Ipswich Town: James Wall on 'lucky' team accusations

It’s not unusual to have someone knock on my Washington DC suburban apartment door during Ipswich games due to the noise being generated by yours truly.

I've mastered the art of turning my living room into a stadium and, apparently, my neighbours think I deserve an award for being 'disruptive' and 'antisocial'. One concerned mum even accused me of 'scaring her son' with my passionate screams during matches.

Well, the customary knock-knock happened again earlier in the week during the Bristol City match.

Ali Al Hamadi – I’m sorry but I wasn’t very happy after your penalty miss late in the game. Like many fans I assumed that would be the last chance for us in a game of back and forth with Liam Manning’s boys.

Sam Morsy and Ali Al-Hamadi celebrate after the latter got Ipswich back to 1-1 against Bristol City. (Image: Steve Waller)

But, as with many other instances this season, I was proved wrong by the boys in blue. Once again, we strode up the pitch, with the fans roaring the players on, and Leif Davis took his chance after a brilliant flick-on by Jeremy Sarmiento. Boom. Game over.

It’s now six wins on the trot. What a season we’re having! I’ve actually been struggling for the last week or so as I’ve thought about my column. Usually ideas come into awareness, and I work through the content of the column in my mind as the week goes by. However, this time, it seems the muse took an unexpected hiatus – perhaps a testament to the sheer excellence of our team.

One thing that did come to mind was the continued treatment of our team by the national media, Blogosphere and social media pundits.

Take this post that I recently read on Facebook: “Ipswich are the luckiest team in Championship history.” It then went onto to cite statistics such as XG, clean sheets, goals against, etc. to prove the writer’s point.

Kieffer Moore has had a big impact for Ipswich Town since arriving on loan from AFC Bournemouth on January transfer deadline day. (Image: PA)

And how about this one? “Great run you’re on BUT more luck than class: how many 90+ winners do you score? Your luck will run out soon, I’m sure…”

Some of us were saying the same thing about Plymouth in last year’s League One, but they kept on winning and eventually pipped us to the title.

Back in December/January when we had our wobble, many were counting us out. Many of the pundits and Vloggers had predicted our falling away at some point and here we were, doing just that.

One thing we knew that they didn’t, though, was that injuries, suspensions and Cam Burgess’s absence at the Asian Cup really took a chunk out of our team. Of course, the big one was George Hirst, whose all-around game was sorely missed, including more chasing and pressing for a forward than I’ve ever seen.

Thankfully, as was achieved last season, Mark Ashton’s recruitment team came through in the January window with some impressive signings.

Ipswich Town have now claimed 28 points from losing positions this season. (Image: PA Sport)

It’s clear to see who’s had the biggest impact since being signed. Kieffer Moore has come in and become the real focal point for the team, taking attention away from our other strikers and providing five goals himself. In all honesty, I didn’t see him contributing so quickly as he’d not played much at Bournemouth in the first half of the season.

The others (Jeremy Sarmiento, Lewis Travis and Ali Al-Hamidi) have all made their contributions. But for my money, Al-Hamidi has been the surprise package. Yes, he failed to score that penalty on Tuesday night, but did find the net earlier in the game and adds a huge dimension to the team when he comes on.

The fact that the manager trusted him for the last 30 minutes of a big game says a lot. His running, aggression and footwork are top notch, especially for a player stepping up from League Two to the Championship.

That Scouse accent always surprises me! His interview with Jacob Henderson on TownTV showed just how confident the guy is and how happy he is to be at Town. I see Ali being a fan favourite for a while to come.

What would Bobby Robson have made of Ipswich Town current state? (Image: Archant)

So, we’re on a run only equalled by our title winning side of 1992/93 under John Lyall and by the famous 1980/81 team led by Bobby Robson, a year we came second in the league and won the UEFA Cup. I wonder, what would Sir Bobby think of this year were he still with us?

Well, he wouldn’t understand much of the parlance of the modern game: low/medium block, counterthreat, the press, vertical running threat – all these phrases were used by Kieron Mckenna in his postgame interview on Tuesday night and they’d be foreign to Robson.

He’d also be jealous of McKenna’s large squad and his ability to use multiple substitutes per game. Robson only had one at his disposal and many times it was only used if there was an injury.

I’m not sure Robson would recognize the fluid formations of the modern game, with 4-4-2 the standard back in the 70s and 80s. A 3-5-2 was widespread across the channel but beyond that, nada.

However, he’d love the 2024 version of Ipswich’s swashbuckling style and the fact that the team has many different goalscorers in its ranks. In Robson’s 80-81 side it was similar. Ipswich had Mariner, Wark, Brazil, Gates and Muhren who were regularly on the scoresheet, with Frans Thijssen pitching in a few goals too.

Robson claimed that his team were the best in Europe that year. They hammered St Etienne (then a powerhouse French team containing perhaps the best player in the world at that time in Michel Platini) 7-2 on aggregate in the UEFA Cup. We also beat the mighty FC Cologne, another football power, in the semis. Robson claimed that, if it weren’t for Ipswich’s success in the cups that season (we got to the semis of the FA Cup in addition to the UEFA Cup triumph) the team would have run away with the league.

Although promotion from the Championship may not be as glamorous as the accomplishments of yesteryear, the positive atmosphere has undeniably returned to the club. Anticipation is building and there's a buzz in the air that we may, just may be able to secure an automatic spot.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for success – and keep cheering on the boys (hopefully without that knock on the door).