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Williams: Poor Start Led to Poor Performance
Monday, 21st Nov 2016 06:00

Midfielder Jonny Williams felt the Blues' performance during Saturday's 2-0 home defeat to his former loan club Nottingham Forest never recovered from conceding Britt Assombalonga’s opening goal after only 17 seconds, the Championship's fastest strike this season.

Assombalonga netted the second in first-half injury time with the Blues never looking likely to get back into the game as the visitors defended determinedly in depth after the break.

“The poor start set us up for a poor performance all evening,” Williams admitted. “We tried to get a goal back second half and really went for it, even though it left us open to the counter-attack.

“We were at home so we needed to go on the attack and get goals, especially being two down, but we were just not clinical enough."

He added: “The way we conceded was a shame as we know we are better than that. Our defending was poor, we missed Webbo [Adam Webster].”

“A mistake so early, which was easily avoided on another day, and then to concede just before half-time made it a different game."

The 23-year-old was frustrated that the Blues were unable to repeat the performance which saw them win 2-1 at Sheffield Wednesday before the two-week hiatus.

“It was such a shame after such a high energy and good result at Hillsborough before the international break. The break didn’t come at a good time as we were on such a high,” he said.

“It’s hard to take because we were buzzing going into the break and the training was spot-on but it went wrong.

“I’m not sure why it keeps going wrong. The margin between winning and losing in the league is so slim and our performances are not too far away, but it was two errors which have cost us the game.

“You will get punished in this division if you make mistakes, especially at the back so we need to make ourselves safer and tighten up at the back.”

Despite Saturday’s defeat seeing Town drop to 17th, five points from the relegation zone, the Wales international believes the Blues should still be targeting the play-off places, which are now six points away.

“We need to focus on looking up the division rather than down,” he added. “Ipswich is a big club and we need to focus on the top six. Starting with QPR on Saturday.”

Williams was making his fifth appearance from the bench having recovered from the ankle injury he suffered in pre-season while with parent club Crystal Palace and he says he is up to starting if manager Mick McCarthy picks him.

“I’m feeling good and getting my minutes in,” he continued. “I’m ready to start when the gaffer wants me to.”

Forest midfielder Ben Osborn, who created Assombalonga’s very early opening goal, thought it was a good all-round performance from his side: “We were well-organised, solid at the back and excellent at defending crosses.

“We started bright as we always do, they made mistakes, the ball fell to me and heard Britt call and played it and of course he scored, as he always does.

“It was massive to score [the second goal] just before the break because they were coming into it a bit.

“Second half we went for a third and had a couple of breakaways, although it all got a bit stretched so we sat back in the end.”

Meanwhile, Town’s U23s are in action against Crystal Palace this afternoon at Playford Road (KO 1pm).


Photo: TWTD



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Benters added 06:14 - Nov 21
There is no way that the town will make the playoffs,for one its not scoring enough,14 goals in 17 games is shocking.Its ok to keep saying they are only 6 points off the playoffs,but isnt there10 teams between us and them !

To be honest i still cant believe how poor they looked Saturday night .
14

Danish_Blue added 06:17 - Nov 21
What has a hazelnut in every bite ?
0

muhrensleftfoot added 06:52 - Nov 21
The quick goal isn't the issue. It's not great but that can happen once in a season. It's how you deal with it, and Mick should have continued with the 4-4-2 he started with. He kept changing it about, and no-one seemed to know what they were doing. Panic tactics from Mick and that completely unsettled the team. The buck stops with Mick for this defeat.
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howdonblue added 07:25 - Nov 21


Topic
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howdonblue added 07:26 - Nov 21
And bxxxxxxt
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OwainG1992 added 07:28 - Nov 21
True words Jonny! Can't argue with what he says. Just feel Mick needed to make us organised and have a structure. The players were all over the place. There were time where it looked like we had 4 central midfielders! And we still couldn't create.
1

Mark added 07:42 - Nov 21
Unlike the previous home match against Rotherham where a good start led to a poor performance.

We're crying out for a big man to hold the ball up for the likes of Williams, Lawrence, Ward etc. McGoldrick did his best, but he is a number 10 rather than a 9 in old numbers.
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hello66 added 08:05 - Nov 21
Message to the Board of ITFC.

There are Thousands of fan who love this club but will not go to other game until you change the Manager !

Please come of the fence and take ATICION
11

rfretwell added 08:14 - Nov 21
We all love Jonny but come on - "I'm nit sure where it keeps going wrong" : Try
1 Poor ball control and passing all over the pitch. Knudsen awful.
2. Inability to win many headers in attack at all.
3. Players not played in their best positions - McG, Sears
4. Failure by defenders to get tight on attackers - especially Knudsen.
5. Failure to get hardly any shots in.
6. Long term injured players nor back to their best yet - McG, Bishop.
7. Inexperience at rb - Emmanuel clearly has potential but still has lots to learn.
That was our worst first half performance since the Duncan days and that's saying something!
7

Cloddyseedbed added 08:17 - Nov 21
I agree and so do many more with the comment "we must tighten up at the back" but our manager hasn't the guts to change it. It has been consistently performing badly, despite for the majority of the time being protected by a very defensive midfield. If we are going to be more attacking as MM has hinted that will leave it even more exposed. The likes of Chambers, Berra and Knudsen are just not mobile and good enough. Emmanuel, Webster and Kenlock are the future, not sure what Tommy will be like after a very long lay off. The defense is important, I feel with the manager being stubborn selection out of form or under strength players is adding to our woes. The defence needs a complete rebuild and a manager with balls to do it. Skuse is not up to the job this season, he's now become to old, it happens, time for him to make way also. Bishop should not be near the 1st team as the long lay off has affected him badly, the team can't afford to carry him, the same for Ward, not in games now, for whatever reason, turning into a Maitland- Niles. WE do have the players to turn our season around but I don't think we have the manager. He's far too loyal to the players that are the problem.
9

SheptonMalletBlue added 08:56 - Nov 21
Sorry Jonny, but I don't agree with you that "our performances are not too far away" I suspect you don't really think that either, but you have to say these things for Mr McCarthy!
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Mr_Evans added 09:04 - Nov 21
One positive from the game was that you could clearly see that we were trying to keep the on the deck - yet not one of our back four are comfortable doing it and as a result we were being pressed into mistakes. Very rarely did I see Skuse demand the ball from the back four, that's how we are supposed to channel our forward play. We were so so poor with too many individual errors.
Knudsen gave the ball awayfor the first goal, it was so obvious that Osbourn would play in Assombolonga and Knudsen failed to step up to play him offside. After giving it away he was static.
Chambers was AWOL for the first goal, as a CB he was nowhere to be seen! He also left the ball for Bart to come and collect for the 2nd. Whether Bart called or not I don't know, but in that area you should just clear the danger.
Skuse was hiding all game. Rarely got on the ball and seems so slow at doing anything.
Bishop is a shadow of his former self. Rumours are that he spent much of his injury time on the piss.
Sears looks absolutely woeful - seems lost our there.
I'd also like to know what Mick thinks Varney offers. I've never seen him control his first touch. The guy just seems to jump about a lot.
In a positive note: Lawrence/Williams impressed, McGoldrick tried to make things happen
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martin587 added 09:05 - Nov 21
The players also need to stand up and be counted after that debacle on Saturday night.!!
5

vanmunt added 09:29 - Nov 21
I would like to congratulate everyone at PR on Saturday night for an impeccable 90 minutes of silence for Armistice...

8

Bluejake added 09:45 - Nov 21
The problem is that our players train together. Our forwards aren't very good so the defenders think they are better than they are; our defenders aren't very good so the forwards score a few against them and think they're doing ok. Come match day when the defenders play against good forwards they concede too easily and when the forwards come up against good defenders they realise that scoring a goal is far more difficult. Good job we've got an ace goalkeeper. Now he is good!
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brittaniaman added 09:55 - Nov 21
Well we did play football in our own HALF for a while, backwards, sideways, backwards, sideways, nobody seem to have a clue how to amount an attack ????
with McCarthys supposed guidance he did not have a clue either ???? BUT he will still be here next week, next month, next year.!!!!
At least Jewellio did resign for the sake of the club !!! he knew that he could not take us any further.
12

midastouch added 10:11 - Nov 21
Williams should definitely be in the starting 11. I also like McGoldrick as he has quality but sadly he looks so pedestrian these days. He doesn't seem to pose the same threat as he did before all his injuries. I remember Ian Marshall had a lazy sort of running style but he still knew where the net was. Chris Waddle (great player!) had a lazy running style too. McGoldrick likes to come deep and try and collect it. His goal against Rotherham was quality. But I am starting to lose some faith in him unfortunately . He doesn't seem the same player since the injuries. You only need to look at YouTube highlights when he was pinging in goals from here there and everywhere, now those seem few and far between. Maybe he needs some support up front (he might link up well with Best), but his partnership with Freddie on Sat didn't seem to gel at all. Perhaps they need more time but time is a precious commodity we don't have much of as we are slipping down the wrong end of the table. I know being a striker is about confidence, so if DmG could pop a couple in perhaps it would be the turning point. He should of buried his chance against Forest on Sat, if he'd of kept the shot lower it would of gone in. Our lack of goals is a big worry. I don't know what the answer is. The players have done it before, but if they don't start to do it soon surely we have to look elsewhere for an injection of much-needed firepower in January!
4

ChrisFelix added 10:44 - Nov 21
Never been anti Chambers, but its surprising how many of the goals we concede are the result of him being out of position or AWOL.I have looked at the goals from Saturday several times & this appears to the problem yet again. Also you can have as much play as you want but unless the ball gets into the box the chances of goals are much reduced. This side badly needs someone to lead the line
6

OldClactonBlue added 10:46 - Nov 21
Excellent midastouch, blame the problem on one of very few players we have with real quality.
1

woohoo added 10:47 - Nov 21
I was at the game. The early goal, whilst annoying, should have spurred us on - at least is gave us plenty of time to put things right.

But we were pretty hopeless - usual stuff - Sears runs about, McGoldrick shows some bits of class, Skuse puts in a couple of decent interceptions and then vanishes and Chambers seems intent on putting Bart under pressure.

Very, very poor performance.

6

oldelsworthyfan added 10:53 - Nov 21
4-4-2 simply does not work for the squad we have. Many of our problems stem from this weak back line. Sir Alf always sorted the defence first. MM never has.

Three 'has been's' and one decent mlayer in a back four is a waste of a player to start with. They've either been getting in each other's way or thinking one of the other ones will deal with it.

It's time MM switched to 3-4-3 with Emmanuel Webster and Kenlock across the back line. Chambers, Berra and Knudson are too slow and no longer good enough, except to sit on the bench. How many goals have we conceded in the last few minutes or right at the start when our defenders appear to be 'brain dead'?

For the middle line Bishop is not ready and Douglas never will be. We have Lawrence and Williams whose names go on first. Probably Skuse (who can always drop back to assist the defence) and Ward (whatever has happened to him?). When ever he gets the ball Skuse can always give it to Williams or Lawrence, they'll know what to do with it.

Up front we have decent forwards in Sears, Best and McGoldrick who need time to learn to play together.

Sadly, MM even doesn't seem to know what his best tem is.
0

Lightningboy added 10:56 - Nov 21
Play-offs?!!!

Sorry but I don't want us anywhere near the play-offs playing this dire style of football..the difference between what we were doing under Burley (and even Royle) couldn't be any further apart from what is getting served up by McCarthy...back then every single game seemed like an adventure,we knew there'd be ups and downs but we knew we'd get entertained and it was a joy being a town fan...these last 4 years (actually nearly 8 if you include Keane/Jewell) have been a total waste of time..mainly down to an owner who does not understand the club's past or what the fans require - it's not all about promotion Marcus (not that we've got any chance of that)...it's about how you get promoted - in style,not hoping to scrape 1-0 wins here and there whilst boring us all senseless in the process.

I cannot wait for McCarthy to go (and take Skusey with him)..we are dying a very slow death at the moment.

(Most) of our players and our manager deserve each other this wet,depressing Monday morning.
7

Bildestoned added 11:09 - Nov 21
I've stopped going to Portman Rd. OK, I'm 30 minutes further away these days, making it a near 3 hour round trip (and that's without the schlepp to the ground from the car!) plus being on a fixed income it's WAY too pricey for what seems to be on offer. However from a distance we seem to be:

a) a team lacking in confidence owing to highly erratic form (discuss)
b) a team lacking a goalscorer (I personally don't buy the 'Murphy's missing' schtick as he had stopped scoring a long time ago!)
c) an ITFC side in which these days we cannot really claim one high-quality saleable player. I add this simply because the current ex-Town players in the Premiership are themselves a demonstration that in the last few seasons there has always been the class player or two in our squad.
d) Money can't buy success (we see that SO often) but new methods CAN achieve results with the same resources. There are many examples of this across the leagues right now.

I haven't checked Saturday's attendance btw, and I appreciate it was a televised game, but there seemed way too many empty seats? Anyway, expect more televised games if Sky thinks we're guaranteed to concede a few goals!
3

planetblue_2011 added 11:10 - Nov 21
The only way Mick will go is if we're in the relegation zone at any point until that happens his job will be safe.
Evans is just happy to have his millions & leave Ipswich as a mediocre club in the championship. He must be happy with how things are or he would get his wallet out. The only way ipswich will have a play off chance will be from January if he gives Mick 5 or 6 million in transfer funds!!!
But honestly is that really gonna happen. This club is going nowhere till we have available funds to spend.
A change in manager will only help if he's given the same money, because this league is getting so much harder now to compete in.

3

BrettenhamBlue added 11:14 - Nov 21
Agree totally with Benters. Thoughts of the play-offs are a joke, and relegation is a distinct possibility this season. Sadly we are (pretty much) at full strength right now. God forbid we get a few injuries or we could be in very serious trouble.
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