FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[BYU 14]

Dammit Radii, I skipped FM 2011 but this dynasty is making me want to buy it now since I already deleted 2010 from my system.

[Radii]

-- On June 24th, Owen Garvan agrees to a deal with Nottingham Forest in the EPL.

-- The Best 11 and such are named. No need to really go through taht since I didn't coach Ipswich last season. However, it is worth noting the players in the all time Best Eleven still on the team:

GK Brian Murphy has 323 appearances for Ipswich and a lifetime 6.80 rating.
DC Troy Brown has 199 appearances and a 6.79 rating.
DR/MR Sylvain Berthet has 98 appearances and a 6.98 rating.
ST John Stead has 241 appearances, 112 goals and a 7.00 lifetime rating.

Stead and Murphy are well past their prime of course.


-- Ipswich receive $1,650,000 for TV rights for the upcoming Championship season.



Oh shit!

-- The board expectations are a top half of the league finish. With the finance issues we have, the payroll budget for those expectations is going to drop even further, down to $275,000/wk. We're ending the prior season at $393,000 and are only getting down to $320,000 or so in the new year. Saying we'd win the league would only give us a $300k budget.


Youth Intake

Ipswich takes on its new youth players for the year and there's one to be super excited about. GK Chris Mason is a 15 year old kid who could develop into the best keeper I've ever had. 17 Aerial Ability/14 Handling/15 Reflexes, super strong! Mentally he has a lot of growing to do. He needs to learn to communicate better to(that's a 6). But if he develops he could be sweet.


-- We've sold 4205 season tickets so far and the club expects to sell about 14,000 more. That would fill about half our stadium every match alone. That'd be nice.


-- QPR are 2:1 favorites to win the Championship and promote back up to the EPL. Burnley is 3:1, Watford 5:1, Stoke 16:1, Hull 20:1 and Cardiff 33:1. Ipswich are also 33:1, but that's before the selloff that's coming!


-- At this point I'm basically just powering through til July 1st. I need to see all the numbers after people are let go and such.


-- Ipswich announces a loss of $7.75 million last season, "a worrying 22 percent of their turnover".


-- After the Garvan transfer, our current payroll total is $316,597/wk. Our allowed is $273,479. We've got to find about $40,000/wk more to cut.


Salary Cutting

-- I go through my roster and one easy option was one I'd thought about when I first reviewed the team. AMR Gabriel Torje only makes $11,250/wk, but he's valued at $2.3 Million, he's 27, and Sylvain Berthet is the preferred starter at MR. If I could get some value for a guy who isn't going to be a primary starter that would rock. I offer him around.

-- The second guy I look at isn't quite as easy. DL Billy Jones is a clear starter. He's one of the better players on the team. The other guys I have at DL aren't really that thrilling. But Jones is 30 years old and makes $23,000 and is valued at $1.3 million. The guys that make more than him are all younger and fit more into my early plans. I offer Jones to other teams as well.


-- Offers immediately come rolling in for both Torje and Jones, I accept them all. I'd love to be picky or try to get more than they're worth, but if we can knock this salary off the books in the first week of July we can at least be confident about where we stand.


Loan Agreement

I had my assistants compile scouting reports on guys I'm already familiar with. Constantino isn't available, Colin and Marc weren't considered good enough to play here (and Colin wouldn't fit in a 4-4-1-1 anyway). That leaves Paulo, starting MC from last year. My assistants believe he'll fit in well with Ipswich. I go ahead and try to lock him in as my MC group right now is basically Donnelly and career backups. He's happy to come play for me again, welcome MC Paulo from Arsenal to Ipswich for the season!


I have my eye on a couple others to loan in and the deals for Torje and Jones are about done. Tomorrow we'll hopefully have a chance to fill out the roster.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Dammit Radii, I skipped FM 2011 but this dynasty is making me want to buy it now since I already deleted 2010 from my system.

Thanks

If I get a good run going at Ipswich and stay into the game as much as I did while I was at Woking I may end up skipping FM12 to keep this one going!

You didn't buy FM10 off steam by chance did you? You could just re-install etc.

[Radii]

-- We're up to 9805 season tickets sold, still estimating that we'll hit 18,000 or thereabouts in the end.

Transfers Out

DL Billy Jones has signed with QPR. We make $1,300,000 on this deal.

AMR Gabriel Torje signs with Bristol City in the EPL(they just promoted up last year). We made $2,300,000 on this deal.


-- We've now made $5,526,681 from the 3 player sales we've completed. This is $600,000 more than Ipswich made last year from transfers. Last year Ipswich also bought $4.8M worth in players, and we won't be anywhere close to that this year.

-- We now sit at a $282,179/wk wage budget. The goal is $275,000... so we've still got $7,000/wk to cut.

-- Lastly, 15% of the money we make from selling off players we're allowed to spend. So we now have a transfer budget of ~$635,000. Sadly, I cannot edit the budget and promise not to spend any of that money to get our weekly payroll to go up... so, if we can get under budget we'll look to spend the money. I won't spend just to spend, but I'll use it if it'll help the team.


Current Depth Chart

I've brought in one loaner and can bring in 3 more young guys for the full season. Lets look at our depth chart to see what we need to do:

GK: Murphy/(nothing)

-- The only other GK on the team anywhere is our 15 year old youth pull. Signing someone "extremely affordable" will be our first goal once we get under our wage budget and can afford to give someone a contract.

DL: Kirkland/Fryers

-- We're a little weak here after selling off Jones. Kirkland is a young guy who should develop into a very good player and he's serviceable now.

DC: Brown/Bruce/Fryers/McKerr

-- Brown and Bruce are solid optoins. We could in theory use one more player here as Fryers is our backup DL and McKerr our starting DR.

DR: McKerr/Berthet/Bruce

-- The backups here start at other positions. Again not as much depth as it appears.

ML: Rossi/Walters

-- This is ugly. Neither are great, both are old. Loaning in someone here should be a priority.

MC: Donnelly/Paulo/Coutts/Walker

-- We're pretty strong here after loaning in Paulo.

MR: Berthet/Walters/Gordon

-- Berthet should be one of our best players, perhaps our best. Walters covers backup duty on the left and right side. Gordon starts at AMC.

AMC: Gordon/Coutts

-- Hopefully we're ok here, Coutts will be a backup at MC and here, but Gordon is our super exciting young guy ready to take off.

ST: Khan/Lewis/Graham/Walters

-- Assuming we stay 4-4-1-1 we're more than fine here and in fact Danny Graham seems our next obvious salary cut.



Biggest Needs: Defender Depth (too much cross coverage of our backups, one extra defender that can play more than one position back there would probably clear this up). ML, DL, backup GK. ML and DL are our weakest starting spots. Giving our young DL Kirkland playing time to develop is fine, so ML is the main spot I'm keying on to try to find an upgrade.


Friendly #1

We travel to BS Premier side Wrexham. Troy Brown came back from the offseason hurt, otherwise our lineup looks just like its shown in our depth chart above. we get a 3rd minute goal as Gordon finds Berthet in the area for an easy one. A freak own goal gives us a 2:0 lead in the 40th minute. In the 44th, Khan finds Gordon with a lot of open space and he strikes to give us a 3:0 lead. That ends up being the final score.

Wrexham 0 : 3 Ipswich

[Radii]

So yeah... About that Depth Chart

Remember a few seasons ago where I was set on a new formation at Woking and then all of a sudden I loaned in two strikers that looked like downright superstars (Constantino was one) and at the last minute i totally changed my formation and plans for the season?

New Loan

I already signed MC Paulo and felt pretty good about things, happy to have a current star (Donnelly) and a guy I'm comfortable with in the midfield. But in my searches I find another guy who I believe is good enough to bring in if I can and work the formation around him. He's willing to come play for Ipswich this year. Welcome 21 y/o MC Bryan Bennett to Ipswich. The media report introducing Bennett says that he has been labeled "the next Frank Lampard".

Bennett's Pace is 13, Agility 13, Stamina 16. All other Physical Attributes are 14. Determination 17, Teamwork 17, Work Rate 16, Creativity 14, Off the ball 14. Other mental attributes mostly lie in the 11-13 range. Decisions 8, Aggression 8, everything else is up there.

Technically he's solid all over. Passing 13, Marking 13, Tackling 12, Technique 17, Crossing 15, First Touch 14. Every technical attribute except heading (9) and Long Throws (2) are above 11.

My scouts believe he'll be a superstar at this level. I believe he may very well instantly be the best player on the team. He'll certainly be a key player and every day starter.

Formation Changes

Gone is the 4-4-1-1 formation. In is the 4-1-2-1-2. 4 defenders, DMC, 2 MC, 1 AMC, two ST. This change forces Berthet to start at DR instead of MR. He's a natural at both and I expect him to do very well in defense, but his skills are very slightly more tailored for the midfield. We offset this negative with the positive that young striker Rob Lewis will get to start at forward along with star Matthew Khan.

Paulo is a natural DMC. So the plan is to start Paulo at DMC and Donnelly/Bennett at MC. Donnelly, Coutts and Alex Bruce can all play DMC as well, so our depth and coverage there is just fine.

New Projected Starting Lineup

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Lewis


Transfer Changes

I was going to sell off aging ST Danny Graham, a rotation player who makes $12,000/wk, when I was going with a lineup of just one striker. Now that I'm going to run two strikers Graham will see the pitch and retains his value to the team. But now, we aren't going to need those super weak left midfielders, Rossi and Walters. Both are 33 y/o, have very little value, and combine to make over $20,000/wk. I offer them both away for free. That would get me under budget with a little room to work.


Friendly #2

We travel to Brighton. In the 3rd minute Donnelly finds Gordon open for an easy goal. Great pass by Donnelly though. 35th minute Donnelly to Bennett who puts a ball through perfectly to Lewis for our 2nd goal. Brighton gets one back in the 40th minute on a rebound. We sub everyone out that we can at the half and the second half is scoreless.

Brighton 1 : 2 Ipswich



New Record

It doesn't involve me but I just happened to see it and laughed my ass off:

"The attendance of 80 in the Cosmos vs Spora match is a new record low for the European Champions Cup"

Cosmos is in San Marino, Spora in Luxembourg. Not a lot of people in those areas I suppose.

[Radii]

-- ML Jonathan Walters got an offer from Stoke in the Championship but couldn't come to a contract agreement. That's the only offer for him so far and would have gotten me under budget. Annoying!

League Cup 1st Round Draw

-- We're going on the road to League 1 side Bristol Rovers.


Expectations

This is the first year that our expectations aren't to just have fun in these competitions. We're expected to reach the 3rd round of the League Cup and the 4th round of the FA Cup, in addition to the top half finish in the Championship that we need to obtain.


Transfer Out

-- Giovanni Rossi has agreed to a deal with Salamanca in La Liga. Salamanca has bounced around between the top and second leagues in the Spanish system for awhile now.



Budget

The "overview" page says our budget is $275,000/wk in salaries. The finances page says its "$273,479/wk (Including youth grant income: $785/wk).

This matters as our current payroll without Rossi is now $274,550/wk. Are we over or under?!

We still want to sell Walters. If we do that we have the breathing room to go get a backup GK.


-- I have multiple loan offers out for defenders. Some were made before I made this formation change. Moving Berthet back into the defense fixes depth problems. I'll hopefully end up with a loan upgrade at DL. Some of the guys I'm looking at loaning are really, really talented DC's as well. Bruce/Brown seem like a very strong combination so we'll have to decide what to do depending on who accepts loan offers. We'll deal with that soon though. Loaning in 3 guys and hanging on to the 4th until we're a ways into the season would be a smart option, its not one that I usually go with though.

[Radii]

Friendly #3

We host HSV from the German First Division. They score in the 4th minute on an easy goal after a nice through ball. A 40th minute goal comes on a cross and great volley from a really tough angle out to the right. They get two more second half goals after we make our subs. Ugly!

Ipswich 0 : 4 HSV


Loan In

In a move I almost want to reject because I don't want to have to type his name, D LRC Steinthor Gudmundsson will be joining Ipswich for the season. He's Icelandic and a couple of those characters are special chars and I dunno how to properly spell or pronounce the name. He's 20 years old and comes to us from Dutch power PSV.

16 pace/16 accel (yum!), 16 sta/16 agi/15 balance. 18 teamwork/16 work rate. 14 bravery, 13 determination, 13 positioning, all good! 11 marking/16 tackling/11 passing/15 heading all seem quite solid. Gudmundsson will likely start at DL and seems like he should be able to provide depth and cover at all defensive positions.


We end up canceling a deal for DL Kevin Moreau, as I really do want to get our own DL Kirkland playing time to allow him to develop as well. That leaves me with 3 young guys loaned in, room for a 4th, but no obvious spot to bring someone in at. Given the unknowns I have being a new coach for Ipswich and a new coach in the Championship, I basically feel that I'm ready to go into the season with what I've got and can use the last loaner to fill a need if someone isn't working out or if we run into a bad injury somewhere.


Friendly #4

We host Shrewsbury from League 1. DL Kirkland is away on international duty, he plays on the England U19 squad. We have a couple missed clear cut chances and should have really won this one, but instead play to a scoreless draw at their house.

Shrewsbury 0 : 0 Ipswich



-- Its a first for me! "The kickoff time for Norwich's Championship clash with Ipswich on Saturday 7th October has been pushed back to 17:30 for live television coverage" We're gonna be on TV! Norwich are our primary rivals.


Friendly #5

We travel to Braintree from the BS North where we are 1:14 favorites. Early goals from each of our strikers, Khan and Lewis give us a 2:0 start. A second half goal is added by Neil Gordon and we get an easy win.

Braintree 0 : 3 Ipswich


-- We're up to 14,500 season tickets sold, still expecting to hit 18,000.


-- There are rumors all over that we're going to sell Neil Gordon. This couldn't be further from the truth, I think this is something that started under the previous coach but Gordon is a huge part of my plans. The rumors continue to fly and I've had to turn down a couple unsolicited offers for him, he is unsettled by all the speculation though.


Friendly #6

Its our last friendly, hosting Crystal Palace. Starting DC Troy Brown is back from injury and will start today. Palace is the better team at their place today, they get tons more chances, we do find 3 clear cut chances but can't find a goal. They get a great header for a goal in the 75th minute, the only one of the match.

Crystal Palace 1 : 0 Ipswich



-- I'm asked to name the captains for the season and I don't make any changes. DC Troy Brown is the captain and DC Alex Bruce is the vice-captain.

August Update

The season is just about here!

-- Our first match is August 12th. We play league matches on the 19th, 22nd, and 26th as well. The League Cup first round is on the 15th and second round should we win is on the 30th.

-- We get a training update, aging (34 y/o) backup striker Jon Stead has lost some pace and agility.

-- There's no update from the board this month, weird?

-- We get an update about expiring contracts. 18 players/staff have contracts that are expiring this year. I check and as we got close to our wage budget the board is now being reasonable and I can save some good money here.


Contract Renegotiations

-- I'd looked at this as a way to save money when I first took over and many, many players were willing to take less money, but the amount we were allowed to offer was so very very low that we couldn't do anything. Right now we just need to trim a few thousand and are allowed to offer legit salaries. Lets see if there's anything I can do.

-- GK Brian Murphy takes a $6,000/wk cut to guarantee him an extra year and a bit of a signing bonus ($70,000). He's 34 but we don't exactly have an option in place to take over when he is done.

-- DC Troy Brown isn't taking a pay cut but he's 26 years old, is a solid DC and team captain. We extend him out 3 additional years to 2021 at the same salary he makes now, $15,500/wk.

-- DC Alex Bruce takes a small pay cut for an extra year as well. He's 32 but still going pretty strong. Even if he gets replaced as a starter he only makes $8,500/wk at this point, not superstar pay, the extra year to cut some salary now is huge.

Budget Update

Our wage budget is $273,479/wk. With the extensions we just gave our current payroll is now $265,565/wk. WE DID IT!!!! We paid out $133,125 in signing bonuses, though a good bit of that was to re-sign Troy Brown and not part of salary cutting measures. Totally worth it for the comfort of being under budget.


Random International News

The Gold Cup just completed, what an embarrassment. The USA host the tournament and finish dead last in their group, behind Haiti, Canada and Guatemala!!! Jamaica were surprise runners up in 2015, and this year they win the whole thing, beating Canada in the finals. Mexico finished 3rd.

The US fired their head coach in the middle of the tournament. I didn't put my name in for it, I'm not comfortable enough with Ipswich yet to take on the US job if I somehow was picked. Jay DeMerit won the job and is the new US head coach.

[Radii]

-- One of our three initial "star" youngsters turns 17 in early August. DL Jack Hughes gets a contract that'll pay him $450/wk. He still needs a lot of development but I'm confused, can i wait until he turns 18 or if I don't offer him one does that mean he can be signed away. These were the types of messages that were 100% ignored at Woking b/c we had no youth program to speak of.

[Radii]

-- Sheffield United in the EPL are rumored to be interested in our DL Stuart Kirkland. Our defensive Icelandic loaner will take the starting job from him this year(Kirkland is an 18 year old kid still) but I'm not exactly looking to sell him.

Transfer Out

ML and deep bench striker Jonathan Walters was recently offered to clubs again on a free transfer, as our formation change made ML unnecessary and our desire to get the 34 year old's salary off the books was key. Walters finds a deal with Championship side Middlesborough this time around (if you'll remember he got offers the last time I tried this but couldn't come to an agreement on a contract). If i was attached to this club at all yet this would be really tough. Walters played at Portman Road for 11 seasons, posing a career average 6.79 rating, scoring 42 goals and making 15 assists in a couple hundred matches. He played 25 matches or less in each of the last 7 years though, last year only playing 8 times. His time had clearly come.

Budget Update

This is the last player I intend to sell. Our current payroll is now $252,699/wk, a full $21,000/wk under budget. This gives us a good deal of flexibility. Now that we're under budget we actually do have a small bit of freedom, we've got a transfer budget of $1.1 Million. I badly need to find a backup keeper, and really with a keeper that will turn 35 before the end of the season should perhaps look for the keeper of the future with the breathing room we've now been given.

August 12th, 2017

Plymouth @ Ipswich

Both teams have new coaches making their first league appearance. We are even money favorites at home compared to Plymouth's 11:5. Outside of Ipswich's one year in the EPL we've been playing each other since the start of the game. Ipswich holes an 8-2-4 series lead, scoring 28 and allowing 20 goals. Plymouth finished 14th in the Championship last year. They've been here since the 04/05 season, once avoiding relegation by one place 3 years in a row, and only once finishing in the top 10.

===================================================
-- I love building up a history in these games. I loved that Woking team. I know I made the right decision to leave, but as I open up the text file I use to report on games I'm greeted by the last game I coached for Woking. Here's one last look at the names of my last Woking starting lineup. we'll look in on Woking some of course, but deleting this and replacing it with my new guys is a big "moving on" moment.

GK: Lynch
D: Nikolaou/Smith/Marc/Ogogo
MC: Upson/Paulo
AM: Colin/N'Guessan
FC: Harsanyi/Constantino
====================================================


-- Paulo picked up an injury in training, I thought he would be back for the opener and didn't bother mentioning it. But he's not, so Paul Coutts starts at DMC today.

GK: Murphy
D: Gudmundsson/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Cotts
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Lewis

Standard mindset in our opener.

1': They shoot first, a cross comes in from the right, a header over the bar.

3': A cross in from the left for Plymouth, headed behind for a corner. We clear, they send it back in but Murphy picks it up.

5': Our first shot is a weak 30 yard effort from Rob Lewis. Its on target but no pace behind it at all.

8': After some buildup Khan receives a pass out left, outside the penalty area, he runs into the area, jukes a defender and gets in position for a great shot, but its saved and turned back for a corner. A great individual effort to control the ball past a couple defenders in the area to generate a shot. The corner is taken by Donnelly, Bruce is at the near side of the 6 yard area, 3 defenders are around, Bruce goes up for a header and beats the keeper!! But uh... there's a deflection, a half save.. somthing.. along the way and Bruce doesn't get credit after all. Our first goal of the year is an own goal. 1-0

11': They get it to foward Mackie 20 yards from the goal, Brown takes a bad angle to him, he goes right around him, Bruce isn't there and he has a free run at goal and puts a shot by Murphy... Brown doesn't officially take the blame there but it was his man in that spot. 1-1

19': Bruce picks up a bit of an injury, he can stay on but he's a bit slowed.

23': We have a throwin in their end, its taken to Berthet, he makes a run down the right side towards the area, plays a cross in, they clear it out but it was a great effort by Berthet to try to make something happen.

47': Just one shot for a long long time here. Plymouth attacks at the end of the half, there's a shot from 20 yards out that Murphy has to make a nice dive to save. They recover it out wide right and cross it back in but Murphy goes out and catches the cross. The notable thing here is that at some point during this our star striker Matthew Khan got hurt. Murphy kicks it out to stop play and get Khan treatment. He can stay in but its a legit injury. We'll see after the match.

HALF: Each team attacks pretty hard here, we each shoot 8 times, we've got 4 on target, 3 for them. 9 of teh 16 shots are from long range, but those shots look much scarier at this level and I can clearly see stronger keeper play to get to some of this stuff. We've got a 57/43 edge in possession. Other stats are pretty even.

51': They have a throw pretty deep in our end. There's a pass into the crowded area and they get a man to it for a powerful shot that went just wide... if that was on target no one in the world could stop it.

62': We give up two corners, both on shots that are blocked... 3rd one is cleared out by Bennett.

65': DL Kirkland in for DC Bruce who got hit a couple times out there today and is slowed. Kirkland out to DL, Gudmundsson moves to DC.

69': Plymouth are definitely in control this half, we've taken 2 shots, they are getting every offensive highlight and constantly putting the ball into the area, lots of corners... but no luck so far.

78': backup ST Jon Stead in for Rob Lewis who hasn't played great today.

80': Lets go out and attack and try to get a win at home here.

89': Corner for Plymouth after we block a cross behind. They take the corner to the far post, Murphy dives out for it and can't get to it, their man Atikinson is there and wins a header over Bennett to put the ball into the empty net. 1-2


Tough finish today.

Ipswich 1 : 2 Plymouth

We only shoot 4 times in the second half with 1 on target. Plymouth shot 10 times and really pressured us all half. One of their midfielders is man of the match.

Assist: Bruce (6.9)
Notables: Murphy (7.1)

We had a few 6.4 and 6.5 ratings, AMC Gordon, ST Lewis both struggled out there, as did Paul Coutts at DMC.


Holy Crap Really?

-- following Ipswich's 1-2 defeat against Plymouth, fans are starting to question their head coach's tactics.

Tractor Boys boss Richard Dixon seems reluctatnt to consider changing his approach and an unwillingness to experiment could spell trouble if his team's performances do not improve. OUCH.

-- We drew 23,414 fans in our first match.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Radii

Holy Crap Really?
-- following Ipswich's 1-2 defeat against Plymouth, fans are starting to question their head coach's tactics. Tractor Boys boss Richard Dixon seems reluctatnt to consider changing his approach and an unwillingness to experiment could spell trouble if his team's performances do not improve. OUCH.

Welcome to Hollywood.

[Radii]

-- The final season ticket sales numbers are announced. We sold 17,526 season tickets, down 10 from last year when Ipswich sold 17,536. This comes in a little lower than estimated but that's ok. We need to win to earn more, I am ok with that.

-- Sheffield Utd makes an official inquiry into our young defender Jack Hughes. He's valued at $1.7M. Do I say he's not available no matter what? I name a price of $5 million. If they'll overpay that much I'm in!

August 16th, 2017

League Cup 1st Round

Ipswich @ Bristol Rovers

We're huge 4:5 favorites at this League 1 side. Bristol Rovers are 3:1 dogs. This will be our first meeting, and this will also be televised. This game was recently switched to a TV time slot.

GK: Murphy
D: Gudmundsson/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Lewis

The only change today is that Paulo starts at DMC as he's back from his injury. Troy Brown probably can't go 90 today but I choose to start him anyway. Standard mindset on the road today.

3': We are out on the attack, there's a pass to Rob Lewis about 25 yards out from Bennett, he draws two defenders and pokes the ball into the area where Neil Gordon runs onto it and finishes! 1-0

26': After about 20 minutes without a highlight Khan hits Gordon for a rather speculative shot from the left side of the area, its easily saved.

37': We are piling on the shots, recent efforts just out of the area by Khan and Lewis went just wide, we're up to 11 shots, only 3 on target and 6 from range. The pressure is on for sure.

HALF: We shoot off a corner at the end of the half, its over, and time is called. We shoot 12 times to their 2. We are doing everything better than them, notably a 75% rate on winning headers to just 35% for Bristol Rovers. We're only up 1 despite all the advantages though so we can't back off yet.

50': They have a free kick out left, its passed to an attacker 25 yards out, a quick shot is off the crossbar.

51': Throwin for Bristol Rovers, its thrown into the area... Bruce wins the ball, but is deemed to have fouled his man, its a penalty that they convert. 1-1

60': They build up an attack, there's a pass wide right, a cross into the area, a strong header with Brown not really challenging it at all, and its by Murphy and in... 1-2

64': Lewis earns himself two good looking shots in back to back highlights, neither are easy or anything, and both are put way high, poorly struck.

76': Stead in for Lewis up front, Kirkland in at DL, Brown out, Gudmundsson to DC.

82': In the last 5 minutes Paulo and Donnelly both pick up injuries that look pretty bad.

86': Bennett with a yellow for a foul out wide left. Paulo is out, Coutts is in and up to MC, 4-3-1-2 formation to close it out.

89': Its hard to score in the last 10 minutes when you never have the ball... all the highlights are for Bristol Rovers.

90': We finally win a ball and try to attack, but Gordon settles for a tough shot 20 yards out that goes over right away without any look to build up for a better shot.

And that's it. Not the start I wanted to my career at Ipswich.

Bristol Rovers 2 : 1 Ipswich

Goal: Gordon (6.9)
Assist: Lewis (6.5)

No one up over 7 today. Troy Brown with a 6.2, Alex Bruce a 6.4 as our defense failed us a couple times back there. We settle for too many quick shots, I may use the "work ball into box" instruction by default for a bit.


Injury Update

MC Gordon Donnelly is going to miss 2 weeks with an elbow injury he picked up during a fall today.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Welcome to Hollywood.

haha, well played.

[Radii]

-- Sheffield Utd isn't willing in paying 4 times what Jack Hughes is worth. That's fine, I'm happy to keep him!

August 19th, 2017

Ipswich @ Watford

Watford are even money favorites today to our 11:5. They got demoted from the EPL last year. Ipswich have a long history with them and its not good with a 3-1-8 record lifetime against them. Watford made it up to the EPL last year and fell right back down.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Gudmundsson/Bruce/McKerr
DMC: Paulo
MC: Coutts/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Stead

Lots of changes today with all the short rest, and another match coming on the 22nd. Kirkland and McKerr get their first starts at DL/DR. Brown and Berthet will sit today. Coutts is in for injured Donnelly, and Jon Stead is in for Rob Lewis who is off to a really rough start. We'll defend today on the road.

9': They have the ball out left, there's a cross from way out, Paulo misses a header and it allows their attacker Costea to get a good look at it from the penalty spot. He heads it and its by Murphy and into the net. 0-1

11': Bennett with a nice through ball, they get to it to put it behind before Stead can get there though. The corner is headed away, we try to put it back in but fail, they counter and Bruce makes a nice interception to prevent a breakaway attack.

16': They get a man into a very crowded penalty area, beating McKerr and nearly scoring before a nice Murphy save turns it into a corner. They earn corner #2 before we finally clear.

30': A run down the right... cross into the area, and Murphy has to make a reflex save to save a goal, they earn a corner. First corner is headed behind for a second. Second is headed out, they try to push it back in but Gordon clears.

42': A quick buildup for us, Bennett receives a pass out to the right, he sends a little ball in to Khan, they are right there but an interception is badly mangled and the ball ricochets off a defender and to the foot of Matthew Khan, he strikes it and sends it into the net!!! 1-1

45': We allow them far too much possession, they work it in with a cross in from the right and a header is inches over.

HALF: We're thrilled to be tied. They're better than us, and its not really close. They have a 54/46 possession edge, around the 30 minute mark that was 61/39 so I guess we improved some. We allow them to take 9 shots, just 3 on target. We shoot 3 times with just the one on target. A point woudl be great here, we continue to defend.

51': They send a cross in from the right, a header... Murphy dives but can't get to it, its off the crossbar and cleared back out right.

54': Khan almost gives a goal away. They have a corner, we clear it ahead. Khan has it near midfield but passes it back towards one of our defenders, they intercept and there's a quick shot that's just over.

64': Walker in for a tiring Coutts. Danny Graham in for Stead and he'll see his first action at striker on the season.

75': Berthet in for an exhausted McKerr.

77': Our first offensive highlight of the half... ugly passes but we win a corner. Bennett takes it but they clear it easily. They counter attack and it takes a good clearance from Bruce to prevent a dangerous shot, they earn a corner which leads to a header over the bar.

81': After a lot of buildup they get the ball out left and earn a corner as we block their attempt to cross. Paulo is there to head it away, they try a long shot that is saved.

85': We counterattack after intercepting an attack, Graham makes a nice run into the area, we've got numbers here, he passes to Khan who has a solid look... but they scramble the ball away after a poor first touch.

87': Yellow by midfielder Barry allows us a free kick in their end, its cleared easily though.

91': We clear it out after they look to attack, Kirkland plays a long ball up the left side, Khan is first to it, he has it 40 yards out and begins a run towards the area, he makes a brilliant looking move to cut by a defender, gets into the area... its a clear cut chance, taken to the near post, the keeper dives and makes a fingertip save, such a good chance!!! Corner goes nowhere.

94': Final minutes, they foul about 40 yards out very wide right. Berthet is going to take the free kick, after some stalling hoping this will be the last chance for either team, he puts a cross into the area, they head it out and full time is called.

Watford 1 : 1 Ipswich

This was a very good result for us. We had to withstand an insane barrage as Watford shoot 20 times today. Only 5 are on target, 4 are blocked. We managed 5 shots all match, the one clear cut chance late was a real shot for us to win, but we have to be very very happy to get a draw here.

One of their midfielders is man of the match today.

Goal: Khan (7.7)
Assist: Bennett (6.8)

ST Jon Stead was pretty bad out there, putting up a 5.7 before being subbed out. Murphy in goal had a 5.3 today as well. A few 6.9's in the defense and midfield, most of the team played pretty well.



The fans are disappointed with today's results. I'm starting to not like our fans! I assume their expectations were raised heavily during their brief attempt to make it in the EPL and anything but making it back up is failure now.

[Radii]

August 22nd, 2017

Cardiff @ Ipswich

We're 5:4 favorites today, they're 7:4 to get this win. Our coaches tell us that we're better in most areas but that Cardiff are the faster team. Cardiff are in their 15th straight year in the Championship. They finished 7th twice and last year finished 5th to make the playoffs for the first time ever. This gives Ipswich a long history against them with success, going 9-1-5 lifetime. Ipswich won both meetings last year.

GK: Murphy
D: Fryers/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Coutts/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Lewis

Zeki Fryers was bitching about his playing time after the last match and Gudmundsson could stand a day off, so Fryers gets a start out left in defense. Berthet, Brown and Lewis are back in at DR/DC/ST. Standard mindset today at the start.

14': We have a free kick near midfield, there's a couple very quick nifty passes, Berthet to Gordon to Bennett who puts it into the area, Matthew Khan runs onto it perfectly and beats the keeper! 1-0 That was the first shot for either team.

16': We give up two corners, on one of them one of their men gets hurt sending in a cross. On the second one they cross into the area and Frederico heads it near post by Murphy for a goal. We didn't' defend that very well. 1-1

26': They have a throwin from near midfield, there's one pass ahead to midfielder Ledley and he strikes it from 30 yards away, bending around two of our men and into the upper corner of the net, a beautiful strike that no one could stop. 1-2

32': We change to an attacking mindset.

41': We turn it over in midfield and allow them to set up their offense, there's a cross in from the left and their injured man Walker has a header from about 10 yards out that was really poorly defended, but he puts it over. It was their first clear cut chance and we got lucky.

HALF: Berthet 5.7, Brown 5.6, Gordon 5.7, Lewis 5.8. We're playing like shit out there. I tell them I expect better from them. They've shot 6 times to our 3. They're winning everything in the air today, other stats are pretty near even.

51': We earn a corner, its taken to the near man Bruce, he gets himself a shot and its a clear cut chance, he puts it near post but with very ltitle pace and the keeper is able to make the save.

68': Walker in for a tired Bennett, no highlights at all for awhile.

75': Gudmunsson in for Paulo. He moves to DC, Bruce up to MC which he plays pretty well.

87': We have a throwin in their end, they cut out a through ball and try to counter attack, getting many men forward and earning a corner. We've just got nothing here. Our inability to attack has been very frustrating this half.

89': Fryers with a yellow.

93': We get a throwin in their end for what might be our last chance. Its taken to Berthet, ahead to Gordon, he crosses into the area... we've really got no one there, but their defender who goes up to clear it out botches a header, and the ball falls straight to Khan in the area. Khan strikes it and buries it!! A very weird, cheap goal that we will happily take to get us a point! 2-2

Ipswich 2 : 2 Cardiff

We were not the better team today. Cardiff dominated that entire second half and we got a ridiculous fluke goal to tie it up late.

Man of the Match: Khan (8.8)
Goals: Khan 2
Assists: Gordon (6.6), Bennett (7.7)

All the guys that struggled so bad in the first half recovered to at least put up 6.5 ratings or better.

Today the fans are pleased with a result that I think could have been better, weird!

[Radii]

-- The first meeting with my old team comes early.

August 26th, 2017

Ipswich(0-2-1, 18th) @ Woking(0-0-3, 24th)

We're even money favorites on the road today. Woking have scored 1 and allowed 5 so far and don't have a point yet. Woking have only made a couple new acquisitions and won't stand a chance of staying up in the Championship. They've switched to a 5-3-2.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Gudmundsson/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Coutts/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Lewis

Kirkland at DL, Gudmundsson at DC for Troy Brown. Brown missed all our preseason hurt and he's still warming up basically. We're attacking today.

1': We march down the field and earn a corner 30 seconds in. They're able to clear it out.

7': We earn a second corner. Its taken to Alex Bruce and he receives a yellow for diving in the area to try to draw a penalty.

12': We earn another corner. Gudmunsson takes it to Bruce, instead of shooting he sees Bennett available, passes to him and he shoots with his first touch and beats Lynch for his first goal of the year. 1-0

15': Berthet plays a ball into the area, Neil Gordon gets behind the defense and has a free look at the goal, but he puts a shot wide, he really needed to score there.

24': We earn a corner, they clear but we send it back forward. Bennett crosses in and there's a header by Lewis... off the crossbar! Vince Taylor makes the clearance.

33': The first highlight for Woking, they earn a corner. Paulo heads it behind for a second corner. It takes some effort but we finally clear and begin a counterattack. They cut that off though.

HALF: That'll do it for the first half. We only manage 5 shots so far, 1 on target for the goal. We had a couple other really good looks. Woking have 1 off target shot. We have a 63/37 possession edge and are dominating everywhere. We need to hold this lead though.

68': Paulo earns a yellow. We've seen a couple highlights but the half is flying by, a credit to us I suppose.

74': walker in for Coutts.

83': Troy Brown in for Paulo and we drop to a 5 man defensive line to hold this one hopefully.

Woking try to press and ST Bob Green (the guy I signed last year that had tons of value but that I stuck on the reserve squad) takes a long range shot that hits the crossbar, but that's the only action of the final 10 minutes. We get out of there with the 1:0 win.

Woking 0 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (7.6)
Goal: Bennett (7.5)
Assist: Bruce (7.2)
Notables: Berthet (7.1), Gudmundsson (7.1)

Rob Lewis again has it very bad putting up a 5.5 rating. I'm wondering if I need to bring on another striker and put Lewis on the reserve squad, he's only 19 and may not be quite ready for prime time.


Vince Taylor had a 7.0 rating and played really well for Woking. Simon Ferry is a starter now and put up a 5.7.


Kirkland was dominant in the air for us today and was solid passing the ball, unlike Lewis Kirkland is a really young kid who seems to be playing well.

[Radii]

New Signing

... or ... wasn't I supposed to use that money on a keeper?

Speed kills. I noticed in the preseason that one of the fastest players I've ever seen was out on the transfer market, but I had no money. after a few sales, however, the money was there. It took $1.1 Million + 50% of his next sale, but 36 goals in League 2 and 48 goals in League 1... that's a known quantity that I really wanted to try out at the Championship level.

Welcome ST Constantino to Ipswich. He's valued at $2.9M. Aston Villa were asking $1.5M. I tried to work a trade for youngster Hughes as it was rumored they were looking for a defender, but I guess they weren't interested in a project as they were set on $1.5 million. I ended up offering what I could, $1.1 mil, plus the next sale clause, and that got it done.

He'll be making $17,000/wk, which puts me back over budget but I have two older strikers that are now expendable and unloading one should get me back under budget.

There are two big questions that will be answered over the coming months:

1. Can the physical gifts Constantino has translate to goals at this level?
2. Is my obsession with signing this guy worth dumping my entire transfer budget and ignoring the fact that I have a 34 year old keeper with no backup.

Offense is sexy!

[Radii]

-- Stuart Kirkland is named to the Championship team of the week.

September Update

-- We play on the 2nd, 16th, 19th, 23rd, 26th, and 30th. There are world cup qualifying matches on the 9th and 13th and U21 and U19 matches around there as well, I'm assuming that explains the 2 week break in the action.

-- Bryan Bennett scores a goal and gets two assists in his first 4 matches, and that's enough to earn him the young player of the month award on the Championship!

-- the board is satisfied with my coaching so far. Our 1st round League Cup exit is horrible, but the board is pleased that the fans seem to love Bryan Bennett. We lost $2.5M last month.

September 2nd, 2017

Bolton(2-1-1, 8th) @ Ipswich(1-2-1, 14th)

We're even money favorites against Bolton today at Portman Road. We have a long history with Bolton, 4-2-5 lifetime against them.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Troy Brown starts at DC today, Kirkland gets another start at DL since he played so well last match. Donnelly is back from his injury and Constantino lines up at forward with Khan.

We're attacking at home today.

5': We get the first attacking highlight but Bolton take the first shot, a header that's wide.

9': Donnelly has it in midfield, he gets it to Constantino who sprints out wide. He draws a central defender out with him... not sure why, poor defense there. Constantino finds Bennett who puts it into the open area for Gordon. Gordon beats the keeper for the goal!! 1-0

14': we build up a little, its passed out left to Kirkland near midfield. Kirkland plays it to Gordon who is about 25 yards from goal. He takes a step forward, sees an opening and shoots, its a blast that bends away from the keeper a little and is in the right side of the net!! Two goals from Neil Gordon in 5 minutes!! 2-0

20': I change to a defensive mindset. We've given up too many goals shortly after scoring.

44': A good stretch with no action... there's a foul on Bolton, Berthet shoots on the free kick from 35 yards out, its off the wall and behind for a corner. Donnelly takes it but they clear.

HALF: What a half! Neil Gordon has seriously struggled so far, its bugged me because I want to see him turn into a star and he looks like he could be amazing for us. Seeing him get those two goals was huge. We shoot 6 times, Bolton shoots 3 times. They actually have a 59/41 possession edge but just can't turn it into anything.

47': Constantino gets open about 18 yards out and takes his first shot (at least the first I've seen) but he blasts it over.

49': They play a cross to the far post and have a man there.. Murphy has to punch the ball behind for a corner, we clear it out nicely though.

55': Its all about the Bolton attack now, we've given up multiple corners now, they just had a header go inches over. We need to remove this pressure.

64': We give up another corner. Its cleared again.

65': Coutts is in for Donnelly who is a bit tired in his first match back from injury.

70': They keep pressing, and they should have gotten one back here, the ball is headed around the area a couple times with us unable to clear, finally there's a deflection to an attacker who is wide open about 8 yards away, he volleys it... wide.

77': Coutts picks up an injury and he's forced to come out immediately. Walker is in. I go ahead and make my last sub as well. Gudmundsson is in for Gordon, defense for offense, 5-1-2-2.

We finish this one off easily.

Ipswich 2 : 0 Bolton

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.8)
Goals: Gordon 2
Assists: Kirkland (8.0), Bennett (8.0)
Notables: Berthet (7.3), Bruce (7.0)

Constantino put up a 6.5 in his first match, he shot twice, both off target and missed a bunch of headers. Gordon was just spectacular in getting those two goals. Stuart Kirkland's 8.0 is very noteworthy as well, he's making a serious case to win that DL job from our icelandic loaner (who since he can play all three defensive positions will not lack for playing time).

[Radii]

-- Neil Gordon is called up to the English U21 squad. Backup DR Michael McKerr will play for Northern Ireland, Brian Murphy for Ireland and Troy Brown for Wales in World Cup Qualifying.

-- Neil Gordon is named to the team of the week!

Transfer Out

34 y/o ST Jon Stead is offered to other clubs. He gets lots of offers, all but one he rejects the contracts offered. He's willing to go to Scunthorpe but only if we'll pay him $4,000/wk for the duration of his contract. That'll cut $8,000/wk off our budget and get us back under, so I'll do that. The transfer won't go through until January though.


-- Troy Brown puts up a 7.2 rating as a starter in a Wales 3-0 victory over Andorra. Wales is 6-0-1 in their group, 1 point behind Portugal for 1st place with 3 matches to go. They probably won't win their group but they'll almost certainly get the one game for a chance to go.

-- Its a few days later so I won't change what I wrote... Wales beats the shit out of Portugal 4:1 to take over first in their group. Troy Brown came on as a sub but didn't do all that well with a 6.5 rating.

September 16th, 2017

Ipswich(2-2-1, 10th) @ Exeter(3-0-2, 7th)

We're even money favorites on the road today. We're 2-0-1 against them in our history. Exeter has bounced around an awful lot, they were in the BS Premier leauge in 07/08, went straight to league 1, fell back to league 2, back to league 1, and 2 years ago won the league 1 playoffs to promote. Last year they finished 19th, avoiding relegating back down by a few spots.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Luke Daley has 3 goals for Exeter, he's been their leading scorer for the last 6 years now. MC Michael Rooney is noted as their dangerman. No changes to our lineup today, and we start out in a standard mindset on the road today.

8': We give up a corner kick, they take it way out front to a man 25 yards from the goal, he shoots it and hits the crossbar, and then we clear.

12': We clear a ball out of the defense, there's a long ball played ahead and Constantino's speed comes out, he is first to the ball, he gets into the area... but his shot is saved by their keeper. Damn!

18': We're on the attack again, Donnelly makes a long run down the middle, avoids a sliding tackle, and sends it into the right side of the area. Constantino breaks onto the ball, shoots from a tough angle out past the right edge of the 6 yard box and he beats the keeper and scores!! 1-0

24': They have a corner, we struggle to clear it out but once we do its a bit of a breakaway, Khan receives a long ball way out left, he runs forward, passes to the middle for Bennett, Bennett has a pretty good look about 18 yards out but Constantino is a bit further right with an even better shot, Bennett lays it off and Constantino puts it by the keeper! 2-0

33': We build up down the right side, Bennett plays it to Donnelly who is 35 yards out, he makes a little move and puts a ball into the area, Constantino was out wide right and comes charging in, he's first to the ball and shoots with his first touch and its a hat trick!!! 3-0

HALF: Welcome back Constantino! Donnelly and Bennett with beautiful plays to get all these open shots, but it takes Constantino's speed to get to the ball first and the finishing to put them away. We shoot 4 times, all on target and 3 goals. Exeter shoots 7 times, only 1 on target.

59': Walker and Coutts in for Donnelly and Bennett. Lets keep them rested.

72': Kirkland picks up an injury, he's having another strong game today, I'd hate to lose him for awhile.

74': Fryers is in for Kirkland.

We put this one away in solid and boring fashion.

Exeter 0 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.5)
Goals: Constantino 3
Assists: Donnelly 2 (8.9), Bennett (7.5)
Notables: Murphy (7.1), Berthet (7.4), Kirkland (7.4), Bruce (7.5)


After losing our first match we're 3-2-0 and doing pretty well here. I have to say I'm giddy seeing Constantino pick up a hat trick today in his second match for us.

[Tellistto]

Nice getting Constantino back! His skills should work out well in the championship. Not a world beater, but solid solid!

Tell

[Portiere]

Can you loan in a backup keeper for three or six months?

[Radii]

-- Donnelly and Constantino are named in the Championship team of the week.

September 19th, 2017

Crystal Palace(1-3-2, 18th) @ Ipswich(3-2-1, 7th)

We're huge favorites over these guys that promoted out of League 1 last year, 2:5 to win, they're 13:2. We're 1-1-1 against Crystal Palace, the loss was in our last friendly this year and the two league matches were back in 2009.

GK: Murphy
D: Gudmundsson/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Coutts
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Lewis

Going on short rest we make a few changes, Gudmundsson DL, Coutts DMC, Lewis at striker over Constantino. We'll attack today.

4': We earn a throwin deep in their end, its taken short to Gordon, he puts a great cross into the center of the penalty area, Bennett wins a header and powers it by the keeper! 1-0

19': Horrible defense as they have a long goal kick, striker Ojapah runs onto it and our defense just isn't there, Ojapah is in the area, he shoots, beats the keeper, but its off the right post and clear.

32': We get a couple more crosses/headers that are saved, we've got 7 shots with 6 on target but the last couple were pretty weak efforts.

HALF: Outside of the awful defense to give them one good look were in great shape here. We've got 8 shots, 6 on target, they have 2 shots, both off target. I'd like a second goal to be safe but we seem to be in full control.

50': Donnely goes down hurt and has to leave the field for awhile for treatment. He'll be ok.

63': Walker in for Donnelly.

77': Gudmundsson picks up an injury.

84': McKerr in for Berthet.

Very, very boring second half, which is fine for us to get the win.

Ipswich 1 : 0 Crystal Palace

Man of the Match: Bryan Bennett (8.5)
Goals: Bennett
Assists: Gordon (6.8)
Notables: Murphy (7.0), Berthet (7.1), Brown (7.1)

An early goal followed by 86 minutes of yawning.


-- We had a couple in game injuries today but everyone is fine. Our next 5 matches will all be on short rest so we've got a challenge to manage our fitness levels coming up.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Portiere

Can you loan in a backup keeper for three or six months?

yeah i'm looking into that.

[Radii]

New Loaner

Welcome Man U reserve GK Emilio Buratti on a 3 month loan. Buratti is about as good as Murphy with the potential to be better. 16 determination, 16 positioning, 15 concentration, 15 bravery, only 6 anticipation. 16 handling/14 reflexes/15 aerial ability/13 command of area/18 one on ones. a 3 rating in rushing out is the worst rating I think for him.

I end up setting Buratti as available for the reserve squad. I wonder if Man U would get pissed if I never use him and leave him in the reserves.


September 23rd, 2017

Ipswich(4-2-1, 5th) @ Middlesborough(4-2-1, 7th)

We're 5:4 favorites on the road today. We're 5-2-7 lifetime against these guys.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Middlesborough are led by ST Scott McDonald who has 6 goals in 7 matches. Back to our starting lineup today. We'll defend today.

16': Donnelly with a nice run down the left, a cross, Bennett with a header but its over. We've seen 3 shots total so far, all off target.

36': 7 shots total, all but one off target between both teams. They have a weak header that Murphy had to save.

38': Bennett picks up a yellow.

44': Omozusi with a yellow, a middlesborough defender.

HALF: Each team has 5 shots, 1 on target. We actually hold a 60/40 possession edge, other stats are all similar. I see no reason to come out of our defensive shell on the road here.

58': We've been on the attack early on so far, but haven't been able to quite create anything.

61': We win a ball deep in our own end. Berthet launches a ball into our offensive end. Constantino runs onto it, there's on defender there, he tries a slide tackle and Constantino slips by the tackle and there's no one else between him and the keeper. He runs into the penalty area, the keeper comes out but Constantino's aim is true and he puts it by the keeper and into the right side of the net! 1-0

72': We get a counterattack after winning a ball in midfield, there's a pass down the left to Khan, Khan is on the run, he's into the area, fires a shot from a tough angle out left, the keeper saves but goes to the ground to make the save. The rebound falls to Donnelly, he volleys it into the open net! 2-0

76': Coutts in for Gordon, Walker in for Bennett, Fryers in for Bruce, all for rest for the next match.

We finish this one off with ease.

Middlesborough 0 : 2 Ipswich

The second half mostly went like the first, we just got a couple breaks on lapses by the defense and were in just the right spot to take advantage.

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.4)
Goals: Constantino, Donnelly (7.8)
Assists: Berthet (7.6), Khan (7.3)
Notables: Murphy (7.1), Kirkland (7.2), Brown (7.4), Bruce (7.2)

Really nice numbers across the entire defense today.


-- After an 0-2-1 start, we've won 5 straight and currently sit in 3rd place behind QPR and Hull. Those bitchy fans aren't complaining about our formation now are they?!

[Radii]

-- Constantino is named in the Championship team of the week this week.

September 26th, 2017

Hull(6-0-2, 2nd) Ipswich(5-2-1, 3rd)

We're favored today over the #2 team at home. We're 4-7-3 against them lifetime, lots of ties! We promoted to the EPL the same year and fell back down together. Hull finished 3rd last year.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Gudmundsson/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Hull are led by Odion Ighalo with 4 goals, Federico Cacciapuoti has 3 goals. We've got Constantino with 4 goals and Khan has 3. We start Gudmundsson over Troy Brown today. The rest of our default starters are in today. We try a standard mindset today. Hull worries me I'm not sure if we want to go crazy attacking today.

9': We earn a corner. Donnelly sends it to Bruce, he turns by a man and shoots... there's not a lot of pace on that shot at all, but it deflects off a defender and the keeper can't react! It seems like its in slow motion but it's in the net between the keeper and the defender on the line! 1-0

11': We have some buildup, Kahn receives a pass 20 yards out and fires a strong shot, the keeper has to dive to save it and turns it behind for a corner. Corner comes to nothing.

32': Donnelly sends a ball out wide for Constantino, he makes a good pass to Gordon in the area, Gordon shoots but can't put it on target.

35': We have a counter attack going after winning a ball in the defensive end. Gordon has it in midfield and the defensive line just isn't set up well to defend. Khan is able to find a huge hole in teh defensive line, Gordon sends it up ahead of him and Khan is easily first to run onto the ball, he shoots from 20 yards out as the keeper is trying to close down and puts it by the keeper and into the net!! 2-0

HALF: No action after that. We're crushing it today, 10 shots, 3 on target and the 2 goal lead. Hull only has 4 shots, 2 on target. We've got a 56/44 possession edge, we haven't completed a single cross yet, most of our success has been up the middle though. Otherwise stats are even/in our favor. We're going to defend this half to try to just close it out.

60': We've got a free kick just on our offensive side of the field. Donnelly plays it into the area, Gudmundsson gets his head to it but the keeper is there to make the save.

66': They get forward and after some buildup there's a nice cut to the goal by one of their forwards, he's got a clear cut chance and Murphy can't do anything about it... but he misses, putting it into the side netting.

That's it, we kill off the final 25 minutes with complete ease and we're feeling pretty damn invincible.

Ipswich 2 : 0 Hull

Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (8.3)
Goals: Khan, Bruce (7.9)
Assists: Donnelly (7.2), Gordon (6.9)
Notables: Berthet (7.2), Kirkland (7.7), Gudmundsson (7.2), Paulo (7.3)


-- I hate to jinx it but Brian Murphy hasn't given up a goal for 605 in game minutes. That's 5 straight league shutouts.

-- After that win we move up to 2nd place behind QPR.

-- 6 straight shutouts is an Ipswich record

[Radii]

September 29th, 2017

Stoke(5-1-2, 4th) @ Ipswich(6-2-1, 2nd)

We're 4:5 favorites today, Stoke is 3:1 to get a win. Stoke is a favorite to promote. Stoke has spent 6 of the last 10 seasons in the EPL. Three times they've been demoted, the first two times they promoted back up in the first year. Last year they finished 4th in the Championship but weren't able to win the playoffs to get back up. We're 1-1-2 against them lifetime. Last year the road team won both games.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Gudmundsson/Berthet
DMC: Bruce
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Coutts
ST: Khan/Constantino

We move DC Bruce up to DMC today, Coutts is in at AMC to give a couple of our more tired guys a break today. Another standard mindset today.

18': Coutts puts a through ball into the area, Constantino is there and he has a clear cut chance on the first shot of the day, but he puts it wide, ugly effort there.

27': We have a large amount of buildup, working the ball from left to right looking for an opening. Khan has it out left and puts a ball into the middle of the penalty area, there's 3 of our attackers and 4 defenders right around the edge of the penalty box, Bennett is the one that breaks on it, he's first there and beats the keeper for a goal! 1-0

43': They move the ball forward down the right side, there's a cross into the 6 yard box, Murphy doesn't defend it well, leaning to the near side of the goal when the cross is going far post, they win the header and the goal is near wide open, they're able to put it in and that ends our shutout streak. 1-1

HALF: We've got 6 shots, they have 5. Both teams put 2 on target. We've got a 56/44 possession edge, we're passing and tackling very well compared to them, but ratings and attacks are really close to even all around. Gudmundsson took the blame for the goal we gave up, losing out on a header I suppose, and he's got a 5.5 rating.

61': We get the early attack, shooting 3 times but nothing really threatening, but Stoke has taken over the attack here, again nothing on target but a few shots by Stoke in the last few minutes. We just gave them a free kick from 25 yards out but they put the shot way over.

63': They get forward again, one of their attackers makes a nice move on Brown to get an open shot, Murphy makes a good save though.

72': Kirkland is hurt and he goes off the field for treatment.

77': Fryers comes in for Kirkland, Gordon in for Coutts.

80': We try to attack the final 10 minutes here.

86': They get a break after we lose the ball in the midfield. Midfielder simpson takes it down the left side, crosses into the area, their star striker Adrian is there and heads it in. He just got down there faster than our defense.

91': We earn a corner, its taken to Gudmundsson, he fires a shot and the keeper has to dive to save it, turns it behind for a second corner. They clear that one out.

We just couldn't quite hold this one today. Sucks to lose at home but its hard to complain after 6 straight wins.

Ipswich 1 : 2 Stoke

One of their defenders who picked up an assist is man of the match today.

Goal: Bennett (7.9)
Assist: Khan (7.1)
Notables: Kirkland (7.2)

Brown 5.9, Gudmundsson 5.6, Constantino 5.9. We struggled a bit out there today.

We dodge another injury as Kirkland is just fine.

[Radii]

October Update

-- We play on the 3rd, 7th, 21st, and 28th. There's a break again for World Cup Qualifying it appears.

-- Bryan Bennett earns his second straight Young Player of the Month award! Bennett has 3 goals and 4 assists in 10 matches, earning a 7.46 rating.

-- QPR's manager earns manager of the month. Hull's manager was second and I finished 3rd.

-- The board is "very pleased" with my overall leadership. I noticed in Septemer they were "satisfied with my coaching" ... the use of the phrase "coaching" vs "leadership" is interesting, I wonder if that means anything? Bringing on Bryan Bennett is the highlight, while our League Cup 1st round loss is the lowlight. We lost $408,000 last month.

Financial Update

When I first took over, the club had something like -$14,000,000 balance, maybe more. The combination of selling off players plus the early season revenue from season tickets was massive and made us cash positive. We're slowly losing money during the season and we'll likely be cash negative again by the end of the year, but we are going to turn a profit.

Right now we're sitting on a profit of $12.5 million. We could lose $500k each month the rest of the way and be in amazing shape still given what I took over. If we can compete for the playoffs AND turn this kind of profit I'm hopeful that the board will love me.

October 3rd, 2017

Ipswich(6-2-2, 3rd) @ Leeds(4-2-3, 12th)

Leeds are superslim 6:4 favorites at their house today, we're 13:8 to get a win, 2:1 to tie. We're 3-3-6 against Leeds in our history, and just like Stoke the road team won both times last year. This is Leeds' 8th straight year in the Championship. They finished 6th two years in a row but that was awhile ago. They're a steady mid table team the last 3 years.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Gudmundsson/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Leeds ST Steve Carroll has 8 goals in 9 matches so far this season. Bruce is more tired than usual after a DMC start and he sits today. Paulo and Gordon are back in the lineup. We'll defend today at the start.

5': We build up, Khan has it 25 yards out and puts a ball into the area, Neil Gordon is there and he has a great look at the goal... but ends up with a really weak effort right at the keeper. That's a clear cut chance and he really needed to score.

12': They attack and there's a cross in from the left, a header from within the 6 yard box, Murphy really can't cover much here... but its right at him and he saves. Its pouring down rain today and I wonder if these guys are struggling to get their footing.

18': We have the ball for a good long time, working it around left to right and back, Donnelly ends up getting it to Constantino in a really dangerous spot in the penalty area, the defense is there too, and Constantino puts a shot over. Its not a clear cut chance but I'm really not sure why not, there wasn't a ton of space but he had a great look.

36': We've got it near midfield, a couple passes around the left, Kirkland to Paulo, Paulo is 40 yards out, he puts it into the penalty area and its just a spot on perfect pass. Constantino sprints behind a defender and puts it in the net!! 1-0

41': Khan goes down injured. He's got to come out of the game immediately. Ugh, I love Constantino but Khan is a really talented striker, lets hope this isn't too bad. Rob Lewis is in.

HALF: Not a lot of really strong highlights here, but we do have 10 shots and they have 6. The longer the game goes on the more it seems that the weather is playing a major factor here. We'll continue to defend the rest of the way most likely.

62': Leeds build up an attack, they have it way out left, there's a pass to a striker about 25 yards out, he turns and fires a shot, Murphy can't get to it, it hits the left upright and deflects in... 0-1 That was really fast and kinda out of nowhere.

71': Walker and Coutts in for Bennett and Donnelly.

90': Berthet saves the game. They have a ball into the area, an attacker gets to it and is 10 yards out with what looks like a very easy goal coming. Berthet comes in with a sliding tackle and pokes the ball away before a shot is taken.

That does it, we never come out of our defending mindset here, pretty ok with a a tie on the road here.

Leeds 1 : 1 Ipswich

Their goalscorer is man of the match.

Goal: Constantino (7.0)
Assist: Paulo (6.9)
Notables: Berthet (7.0), Kirkland (7.2)


-- Matthew Khan is going to miss 5-8 days. That's not bad at all, except that we play our arch rivals Norwich in 4 days and Khan is going to miss out.

[Simbo Klice]

Hooray! Constantino is back!

[Radii]

October 7th, 2017

Ipswich(6-3-2, 3rd) @ Norwich(4-3-3, 13th)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Anglian_derby - This is our biggest rival and apparently its a well known rivalry, a publication referenced in the wiki called it the "second biggest rivalry in England" though I'm really not clear by what measure. Its enough to make me want to make sure we win here!

We're 5:4 favorites today, Norwich are slim 7:4 dogs at home. Norwich fell back into League 1 for awhile so there isn't a huge history here, we're 2-2-0 lifetime against them. I attend this press conference myself (something I don't normally do anymore) and end up answering about 10 questions about the rivalry and pressure considering this is the biggest game of the year for most Ipswich fans. Good stuff! This is a televised game as well.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Lewis/Constantino

Danny Hoesen and Tom Adeyemi both have 3 goals for Norwich to lead them so far, these are their wide midfielders. Ishmael Miller is their leading striker with 2 goals. Bruce/Brown are back as starters in defense after some rotation, and Rob Lewis starts for the injured Matthew Khan. Standard mindset on the road here.

5': After they take an early wild long shot we manage the first one on target, Donnelly hits Bennett who shoots from 20 yards out, its a nice strong shot but the keeper makes the save.

19': Berthet has it near midfield setting up our offense. He has the ball taken away, they counter attack and earn a corner. We're able to clear it out, that was a bit scary though giving the ball away there.

44': We give up a corner, they take it with a cross to the far end of the 6 yard box, they get a good look at a header but its too high.

47': Bennett takes the ball away from a defender at midfield, we've got a chance at a break here, he gets it to Constantino who sprints down the right side with the ball, he comes into the area and we've got a few men there, Constantino tries to pass it across the face of the goal, they have a man there to intercept it... but it botches it and its just a deflection. Donnelly reacts first and pokes the loose ball into the net!! 1-0

HALF: There was a huge stretch there with no action worth noting at all, then things got exciting in the last couple minutes. We have 5 shots, 4 are on target. They have 8, just 2 on target, we didn't see most of them I don't think. We're tackling really well, heading better than them, and playing reasonably well. We'll set out to defend in the second half with the lead.

47': They are on the attack, there's a cross in, a wide open Norwich man but the cross isn't targeted well and it doesn't go to the open man, we head it away.

62': We work the ball upfield, Donnelly has it 40 yards out, he passes ahead to Gordon who has two defenders pretty close, 20 yards away. He turns and fires a shot between the two defenders and the keeper didn't seem ready at all, its well struck and Gordon puts it in the left half of the net!!! 2-0

80': Gudmunddson is in for Gordon, he's moved to DC and we go to a 5-1-2-2 to finish it out.

88': We're fighting over the ball in the midfield, they have a cross come in from a good 40 yards away out right... Brown misses a header to clear it out and midfielder Danny Hoesen heads it by Murphy to give them one last chance here. 2-1

We put away the last few minutes.

Norwich 1 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Gordon Donnelly (8.0)
Goals: Donnelly, Gordon (7.2)
Assists: Donnelly, Constantino (6.8)

Our entire defense was sitting around a 7.2 rating but that goal we gave up dropped them all down to 6.8-6.9. Its a solid road win over our arch rivals on TV, go Ipswich!

[Radii]

World Cup Qualifying

We don't play for two weeks as the final games of group play finish up in the Europe World Cup Qualifying stage.

Belgium, Portugal, Turkey, Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, Holland, Poland, and England qualify by winning their groups.

The second place teams still left will play in November to fill the final four spots:

Croatia vs Italy
France vs Switzerland
Romania vs Wales
Scotland vs Greece

Serbia, the 2014 surprise runner up behind France, fails to qualify.

In North America, Mexico, Jamaica and Honduras qualify for the world cup. The US is hosting in 2018 so they get an automatic spot.

In South America Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Peru qualify. Colombia and Guatemala will play for the last spot there. Paraguay, the 2010 winners at the very beginning of this dynasty, failed to qualify.


October 21st, 2017

Leicester(7-4-1, 2nd) @ Ipswich(7-3-2, 4th)

We'd been a game up on many teams and fell to 4th. We're 6:4 favorites, they're 13:8, basically the same. We have a really long, evenly matched history with Leicester, 4-8-3 lifetime. We are way on the better end of this over the past few years, we haven't lost to them in the last 7 matches, going 3-4-0.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Paul Gallagher for Leicester leads them with 6 goals, Andy Carroll has 4 for them. Khan is back in the lineup today. Standard mindset today.

2': We quickly build up and Gordon takes a shot from 20 yards out, not a bad effort but it drifts just a bit high.

12': midfielder Cia picks up a yellow for Leicester.

17': Leicester build up nicely and get into the area, we tackle it behind, and are able to clear out their corner easily.

22': I change to a counterattacking strategy. They are running a 3-5-2 formation and have 8 men back every time we go forward... that doesn't seem like its going to work.

HALF: Well that pretty much killed any action... We've got 8 shots but I didn't see many of them. Only 2 are on target and nothing looked promising at all. Leicester has 3 shots, all off target too. We've got a 63/37 possession edge and it seems like they're basically playing for a draw here. I'd hate to risk the loss here but we're at home, I think we need to go out and attack and try to break them down, so we'll do that in the second half.

47': Yellow for midfielder Wesolowski, that's the second foul i have seen, bout time!

53': Gordon receives a pass 20 yards out and takes the best shot we've had today, the keeper has to dive to save it and turn it behind, a decent effort there. They clear the corner though.

57': We get 4... yes that's 4... corner kicks in a row without taking a shot before they clear it away.

66': We give up a free kick near the penalty area. They take a shot and its fairly close, but wide left.

76': They earn a free kick wide to the right of the penalty area, its crossed in, Paulo heads it out but they have a man set up 30 yards away, its their leading scorer Paul Gallagher and he recovers the header, fires a shot and its in the right side of the net and by Murphy. 0-1

84': We try to get something going on offense, numerous attempts to get it into the area for a shot... finally a cross from Kirkland, header by Bennett... its saved by the keeper and cleared away.

85': Coutts in for Gordon, Walker in for Paulo and up to MC, a little more aggressive formation.

91': We continue to press but there aren't even shots here to be had... they get a breakaway, a ball is played long to one of their forwards, Walker misses a tackle, there's a shot, Murphy can't get to it, but its off the right post and cleared away. We try to attack again quickly. Its played forward to Constantino, he's down the right side, the defense is still back but its perhaps not set as perfectly. Constantino crosses in, they clear it out to the left, the ball falls right to Kirkland who volleys it back into the area, Khan is out ahead of the defense, volleys it... maybe "redirects" is a more proper description, and the ball hits the keeper and continues on into the net!!! Leicester cry for offsides and I think they may have a case for it, but its an exciting last second tying goal.

Ipswich 1 : 1 Leicester

Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (8.2)
Goal: Khan
Assist: Kirkland (7.1)
Notables: Murphy (7.2), Berthet (7.1), Constantino (7.0)

Maybe we were supposed to break their defense easier than this. We end up with a 65/35 possession edge, 17 shots to their 9, but until that last one we just didn't see many good opportunities and did not have any success getting good looks or finding any openings at all in their defense.

[Radii]

We're 13 matches in now, about 30% through the season, and we sit in 5th place in the next to last playoff spot. QPR seem the clear favorites and then 2nd-6th are all within 2 points of each other. Watford have 27 points, Stoke and Leicester 26, Ipswich and Hull 25. Cardiff sits 2 points out in 7th. Plymouth, Huddersfield and Charlton round out the top 10.

Poor, poor Woking. 0-1-13, 4 goals for, 21 against. They've got 1 point and are a mortal lock to demote back down. Without the qualify of loaners I was bringing in they'll drop back to league 2 as well, sad.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Radii

We're 13 matches in now, about 30% through the season, and we sit in 5th place in the next to last playoff spot. QPR seem the clear favorites and then 2nd-6th are all within 2 points of each other. Watford have 27 points, Stoke and Leicester 26, Ipswich and Hull 25. Cardiff sits 2 points out in 7th. Plymouth, Huddersfield and Charlton round out the top 10.

Poor, poor Woking. 0-1-13, 4 goals for, 21 against. They've got 1 point and are a mortal lock to demote back down. Without the qualify of loaners I was bringing in they'll drop back to league 2 as well, sad.

Considering you started with them in South Conference if they stabilize in League 2 that's still quite a long lasting improvement that you'll have made.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Considering you started with them in South Conference if they stabilize in League 2 that's still quite a long lasting improvement that you'll have made.

Definitely true, just sad to see them struggle like this.

[Radii]

October 21st, 2017

Ipswich(7-4-2, 5th) @ QPR(10-1-2, 1st)

Well here's one we really don't expect to win. QPR demoted down to the Championship after 4 years in the EPL, finishing as high as 13th once. We're 3:1 dogs today, QPR are 4:5 to win at home. We're 2-4-2 lifetime against them.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

QPR score a lot, Colin Meade and Javier Arizmendi both have 9 goals and Enrico Rocchini has 6, all three of their leading scorers have more goals than our top guys (Constantino/Khan have 5 each). We defend today.

2': They have a corner, its taken near post, there's a header over the bar... and Bennett comes down injured, ugh. He can stay in, but he's got that injury symbol that indicates that he could have something past this match.

17': Its all QPR so far, but just headers over/with no chance.

25': We have a goal kick after their 4th shot goes wide. Murphy takes it long... Constantino sprints by one of their central defenders and controls the ball perfectly at the 18 yard mark. He takes a step into the area and beats their keeper for a goal!!! Big mistake by their defense and a great burst of speed by Constantino. 1-0

43': We've got it in the midfield, Bennett plays a long ball into the area, Constantino again breaks by their defense and looks to have a free run at the keeper... but this time his first touch is poor and the ball flies ahead and the keeper picks it up easily.

HALF: We shoot 3 times, just one on target. I didn't see the other two in our highlights. QPR shoots 6 times, all from inside the penalty area, but only one was on target, that one on target shot was not really good either, most of them are weak headers off crosses. I'm of course worried that it just takes one solid header, one spot of poor positioning for them to tie it up. Troy Brown has been everywhere, Alex Bruce is missing a lot of headers and only has a few passes, he's got a 5.7 rating for now, Matthew Khan a 5.9.

53': We're trying to get a shot, a litle buildup, the ball goes out left to Khan, he sends it back to Kirkland... ahead to Khan, he's still 25 yards out and way left, passed to Gordon, he tries a through ball, but a defender blocks it. Khan rushes onto it, he's still 20+ yards out, and he says screw it and fires. The ball bends towards the far post, the keeper dives, he gets to the ball, but can't hold it, the ball squirts through/around the keeper and into the net!!! 2-0

55': They push hard to get one back, there's a ball into the area for one of their strikers, and he sends it just left, not a clear cut chance but I thought it should have been.

71': Yellow for Rocchini.

75': Gudmundsson in for Gordon, moves to DC for a 5 man back line. Coutts in for Bennett.

85': Khan picks up an injury, ugggh. Another key player we'll worry about after the match.

90': they earn a corner, we clear and Khan commits a foul about 30 yards out. They take a shot on the free kick but its wide.

An incredible win on the road against the clear favorite in the league!

QPR 0 : 2 Ipswich

QPR has 12 shots today but just 1 on target all match. We really did an incredible job preventing them from getting good looks here today. We had a couple breaks to get our goals and totally made the most of them.

Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (7.7)
Goals: Matthew Khan (7.6), Constantino (7.1)
Assists: Murphy (7.6), Gordon (6.9)
Notables: Brown (7.1)

Alex Bruce is 7 for 20 on headers, 5/8 passing, 2 interceptions. Kinda a bad game really, and a 6.0 rating. Its really surprising that we could have a defender put up numbers like that against a good team and still do as well as we did.



-- Matthew Khan has a bruised rib after that last match. He's out another 5-7 days.


Our win over QPR pulls them back in line with the rest of the playoff teams. We're in 4th with 28 points. Hull in 5th has 28 as well. QPR has 31 to lead the league. 5 teams within 3 points of 1st place, fun fun!

[Radii]

November Update

-- We play on the 4th, 7th, 11th, and 25th, another period of time off for the rest of the world cup qualifying in the middle there. The FA Cup 1st Round is on the 11th, but I seem to remember the Championship teams don't come in that round?

-- Paulo trained well last month, and boy did he. His Long Shots, Long Throws, Marking, Passing, Penalty Taking, Technique, Work Rate, Creativity and Strength are all up.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership again. Bennett is the positive, the League Cup exit is the negative.

-- We lost $1.46M last month. That's 3 times as much as we lost in October. We still have a positive balance, barely ($1.052M) and are still up $11.4M on the season so we are still very very profitable.

-- Leeds beats Chelsea in the League Cup on penalty kicks, damn! Sheffield Wednesday is 20th in the Championship and they pulled off an upset on Sunderland who are currently sitting at #5 in the EPL.

November 4th, 2017

Scunthorpe(4-5-5, 17th) @ Ipswich(8-4-2, 4th)

We're 4:5 favorites at home today, they're just 3:1 to get a win. We have a history of struggling with these guys, 2-4-5 lifetime, losing both meetings last season. Scunthorpe has dropped down to league 1 a couple times in the last decade but has always managed to make it right back up. They finished 10th in the Championship once but otherwise are perennial relegation candidates.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Lewis/Constantino

ST Jamie Proctor has 8 goals to lead Scunthorpe. Khan isn't ready to go 90 minutes just yet after the little injury he picked up last match. Rob Lewis starts alongside Constantino today. We're attacking at home today.

5': We attack after a goal kick, Constantino receives a pass down the right sideline, he races down the line, cuts into the area, Donnelly is able to keep up with him pretty well, their defense really isn't... Constantino crosses to the far post, Donnelly is there, heads it into the net, easy goal! 1-0

8': They get it back the same way really... their star Proctor down the right, Kirkland missed a tackle on him, cross into the area, Murphy dives after the ball, misses, and their man Freeman wins a header to put it in. 1-1

11': Berthet with a yellow.

17': We work the ball forward, Gordon passes to Constantino, he has it 25 yards away... he pulls it back, goes right, cuts left and leaves his man totally in the dust. He gets a free run forward, pulls up and shoots at the edge of the area before the defense can recover, and beats the keeper! 2-1

30': Defender Kay with a tackle just outside the area, he gets a yellow and we get a free kick. Berthet takes it but shoots it high.

34': Constantino has taken a couple wild shots from 20 yards out, we've taken 9 shots but just two on target so far.

40': We allow two corners. After the first one they feel there should have been a penalty and one of their men gets a yellow crying about it... we end up allowing a 3rd and clear it out.

HALF: We have 10 shots, they have 7. Both teams put two on target. Scunthorpe are tackling better (84%/64%) and heading it better (62%/50%). We'll stay on the attack for now.

46': We have it to start and go straight forward. Berthet to Constantino to Gordon... Gordon draws a central defender and passes it into the open area, Rob Lewis runs onto it and puts it into the net!! I believe that's his first goal of the year and we take a commanding lead. 3-1

62': We're on the attack again, after a couple passes Gordon makes a beautiful cut between two defenders, Bennett feeds him perfectly and Gordon gets an easy goal. 4-1

69': Walker and Coutts come in for Bennett and Donnelly. Stead in for Constantino, we go again in a few days so we're just resting gus.

We finish this off easily.

Ipswich 4 : 1 Scunthorpe

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.9)
Goals: Constantino, Gordon (8.3), Donnelly (7.8), Lewis (7.4)
Assists: Gordon 2, Constantino, Bennett (8.4)
Notables: Berthet (7.1), Kirkland(7.4)

Goals from all over today. Rob Lewis is my 19 year old star of the future, but he hasn't really been great when he was starting early on. I'm thrilled to see him get his first goal today.


-- Watford beats QPR on TV and takes over first place. We're still in 4th.

[Radii]

-- Bryan Bennett and Constantino are named in the team of the week this week.

-- backup defender Zeki Fryers requests a transfer. I go ahead and grant it. He's a potential replacement at DC for 33 y/o Alex Bruce but if Bruce sticks around for another year after this and Fryers is unhappy now its just not worth it.

November 7th, 2017

Ipswich(9-4-2, 4th) @ Burnley(5-5-5, 14th)

Burnley are big favorites today, even money at their place, we're 11:5. We're 0-1-3 against them but haven't played in a couple years. Two of those matches were in the league cup. They've spent 6 of the last 9 years in the EPL. They demoted down last year and are struggling to go back up.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Gudmundsson/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Burnley are led by Bogdan Stancu and his 9 goals and Franco di Santo's 6 goals. Khan is back in the lineup up front and Gudmundsson is in for Alex Bruce at DC. We're going to defend today.

3': defender Juan Manuel Loboto with a yellow for a foul just outside the area... Berthet with a poor shot.

12': Their first shot is a strong one after a cross into the area, Murphy makes a reflex save and we clear it.

19': We win a ball in our defensive end and send it up long for Khan. Khan with a long run down the left, into the area... but there's no passing lanes or anything he can really try to do. They tackle it away and we earn a corner which they clear.

22': We build up down the right side, their defense slowly shades that way, there's a quick reversal and a pass to Khan.. he shoots from about 18 yards out, its the first clear cut chance of the match for either team, but the keeper gets to it and deflects it, just inches wide even after that. Corner again goes nowhere.

27': We start an attack in midfield and Constantino sees an opening... their DR is further back than the rest of their line... Constantino sprints ahead, receives a ball and he's into the area quickly... but the keeper makes a great one on one save.

32': They earn a corner, their star striker Stancu goes down in the area... and gets a yellow for a dive.

41': A counter attack after we win a ball in the midfield... Bennett to Constantino to Gordon to Khan, 3 quick passes, Khan receives the ball in the penalty area and quickly shoots, beating the keeper!! 1-0

HALF: We look really great today, we gave up one scary looking shot but otherwise play really well. We shoot 8 times, they shoot 4 times. We've got 4 on target, they have 2. We've got a 54/46 possession edge. We're winning all our tackles but they're heading a lot better.

54': Bryan Bennett is such a stud!! They are trying to get their offense going... Bennett blocks a pass in the midfield, chases down the loose ball and from the midfield plays a perfect ball 30 yards ahead for Matthew Khan who instantly drives it by the keeper for his second goal! Bennett totally made all of that happen, beautiful stuff. 2-0

62': They have a corner, we head it out, they head it back in... and Berthet tackles the man going for the ball in the area. They drill the penalty, what an awful awful way to let them back in the match. 2-1

66': Berthet with a yellow for a tackle in midfield.

70': Bruce is in at DC, we pull out Gordon and go for 5 defenders. Coutts in for Paulo at DMC.

74': We give up a corner... they take it into the 6 yard box and we react awfully. Their man Nixon heads it in. 2-2

85': Constantino comes in with a tackle from behind and gets a yellow. They get a free kick about 40 yards out, crossing it in but we clear.


We really let a win get away here, but in the end we get a draw on the road and can't complain about that.

Burnley 2 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (8.8)
Goals: Khan 2
Assists: Bennett (8.4), Gordon (6.8)
Notables: Kirkland (7.0)

Berthet takes a 5.4 today, totally deserved.

[Radii]

November 11th, 2017

Sheffield Wednesday(4-5-7, 17th) @ Ipswich(9-5-2, 5th)

Sheffield Wednesday has been in the Championship for most of the last 20 years, with 3 seasons in League 1. Their best Championship finish is 9th, 10th a couple times, usually they are in the 15th-19th range like now. We're 6-1-5 lifetime against them.

GK: Murphy
D: Gudmundsson/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Coutts
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Cameron Keogh leads them with 5 goals. Gudmundsson gets the start at DL over Kirkland today, Coutts is at DMC giving Paulo a rest. Standard mindset at home today.

16': They earn a corner that we clear easily. First highlight of the day.

18': Their dangerman MC McCallister picks up a yellow.

23': We get a free kick 30 yards out. Berthet strikes it with pace, bends it around the wall, and the keeper has to make a diving save. So close. That's our first shot.

HALF: Boring boring half. We shoot 3 times, just the free kick on target. They've shot 4 times, all off target. We're going to attack for the second half.

60': We get a quick counterattack after winning a ball in defense, a ball ahead to Constantino in midfield, he puts it further ahead, Khan runs onto it and has a one on one with their keeper... who makes the save and turns it behind. Corner is cleared easily. That was the first clear cut chance of the match.

65': After some buildup Gudmundsson crosses into the area, somehow Neil Gordon is left totally unmarked about 8 yards out... he controls the ball, pushes it by the keeper... off the right post... and along the end line, the keeper falls on it. That is an embarrassing miss.

80': Paulo in for Coutts, Walker in for Bennett.

82': We work the ball forward again, reversing field from right to left, Gudmundsson puts it into the area, one of their defenders misses an interceptoin, Constantino receives the ball, runs over to the left side of the 6 yard box and puts it into the net!! Huge mistake by the defense to lt that happpen. 1-0

88': Fryers in for Gordon, dropping back to DC for the duration.

90': We have a throwin in their end, we send it back to Donnelly to set up the offense, he gets it forward to Constantino, he turns by his man, into the right side of the area, blasts a shot far post by the keeper and in! 2-0

We missed a couple chances early on but finish strong.

Ipswich 2 : 0 Sheffield Wednesday

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.0)
Goals: Constantino 2
Assists: Gudmundsson (8.5), Donnelly (6.9)
Notables: Berthet (7.0), Bruce (7.1), Bennett (7.0)


We're up to 4th with the win today.


-- Rimini in Italy's Serie B fires their coach and is rumored to be interested in my services. I release a statement denying interest.

[Izulde]

Can I just say how much I love Constantino finally with you for good? It's so damn awesome to see.

[Radii]

-- Our backup keeper, loaner Emilio Buratti, picks up an injury that will keep him out of action for 4 weeks. Oof.

We've got a couple weeks off as world cup qualifying finishes up.

Here are the rest of the Europe Qualifiers (in addition to the group winners Belgium, Portugal, Turkey, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Holland, Poland, and England):

Italy (beat Croatia 7-3 aggregate)
France (beat Switzerland 3-1)
Wales (beat Romania 2-1)
Greece (beat Scotland 3-2)

The World Cup Draw will occur on December 4th.

-- Captain and DC Troy Brown picked up an injury playing for Wales and will miss a week.


November 25th, 2017

Portsmouth(2-4-11, 22nd) @ Ipswich(10-5-2, 4th)

We are 1:2 favorites today at Portman road against relegation candidate Portsmouth, making them huge 9:2 dogs. We're 4-3-3 lifetime against them.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Fryers/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Coutts
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Lewis/Constantino

We get a couple subs in today as heavy favorites, Fryers starts at DC for the injured Troy Brown, Coutts starts again at DMC, and Rob Lewis is in for Khan up front. We'll attack today.

1': Portsmouth start with the ball, they go straight forward, there's a pass to their striker Johnson, he turns by Fryers, makes a move into the area, shoots from a very tough angle out right, and hits the far corner perfectly... they score 22 seconds in. 0-1

5': We have a quick attack, Donnelly with a through ball, Constantino behind the defense unmarked, easy finish, and we make up for the awful start. 1-1

25': Portsmouth have a number of highlights with poor, weak shots easily saved... but it does seem they are getting the bulk of the highlights here.

35': After some bulidup down the right side, Bennett lofts a ball over the heads of the defense, Constantino once again gets behind the defenders, controls it perfectly and buries it in the back of the net! 2-1

41': We earn a corner after a nifty give and go between Gordon and Lewis leads to a shot blocked behind. Corner is cleared, Kirland puts it back into the area... but Constantino is offside.

44': Kirkland tries a cross that earns us another corner. donnelly takes it to the near man, passed back to Donnelly, crossed to the far end of the 6 yard box, the keeper dives out for it and can't get to the ball, our disgruntled defender Zeki Fryers is there, he wins the header and puts it into the open net! 3-1

HALF: We allow 8 shots, 5 on target, but close the half well, Murphy is up to the challenge after that first goal. We shoot 10 times, 4 on target, 3 clear cut chances, all goals. We'll keep pressuring them.

47': Kirkland picks up an injury... he can stay in but lets hope its nothing major.

52': We allow 3 corners and a throwin deep in our end... now 4 corners... they finally get their first shot during this stretch after that fourth one, but its off target and we're safe.

59': Attacker Dean with a yellow trying to win the ball from Kirkland near midfield.

64': defender Hurst with a yellow for a tackle on Lewis. Walker is in for Donnelly, just getting some subs some playing time.

66': We have a throwin, taken to Bennett, up to Gordon, sent into the area, Josh Walker is there and puts it by the keeper... but very very clearly offside.

71': They get a long run down the right, cross into the area... Fryers is there to clear it, but fails, it just bounces off him and to an attacker who gets a shot off, Murphy with a great great save.

72': They have a throwin, taken short, crossed into the area, we head it out, another cross, and with the ball flying around the area Murphy is out of position now, midfielder Almousz wins the header 10 yards out and drills it in. 3-2

75': We back off to defend and hang on to this one goal lead.

77': They get a run down the left side, cross to the far end of the 6 yard box, a header... Murphy with a great, great save. That was a clear cut chance and should have been a goal really.

78': McKerr in for Gordon, he's moved back to DC for a 5 man defensive line.

79': They get a man by Kirland on the right side, cross to striker Johnson, header.. just wide.

89': They earn a corner as we block a cross behind... corner is cleared out, sent back in, one of those where there's 5 headers in a row in the box, finally we clear it.

92': They get it forward again and win a corner on the right side. Its taken to the near man, we clear, and there's a long ball ahead to Constantino, he's got one defender on him about 30 yards out, jukes by his man, into the area, shot to the far post, off the post and in!!! 4-2 Constantino with a breakaway late goal for a hat trick to seal the victory.

94': They try for another late goal, we counter, constantino with a long run down the right, pass ot Rob Lewis, he's got no one in front of him, one of their defenders comes in at the last second to try to tackle it away... penalty! Constantino takes the PK, buries it, 4 goals. 5-2

Ipswich 5 : 2 Portsmouth

Well that was a hell of a lot closer than the final score. Constantino seals it late and pads his numbers a bit.

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.8)
Goals: Constantino 4, Fryers (8.2)
Assists: Donnelly 2 (8.0), Bennett (8.5), Lewis (7.2)
Notables: Bruce (7.1), Coutts (7.1)


-- With this win we move up into 3rd place, 3 points out of first. We jump ahead of QPR who ahs fallen to 4th.

-- I notice that Woking beat QPR 1:0 and they've been on a bit of a roll, for them at least. They've won 3 out of their last 4, beating our rival Norwich and then their parent club QPR, they're now 3-1-14 and out of last. They're still next to last but the wins put them at least in striking distance of staying up for now.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Can I just say how much I love Constantino finally with you for good? It's so damn awesome to see.

Just in time for a 4 goal performance from him. At the time I thought I had some pretty bad tunnel vision ignoring team needs to go get my guy, but 13 matches and 13 goals later...

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Can I just say how much I love Constantino finally with you for good? It's so damn awesome to see.

I need to get me one of them Constantino's for Bishop's Stortford, dude is a machine!!

[Simbo Klice]

If there is a dynasty athlete of the year award, Constantino is a shoe-in. And just to get you in on some of the praise, this format is incredibly readable. Everything I would want to know about is in here, where I would want to see it, and it actually makes me feel immersed into your game. Kudos!

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I need to get me one of them Constantino's for Bishop's Stortford, dude is a machine!!

Originally Posted by Simbo Klice

If there is a dynasty athlete of the year award, Constantino is a shoe-in. And just to get you in on some of the praise, this format is incredibly readable. Everything I would want to know about is in here, where I would want to see it, and it actually makes me feel immersed into your game. Kudos!

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words as always.

[Radii]

December Update

-- We play league matches on the 2nd, 9th, 12th, 16th, 23rd, 26th, and 30th. Busy month!

-- Our young DL Stuart Kirkland has shown great improvement over the last month or two. Crossing(11), Dribbling(10), Free Kick Taking(3), Tackling(13), Anticipation(9), Decisions(12), Flair(9) all have improved!

-- Bryan Bennett is named the Player of the Month for November for the league. Constantino is second, Matthew Khan is third. Sweep! Note this is player of the month, not young player, whee!

-- I am 3rd in the voting for manager of the month.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Bennett's loan is still the highlight, and our League Cup loss is still the negative. We lost $935,000 last month.

December 2nd, 2017

Ipswich(11-5-2, 3rd) @ Huddersfield(6th)

Huddersfield's manager was 2nd in manager of the month voting last month. They're on a nice hot streak to get up into the playoffs. We're slim 7:4 dogs on the road, they are 5:4 favorites. We've done very well against these guys historically, we're 6-2-3 lifetime.

GK: Murphy
D: Kirkland/Brown/Bruce/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Huddersfield's Lee Novak has 6 goals to lead them, Sam Collins 4 goals. That's compared to 13 from Constantino and 8 from Khan. We get our starters all back in here today. Brown, Paulo and Khan all sat for our last match, they're starting today. Standard mindset on the road today.

12': Gordon has the ball near midfield on the right side, he plays a beautiful ball forward towards the area, Contantino sprints by two defenders and pounces. Their keeper rushes out and cuts off his shooting angle quite well, Constantino shoots, the keeper deflects it, but can't hold it, rebound falls to Donnelly and he's able to put it into the net!! 1-0

17': We give up 3 corners in a row but are able to clear out finally.

19': We try to build up an attack but the ball is lost near midfield, they have a couple quick nifty passes before a through ball into the area. Their star playmaker Tunnicliffe hits Hughes perfectly and he has a very easy look at the goal, Murphy dives but can't stop this clear cut chance, and we're tied back up. 1-1

35': Their man Tunnicliffe picks up a yellow for a tackle on Donnelly.

44': Berthet clears out of our end with a long ball down the right, Constantino is there but he isn't able to take a full run at the keeper, their central defenders are back, he passes back to Gordon, cuts towards the goal, Gordon plays it back to Constantino, its our second clear cut chance of the match, but the keeper is able to make the save on this one.

HALF: Each team has 7 shots, 3 on target, 2 clear cut chances, 1 goal. We're really not doing very well in the air, Huddersfield is winning 80% of their headers, we're winning 32% of ours. I was on the phone for part of the half and didn't pause, missed a few opportunities worth reporting. It seems like a pretty wide open, I debate dropping back to defend but we're going to keep going like this and trust our guys to get another goal here.

48': We have a few passes as we build up on offense, Donnelly with a very, very tight through ball to Constantino, he's covered fairly closely but the pass was just perfect, its a clear cut chance but the keeper is able to save. Great, great play by Donnelly.

60': They have a throwin in our end, there's a cross into the area, their striker Hughes heads it back to midfielder Vidal, he's got a look from 20 yards out, a quick pacey strike that beats Murphy. Very solid play by Huddersfield. 1-2

66': Bennett with a yellow.

77': Coutts in for Gordon who is tired.

78': Donnelly is hurt, he can stay in but he looks pretty hurt.

83': Walker in for Donnelly.

90': We earn a corner kick as Khan tries a cross that is blocked behind. Corner is cleared easily.

Huddersfield got their second goal pretty early on a very nice move and totally shut us down in the 2nd half.

Huddersfield 2 : 1 Ipswich

Their striker Hughes is man of the match.

Goal: Gordon Donnelly (7.8)
Assist: Constantino (7.2)
Notables: Berthet (7.0)

We generated some solid chances early but Huddersfield really outplayed us in the second half.

-- no long term injury for Donnelly, whew.

[Radii]

-- Apparently a couple years ago Ipswich sold AMR Jennison Myrie-Williams to West Brom. There was a clause for an extra payment once he played 10 matches for West Brom. He just played his 10th match now and we receive $375,000.

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw

Bleh, crappy draw. We have to travel to the #9 team in the Championship, Cardiff, for this match. We're expected to reach the 4th round of the FA Cup so we need to win this one.

World Cup Draw

The World Cup is in the USA this year. France won in 2014, Paraguay in 2010. Here's the draw for the 2018 world cup:

Group A

France
Wales
Peru
Tunisia

Group B

USA
Spain
Uruguay
Australia

Group C

Portugal
Honduras
South Korea
Brazil

Group D

Holland
Czech Republic
Morocco
Colombia

Group E

South Africa
Turkey
Poland
UAE

Group F

Ivory Coast
England
Italy
Japan

Group G

Greece
Iraq
Argentina
Mexico

Group H

Ghana
Belgium
Germany
Jamaica

Injury Update

-- Stuart Kirkland is hurt in training and will miss 9-12 days.

-- Birmingham fires their manager and rumors come out that I could be up for the job. That's the first EPL job I've gotten that kind of notification about. I announce that I'm not interested.

December 9th, 2017

Ipswich(11-5-3, 6th) @ Fulham(1-6-12, 24th)

Fulham are in dead last, 1 point behind Woking. We're massive favorites, 4:5 today over Fulham. They're just 3:1 to get a win today. Fulham are 1 point behind Woking in last place. The road team won both meetings last year, we're 4-1-5 lifetime against them, its been pretty even but we should have the upperhand today.

GK: Murphy
D: Gudmundsson/Brown/Bruce/McKerr
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Coutts
AMC: Gordon
ST: Lewis/Constantino

Chris Makiese leads them with 9 goals. No one else has more than 2. We're going to be playing a ton on short rest so I rest a number of starters today. Gudmundsson starts for the injured Kirkland. McKerr, Coutts and Lewis start for Berthet, Bennett and Khan today. We're attacking today.

14': Paulo misses a tackle in the midfield and allows a run at Murphy from one of their strikers... into the area, clear cut strike.. murphy makes a great diving save and just turns it behind. We clear out the corner.

22': We allow 2 corners, first one just headed back behind again, second one cleared well. We're not getting possession so far, we might have to get Bennett in this game.

32': We lose possession in the midfield, they get it forward to forward James Brown, Bruce tries to make the tackle from behind, fails, Brown into the area, and he beats Murphy. 0-1

34': Donnelly tries to get it back by himself. He's 30 yards out, makes a great run by the man on him, earns a clear cut chance getting into the area, but the keeper makes the save.

35': We set up our offense, with little buildup Gudmundsson just sends a ball forward from the midfield circle into the area. They have two defenders there, Constantino goes up with both of them, gets his head to the ball, the keeper has to dive for it, it hits the left post and bounces in! That's constantino doesn't get a lot of headers, most of his bad ratings are games where he goes 3 for 20 on headers. This is one of the more unlikely goals I think we've ever scored. 1-1

HALF: We only allow 4 shots, 3 on target. We shoot 3 times, 2 on target. But really it feels like Fulham are nearly in complete control today. They have a 57/43 possession edge. Lewis and Gordon put up 5.7 ratings for the half. I decide to make one change at the half. Coutts moves up to AMC. Bennett comes in for Gordon and moves to MC. That gives two of our starters a half of rest and maybe this gives us a better offense for the second half.

48': We try to start our offense and they quickly clear away. They get it to their scorer Brown 35 yards out. Bruce plays him agressively and makes the tackle, Brown keeps going forward, the ball ends up at the feet of one of their midfielders, he pushes it back ahead to Brown, Brown is in the area and has another free run at Murphy and scores easily. 1-2

57': We work the ball forward, Gudmundsson makes a difficult pass into the area to Rob Lewis. One of their defenders seems to have a shot to intercept and fails, the defender on Lewis misses a tackle, Lewis picks it up and shoots near post and its in! 2-2

62': Terrible, terrible defending. They have it in the midfield and rush forward, they go wide right, a cross into the area and James Brown is there, our defenders are not, they're a good 5 ayrds behind when the cross comes in, and he's got an easy, easy hat trick. 2-3

79': Constantino!!!!! Fulham backs it out to set up their offense, Constantino makes a tackle and wins the ball, passing back to Bennett. Bennett to Lewis, Lewis to Constantino and he's in the midfield circle but he's got a step on the defense. He pushes the ball ahead and takes off. no one can catch him, he gets into the area and beats the keeper!! 3-3

79': Khan in for Lewis who is really tired.

82': We earn a corner, but they clear it easily.

83': We get another throwin, some great passing to set up a nice shot, but Coutts is just offsides as the pass is made.

88': Coutts goes down hurt.

90': Donnelly passes it ahead to Constantino, he turns and immediately fires from 20 yards out, the ball hits the crossbar and goes straight up into the air. It ends up coming down just out of play.

93': Oh this looks bad. We head the ball out of the defense, Khan goes for a header, and he falls hard. He's hurt too.

The whistle blows and we have to take the draw here.

Fulham 3 : 3 Ipswich

No surprise at all that their striker James Brown is man of the match with a hat trick. Going into the match Brown had a 6.24 rating and 1 goal through 15 matches.

Goals: Constantino 2 (8.8), Lewis (7.4)
Assists: Gudmundsson 2 (7.3), Lewis
Notables: Murphy (7.4), Bruce (7.0)

We played much better in the second half, but we gave up a couple very easy chances. I'm surprised the defense didn't take a big hit in their ratings.


Injury Update

Bring on Rob Lewis... Matthew Khan turned his ankle and he's going to miss the next month.

[Radii]

-- Brian Murphy is named in the Championship Team of the Week.

December 12th, 2017

Swansea(5-2-13, 21st) @ Ipswich(11-6-3, 5th)

We're big 4:6 favorites today at Portman Road. Swansea are 7:2 dogs. 22nd through 24th relegate back down to League 1, Swansea are 4 points ahead of 22nd. We're now 4 points behind the auto promote 2nd place. We're 4-5-5 lifetime against them, the road team won both games last year.

GK: Murphy
D: Gudmundsson/Bruce/Brown/Berthet
DMC: Coutts
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Lewis/Constantino

Aaron Spear leads Swansea with 12 goals, he's clearly their biggest threat out there. Coutts starts for Paulo today. Bennett, Berthet are back in today. Standard mindset at home today.

3': We earn an early corner as Donnelly has a shot blocked, they clear easily.

18': They commit a foul just outside the area. We shoot, their keeper pushes it away, we control it out wide to the right, Bennett puts it back in the area, Gordon heads it, but its just wide.

21': Donnelly with a through ball into the area, Constantino is first to it but his first touch is poor and they close down before he can shoot.

27': Rob Lewis is fouled hard and he's hurt... he has to come out and we're down two strikers, ugh. Jon Stead is in.

32': Coutts is hurt and he's forced to immediately come off. Seroiusly!? Paulo is in.

34': Bennett has it out right, hits Constantino 20 ayrds out. constantino backs up a few steps, draws a defender, cuts left and blows by him, into the area, he beats the keeper and that's an incredible individual effort! 1-0

46': They shoot their first shot 25 yards away and put it well wide.

HALF: Swansea has 57% of the possession but we seem fully in control. We have 6 shots, 2 on target. They have 2 shots, both off target very late in the half. We've used two of our subs, so hopefully nothing else bad happens here!

63': We have a free kick about 30 yards out, the penalty area is super crowded. The ball goes to our backup striker Stead, its tackled away from him but Donnelly is there and pounces, controlling the ball and taking a quick shot that goes just high. He had a great look there.

74': We switch to a defensive mindset.

76': We have a throwin, its taken to Berthet who passes quickly to constantino, he fires, but its saved.

77': Another throwin, Bennett has it 25 yards out and puts a ball into the area, Paulo was up front for the set piece, he is first to the ball and puts a solid shot near post by the keeper! That's his first goal of the year. 2-0

81': Walker in for Donnelly.

With a 2 goal lead we easily finish this off.

Ipswich 2 : 0 Swansea

Man of the Match: Bryan Bennett (7.8)
Goals: Constantino (7.2), Paulo (7.4)
Assists: Bennett 2
Notables: Berthet (7.5), Gundmundsson (7.3), Donnelly (7.1)


Time to hold our breath and look at injuries.

... seconds pass

SHIT.

Injury Update

-- Rob Lewis has some kind of hip injury. The Physio would have him out for 3-4 months. We can send him to a specialist and have him back hopefully in 2-3 months. I'm sure that costs more but its clearly the option we're going to take.

-- Paul Coutts has a broken Ankle and is going to miss 3 months.


So right now we've got 2 strikers and our most versatile midfielder out for some time. We'll very likely be running a 5-3-2 or 5-4-1 as a measure to rest our forwards and midfielders for awhile.

[Radii]

December 16th, 2017

Ipswich(12-6-3, 4th) @ Charlton(8-4-9, 13th)

We're very very slim 6:4 favorites today, they're 13:8 to win. We've dominated Charlton, 8-0-2 lifetime against them.

GK: Murphy
D: Gudmundsson/Bruce/Brown/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Stead/Constantino

Charlton has only 22 goals in 21 matches. Alvaro Cejudo has 5 goals to lead them, Kevin Vandenbergh has 4 goals. We actually have a week off after this one so we go with our best lineup possible. We'll go defensive on the road today.

2': Paulo has it 35 yards out, he passes it to Jon Stead 25 yards out, he turns and shoots, the ball is by the keeper, hits the crossbar and ricochets in!! 1-0

24': We get a breakaway after winning the ball, long ball to Constantino, he's a long way out still, he's brought down as he goes by his man, that's a yellow for defender Bassey.

28': Constantino intercepts a horrible backpass by Charlton in the midfield. He heads to the right side and takes a long run down to the end line, there's a pass into the area for Bennett, Bennett shoots... but its saved by the keeper. Not the best shot, it wasn't a clear cut chance but he had a really good look.

HALF: There's one highlight the rest of the way, a nice looking attack for us that comes up short when we settle for a long shot. Charlton actually has 7 shots, but 5 are off target and we only saw a few. We have 6 shots, 3 on target. Charlton has a massive, massive 63/37 possession edge, our highlights seem to mostly be very quick strikes. We'll keep defending, maybe we can steal another goal.

54': Charlton with 3 highlights and 3 more off target shots.

57': Stead steals a pass as Charlton is trying to set up their offense, we've got a big edge here on their end of the field. There's a quick pass to Donnelly, a quick ball forward to Constantino, he's into the area and puts it home!! 2-0

64': We earn a corner, its taken into the 6 yard box, our man goes down, its a penalty!! Paulo takes it... and blasts it into the stands. Oh dear.

67': Charlton quickly takes advantage of our missed penalty. The highlight starts with them only about 30 yards from goal. One of their strikers has it, draws 2 defenders, slides a pass to their other striker in the area, easy goal. I dunno how they got that going, but it was a very easy pass and shot, instead of a 3-0 lead we're up 2-1. 2-1

75': Fryers in for Gordon and we go back to a 5 man line. the very little used Danny Graham is in for Stead.

86': They earn a corner, its taken to the far end of the 6 yard box, Murphy goes out for it and doesn't pick it up, the net is wide open at this point. They get a head to the ball, but its over. We dodge a major bullet there.

92': They work the attack, one of their strikers has it 20 yards out, he fires a shot from there, murphy punches it away, it falls to another attacker at the edge of the penalty box, its fired back in right away, Murphy with a second reflex save! We get it cleared away after that.

That'll do it!

Charlton 1 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Jon Stead (7.3)
Goals: Stead, Constantino (7.2)
Assists: Paulo (6.8), Donnelly (6.9)
Notables: Gudmundsson (7.2)

Not the best performance but we will certainly take it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Radii

Not the best performance but we will certainly take it.

TBH I was fully expecting to see the tying goal any second there. That just didn't feel like it was going to end well, so I'd definitely be happy with the points.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Radii

Charlton has only 22 goals in 21 matches.

You can't call that _only_ 22 goals in 21 matches. I just got through my first season in FM11, consolidating with newly-promoted Gloucester in the BSN. We somehow worked our way into 15th while scoring only 30 goals in 40 matches. It helps that we only allowed 40 goals, 3rd-best in the BSN. But I wasn't too thrilled that our leading goalscorer had 3 goals on the season.

[rlmayer32]

The Ipswitch move should be good for you in the end. My handheld save has been Welling United and after 9 seasons we just gained promotion to the EPL. I have a sneaking suspicion it might be time for me to move on as well because like your old club, the money just isn't there.

[Radii]

-- Emilio Buratti's 3 month loan finishes, he was hurt for a month of that and didn't ever make the field.

December 23rd, 2017

Ipswich(13-6-3, 3rd) @ Plymouth(10-7-5, 8th)

Just like our match vs Charlton we're 6:4 favorites, Plymouth are 13:8 dogs. Plymouth beat us at Portman road in our first match this year 2:1. We're 8-2-5 lifetime against them.

GK: Murphy
D: Gudmundsson/Bruce/Brown/Berthet
DMC: Paulo
MC: Donnelly/Bennett
AMC: Gordon
ST: Stead/Constantino

Julian Esteban leads Plymouth with 10 goals, Febian Brandy has 7, and Jamie Mackie 6. Stuart Kirkland is back from his injury and starts today. We'll play defensive here.

3': We take the first shot, Donnelly hits it forward to Stead in a bit of space, but a defender comes over to deflect the shot away. We earn a corner but its easily cleared.

17': Tons of highlights and a few shots here, but most of it is guys passing back and forth 30 yards out looking for shots. Each team has 5 with 1 on target so far.

27': defender Atkinson picks up a yellow for tackling Constantino as he's making a run towards the area. Berthet shoots on the free kick about 25 yards out, its off the wall and behind for a corner. Corner is cleared easily.

34': Striker Brandy receives a ball in the left side of the area, Troy Brown tackles it away, Brandy goes down and its a dive, Brandy picks up a yellow for diving.

43': After another long possession on offense for us with lots of passing but no good looks, Bennett turns and fires from 25 yards out, its a good shot and the keeper has push it behind for a corner. First corner is headed away for a throwin, we get a second corner after that throw, a third corner... and they finally clear.

HALF: We end up shooting 8 times, but 4 are from long range. They shoot 5 times, just 1 on target. We have a 59/41 possession edge, other stats are about even, they're tackling more reliably than we are. We'll stay on the defensive here.

49': We give up a corner, they take it to their near man who heads it with great pace, Murphy has to dive to make the save, they get a second corner and we clear it out. That was a scary shot though on the header.

60': Gordon has it nea rmidfield after we win the ball, he sends it ahead to Constantino, he picks it up in line with their last defender and turns on the gas, he's into the area coming in from the right side, its the best look we've had though not a clear cut chance, and the keeper is able to push it away.

66': Danny Graham in for Stead at striker.

68': We have a throwin in our end, we somehow catch them by surprise, Constantion receives a pass and sprints down the right side, they rush back to try to defend but are not set up well. Constantino is into the area, gets down near the end line, passes across the face of the goal, Gordon is there and he taps it in, easy goal, great play! 1-0

83': Walker in for Donnelly, McKerr in for Graham, McKerr drops back to give us a 5 man defensive line.

85': Walker with a foul inches out of the box... its a yellow for him and a free kick from very close range. They don't shoot, they try a pass and we clear easily.

There's 5 minutes of extra time and its not officially called until 96:45, but we hang on for the win pretty easily in the end.

Plymouth 0 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Constantino (7.6)
Goal: Gordon (7.1)
Assist: Constantino
Notables: Berthet (7.4), Kirkland (7.1), Brown (7.0), Bennett (7.2), Donnelly (7.0)


With that win we're in a 3 way tie for second and our +23 goal differential puts us in second at the halfway point!