Lillehamring

I think your 2nd point negates your first. The money isn't endless, 50M is a lot for this division - it seems far from strange that we've spent the budget and now we need to se1l if we want to buy.

To be fair, given how much we've spent so far, it wouldn't surprise me if we've maxed out the budget for this year, rather than a long term problem. At the same time, if they do have some cash, they're not going to be shouting about it. Who knows, we'll certainly learn what the status is over the next week or so.

What does that have to do with anything?

And question his use of 'struck' to describe the equaliser - more of a scuff or bundle that somehow squirmed underneath the keeper

Clarify this statement - because i'm not sure what would lead you to think we could take just 8 points from 5 games. Because, our last 6 games we've taken 2.17 points per game (third best in the league) And our last ten we've taken 2.3 points per game (2nd best in the league) So exactly what way are we playing that suggests we're about to run into form that returns just 1.33 points per game (which would still be the 11th best over the last 6 games)?

And even there he's been caught for pace several games this season - he may be faster than doyle, but he's not exactly electric.

I think you've forgotten what you said - the point being made is that we were the better team and did enough to win, regardless of what you think of our tactics, we still had more and better chances and thus, going back to the original question - yes we did do enough to have won most days....

Because he failed to react to all the diving their players we're doing - obviously they are used to refs giving them everything when they're the 'big team'.

We had four shots, three on target, at least one of those was a fabulous save, after the 70 minute mark - so we certainly didn't stop playing at that point. It is a worry that we're conceding late goals, but i don't agree that it's because we stop playing, i think it's because we aren't good at defending in panicky situations, and we're not good at time wasting - ironically if those four shots we took trying to finish the game off had been replaced by us taking the ball to the corner flag we might have still won.

Naturally the longer it went on the more they upped the pressure, but even then they didn't really test us and it took a bit of a freak goal to break the deadlock. I think it's naive to expect us to get through to the final whistle without feeling under pressure, without them getting into some 'promising positions' - but i think most of their pressure we dealt with. yes it was some desperate defending at times, but that's to be expected. Even the goal, if it doesn't take a deflection that's a routine save for Mads, and we see it out with three points. Other than bring on some fresh legs earlier, i'm not sure what else we could have done.

That's a pretty extreme mathematically challenge. If ipswich win all their next 5 games (they've taken 7 points from the last 18, but...) that would put them on 74, for us to be level with them we'd have to drop 7 points from those five games, so we'd have to manage at the most just two wins from games against swansea, stoke, watford, sheffield and boro? Really?

So you're saying it's possible to 'see it coming' whilst 'not looking like scoring'? That's just bewildering. Look at the stats - after we scored we had 6 shots on target to their one - they have a good keeper, we have to be better - but it's easy to just say we have to put teams to the sword, it's another thing to actually turn chances into goals - tonight we had enough chances, and even plenty of shots on target, another day it's us that gets the flukey deflection. you can't win em all - but to say 'the wheels have come off' is nonsense.

There's a strong argument to that effect. Hladky makes two top drawer saves, we have 8 shots in total on target; Ipswich forced 1 save out of Mads before getting a deflected shot and a bungled scuffed tap in. For all our 'hanging on' between our goal and theirs we had six shots on target to their one - could we have had more? - maybe, but to say we were just hanging on is horribly incorrect - we had more then enough chances to get a second, whilst they weren't anywhere near getting a goal.

well, where it mattered, their keeper was miles better than ours tonight and that is the difference between us winning 3-0 and drawing 1-1.

But the second half was entirely different - 1st half Ipswich were passive and happy to sit back, we had over 60% possession and were looking for a goal, in the 2nd half they started pressing us and pushing for an equaliser - it's impossible for us to play with the same intent under those conditions (which is not to say that we were devoid of intent). Maresca plays the same regardless of the score and that's part of the problem of people's misperception - because our way of attacking is patient and meandering it's easy to think that we're being passive but we're not - after the goal we had 11 shots to 9. We played well, created the better chances, but came undone at the final hurdle by a freak moment.

Jesus Christ - exact same ludicrous reaction as when we dropped the games against leeds and Boro. We have played well in both the games you mention - coventry was a bit beyond our control and even then we were still in front with 10 to go, tonight we were up against the best keeper in the league and, allegedly, the best strike force in the league, who got a lucky goal - that's not the wheels coming off! As for 'seeing it coming' - in the last 40 minutes they had 2 shots on target - the goal and the deflected shot it came from - they really didn't look like scoring - conversely in that period we had 4 shots on target - there really should have been only one winner, but ipswich just seem to get the luck just when it matters.

I don't think we did - 2nd half we had more possession and more shots on target, despite ipswich raising their game and pushing for an equaliser - it was a perfectly good managing of the game until we made a mistake. If we don't make a mistake, we win that 1-0 and no one's complaining. Or argue it another way - their keeper makes two incredible saves, our keeper fudges the ball under his body - nothing to do with our tactics or approach, simply incidents that favoured ipswich.

Bit annoying, but not the end of the world. If ipswich play like that for the rest of the season i can't see them finishing in the top 2, that should have been over long before they scored - I'm sure we'll hear the same old complaint that we sat back after we scored, but we didn't, we just played our normal game and we created more than enough chances to have added to our lead - we just didn't have that final ball and when we did Hladky pulled off a couple of fantastic saves. And then the obligatory fluke goal at the end, there wasn't much we could have done about it. If i have any criticism, it's that we needed fresh legs earlier. KDH was clearly knackered and mcateer was done - i know we're a bit thin in the midfield right now, but yunus looked lively and albrighton might have pulled something out of the bag. Still, 1 point closer to promotion. And one less of the 'good' teams to play.

Niners also have the fewest points allowed per game in the 4th quarter.

Green Bay were unlucky but the niners owned them in the red zone and that was enough to get us over the line. Also helped that Purdy played better than Love in the end - not great on the pass% but those picks we're shocking. Probably been the best, certainly most exciting game so far. Future is very bright for green Bay

Yeah, i didn't have the option to record/watch it today - but it was worth it (sort of)

We have wanya and mcateer, not sure it's a priority,

That's incredibly naive - we've seen that deals take time and even when seen to be nailed on as done can take many days to complete.

Such has been my point throughout this....

Sounds like what happened to James Justin - he's looked devoid of confidence for sometime, but it is starting to come back - it's always the way with these things, the longer you go injury free the less you think about it. One season is often not long enough, even ricardo has taken ages to start looking like he used to. But thanks for the input.