The View From Churchmans

Blummin' marvellous. End-of-season sunshine, fantastic atmosphere. Given our ability to pull unlikely results out of the bag, at twelve o'clock some of us were probably nervous enough that we'd have settled for a draw if offered. But a win and a clean sheet? That'll do. In fact, it was almost frustrating that we didn't end up putting the tie out of sight by half time. With almost the whole squad available, Joe surprisingly ... More...

A nervous, edgy and generally uninspiring performance, of which the best thing that can be said is that it turned out OK in the end. Another display (or two) like this won't be good enough to get us to the play-off final, but then again, we won't play like that in the semis, don'tcha just know it. So let's have a really good night out and celebrate, because yet again folks ...we're in ... More...

A big crowd, and almost every home supporter will have left the ground thinking the same thing: "How predictable was that?" And indeed it was. Decent run, things start to get important, home match against team from the other end of the table ...of course, what happens next? A large pair of pants descends on Portman Road. To be fair, we weren't that bad, and few Forest supporters would have felt cheated if ... More...

Don't let the out-of-character scoreline fool you: this was a very good match, and probably home performance of the season too. A lot of things came together, but most importantly, we were professional and committed throughout. We played some sparkling football at the beginning, but it was the end which best illustrated the change in the team we've endured for so long. It was a must-win game for Sunderland, and you'd have expected ... More...

The performances are different, but the scores still end up roughly the same. I think five of the last eight visitors to the Portman Road Charity Shop have helped themselves to three or more goals, but at least this one was one of our better displays, although that made it even more irritating to have lost. In the first half, the whole was more the sum of the parts: there were few outstanding ... More...

An unremarkable performance with a nice (but not extraordinary) scoreline, but a match which will be remembered for a long time thanks to Deano's opportunism. Who knows, he might go on to great things and there'll be 75,000 Town fans who'll claim to have been there and have seen his home-debut hat-trick. But we really were there, weren't we kids? Those of us who want to see all the youngsters given a start ... More...

Three-one defeats are becoming a bit monotonous. But unlike the Wigan game, we weren't outplayed by a classier side, and unlike the Norwich game, we weren't robbed. Instead, we just looked a mess, against a strong but ordinary side. It was a match about commitment and confidence, and for periods we had it in spades, and for the remainder we were simply hopeless. I've simply no idea what we can learn from this, ... More...

Which team was this we were watching then? Not any Ipswich side I can recognise of late. Yes, that's right, a good, old-fashioned, unremarkable two-nil home win. Wow. Lots to talk about though. With Kuqi suspended, Joe opted for Counago to partner Dazza but curiously put no recognised strikers (unless you count Reuser) on the bench. We all wondered what would happen if one of the front men had to go off (particularly Counago), ... More...

Opposition as mediocre as this was probably our best hope of getting back on track after being so demoralisingly outplayed last week, and although we normally make a hash of beating poor teams, the only predictably distressing thing about the afternoon was the by-now compulsory goal gifted to the opponents right on half-time. Otherwise, it was a lot more encouraging all round. When the teams came out and we saw three centre-backs in blue, ... More...

That'll be seventeen goals conceded in the last seven home games then (ten of them in the last three) and no team can possibly win anything with a defence like that. What was more worrying was how easily Wigan found it to walk away with the points. They knew exactly how to beat us and just came and did it. Even worse, when the whole crowd could see what they were doing and ... More...

Well, after 100+ games (several seasons' worth) in each of the other three stands over 30 years, for the first time *ever* your humble correspondent sat in the North Stand. It's all a bit different when you're in the North: the seats are all cramped, there's no big bar with carpet, and Pablo looks quite a good player. But the team are still their own worst enemies. What verdict to give then? We've ... More...

Our enormous goals-for plus goals-against total would suggest that on any given day this season, the game involving Ipswich would be one of the highest scoring in the First Division. On a day when half the division seemed to be scoring fours and sixes, we'd have to go some to keep up that record. We did. Where to begin? The football veered from the sublime to the ridiculous, the conditions veered from the awkward ... More...

What a gut-wrenchingly shocking performance to finish the year on, ranking with the previous Sunday and the Wimbledon nightmare as Portman Road's low points for 2003. Mediocre (at best) performances all around, but the whole was even less than the sum of the parts, so once again the manager has to shoulder a lot of the blame. Whilst everyone there would agree it was a tight, scrappy affair in midfield, I wonder how many ... More...

I remember a Portman Road game a few seasons back where the players just didn't seem to be trying, and got the reaction they deserved, even down to a gut-wrenching booing for Matt as he did his post-match lap. This wasn't the same sort of thing, it was just a really poor performance. Wrong players, wrong tactics, wrong day for so many of the players to have off-days. Norwich came with exactly the ... More...

On a day when for many of us, the rugby result meant that there was nothing Ipswich could do to spoil things, the team went and did us proud regardless. And in a way there was something quite reminiscent of the way in which the England XV always seem to adapt their game to the opposition and conditions, because against hard opposition and in some gloomy drizzle, we proved we could mix it. The ... More...