Longer ball and messy goals!

[XXL16 0]

We should admit that Ipswich played better, passing and passion football than us; we don''t, always just rely on the longer ball, but we defend well.

Time after time: last season at Portman Road, this season at Portman Road, today of course we passed poor and let the team in BLUE passed the ball better than us, persuade Canaries World Neil Adams to "order" us to pass on the ground liked the BLUE team; but the result, see we just can''t stop scoring by those MESSY goals (All 3 Malky''s goals against them and Leon''s debut goal) and crosses (Leon''s header)!

Again you want the result or the playing style, it''s up to you!

[USAcanary 0]

Funny thing about luck, we didn`t seem to get much with the referees just lately.
Blantent penalty kicks which were not given.
How soon we forget.

[Old Boy 0]

Agreed - we were really crap in the first half. No-one played well, not one of the 11 in yellow. The team looked all at sea, partly because of nerves, and partly because of the team changes. Hendo went off like a firecracker, as you''d expect against Ip***t, but is a bit lightweight in defence, and we need Drury back. But mostly we need to fill that big hole in midfield that Francis is supposed to occupy. I''ve seen enough of him now to think that he''s not going to make a big contribution to the team. He''ll make the occasional tackle, then lose the ball, and not go in again. Or he''ll stand off players rather than try to close them down, and he doesn''t try to anticipate opponents'' play, however obvious it is.

Second half was obviously much better, but we''ve got the binners'' flaky defence and attack to thank for these 3 points: I''ve got a feeling they''ve just won us promotion! I''m going to write to Mr Sheepshanks and thank him, and wish them well in their future slide down the Nationwide.

[MasterNagus 0]

What do you guys want?

Firstly, lay off Hendo. Yes his formed has dipped in and out this season, but he''s had a long time on the sideleines, and it was his free kick that led to the opening goal. And he ain''t 20 years old yet.

Secondly, whoever is slagging off Francis has clearly been watching a different Francis to me all season. I won''t waste time explaining the positive aspects of his game as you clearly wouldn''t understand anyway. Let''s just say his performances have been priceless this season.

And so what if the binmen have a flaky defence and strikers who don''t score?

Guess what? Tough.

City had three chances and scored three goals. Go figure.

Points aren''t given for hitting the woodwork or being unlucky. Nor are points deducted if the winning goals are a little bit scrappy.

Thats all that matters. And that is why City are at the top of the league.

Work it out for yourselves!

[mistersparkle 0]

personally i thought hendo had an excellent first half - yes a very enthusiastic on occasion but he won some good balls. i was impressed with him. was quite disappointed when he went off. we definately missed adam dury althouhg i thought he has been looking a bit weary recently - hopefully the rest will do him good.

[Mook 0]

MasterNagus, how wrong you are.

I listened to the game on Sky Digital, and Francis''s name was NOT mentioned. As I missed the reading out of the teamsheet, I honestly had no idea whether he or mullers were playing in central midfield, and that was right up til about Halftime. I do understand football, and the more gritty job of breaking up the play.

Which Gary Holt does.

As for Francis, as Old Boy quite rightly states, is that he will win a tackle then give the ball away and not go in for the second ball. If he is the committed midfield general you think he is, then explain the pathetic lifting of the leg that was supposed to be a "tackle" that allowed Koumas to very nearly score on Tuesday night? If he could be consistent - I mean over the space of one game - then he would be a very good player indeed. But one moment of brilliance or determination, coupled with three moments of total apathy is not good enough for me.

[ZLF 274]

I agree with you Mook.. Bearing in mind that not one yellow shirt appeared to realise the game kicked off at noon and not 1pm Francis was by far the worst offender. As I have posted elsewhere guy does have ability but he fails to apply it consistently. Against WBA and again yesterday he was off the pace of the game and appeared disinterested in closing players down let alone putting in tackle - Francis needs to watch Holts committment, which more than makes up for the gap in their relative ability to see what impact he could have week in week out. Holt was the best of a bad bunch in the first half because he at least looked as if he cared.

I would also take issue that Henderson was excellent in the first half - like the rest of the team I felt that he simply didn''t appear but he was no worse than any other player. He improved in the second half and deserved his recall and I would expect him to start again next week against Cardiff.

The people who really suffered in the first half were Sven & Hux. Due to the midfields inability to obtain, retain or pass a football every ball in to the front two was poor making their job impossible. In the second half the ball was coming into Hux feet and to Sven at chest height or below - allowing him to play to his strengths of getting the ball down and playing some supporting midfielders. Once that happened there was only ever going to be one winner of this game - without us ever playing our best football.

Well done to Worthy for waking the team up and to the team for responding.


OTBC

[FatboySlimfast 0]

Dont panic masternagus, im with you on this. I think Francis has been brilliant this season and him and holty have been far more effective than holt and mullers. I get the impression that it is people who have only seen the west ham, WBA, and ips**t games who are slagging him off. I admit he has not been at his best in these games but for the rest of the season he has been superb. Against west ham he mixed it well but due to their attacking presence he couldn''t get forward as much as normal. Against west brom i thought he was great with holty, and fought for everything in a very physical game. Ips**t first half he was awful but only henderson came off at half time with any credit and in the second half francis and holt had the binners midfield all over the place. Its a long time since we had a midfielder as good as francis, who is prepared to get forward and support the strikers and i have every confidence that between now and the end of the season most of you doubters will be won over.

[First Wizard 0]

Mook and Zippers Left Foot: my dear friends, I must back Master Nagus totaly over this Francis buisness, you put great faith in Sky Digital, who are the same people who referred to Greeno as Ryan Green!, I rest my case.

[0King Juan of SpainddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

I think someone needs to tell Francis exactly what his role is. He seems to get caught between stopper and attacker and would do better to concentrate on one or the other. We didn''t get going against West Brom until he started pushing forward; that''s what he''s best at, breaking up play and moving forwards. It''s difficult if we are continually lumping the ball over his head, which we did much too much of yesterday. We must get this ''where''s Iwan'' mentality out of our heads and let Francis dictate things a bit more - that''s if he wants to. He needs to start giving 100% in both halves from now on.

[Mook 0]

I am not questioning his ability, nor his performance in some of the games this season (which have been excellent). I am just pointing out the fact that he could be SO much better. I mean really, SOOOO much better. As Zipper mentions, if he watched Holt and took notes, he could be the best midfielder in the division and easily cope with Prem football.

Francis reminds me of Kenton (in the early days), absolutely shed-loads of ability but prone to serious spells of not-giving-a-monkeys. But NW turned Kenton into the player he should have always been, and I believe he will work that magic on Fracis too.

[ZLF 274]

1st Wiz, I was at the game on Sunday (season ticket, lower barclay) & not watching on the telly not that it makes much odds. My first post about Francis'' inconsistencies were made in October and I stand by them now. On Sunday he was ineffective at best and disinterested at worst - we shall simply have to disagree again!

The guy has bags of ability and an engine to match; there are times when a comparison to Viera seem appropriate but they are mixed with games where becomes as effective as Clint Easton. At least we know clint simply cant cut it - the variance in Francis'' game comes down to application; Y''Army does a school report - I would say B+ but could do better by adding some much needed consistency..

OTBC