Wednesday on telly again...must be time for another thraping then.

    0 -v- 0   

I like going to Ipswich, I don’t know why because we never seem to get owt there, but I do…I like parking up in the same place, the walk to and from the ground, the pubs, the walking along the back of the ground to our entrance…past Sir Bobby’s statue…and it IS a belting statue ya know that, it really captures the spirit of the bloke I think and it adds to the whole Portman Road thing, I like it.

The ground inside’s got sommat about it too…not ancient and crumbling and not modern…it doesn’t offer the best of anything or the worst of anything, though the view from where we sat was pretty good, but it’s a bit middling, a bit like the team on the pitch I suppose, but I like going there…

The young un is the opposite, she hates it…I think she goes by the premise that we get stuffed there so what’s to like? She still looks forward to an away day when it comes along and I’m always glad she’s there when it’s a 3 hour car journey. This one absolutely flew past. Loads of singing, decent music, no roadworks, SATNAV behaving himself and we were well ahead of schedule. 

When we’ve parked up we set off to the ground and as usual, there’s always sommat about Ipswich that makes me smile…this time a sign on a house…’HOUSE BOOT HERE – Everything £1’ I’m not sure they’ve grasped the concept of the ‘Boot Sale’ in Ipswich yet and I’m fully aware things take a while to travel down there but here’s a bit of info for Ipswichians, you can’t have a fookin ‘House Boot sale’ it’s called a car boot sale because a car has a fookin boot! CAR BOOT! Everything you need is there in the name. Car...BOOT! Where the fook is the boot in a house?

Anyway, we meet, Tommo, Baldy and Mork at ‘Mannings’ in Ipswich town centre and have a good natter over a pint before setting off for the ground…well, after the landlady had pretty much told us all to fook off or they’ll start the game without us.
-
THE MATCH
-
I’m not gonna bang on about the game too much as most folk will have watched it on the telly and formed their own opinions but I quite enjoyed it. I know loads of others watching at home didn’t, but I did. I can’t help it if I’ve settled into liking shite, or my expectations are less than everyone elses, but I enjoyed this.

Maybe it’s something about setting out, on a trip like this, with the intent to enjoy it, rather than thinking the worst before anything’s happened. I dunno.

Fair enough, the first hour wasn’t much to shout about, especially the first half…it was a little drab at times and every now and again we let them in, but even then there was things to like. Some of the work by the two centre halves was excellent. Hinds hardly missed a header and Lewis got through some excellent tackles.

That tackle from Frankie Simek on Carlos ‘Schmarlos’ Edwards, right in front of us….he had another cruncher second half did Frankie. Now you might think it was foolhardy, late, clumsy, shit even…but to me THIS was as big a sign that Frankie is on his way back as we’ve seen from him so far. Time was, not too long ago as well (Rochdale) when he’d have not even tried to to tackle like that for fear of hurting HIMSELF let alone anyone else. THIS was proof that the Palace injury was out of his mind….AND…Carlos Schmarlos fookin knew, absolutely FOOKIN KNEW Frankie Simek was at work.
Frankie might not be the quickest now but I can’t remember Carlos Schmarlos bothering him too much again all night. In fact I think he set about Tommy for the rest of the game.

There was a fantastic bit in that first half that us laughing.
Ipswich got through our defence and had a shot, that went wide, or Granty saved, I forget which now but the Ipswich fans behind the goal were on their feet…We all stood up and gave them a few choice insults from our vast repetoire which now includes…the ‘sit down’ gesture, one finger, two fingers, one finger both hands, the classic wanker sign, the dickhead sign, fat bastard stroking of the belly and puffing our cheeks. (Not used too much as we’re all fat bastards)….anyway, they got a very good selection of these from the Wednesday fans…

One young lad, about 10 year old, and his mate were incensed by this…one ran down the front to give us the rods back, whilst the other, a mini Jonnyboy lookalike, decided to treat us to the ‘Roy Keane Stare’ ™. It was pure evil and made the blood run cold of every single Wednesdayite in the crowd. It seemed to be focused on Tommo more than anyone else, so he flicked the lad a couple of rods just to test the water…oh aye…it was aimed at Tommo alright…it intensified after that…he squinted even more, a clear sign of evil intent.

This wasn’t a quick look, this stare went on for ages…we’d forgotten about it, but 10 minutes later we looked over and he was still staring…another 10 minutes and we’re watching the game…we felt an icy chill…yon lad is still giving the stare.

Is Keano running classes? Keanos Icy Stare Saturdays? (KISS ™) A kids staring club?
Fook me this lad had it down perfect, he’s obviously achieved his first level and got his badge after that.
He must have collapsed in a heap somewhere after all that staring because he didn’t come out for the second half didn’t the lad.

As the game went on the weather got worse and those at the front of the stands huddled further back under cover. I don’t know how it looked on telly but it really was desperate. The rain was lashing down and the wind was swirling all over the place. It really wasn’t conducive with good football and that first hour or so had shown exactly that.

It didn’t put the small travelling band of Wednesday fans off though.
I think the noise levels this season away from home have been quite poor but here we were, a few hundred and the noise was excellent, it really was. The bloke from last season at this fixture was back with his ‘Brian Loves Barmy Army’ chant, well that’s what it sounds like but kudos to him. It was noisy and it went on for ages.

The game went by pretty quick for me, which is always a sign of enjoyment and last half hour or so was excellent IMO but even though I haven’t seen the stat’s yet, I’d guess we didn’t bother their keeper too much, I can’t remember him having to make a save…not a proper one anyway.

We were getting loads of joy down their right late on with Tommy and Varney and once JJ had gone we seemed to gather a bit of something about us. He just wasn’t at the races today JJ and Leon made a much better impact and TBF to the lad he chased everything…some of the balls he got to he had no right to reach and there can’t have been many that expected him to either. Leon was obviously in ‘shoot on sight’ mode as that’s exactly what he did but Ipswich always seemed to get a body in the way.

When we did have a better chance we seemed to always want to take a touch…a touch too much usually which meant the chance was gone….and when we did get shots on target there weren’t enough that really tested the keeper. It was a pity as during this period that was all that was missing.

There seemed to be a point early in the second half where our team suddenly decided that Ipswich were nowt special and we could take the game to em…which is exactly what we did…Potter was starting to take control, which is always lovely to watch and he strode around with purpose….Gray was getting into the game and wanting the ball, hunting the ball, delivering the ball…superbly…we were getting it out wide and Leon was a proper handful.

We started to play some lovely football…there was good movement and there were some lovely touches…the only thing missing was that damned end product…AGAIN.

We couldn’t find a way through and just as importantly, neither could Ipswich.
I know everyone’s saying Ipswich shit and struggling and we should have beaten them but things NEVER pan out like that do they?
This is a team that is emerging from the shit, that’s starting to find some consistency and that usually beat us on their own patch. They started like a side playing at home but WE finished like a home side.
Make no mistake about this, a few weeks ago we'd have lost this game and probably lost heavily.

I think this was a point well earned and more than that, even though things got a bit hairy a couple of times and they DID panic a little bit at the end, THIS defence – Grant-Tommy-Buxton-Hinds-Simek – are unbeaten STILL and NOW have a clean sheet to add to their résumé. In the 250 minutes or so they’ve played together they’ve conceded 2 goals. I don’t think we’ve had a line up this season that can boast as good a record…Fookin good luck to em. Of course the acid test will be the next game against free scoring West Brom but if they can keep them out or at least keep it respectable then they’ll certainly deserve any praise that comes their way. They couldn’t wish for more confidence going into the game.

Hollie called this game early on when she said, this has got ‘Palace’ written all ower it…she was right…again.
Well, in so much as it was nil-nil and a good away point at a notoriously difficult ground for us in the past.
At the start of the season I wouldn’t have expected us to get anything from the two fixtures, as it stands we got 2 points and 2 clean sheets. Isn’t that something to feel good about?

How about this being our third TV game and having let in 7 goals in the first 2 of those games, the whole of TV land were expecting more of the same, but we held out this time.

Driving back in the wind and driving rain was tiring and difficult…but three hours later we got back and it was an enjoyable day spent in cracking company.

I enjoyed it…folk might think that’s daft having watched it on TV and got their own views on it, I don’t care.

I think it took us a while to warm to the occasion, we played good football most of the second half, we took the game to them, we finished the better team, we lack confidence in front of goal but kept a clean sheet and all of that in really fookin shit conditions and I enjoyed it all, so shoot me.

Cheers

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive


RSS  Subscribe to Owls Alive