Ipswich Town’s super start to the season continued with a 2-0 home win against Stoke City yesterday. Stuart Watson reflects on the action.
MOMENTUM IS POWERFUL
We saw, following Paul Cook’s ‘Demolition Man’ summer, how it can take time for a new-look side to gel.
We hoped, following a juggernaut-like charge to promotion, that Kieran McKenna’s well-drilled and settled squad could hit the ground running.
So it has proved.
Stoke boss Alex Neil – whose starting XI contained eight summer signings – summed it up best afterwards when saying: “We saw one team that has worked together for the last 12 months and another that has been put together over the last three weeks.”
Ipswich Town have now won 16 of their last 18 competitive games. They are unbeaten in 21 league games.
WOOLF ON THE ATTACK
Wes Burns saw an early shot tipped over. Three successive corners built some pressure. Massimo Luongo saw an effort blocked and Conor Chaplin fired just wide.
Stoke, struggling to deal with the intensity of the home team and crowd, started to commit foul after foul. Sam Morsy, who had overhit his previous deep free-kick delivery, drifted one to the back post and, with keeper Mark Travers rooted to his line, Luke Woolfenden rose highest to power home a header.
MORE: Watch Alex and Stu's video verdict on Town's 2-0 win
The improvement in set-piece threat under McKenna has been ridiculous. Scoring from free-kicks, corners and throws was a key weapon in the armoury last season and could be even more important in the fine margins nature of the Championship.
Town’s boss is always looking for more though. This was only the fifth goal Woolfenden has scored in more than 150 games for the club.
“If we can have a few more instances of Luke getting above defenders in the box and heading it in that would be a bonus,” said McKenna. “One of the next steps in his development is to go and do that.”
STAYING BRAVE
Nathan Broadhead was constantly drifting inside and looking dangerous with his close ball control. That left space for the athletic Leif Davis to bomb into. Chaplin’s clever movement into pockets down the inside right, meanwhile, provided room for Luongo to advance into.
After Davis lashed over on the angle, and a last-ditch block denied Broadhead in the box, Stoke boss Neil decided he had seen enough and replaced Portuguese wide man Chiquinho with Brazilian striker Wesley. Shuffling the front four did help Stoke get a small foothold in the game before the break.
MORE: Alex Jones' player ratings following Town's 2-0 win v Stoke
The Potters then started the second half like a side who had just been given the hairdryer treatment. Town were penned in for a spell. Ben Pearson saw a good chance deflected wide, while Ben Wilmot almost burst in on goal.
Instead of panicking, Ipswich, as a reflection of their manager, stayed calm. The Blues stuck to their game plan and continued to try and play through the press. Morsy had ice in his veins when rolling Daniel Johnson on the edge of his own box after receiving a short pass out the back. McKenna pinpointed that as the exact moment his side wrestled back momentum.
HLADKY DELIVERS AGAIN
Vaclav Hladky came up with a big late save at Sunderland on the opening weekend. The Czech keeper once again delivered in this game.
Having been a virtual spectator in the first half, he showed good alertness to race off his line and clear ahead of an on-rushing attacker as Stoke slowly improved. The 32-year-old then made a smart stop with his trailing arm/leg to deny Johnson. Those were big moments during a crucial period.
More impressive was Hladky’s calmness with the ball at his feet. He always looked composed when playing out from the back. Town's second goal started from his pass.
Losing Christian Walton to a medium-term foot injury on the eve of the season was, undoubtedly, a major blow. But Hladky brings a different set of skills that fit in nicely with the game plan. Time will tell how he fairs under an aerial bombardment.
REALLY REFEREE?
A big narrative last season was that Ipswich needed to get promoted in order to benefit from a higher standard of refereeing. There was little evidence of that here.
Referee Josh Smith made a string of bizarre decisions in this game. How Stoke left-back Enda Stevens wasn’t booked for bringing down Burns on three separate occasions in the first half was a mystery.
After the break things got worse. Johnson, Josh Laurent and Ben Pearson all committed fouls that looked worthy of yellow cards, but none were shown. I’m all for a high threshold for punishment, but then Morsy was cautioned late on for a challenge no worse than all the others. Where’s the consistency?
Amidst all that, both Hladky and Janoi Donacien were booked for ‘time-wasting’ in the 51st and 77th minutes respectively. Neither took an age over those dead balls, with Town fans making that point whenever Stoke players subsequently took more than a few seconds to get the ball back in play. Hladky, remember, was booked at Sunderland for allegedly trying to run down the clock too.
I'm all for clamping down on blatant time-wasting having seen the frustrating gamesmanship of Cheltenham and co in League One last season (some of the ball in play times were a joke), but these new guidelines look far too draconian.
The irony is that Ipswich are a side that always look to get the game moving. You saw that in the first half when Donacien urged a supporter to get the ball back to him quicker so he could take a throw.
When Chaplin’s shot looked to take a clear deflection behind just after the hour, but a goalkick was given, the home crowd voiced their growing frustration with the referee. It would have been easy for Town players to lose their heads. Credit to them for not doing so.
SUPER SUBS
There was a collective murmur of surprise when Town’s first substitutions of the game were announced on 68 minutes - George Hirst and Broadhead had been replaced by Kayden Jackson and Marcus Harness respectively.
For me, it made sense. Hirst didn’t have the full pre-season with Town, after making his switch from Leicester in mid-July, while Broadhead had a thigh strain recently. Both looked to be fading after putting in big shifts.
Harness was arguably Town’s standout performer in pre-season, while Jackson’s pace made him an ideal counter-attack threat against a team needing to take some risks in search of an equaliser.
That double change proved to be a masterstroke. Harness helped Town keep the ball under pressure and played a central role in a superb killer second goal that saw seven players involved in a crisp and clever back-to-front move. Jackson pressed hard, stopped Stoke playing out the back and was in the right place at the right time for his finish.
Not all Town fans fully appreciate the front man’s unique qualities and when they’re best needed, but McKenna and his team-mates do. Jackson is certainly a much more polished player now than the raw speed merchant that stepped up two divisions back in 2018. He's worked very hard at improving his game.
“I think every win that we earn this year is going to be earned off the bench,” said McKenna. “It's going to take different substitutes every week to get a goal or defend a lead, whatever the scenario requires. They've all bought into that. It's the strength of the squad that will help us this season.”
TOP OF THE LEAGUE!
Ipswich top the early Championship table, ahead of Leicester, on goal difference.
The ‘I don’t look at the league table’ press conference dance with McKenna has started already. Long may that continue.
“Those on the outside might look at two wins and think that maybe we've taken to this league easily and taken the step up comfortably – but that's not been the case,” said the Blues boss.
“This has been the two toughest games that I've had with this group though. In the dressing room we know how hard we've had to work for these results and we know how hard we're going to have to keep working. We're going to have to improve on where we are at the moment just to be able to compete every week.”
Next up is a trip to QPR (who won 2-1 at Cardiff this weekend) on Saturday.
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