Wigston Tractor Boy

One of my favourite Town players of the last few years. Always gave his all and scored a bucketload of goals in League 1 plus some crucial goals in the Championship. The way he was used at Ipswich was as a central 10 and he bagged most of those goals coming into the box late for the cutback. His limitations are really his size and speed. He's a smart player who can pick out a great crossfield ball and knows where the goal is, but unfortunately he was cursed to live in a child's body. As mentioned already, he does lots in the community and an all round good egg too.

Wasn't an explicit rule back then. The specific rule about spying before a game was created purely because of Leeds that season. Leeds could have argued the rules were ambiguous and they just went too far. Southampton would have known it was against the rules and did it anyway on a minimum of 3 games between December and May, but likely far more.

Always had a soft spot for Leicester.

I think 'hate him' is way too strong. There are question marks over why we bought him and definitely why we paid as much as we did, but he's regularly in the squad and I'd expect to see him involved the game tomorrow. Beginning of the year we had 3 right wingers, Sindre Walle Egeli who is 19 and just joined, Wes Burns still injured and recovering from a season ending injury last year and Chio Ogbene who was also just back from a season long injury. Ipswich decided to ship out Ogbene on loan and bring in McAteer, which on the face of it meant we had a senior right winger without injury concerns to support Egeli while waiting for Burns. Issue is, that wasn't worth anywhere near the ~£10m figure bandied about. I think it's put him in a crap position because he's having to justify a price tag that is just higher than his value to the team. PS. Yes, we have Clarke and Philogene on the Left who could deputise on the right, but both have struggled to perform on the right and in any case would weaken us on the left if they also had to cover the right.

Coventry squad doesn't have much depth. They had 2 Goalies on the bench against Ipswich. Couple of injuries during this busy festive period can easily throw a spanner into the works. It did for Ipswich last time in the Championship until we could strengthen in Jan.

I think you'd be insane to want Southampton to win if you were a Leicester fan. Why would you want them to have their season on the line against you in a do or die game in a weeks time? Surely better for them to be down and out. As an Ipswich fan though, the dream would be Southampton win their next 2 and then get draw a 0-0 with you, with multiple red cards each way.

There's pros and cons as a Town fan for our weekend off. On the plus side, there is a chance Burns and possibly even Hirst are back for the run in. Burns especially gives us such a potent option down the right (see the goal of the season). Also I think we need the break as we've looked knackered in the last few games. Downside is it's a hectic final week, plus if Leicester, Leeds and Southampton have a perfect* 2 weeks up until then, there could be a lot of pressure. Leicester play 2, Southampton play 4 and Leeds play 2 before Ipswich next kick a ball (albeit some of that is just the late kick off time on Saturday). We could theoretically be in 4th, 2 points behind both Leicester and Southampton and 4 behind Leeds when we kick off against Hull. *obviously Leicester and Southampton play each other, so someone drops points, but you get my drift.

Ipswich left back in that TOTS and this years. Maybe that is a good omen for you!

While it's obviously possible, Ipswich have never lost successive games under Kieran McKenna. Under McKenna we've also never: Lost a league game on a weekday (played 37, won 25, drawn 12) Lost to a team with only one name (played 17, won 14, drawn 3) Important to get a win to keep it in our hands after the disappointment of the weekend. Also keeps the pressure on Leicester for your game in hand.

It's a bit tongue and cheek because ours are always 'lucky'/'crap'. It's also quite funny because last season we were frustrated and called Plymouth 'Deflection FC' when they kept ahead of us last year with last minute winners and deflections, but now we've taken the mantle and I quite enjoy it.

Was Leicester's deflected goal at the King Power a good deflection?

Deflected Ipswich goal alert! EDIT: And it's a humongous deflection!

Modern game with 5 subs is all about rotation, plus bigger squads. When Ipswich won the league in 61/62, they only used 17 players with 6 of those played 5 games or less (1 only actually played in the cup and made no league appearances). My fav stat of that era is that Sir Bobby Robson only signed 14 players in his 13 year spell as Ipswich boss (69-82). I've just tallied up and Kieran McKenna is already tied with him after 2 years! Can't imagine modern football fans could cope with only signing 1 player a year.

I can imagine that being a bit triggering, but to put it some perspective, you had to play Man United, Chelsea and Tottenham in your final 3 games in 20/21. This year you have West Brom, Preston and Blackburn. Teams you are currently 23, 29 and 40 points ahead of. Just beat Leeds on Friday and it'll all be plain sailing and you'll laugh about ever being nervous.

BTW is there some deep seated trauma that is making you guys so worried? You're 9 points (practically 10 because of goal difference) clear of 3rd and on track for the biggest ever points total, but there seems to be a lot of worry on here from some people. I'd get it if it was Friday night and Leeds just thrashed you (please don't let that happen)*, but there seems to be a few people writing you off and preparing for the worst already which is frankly bizarre. Also, even if the worst came to pass against Leeds, it's still a 6 point gap with 12 games to go. Hardly panic stations IMO . *Seriously don't, give them a nice demoralising 4-0 thrashing and let us get back in the top 2.