Isn't East Anglia Abroad or Somthin'?

On the midday train from Liverpool Street, I had a good feeling, tucking into my M&S butty (chicken and bacon, if you were interested), I thought that 3 points were headed home with us, I genuinely did.

A brief wander around Ipswich town, a new pasture for me, followed by some chips outside the ground, we headed into the away end for the festivities to commence.

The match started….

A few grumbles about the starting line-up, but no real discontent….(yet).

Two minutes in and a slip from Samedo allowed the tractor boys to have their first (and not last) effort on goal, a lightening bolt just over the cross bar. What then followed was a period of ping-pong between both sides – which looked a bit like my 2 year old nephew playing Forest Gump – We would hoof the ball up field – the Ipswich back four would boot the ball back, our back four would miss the ball and Ipswich would have another attacking opportunity.

It took about 20 minutes for the Addicks to get more than 2 or 3 passes put together, which when playing a 4-5-1 formation is poor. Jose Semedo was non-existent in the middle of the park, he looked like an average park footballer who didn’t know when to attack, when to defend, where or when to make runs and offered little or no support to Matty Holland or Zheng Zhi.

Ipswich had the better of the first half, Weaver made two very good saves to keep the scores level. A thundering Greg Halford header cannoned off the cross bar after 15 mintues when the scores were at nil-nil but the rub of the green was not with the Addicks this weekend. A cross gone wrong from Owen Garvan (which the Ipswich Star will have undoubtedly stated as the goal of the season) wrong footed Nicky Weaver and Ipswich were one nil up. My positive feeling was replaced by a feeling that this formation and this team were not going to take points away today.
We really lacked the bite in the middle of the park to allow us to stamp authority on the match. In addition to this, Greg Halford at the back was caught out on several occasions and Weaver was called into action to save his blushes. Leroy Lita started up front on his own and it took a while for him to get his first touch with his feet – route one football was not the right game for him and I think that despite him not touching the ball with his feet that much in the first half, when he did, he was quick and his movement was good – without a doubt a good loan signing and someone who is a premiership quality striker.

The second half kicked off and within 7 minutes three points were no longer an aim, rather the aim rapidly became a damage limitation exercise. We were denied two penalty shouts which, on another day may have been given, but non-the-less there were few, if any moments of magic for the remainder of the match, and to be honest, I would rather talk about something that annoyed me more than the game unfolding infront of me.....

Sat in block V1 – there were a group of lads behind me to my right, who began chanting “Send Him Back…..Send Him Back…..Send Him Back” to Leroy Lita following a wayward effort on goal. At first I thought it was a joke, but they continued and made it clear that they were being serious.

Leroy Lita is a proven goal scorer in the premiership, posessing more quality, more pace, a better touch with a better footballing mind than any of the existing strikers in the Charlton squad; so it really got to me that these “supporters” couldn’t see that it wasn’t Lita who should have been blamed, rather, the rest of the team who continued to 'hoof the ball' upfield rather than playing the ball on the ground as I’m sure Pardew would have told them….. (or at least I hope he did...)

So the match ended – 3 points in the wrong direction and a set of results that couldn’t have played any worse for us in the league. Out of the play off zone, it was a bit of a depressing train ride home, coupled by the fact that Arsenal cost me my accumulator on the day. In the aftermath, I will admit, I’ve not been thinking about the match that much, however, its Wednesday, Friday is firmly on my mind, Sky, West Brom are now the priority.