Must cut out defensive mistakes but team did well to win with PV upping the pressure.
Humphries did well and thought Davis was mom. Pleased to see Burgess get back.
Port Vale aren’t a push over and will cause problems whoever they play.
Good spectacle for League One. This Ipswich side is exciting, but clumsy at times. When the team clicks it will be raining goals. Port Vale are here to stay. A good effort but lacked a cutting edge. Ipswich are on their way to the championship.
We got away with it. We really missed Evans and Morsy. Would have lost to a top team tonight. However, Ball and Humphreys will have benefitted. Disappointed we couldn’t dominate the second half. Impressed at how many Town fans made it to Stoke on a Tuesday night especially as we could have watched at home for £10!
Tough opponent who was physical and resilient, this Port Vale team will take point off many teams if they can keep up this effort all season.
Ball was very rusty and he didn't furfil the calming and solid influence we required to ais Humphreys.. which makes the 18-year-olds performance even more impressive.
Humphreys was bullied for the first 20 minutes and i was concerned but he dusted himself off and came back swinging.
Edwards and Davis have really clicked now, Davis can give Edwards the freedom to occupy a slightly more central position between the opps defence and midfield which makes him very dangerous.
Chaplin was not at it tonight and lost the ball often with little success going forward.
Burns was a solider tonight working hard and taking the hits without backing of a step.
The defence was below par but without really being bad either, woolf wasn't bad but also never looked convincing, Fridge was battling as usual and both him and Donancien realised the ref wasn't giving much and pulling and frustrating Vale... that is rather intelligent.
This isn't the game you want to blood an 18 year old youngster in midfield. a Tuesday night against a rough house team... all of this just makes the fact he improved as the game went on, very satisfying.. even hitting hard tackles with conviction.
A proper league one tussle. In my view the ref was v poor. So many little niggly incidents where they were roughing up town players that went unpunished. It wasn’t just the usual it was a deliberate ploy in my view and it worked. To be fair Port Vale were an absolute handful. Pressed well and at times gave us no space at all. We missed Morsy who would have relished that challenge (but who wouldn’t miss Morsy at this level). I thought again we didn’t look great at the back bar Davis who is really looking a class act at this level especially. Donacien was not quite his usual self. Their goal before the break was as much our inability to get it gone as their good attacking play. I don’t think there is an Ipswich fan who feels comfortable when the oppo have a set piece or a long throw despite our clean sheet record. Superb strike by Humphreys although in the away end I think we all struggled to see it! I enjoyed the game. Port Vale is a proper football league ground and the support from the town fans was relentless. Very pleased and relieved to see us get the win. Just a shame Shrewsbury couldn’t hang on. Off to Charlton on sat now where hopefully we will be a little more on it than I felt we were tonight.
Excellent observations, BildestonBlue. We were far from convincing while still just about deserving the win. Davis just gets better and better - his wellbeing is critical to us now. Ladapo remains an enigma. For me this was perhaps his best game, not just because he scored twice, but he provided that outlet in a game where we went longer more often. Still, he fluffed a great chance in the second half, scuffing what ended up looking like a side foot pass to their goalie when their goal was barely covered. Chaplin and Harness (when he came on) are putting in the effort but their form has dipped from the giddy heights of summer. Our passing completion % was well below our average last night - we only completed about 100 passes in the 2nd half while we regularly exceed 200 per 45 minutes. The back 3 also were not at their best although Wolfy is more and more confident with every game, even if his passing was off on this occasion. I expect Keogh will start at Charlton. All this said, there were many positives (as Bildeston listed) and a fantastic 3 points with a replacement midfield pairing against a good opposition.
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