Tuesday evening: In no uncertain terms can I explain what I was feeling at 11pm, an oxymoron would probably best convey all the thoughts that darted into my head, but for the life of me, I can barely think of one.

First and foremost, we really need to look at our transfer policy. Pursuing three players from the same club for a two-week period, only to find that once two fees were agreed, Ward and Henderson had absolutely no intention to join whatsoever. I’m sorry Messrs Jewell, Clegg and Evans, but that’s not good enough.

Cue 7:45, the start of a quite magnificent 90 minutes of football which epitomised everything we want to see - work, enthusiasm, desire and most importantly quality drizzled with cutting edge.

We trounced the side sitting top of the league! Yet it leaves me so frustrated, why can’t we do this in the majority of games? In a sense you could say that Andy Drury and Luke Hyam have been the main architects of our three decent performances in recent weeks. We controlled the Blackpool game for large periods, controlled the Leeds game for large periods, and quite simply battered West Ham. You could say we’ve had another mini revival, but prolonging it? Maybe, just maybe, we aren’t the most consistent team in the league for a reason.

There have been three instances this season where we’ve all been given a false sense of hope - the six game unbeaten run, which was followed by a dismal run of seven defeats.

That was shortly followed by the emphatic 5-3 win against Barnsley. After this game, I really believed our confidence would be sky high and we might be able to kick on, but no, of course not. So here we are, an outstanding performance against West Ham, but is it just another false dawn looming over the uncertain corner?

I may well be over analysing the situation, but a contagious sense of optimism has fulfilled me over the last couple of days, on the condition that we replicate the key tactical principals employed in the West Ham game, we will hopefully embark on a decent sequence of results in the run up to the seasons conclusion (mid-table hopefully).

If we can display passion, endeavour and a youthful flair then we should be on the way to accumulating an adequate amount of victories. The introduction of Ryan Stevenson has certainly been a breath of fresh air, I get the impression he may be a gem in disguise, potentially an astute piece of business from Jewell.

In hindsight, we’ve all questioned Paul Jewell's tactical philosophies, transfer signings etc, there is no doubt some of it has seemed absolutely ludicrous. I can’t comprehend why Michael Chopra has been dropped from the starting XI in recent games. Dropping a confidence-stricken striker will only make their confidence worse surely?

But ultimately, Jewell possesses a CV with sound achievements evident, we have to continue to back him. Why exactly? Because Evans won’t sack him, Evans has belief in Jewell, I’m in no doubt about that. So rather than ranting constantly about why Jewell still exists, get behind the team and the manager! We have no other viable option right now!

Jewell will inevitably delve into the loan market, if he can capture a right-back and centre-back then we should be on the way to steady defensive improvement providing they have enough quality. It’s impossible to escape the fact we can’t defend, our mentality has simply got to be, 'If you score three, we’ll score four'.

The likes of Lee Martin’s and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas’s recent displays have shown real promise. If Chopra can start scoring goals with regular contributions elsewhere, we may just be on to a formula that works brilliantly.

However, this is Ipswich Town FC, well renowned for being consistently inconsistent over the last decade. Where will we be come the end of the season? Who knows? The season’s destiny may have a monumental dependence on the Coventry result, theoretically we should win comfortably, but you wouldn’t count on it though. I hate to think what a loss to Coventry will do for team morale, especially after the West Ham heroics.

Garv added 20:23 - Feb 3 Superb blog. All that needed saying was said. Although one point about post Barnsley, we did look to be turning a corner, with a clean sheet and slightly gritty win over Derby at home, then (from what I heard/read an impressive display and good point away at Leicester. However I believe this run of 'form' was unravelled by, firstly, Collins going back, an unlucky defeat at Reading and then Sonko getting suspended after he and Delaney had started to show promise together as a centre back pairing. As soon as we were forced to call upon Ingimarsson for the Forest game it was probably always going to go pair shaped. Coincidentally (?) after he left and in every game since then we've played well and ended up getting the wrong result in most of them.

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alljezer added 21:08 - Feb 3 Well said Davekl12. I do think we will be ok this season and finish mid table. Really glad to see young Luke back in the side, this lad looks good (should have give him a longer contract). Also Drury, JET and Lee look the ticket right now. We should also give ALB a run of games, I know he's not that tall (Paul Cooper)and menacing, but he has got lots of heart and commitment. Just need to strengthen that back four and we will be a match for anyone in this league.

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bringbackthedutch added 21:31 - Feb 3 I enjoyed that blog. In some ways a good result tomorrow and a couple of bad one for the others below us might almost get us over the line to safety. There's something up with our approach to signings, why we haven't managed to sign any permanent defenders remains a mystery. I can't understand why that kid at Crewe would prefer to be playing away at Barnet when he could have been playing in the West Hame game either, or how we could have lost out to Huddersfield for Wallace if he's a real prospect. Whether it's Clegg or some other part of the set up is hard to really know. I'm glad we didn't get the Portsmouth players, there's something morbid in sniffing round three players from a dying club who didn't want to come in the first place. If they were that much better, they'd be that much higher up the table, but they aren't. So they can't be. We need to go after prospects or discoveries rather than failed ex-prem players or average players who could never cut it in the premiership were we ever to get there. Agree that ALB needs to play. We need continuity to give our defence any chance and even if McCarthy suddenly comes good he'll only go back at the crunch point of the season anyway. The false promise of the start of Keano's second season involved two ingredients the introduction of Hyam and Andros Townsend, who has a level of talent above anyone else we had. Keano soon alienated Andros and sent him back and as usual lost confidence and left Hyam out. It took Jewell too long to notice him again. Garv, did you really mean 'pair shaped'? That's quite intriguing!

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TractorBoii added 22:05 - Feb 3 Spot on!! We have the potential within the squad with players like cressy, JET, hyam and drury, we have an owner who invests, we have a manager who had done it before at this level. We just need to put this season behind us (once we've achieved safety) and start again next year with a view to the promise land. (Once we've signed a GK, a CB and a RB). COYB, 3 points tomorrow!!

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mightytown added 23:48 - Feb 3 i agree. we can rescue some joy out of this season yet. if the youngsters continue to play for the remainder of the campaign and we survive and finish mid table then it will provide a good platform for the summer. we will have a better picture of stevenson and what he brings to the team. we have young, exciting talent in the team and for the first time in a long time, do not have to spend the summer rebuilding. defensive additions required and to my mind, our big summer transfer should be the acquisition of a bright young goalkeeper. a solid defence behind the team we think or hope we can see emerging and we will be back in the hunt for promotion. my only worryis carson, desperate for him to commit to town, is there an isssue that might see him leave? i hope not. would sign murphy too.

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mightytown added 23:50 - Feb 3 but of course, first step is beating coventry.
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Kitman added 07:51 - Feb 4 A reasonable account of what most of us must be thinking this season. The Chopra business is of course the biggest mystery to us all on the outside. We hired a gamling addict which I suspect is the real problem with him starting or on the subs bench. I doubt his confidence thing is to do with his performance on the pitch rather his private life off it. We can only assume Jewell and ITFC knew what they were buying? Having said that, the boy is quality and I see the key being him firing on all 4 and JET finally showing his enormous promise. The lack of defence is a REAL worry though. I think we have enough in the locker to see us through '11/12 by our own merits. I'd hate to get to May and see we stayed up due to 3 teams below being worse than us....

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Garv added 02:50 - Feb 6 Oops. Pear.
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