possession away. However Ipswich started to struggle to take advantage of this and had to resort into long crosses where before they were getting into our area quite easily. However one of these crosses resulted in the first goal. What looked like an overhit cross where Adams could have left it and seen the ball away from danger he instead tried to put it behind for a corner. Unfortunately he put it in our net giving Marshall no chance. If ever it was going to be one of those days this was it.

So 1 nil down and more worrying we did not look like scoring. This encouraged Ipswich who basically hounded us after that. We pushed forward for the equaliser but got pushed off the ball and found ourselves having to defend desperately. As it became clear we were not going to score the wound we had created then had salt rubbed into it. From a breakaway the Ex Swansea striker Jason Scotland forced his way through our mid defence and blasted the ball into the net for their second. To be fair it was a well taken goal but did that hurt.

Jay was replaced by Koumas and for the last 10 minutes we tried to play the ball on the ground to get something back. Now I know why DJ does not have a plan B. Its because we cant play one. Our ground play was disasterous. Can someone tell Rae that when passing a ball its meant to go near the running on striker and not over the dead ball line. This is football not rugby.

The final minutes of the game were played out with Ipswich hounding us and our fans leaving early which is rather unusual for our travelling lot. The final whistle came and we were all left to reflect on another long wasted journey. Thank you very much Cardiff City FC.

Summing up there is a real big concern I have about all this. Ipswich did to us what Leicester did last Tuesday night. They sussed us out in the first half, planned the second half and destroyed us. We failed in both games to pick this up, our tactics were not there. Now I dont believe these two are good teams so even with our injured squad we should have been able to handle this. Sadly we could not and it remined me of some of the games last season. We can blame the players and pick on one or two I suppose but my thinking at the moment is what about the tactics because the last 2 games going into the second half there has not been any.

Tactics are down to the manager, thats his job. We are being sussed too easily and that is a concern. Now DJ can hide behind the injury list but not when its being made this easily for our opponents. I fear DJ is not up to taking us up.

cheers thanks for that

Ian, Very much appreciated , Very worrying back to back defeats against mediocre teams, But I am very hopeful we will put the record straight next saturday and take these poor performances out on Millwall.

Keep the Match Reports coming


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Great read thanks

great report !! appreciate you posting that and taking the time to put an informative low down of the day !!

Ian that is a fantastic first match report and looking at it you can see the time and effort you have put in. This will hopefully be the first of many more and I am sure they will be a welcomed feature. Superb work.

Great match report there, keep em coming
nice 1
jes

Thanks for the kind comments guys. Hopefully I wont be thumping my keyboard for the next report.

Thanks for the kind comments guys. Hopefully I wont be thumping my keyboard for the next report.

Ian, An excellent written report, a pity the team couldnt off performed like you

Thanks for the report much appreciated especially from our own fans' view on the game keep it up hopefully looking forward to a winning report next week

Good report. As i was reading it, i thought to myself "sounds like some of last season's games," which you later echoed. This result will, as you mentioned, question DJ's abillities as a manager, from a tactical point of view.

Excellent report

Good report. As i was reading it, i thought to myself "sounds like some of last season's games," which you later echoed. This result will, as you mentioned, question DJ's abillities as a manager, from a tactical point of view.

That is exactly what is really bugging me. Some of those games last season were just shocking and to think we will suffer the sane again because we have a few players out is making me angry. We will suffer more injuries this year so does that mean more shocking performances? Frightening is it not.

Good report. As i was reading it, i thought to myself "sounds like some of last season's games," which you later echoed. This result will, as you mentioned, question DJ's abillities as a manager, from a tactical point of view.

That is exactly what is really bugging me. Some of those games last season were just shocking and to think we will suffer the sane again because we have a few players out is making me angry. We will suffer more injuries this year so does that mean more shocking performances? Frightening is it not.

There's a saying that "The more things change, the more they stay the same". Dave Jones, prove us wrong!

We'll have Oli & Bellamy back next Saturday which will make the difference, a bit of passion and balls instilled back into the team and when we have a fully fit squad DJ will be a hero again. I do feel we need to oust a good few from our squad i.e Rae, Comminges, Taiwo & Quinn, to free up some finance to bring in fresh players that are up for the challenge. Keogh needs to learn the offside rule and even though he'll run all day for you I really cant see what benefit he brings to the squad as yet, Koumas is not the Jason we know of 2005-6 season. he has that footballing heart & brain but you also need the engine to back it up and maybe in time he'll regain that.

Maybe we should have off loaded Whittingham when we had the opportunity as I personally think he is the most frustrating player Ive seen at the City, he has everything a top class footballer needs to succeed except for consistency. If you look back to the Hull game the 2 players we miss more-so are Oli & Bellamy, with Craig in the team he fires up the rest, he plays with fire & passion which we dont have, he expects & demands standards from the rest of the team if he is giving 100%. With Oli he gives us that stability and again passion, a want to succeed.

Its always a easy option to blame DJ as many will be on the starting blocks and cant wait for us slip up to have a go at him, some just have it in their heads that they dont like him but in reality in my opinion he is the best manager we have had since Jimmy Scholar, when you have 5 players in the calibre of Bellamy, Chopra, Bothroyd, Olafinjana & Drinkwater all missing from injuries its a huge blow and must mentally effect the remaining squad , Koumas, McPhail & Keogh are nowhere near match fit. But Im sure once all are fit we'll be back with a huge bang and again Dave Jones will be our hero, its a blip and its good that we have it now early in the season and its clear to all of us that our squad is more than capable to take us to the promise land, but we do need to weeded out those that have not got that desire.

Spot on Richard. There is still some "dead wood" being carried in the squad.

But please dont let your anti Dave Jones opinions to ruin your excellent report. Keep that side neutral. Keep that for other threads

good report ian well written.

But please dont let your anti Dave Jones opinions to ruin your excellent report. Keep that side neutral. Keep that for other threads

Point taken and totally agree. Just got a bit wound up. Still am but not too bad now.

But please dont let your anti Dave Jones opinions to ruin your excellent report. Keep that side neutral. Keep that for other threads

Point taken and totally agree. Just got a bit wound up. Still am but not too bad now.

A very good and fair report though, its easy to be wound up mate. All part n parcel of being a City fan

One thing I will say about Ian, Bakedalaska is you will find he is Honest and straight talking with his posts and I Believe his Weekly Match reports will be the same

well done

CHEERS Ian, I Look forward to Your Millwall Match Report