Anyway, moving on quickly to the business at hand, we’ll run a quick rewind this week just to be consistent. And, we’ll keep it brief, because in the land of the TractorHawk, my teams performed about as well as I was feeling.
Starting as usual with the Blue Boys from Ipswich. Once again, Jim M had the Town teasing the Portman Road faithful with hopes of a surge into the playoff positions in the Championship table. The fixtures began with a mid-week trip to St Andrews for a match up with Birmingham City, one of the pace setters of the league, as they look to return to the Premier at the first attempt. I mentioned last week that Jim was relishing the challenge of facing the second placed team, a feeling most likely not shared by the majority of Town fans. And, so it proved true as Ipswich were defeated 1-2. The game really was not as close as the score line suggests – from most accounts that I read anyway. Alex Bruce gave his old man something to think about with 5 minutes to go but for the most part Birmingham controlled the match, and two early goals from Liam Ridgewell and veteran striker Kevin Phillips saw City bag the win with relative ease. If this was a measuring stick of how close the Town truly are to being a promotion contender, then we have a long way to go. Play-offs at best but don’t hold your breath.
A chance for redemption was up next as the lads returned to Portman Road to face Sheffield United with an opportunity to redeem themselves from their previous engagement. But again the Town failed to capitalize and shared the points in 1-1 draw as each team scored from the spot, both from handball decisions. Tommy Milley scored for Town and the Blades equalizer came a minute from normal time, courtesy of James Beattie, who always seems to score against Ipswich; and another 2 points in the promotion playoff account went begging. Next up is a Sunday trip north to face the hated Naarwich in a match where form (like either team has any right now) usually goes out of the window, for the first installment of 2008-09 East Anglian derby. Nil-Nil is my early prediction, but this week more than normal…..
COME ON YOU BLUES!
Just to wet the whistle a bit here's a link for those on the Blue side of Anglia reliving Town Destroying Norwich ten years ago. I have to admit though those kits were a bit dodgy.
Switching to the NFL side of the house and on Thanksgiving Day the ‘Hawks truly played about as well as I felt, in other words like absolute crap. Luckily I had taken some of that “don’t operate any heavy machinery” medicine so I got to doze through most of the Thanksgiving stuffing that the Seahawks received at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys. Much more of this and the Seahawk faithful will need that medicine every week. An absolute embarrassment as Dallas prevailed 34-9. It’s one thing that the ‘Hawks season has been wrecked by offensive injuries but what excuse does the defense have? I’ll always stand by my teams and thus far have done my best to avoid being too harsh on the Seahawks. But this was pathetic.
Tony Romo sat back the entire first half playing pitch and catch with his receivers as the Cowboys routinely marched down the field at will - hell he could have been calling Jessica on his cell with as much time as he had in the pocket. The ‘Hawks D could muster no pressure and failed to cover a receiver all day. At one point as I sort of awoke from my Nyquil haze I thought I saw Julian Petersen actually trying to cover TO on a play – I figured it was the "over the counter" stuff until I checked the replay later. A medicinally induced haze is actually a good metaphor for the ‘Hawks season this year. The defense was ranked 29th in the league going into this game and they looked every bit as bad as one of the worst units in the NFL. With the heir apparent head coach, Jim Mora Jr, coaching the secondary, I actually hope that he is allowed to go coach the Washington Huskies college team, because if this is an indication of how the defense will look next season, we are in for a couple more grim years on the football front in the Pacific Northwest.
Weekend TractorHawk Grade: F
Can't even put lipstick on the preverbial pig this week. 1 point for the Town and more humiliation for the 'Hawks. Where did I put that cough syrup....
Tractor Driver of the Week:
Usually this is a player or a group associated with my teams that has stood
out in the previous week. Given the week we've had the prestigous sought after keys to the Blue Tractor go to my wonderful wife, Paula - bet she's well pleased! While I was of no use to the world, she had to take care of the our 4 year old, listen to me whinge all weekend, and still brought me up a plate of Thanksgiving dinner while I was laid in bed watching old James Bond movies and complaining about my miserable bloody sports teams, and anything else I could think of...love you honey...and thanks!!
Note-a-balls:
Back in the land of the beautiful game (sorta), the EPL produced a few surprises last week, and yet again there does not appear to be a team that is about to step up and take charge of the league. I’m sure, with all the recent commotion, the last thing Arsene needed was a trip to the Bridge to face league-leading Chelsea. In arguably the shock result of the weekend, the Goon army recovered from an early own goal to record a highly unlikely 2-1 win,
behind two Van-Persie second-half strikes in 3 minutes. Though, I have to say he looked well offside for the equalizer it was a blinder regardless. Chelsea went unbeaten at home in the league for about 3 ½ years and now they have lost twice and were held by Newcastle at Stamford Bridge in just over a month. So far it is just one those years in the English top flight but it is very tight in the top and bottom halves of the division, which in itself is refreshing.
With the Chels faltering, step up Liverpool, though we had to wait until Monday when West Ham made the road trip to Anfield. A three point advantage at the top of the table was at stake for Rafa’s men as they prepare for the typical holiday fixture pileup. With Zola’s Hammers hardly lighting up the league, recording 1 win in 8 games, 0-0 was not what most people expected. But like Stoke and Fulham before them at Anfield, West Ham headed back to East London with a valuable point. The miserable run for West Brom continued and they are starting to become stranded at the bottom with just 1 point from the last 24.
Elsewhere, Ronny provided the video highlight of the week and a few laughs (unless you happen to go by “Sir Alex”) in the Manchester derby, as he got himself ordered off for attempting to catch the ball while going up for a corner – at the Man City end….a second bookable and he was gone. I’ve heard a couple reasons proffered: The ball was going to hit him and he was just protecting his face, bless him, then head the bloody thing; Out of almost 50 thousand people at the game he heard a rogue whistle from the crowd, so since when did top flight players stop playing when the whistle blows - especially when they’re up for a header on a corner??; He was pushed in the back and that caused the errant handling, yeah right this is the best of the lot – if a City player had as much grazed his shirt, Christiano would have been writhing on the turf in agony.
But City could not take advantage and the Roonsters 100th league goal was enough to give the Red Devils the points. They now lurk in striking distance of the top spot, in third place on 28 
points. Elsewhere Villa once again could not confirm their credentials as an infiltrator of the big four domination as they were held at home to Fulham. The worst performance of the weekend goes to Sunderland as they were humiliated at home to Bolton 1-4. We’ve been “treated” to a few Sunderland performances in the US this year on the Fox Soccer Channel, and I’m not sure Roy can put up with much more of this rubbish. He’s usually pissed off at the best of times and it wouldn’t surprise me if he took the “by mutual consent” route in the near future. At least this week he has trip back to Old Trafford to visit his old mates which should cheer him up a bundle.
That’s it for the wrap this week as the next weekend is almost upon us but as my fitness slowly returns we’ll get back more often.
As always, comments more than welcome and you know what to do…..Cheers!
First up, part of the main focus and highlights (that might be stretching it a bit but still..) of the blog; the blue boys from Suffolk. Heading into the Christmas festivities Ipswich faced a tricky schedule with away games at Coventry and Derby while hosting Birmingham on Boxing Day. A couple weeks back I predicted 2 points from this particular engagement but the Town exceeded expectations and doubled that tally by squeezing in a win against Derby. Four points out of nine is not much to be excited about, but given the maddeningly inconsistent form that has plagued the team this year it is about as much as Town fans can hope for in any given 3 game stretch.
Lisbie made a surprising return to the score sheet as he bagged both Ipswich goals in a spirited 2-2 draw at Coventry. Certainly not a spectacular result as the Sky Blues, like the Town, appear to be stuck in the middle of nowhere in the table, but at least somewhat positive. The brace by Lisbie moved him into second place on the Ipswich scoring chart this year with five – that alone sums up some of the problems the Town have had this season.
Birmingham City have been in the top three in the Championship all season and were the favorites heading into the Boxing Day affair at Portman Road. A Christmas home match against one of the pacesetters of the league provided an opportunity for Ipswich to inject some life into their season in their final home match of 2008. A James McFadden penalty was all that Brum would need to see them head home happy and dash any hopes that Town fans may have harbored of gaining some much needed momentum. Statistically Ipswich looked to have had the upper hand in terms of goal attempts but this was misleading as Birmingham’s midfield controlled possession for extended periods of the match. One surprise came in the Ipswich starting eleven as Ivan Campo made a rare appearance for the Tractorboys.
The change up front paid dividends as Walters headed in a Ben Thatcher cross in the 14th minute for the only goal of the game as Town managed to record at least one win over the Christmas/New Years period. By all accounts, Town controlled this game and could have won by a wider margin, though they were aided when Derby’s Jordan Stewart saw red on 77 minutes. This match was the final game at the helm for Paul Jewell as he was fired a few days after this defeat, his 50th match at Derby.
really struggled to put together any kind of decent run of form. While the playoffs are certainly well within reach, Magilton has got to get this squad playing some consistently decent football if the Portman Road faithful are to be rewarded with any kind of excitement in the second half of the season. Personally I wont hold my breath – the influx of players that Jim has signed have not made much of an impact and the team has shown only occasional sparks.
Still we could win the FA Cup….but we’ll catch up on that in another posting. Cheers!
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