After the disappointment of last Saturday, Ipswich Town feels like a bigger game than the 2nd game of the season should be? I don’t like missing games, but it happens; bit gutted today, as Portman Road would have been 86 of the current 92 for me.

We all have our superstitions, routines, idiosyncrasies etc ….. for me; if I’m not at the game, I just pretend it’s not happening! A bit like not getting an invite to a party you wanted to go to…. so today consisted of 3pm cinema and check phone at 5.30pm to see the score!

Anyone who watches SAFC regularly will be lucky enough to have some really good mates who share the joy, pain, hope etc with them. So…. having not been able to make the game today, Jamie, (Top Man and SAFC daft), has kindly agreed to step up and review the match………

Over to you Jamie………..

……….. Well, there are three certain things in life. Death, taxes and Sunderland drawing 1-1 on a Saturday. I know 1-1 is a frustrating score line for us, but after that performance I’m delighted.

Normally I try to look for positives when results don’t go our way, but today I can’t think of many. Maguire came on and made a difference, keeping hold of the ball and looking to play incisive passes early. I was also impressed with Dobson; with a somewhat hostile atmosphere in the away end and frustration clear to see and hear, he never shied away from the ball. For a young lad taking a big step up in his career, I think he will be a real positive for us this season.

There are three main discussion points for me today: the defence, the formation and Aiden McGeady.

Defence

In the first half no one had a clue what they were doing! Flanagan was woeful, (again), what must Jack Baldwin be thinking? They both had a shocker at home to Coventry– but we’ve not seen Baldwin since! McLaughlin had a poor game, Luke did very well at RB in the 2nd half, just as he did most of last season. Willis was better today prior to picking up an injury. Overall, when we went to four at the back, the defence looked a lot more settled with Ipswich rarely threatening.

This leads on nicely to the Formation……with a lot of the fans slamming Ross for negative football last season, I like the idea of a system to get creative players involved and two up top. I know it’s only 2 games in, but for me, Ross has to scrap this system. No one seems to know their roles and we are playing players who don’t suit the system….. Flanagan as a left-sided CB…. Gooch as a wing-back, (last week)… and McGeady in the middle, whereas he normally prefers to drift in from the left.

Moving onto McGeady…….. if he does not have a good game, we don’t look like winning. We rely on him so much for creativity – it’s frightening. I was shocked when I walked out of the ground and was told we’d had 3 shots! We had 1 shot on target, (gifted by poor defending). It’s clear McGeady isn’t fully fit and when you look back to the end of last season, when he was playing through injury, (or not at all), it’s no coincidence that we struggled to create? Given our defence always looks like conceding, it’s a lot to ask McGeady to create the 2 goals per game needed to secure 3 points!?

Huge thanks to Jamie for covering today’s game whilst I was hiding at the cinema. It feels like the spark is missing at SAFC….. but we go again. 3 more sleeps and it’s the glamour of Accrington Stanley Away!!!

FTM