Ipswich Town 1-0 Hull City

Firstly, I have to say, Portman Road has the best playing surface in the division. It's a nice wide pitch and immaculately kept. It's easy to see why they play so well on it and why they'll struggle on poorer away pitches. Ipswich were the better team in the first half. They passed slickly and broke with pace. They got the ball into good wide positions and either delivered a dangerous cross, or slid the ball along the 18 yard line where they had a constant stream of midfielders looking to join in and shoot. City struggled to keep the ball and were lucky not to be at least one down in the first half hour. We did an awful job of protecting the full backs. I've still got no idea whether Folan was playing wide right of midfield or on the right of a 3 pronged attack but either way, he offered little protection for Ricketts. On the other side, Hughes did appear to be playing left midfield but left Dawson totally exposed. I thought it was Hughesy's poorest performance for months.

We got a little bit of joy playing diagonal balls for Windass to contest but we never had the numbers in their box to cause any problem. Throughout the game, Ipswich must've headed out at least 30 crosses or long passes and we never had anyone on the edge of the box to pick up the scraps. We gave away a lot of free-kicks, some through ill discipline and others through over zealous refereeing and it just made the half really bitty. As it went on, we found a little bit of rhythm, Folan and Hughes saw more of the ball and Ricketts went marauding but our delivery was poor. In Folan's case, his touch was often so poor that it denied him the chance to deliver at all. Despite having plenty of the ball, it's hard to remember a real City chance in the half.

We started the second half well and looked better on the ball. Ipswich were starting to press the issue and Windass was dropping deep into acres of space. We still didn't create anything through bad decision making and poor execution but we looked capable of hitting them on the break. I think Phil Brown made a mistake with his first substitution as Fagan replaced Hughes. We were too congested up front, Marney and Ashbee were over stretched and the full backs even further exposed. Browny obviously felt he had to do something but Ipswich also had to score and we looked better when we pressed them in possession and used our pace on the counter. After the substitution, we were impatient on the ball and left a lot of space around the midfield. It also didn't help that Fagan had another stinker. Barmby replaced Folan to try and give us a bit of composure and craft around the box. Before he could get into the game, we were behind. Ipswich chucked on Alan Lee and with his first touch, he out jumped Brown and nodded into the corner.

That was our promotion hopes gone but the guys did work hard to try and salvage the game. We pressed onto them and left ourselves open. We worked the ball into good wide positions and got Windass, Campbell and Barmby into the box but our delivery just wasn't good enough. Fagan struggled to beat the first man. Ricketts delivered into good areas, but De Vos dealt easily with everything. If we'd delivered those balls when Folan was on, we might have had some joy, but once he went off, we needed to be whipping balls in between 'keeper and defence for our two poachers to feed off. We looked a bit bereft of ideas at times. Perhaps the pressure told or perhaps the legs struggled a bit in the heat. We just look a little like we're missing someone who can unlock doors that are double bolted and padlocked. We have someone who can do it, it's just a shame he's injured. The game petered out a little. We were probably lucky that it didn't end up being 2 or 3 as we threw caution to the wind.

Myhill had a decent game. He was quick off his line, kicked confidently and made good punches. He didn't really have to make saves, Ipswich tended to hit the post or shoot wide. His defenders made lots of good blocks for him too. In possession, we were poor from back to front. We tried to build from the back and keep the ball when we could but we often found the route forward was blocked, so the ball went back to Bo or we tried something difficult and gave it away. Defensively, Dawson was the pick of the back 4 for me. He had plenty to do and was left exposed against Walters. He couldn't stop a lot of the crosses coming in the first half, but he had a good second half and made lots of good blocks and crosses. His reading of the game was important as he swept up behind the centre backs three times, stopping certain goal scoring chances. Ricketts made one similarly excellent interception in the first half. Sam is like the energizer bunny. If there's a fitter player in the country, I haven't seen him. Ricketts and Marney put in more miles each week than the average GNER train. Turner was solid and dealt well with crosses but struggled a little when Counago dropped deep to pick up the ball. Early on, we were caught out by Kuqi's movement around the back and he looked dangerous until he ran out of steam at the 4 minute mark. Wayne Brown was below par. He gave away too many fouls, climbing all over his opponent and looking off the pace on the floor. He was booked for one really late tackle. He was out muscled by Kuqi and out done by Lee for the goal. On the positive side, he reads the game well and averted other potentially dangerous situations by positioning himself well and dealing with the ball. I'm not sure if he's still struggling with injury. Hopefully, he can get himself right this week.

The midfield all worked hard as usual, you can never accuse this team of a lack of effort. Ash covered every blade of grass, tracked runners and tried to protect Ricketts and Dawson. He wasn't as good on the ball as he has been; hesitant at times, sloppy at others. Marney matched his work rate and chased and harried all the time. He didn't make enough tackles though, certainly not clean ones. Going forward, he tried but didn't have it in him to open them up. I would've liked to have seen him run at them a bit more and commit players. He was happy to receive the ball and move around in front of them but he wasn't hurting them, the ball either went back where it came from or he tried something too ambitious over the top. He has the ability to run through their midfield and draw defenders onto him but we don't see it enough. I'm not sure if it's a fear of losing the ball or the result of the physical effort he puts into getting up and down the pitch. It'd be nice to see him hanging onto the ball a bit more and trying to create an opening rather than waiting for one to appear. Hughes wasn't his usual self. He wasn't as good in possession or as nifty with the ball. He took it upon himself to try and press them high up the pitch and left space on our left. He has a great attitude and will always go looking for the ball, no matter what sort of afternoon he's having. That's commendable. It just wasn't his day at all today. His delivery from wide was poor too. Barmby made another cameo appearance and looked very lively. He put himself about; made sure he was first to the ball and found some space between their defence and midfield. He came closest of any Tiger to grabbing an equaliser. In fact, he really should've scored. We looked better for his involvement.

We struggled up front. Teams are becoming very aware of the threat of Campbell. Ipswich were another side who defended a bit deeper to make sure there was no space in behind for him to exploit and worked very hard to ensure he didn't get the ball in the first place. If those things failed, they booted him. Windass did his best with the measly scraps he got in the first 20 minutes. After that, he dropped deeper and tried to link play. I thought we were at our best in the second half when Deano dropped off and Campbell and Folan played narrow down the middle as a proper front two. It didn't last very long unfortunately. Overall, Folan was pretty poor. His first touch was often dire. Our best chance in the first half looked to be getting the ball out to him quickly and letting him run at the full back but he miscontrolled too often, didn't show the skill and pace that worked so well against QPR and generally failed to deliver. He was withdrawn as he looked to be getting into it a bit but Barmby had a good influence on our play. We need to deliver the ball better when he's on the pitch.

We go into the play-offs now. It's not so long ago that we were all talking about Ipswich away being potentially a 6th place decider. We've ended up 3rd which is fantastic. It isn't good enough though, for the manager or the players. You could see that as they left the pitch. Ash in particular looked deeply upset. There's no need to be. We have to have that drive and determination but keep our chins up. We've had a great season, we've played good football and we've shown desire, heart and conviction. If we do that for 3 more games, we can do it.

We've learnt a few things in the last few games. Mainly, I think, that we're a much better side when Garcia and Pedersen play. We've let in far too many crosses in the last few games and let wide players get at Dawson and Ricketts, which is something we haven't done for a while. That needs fixing. We need to be more disciplined too. Both in terms of cutting out the stupid free kicks we've given away and in terms of making substitutions. We've just been throwing on attackers in the last 4 games, which hasn't really worked for us. It's rarely changed the games in our favour. Our subs bench is a bit lacking in quality at the moment, going back to 4-4-2 would at least give us one of Campbell, Folan or Windass in reserve to change things. All things for Phil Brown to ponder this week. I'm sure he'll make the right decisions; he's rarely let us down thus far.

We've everything to play for. A wise man once said 'If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, yours will be a place in the Premier League and sixty million quid to go along with". It still could be ours.

Ratings: Myhill 7, Ricketts 7, Dawson 8, Turner 6, Brown 6, Ashbee 7, Marney 6, Hughes 5 (Fagan), Folan 6 (Barmby), Campbell 6, Windass 6.