Ipswich Town returned to the bottom of the Championship table with a 2-0 home defeat to QPR yesterday. Blues reporter STUART WATSON gives his considered verdict.
Not good enough. A manager and players out of their depth. A team destined for the drop.
There, I’ve said it. Because, let’s be honest, that’s what everyone is now thinking.
Please, Paul Hurst and co, take these words as intended. They are written not with any sense of glee but, quite frankly, out of desperation.
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Paul, you stuck pre-season predictions of relegation up on the wall when in charge of Shrewsbury and scrawled ‘we are rubbish’ on them as a motivational tool. Do so again if you must.
Saturday certainly was rubbish.
The prior entertaining 3-2 win at Swansea was meant to relieve the growing mental pressure and provide a springboard. But after a long run up over an international break, Town produced a painful belly flop to agonising looks.
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A soft, insipid and uninspiring 2-0 home defeat to QPR had me, for the first time, beginning to seriously question a previously deep-rooted belief that things would eventually come good.
I had scoffed when others jumped, in my mind, rather prematurely to the conclusion that this project was doomed to failure.
Change happened for a reason. And there was a hell of a lot of change. There was always going to be a few early bumps in the road.
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Stepping back from results there were always positives, no matter how small, to take from the early games. But those positives have gradually dried up. It’s sadly been a tale of regression rather than progression.
There has been no sense of a new-look team gelling. And there has been little evidence of the promised high-press, of wingers drifting inside, midfielders joining the attack and full-backs bombing on.
So much has changed and yet, in many ways, nothing has changed at all.
Too many square pegs in round holes – most notably a centre-back at right-back. We’ve been here before.
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Finding new and inventive ways to gift the opposition goals. That continues a theme of last season too.
Sarcastic cheers greeting rare attempts on goal. Jeers greeting substitutions. Boos greeting the full-time whistle. Yes, Groundhog Day is back at Ipswich Town.
Goodwill and fresh hope was only going to last so long among a fanbase who have now seen just two wins in 20 games at Portman Road and become increasingly disillusioned during a largely uneventful 17-year stint in the Championship .
If I thought this calculated managerial gamble quite clearly was an unmitigated disaster then I’d be honest enough to be calling upon owner Marcus Evans to take his medicine and act before too much damage is done.
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Yet I’m still clinging to the fact that Ipswich aren’t getting played off the park. Had a few fine margin matches swung the other way, the picture could be a lot different. I guess all relegated teams end up looking back on such ifs, buts and maybes though.
The bottom line is, Town are bottom and continually coming up short. And we’re nearly a third of the way into the season now.
In my opinion, you can forget talk of relegation being a potentially good thing too. I don’t like the look of those odds.
So I repeat to Paul Hurst and the players – you are rubbish. Now please, go and prove us all wrong.
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