FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

November 30th, 2025

Sheffield Utd(2-3-8, 19th) @ Ipswich (6-4-1, 7th)

Sheffield Utd is one of those teams that seem to give us problems as well but this year they are way way down there. We are 1:2 favorites at home today. 5-4-14 lifetime, we did win the last time we met but are 1-1-2 in our last 4. Complacency against lower ranked teams is a worry here today where we could benefit so much by a 3 points we *should* get.


GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Olvera/Jackson
M: Ros/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Bryan

We start David Ros and Pablo Olvera today. I worry about complacency but really at home against a team 19th in the league, that's the time to start those guys that you wanna make sure play 10 matches.

We attack today. It's pouring down rain.

8': Darcy into the left side of the area for Ros, he's got a clear cut chance and a great look, but right at the keeper and saved.

10': Darcy a nice run down the left, cross, Bryan heads it... over. 6 shots in the first 10 minutes but just 1 on target.

17': Throwin in their end, thrown to Darcy in the left side of the area, played back to Kirkland, a cross, Jean is there about 8 yards away, heads it... goal!! 1-0

35': yellow for their midfielder Zabala.

39': They try to clear a ball out, Olvera at midfield, sends it up to Chrzanowski, he centers to Darcy, a short run, shot from 20 yards out... blasted by the keeper, really great strike!!! 2-0

HALF: We're crushing them and just need to keep it going. We have 13 shots to their 2, 67% of the possession, winning every possible area. Olvera has a 5.7 rating and I decide to go ahead and put in Bartlett, I don't want him to give up a goal and kill his confidence or anything.

65': Ros with a great juke to beat a man down the left side, he makes a nice run towards the left corner, plays a low cross into the area, Chrzanowski is there from near point blank range... but sends it right at the keeper, Ros should have earned an assist there, poor finish.

87': Mills is fouled about 20 yards out near the right corner of the penalty area. David Ros takes the free kick, sends it to the far post, the keeper goes all the way to that side of the goal, but Mills wins the header and just sends it into the nearly empty net! 3-0

87': Connolly in for Mills.

Ipswich 3 : 0 Sheffield Utd

Strong win, good play against a team we should beat.

Man of the Match: David Ros (8.8)
Goals: Darcy (7.4), Jean (7.9), Mills (7.9)
Assists: Ros, Kirkland (8.5), Chrzanowski (7.8)
Notables: jackson (7.8), Mattle (7.5)

I'm really pleased to see our young kid earn man of the match here, I expected it to be someone else, but he did play really well outside of missing the clear cut chance he had.


We're still in 7th after this one, but its so crowded, 1 point from 5th, 2 points from 3rd, 5 points from 1st, and we still have 2 matches in hand.

[Radii]

December Update

-- We play on the 3rd, 6th, 10th, 13th, 17th, 21st, 27th, and 31st. Matches on the 3rd and 17th will finish up Euro Cup Group play. In league play we play 4 on the road, 2 at home. Liverpool, Arsenal, Man city this month, that's 3 of the top 4.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership, with our increase in stature being the highlight. Our 0:0 draw with Stoke is the biggest negative to be found.

-- We lost $5.86M last month. We've lost $20.8M on the year now so far.

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw

We're the defending champs in the FA Cup this year and we're rewarded by playing our first match at home... against Man Utd. Blech.


December 3rd, 2025

Euro Cup Group B

M Haifa (2-1-1, 2nd) @ Ipswich (3-1-0, 1st)

A draw would clinch advancement for us. A win would clinch the group 1st place for us. We could lose and potentially clinch advancement depending on the result of the other match. We're 1:2 favorites at home and would like to just win so we can relax in our last match.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Connolly/Smith/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

All four midfield spots change from last match, Heywood starts for the first time this year, 6 weeks of injuries since July is the reason for that though. We'll attack today.

4': Darcy a great run down the center, a pass to Di Giuseppe, he's charging towards the area, tackled from behind by a defender... and that's a straight red, well deserved imo!! 86 minutes with a man up here. Free kick just a foot outside the area, but sent into the wall by Gordon.

7': Corner for us, Gordon sends it far post, Aldrovandi heads it into the side netting.

17': Darcy to Di Giuseppe, he's 25 yards out, makes a great move to get by his defender, into the area, clear cut chance and easy goal! 1-0

27': Di Giuseppe a long run down the left, a great cross, Darcy a header from 6 yards out.. into the crossbar, he had to score there.

27': Heywood a yellow.

30': They try to attack, a poor cross comes in, Kirkland heads it away, sent to the midfield, Darcy wins it, passes ahead to di Giuseppe who is all alone, the offside trap screwed up by a defender way way too far back out left. Di Giuseppe into the area and an easy goal.

47': They try to clear a ball away after a throwin deep in their end. Connolly recovers it, crosses into the area, Darcy wins another header and this one he drills into the net! 3-0

HALF: Easy enough! Chrzanowski in for Gordon at the half. Commentary only.

62': Smith to Di Giuseppe, he makes a move and scores and he has a hat trick! 4-0

72': Bartlett in for Ballester, Jackson for Heywood.

Ipswich 4 : 0 M Haifa

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (9.6)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 3, Darcy (8.9)
Assists: Darcy 2, Connolly (8.5), Smith (8.1)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.4), Heywood (7.6), Kirkland (7.6), Aldrovandi (7.5), Ballester (7.3), Crespo (7.3)

-- We receive $201,000 for the win.

FC RB Salzburg 3 : 0 KF Tirana in the other group match.

Ipswich 4-1-0, 13 pts
Salzburg 3-0-2, 9 pts
M Haifa 2-1-2, 7 pts
KF Tirana 0-0-5, 0 pts

We play KF Tirana in our last match. We've already clinched the group no matter what happens, we'll play an entire team full of backups/youngsters in that one as we'll be in the middle of a bunch of league matches.

Ipswich have Qualified for the Knockout Rounds of the Euro Cup

[Radii]

-- We learn in a coaches meeting that Steven Mills is continuing to talk about a new challenge. I think we're good enough that we'd live without him just fine, but we like him and don't want to let him go unless we have to.

-- We also learn that Matthew Khan and Conor Clifford are dropping in training.

-- We also learn that young exciting players Connolly and Darcy and Di Giuseppe are all training well.

-- Eoin Darcy is 21 y/o now and has trained exceptionally well, he is mentally a giant. 19 of the ball, 18 composure, 18 anticipation, 17 bravery, 16 decisions, 16 determination. Not a single rating below 11. Dribbling and First Touch 18 as well, Finishing 15/Heading 15/Technique 15. He's looking pretty damn beastly. I've been trying to work him in more. Our coaches still like Constantino, Di Giuseppe and Bryan more, but damn he's good.

-- Di Giuseppe is universally considered a 4 1/2* or 5* player by all our coaches. As good as he was when we bought him he has had 16 of his ratings increase in the last 9 months. His heading (now 19) and Composure (12) have gone up twice.

December 6th, 2025

Ipswich (7-4-1, 7th) @ Southampton (5-1-8, 11th)

We are big big 4:6 favorites on the road and we are riding a solid hot streak. They're 7:2 to win. We're 7-4-4 lifetime against Southampton. We haven't lost to them since 2019, 6-2-0 since the last time they beat us. Lets get 3 points here on the road to keep that up!

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Sergio Roberto/Mills/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino

Standard mindset on the road.

13': Mills to Gordon to Constantino very quickly to set up Constantino in the area with a clear cut chance, blasted at the keeper.

20': After a throwin they take a quick shot from 20+ yards out, Bogdanovs has to make a solid diving save there, we clear the corner.

27': Bogdanovs saves us again, a clear cut chance coming in from the right as a man gets behind Kirkland.

33': They're pressuring quite hard here, 9 shots to our 3. I drop back to counterattack.

37': Sergio Roberto shoots from 20 yards out after a throwin for us, its saved though, and the corner is cleared.

39': They finally get through, a hard cross in from the right is cleared by Jackson, but they push forward and catch us off guard, a pass into the left side of the area and midfielder Towler scores. 0-1

HALF: We control possession 54/46 but they have 11 shots with 4 on target. We're tackling well (82%), passing as well as them, but not winning in the air. Constantino and Bryan are both playing poorly and I bring Darcy in for Constantino at the half. Back to a standard mindset, we need to pressure them.

58': We miss our best chance to tie it up so far. Crespo begins a run at midfield and just keeps going, they don't go out to close down on him, when he finally gets to about 25 yards out he passes over to Bryan, clear cut chance.. off the right post.

73': Connolly in for Sergio Roberto and we attack.

92': Free kick from well out near midfield, Gordon sends it into the area, Bryan heads it... and its off the left post and out wide.

94': We have a corner, maybe our last chance... they head it out, and yep, that's it.

Southampton 1 : 0 Ipswich

We allowed them to pressure us heavily which I didn't expect at all. We also had two clear cut chances for Bryan and Constantino and failed to score. Normally I think we draw here but we could have played better for sure.

Their keeper is man of the match.

Notables: Kirkland (7.3), Gordon (7.0)


We're 2 matches behind the teams at the top and just 1 match behind a couple teams. A win here would have moved us into 5th and we failed to get it.

[Radii]

December 10th, 2025

Ipswich (7-4-2, 7th) @ Aston Villa (6-2-5, 10th)

Aston Villa are slim 6:4 favorites today. We still have a poor history against Aston Villa, 3-5-8 lifetime, but the last two years the home team has won every meeting.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Mattle/Heywood
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

We decide to go to a 4-1-4-1 on the road today with a counterattacking look. Di Giuseppe up front.

24': Corner for Gordon, taken to the near man Ballester, a header is off the crossbar, fairly close!

29': Uh oh. Di Giuseppe is hurt, and he's out of the match. Darcy is in.

38': Darcy is hurt... he'll stay in.

HALF: We have a 61/39 possession edge. Most of the highlights show us winning a ball in midfield and attacking. They have 7 shots with 3 on target, but I only saw one of them. We shoot 5 times, just 1 on target. Stats are mostly even, we have a slight edge passing and tackling and are doing well winning our headers, just really no good offense.

48': Gordon takes a corner, far post, Mattle heads it but its just high.

51': They get a goal off a header after a throwin/cross but its offsides, whew.

62': Another corner for us, Gordon takes it to the far post, Mattle wins the header and this time its on target and its a goal!!! The keeper came out to try to catch the cross and missed. 1-0

70': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Smith in for Mills

85': They have a corner, taken short to midfielder Simpson in the near side of the penalty area, Smith closes in, whiffs completely on a tackle, cuts to the middle, Sergio Roberto whiffs on a tackle... and he shoots and scores from like 8 yards away. Disgustingly bad defense. 1-1

Aston Villa 1 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Otmar Mattle (8.7)
Goals: Mattle
Assists: Gordon (7.0)
Notables: Heywood (7.0), Kirkland (7.0)

They got their shots in, but each team comes up big on one set piece for a draw. I'm disappointed simply because we failed so horribly on the goal we gave up with two botched tackles when we had been doing so well on defense. But a tie on the road against a top 10 team, sure thing.


-- Di Giuseppe is only going to miss about a week.


As of now we're only 1 match behind most teams and sit in 6th, 3 points would now only bump us up 1 spot to 5th, so we've squandered away some potential here. Next match is huge, home vs Liverpool!

[Radii]

December 13th, 2025

Liverpool (9-4-3, 3rd) @ Ipswich (7-5-2, 6th)

We get to be the slim home 6:4 favorites today, Liverpool are 5 points ahead of us in 3rd place, they are the only team we have 2 matches in hand against, everyone else has 15 played, they have 16 while we have 14. We are 5-4-6 lifetime against Liverpool and have had the better of it lately. Last year the home team won each match, the two seasons previous we won at home and tied them on the road, making us 3-2-1 in our last 6 and 3-0-0 at home.


GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Mattle/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Smith/Gordon
F: Khan/Bryan

24 y/o Liverpool ST Daniel Acosta is one of the EPL's top scorers early on with 9 goals in 13 matches total. Luckily he isn't starting today but Andy Bailey is and he has 5 goals in 16 league matches, not too shabby.

We go with Khan/Bryan up front today, Smith in for Mills, Crespo back starting at ML.

Standard mindset at home.

3': Yellow for midfielder Carter

7': Yellow for defender Schreuder. We have a free kick out wide right, passed to the center of the pitch outside the area where Mills shoots but its off the left post.

17': Wow, two matches in a row!! Gordon a corner, to the far post, Mattle heads it in!!! 1-0

26': A couple passes right up the middle lead to a blast from ST Bailey 20 yards out, Bogdanovs makes a nice save and turns it behind for a corner, we clear the first behind for a second corner and head that one away.

36': Free kick about 40 yards out to the right. Gordon sends it ahead to Ballester who is 25 yards away dead center, most of both teams are ahead in the penalty area, Ballester shoots from there though... and holy crap its somehow in!!! Perfectly aimed into the upper right corner of the goal and amazingly not blocked by anyone in the area. 2-0

HALF: They control 53% of the possession and have 8 shots to our 6 but we have two really great goals to give us a huge lead here!! We'll drop to a counter attacking mindset for the second half.

47': They have a corner, taken to the near man, dribbled out wide, passed back into the area, dribbled towards the end line, lobbed into the 6 yard box... and their defender Schreuder is there to poke it in. I dunno how all of that happened without us making a tackle. 2-1

75': Mills in for Khan, Smith to DMC, Mills MC, 4-1-4-1 to defend and finish this out.

80': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Aldrovandi in for Mattle, both for fatigue.

83': They have a corner.. headed out of the area out to the right, but their corner taker crosses it right back in and backup ST Pattinama heads it in, disaster for us as we lose a 2-0 lead. 2-2

83': We'll attack...

92': We clear a ball out of our end and send it down the left side, Bryan is there, he pulls the ball out wider left and makes a run towards the left corner, a low cross into the area, mills controls it with his feet in the area, the keeper charges him, but Mills puts it by him and into the net!!!!! 3-2

Ipswich 3 : 2 Liverpool

A huge 3 points, I was getting frustrated at giving up that lead and wondering how much I would have squandered by giving away 2 points there, and we pull out a win in injury time!!!

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.5)
Goals: Mattle (8.4), Ballester (8.1), Mills (7.3)
Assists: Gordon 2, Bryan (7.9)
Notables: Khan (7.1)

This was indeed a really big win, we remain in 6th but Liverpool falls to 5th with the loss and we're just behind them, a Man City draw pulls us within 2 points of 4th with a game in hand there, and actually 3 points form 3rd with a game in hand on Chelsea:

16 matches played unless otherwise noted:

1. Man Utd - 36 pts
2. Arsenal - 35 pts
3. Chelsea - 32 pts
4. Man City - 31 pts
5. Liverpool - 31 pts (1 MORE played)
6. Ipswich - 29 pts (1 less played)
7. Huddersfield - 27 pts (1 less played)
8. Blackburn - 23 pts (1 less played)


Arsenal is an unbelievable scoring machine this year so far with 40 goals for/12 against, they have a +28 goal differential. All of a sudden ipswich are the kings of defense... we have 24 goals/8 allowed, fewest in the league! Our +16 goal differential is 1 behind man city and ahead of everyone else in the league but Arsenal. I'd noticed the 0:0 draws and stuff, but really, we've allowed 8g oals in 15 matches!

[Radii]

December 17th, 2025

Euro Cup Group B

Ipswich @ KF Tirana

We've clinched our group no matter what happens here. We're 4:7 favorites on the road against a team that has scored 3 goals and allowed 18 in 5 Euro Cup matches so far on their way to an 0-0-5 record.

GK: Lines
D: Hughes/Olvera/Bartlett/Heywood
M: Ros/Clifford/Connolly/Chrzanowski
F: Battersby/Constantino

Lines/Olvera/Ros/Battersby are obvious situations to start some youngsters, elsewhere we run backups/guys that have been getting less playing time. Constantino is the one exception. His morale has dropped to Poor, perhaps because of a heavier focus on Di Giuseppe, perhaps a drought (even though he still has 10 goals in 14 matches this year). I'd like to see if he can't get a bunch of goals today to bump that morale up though, I've avoided using him in my last 3-4 matches entirely b/c of morale.

Commentary only today.

6': Classic Constantino, Chrzanowski makes a good interception in our end, up to Battersby, up to Constantino but he's still 40 yards out, he dribbles through 3 defenders on his way to the penalty area and an easy goal. 1-0

21': Battersby into the area for Constantino for assist #2 and goal #2. 2-0

28': Clifford to Chrzanowski, a long, strong pass into the area, Chrzanowski showed great control here and gives us the 3 goal lead. 3-0

47': A penalty leads to Constantino's hat trick in the first half. 4-0

53': Poor defending of a goal kick by Bartlett gives them a man behind the defense, Lines rushes out but their man lobs it over his head and into the net. 4-1

59': Battersby assist #3, Constantino goal #4. 5-1

Easy enough.

KF Tirana 1 : 5 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.8)
Goals: Constantio 4, Chrzanowski (8.5)
Assists: Battersby (9.0), Clifford (7.7), 1 unassisted.
Notables: Lines (7.2), Heywood (7.5), Hughes (7.4), Bartlett (7.1), Ros (7.6), Connolly (7.1)

DC Pablo Olvera with a 6.8 rating today, the only one under 7.


-- We receive $201,000 for the win

FC RB Salzburg and M Haifa tie in the other match and that settles the group:

1. Ipswich 5-1-0 - 16 pts
2. FC RB Salzburg 3-1-2 - 10 pts
3. M Haifa 2-2-2 - 8 pts
4. KF Tirana 0-0-6 - 0 pts

We ended up scoring 25 goals and allowing 4 in 6 group matches.

-- Aston Villa, Newcastle and Liverpool all advance to the knockout rounds as well.

[Radii]

Euro Cup First Knockout Round Draw

-- We will be playing two legs against Spartak Moscow in Russia. Its a great draw for us with some very very strong Italian and Spanish teams in the mix but not one to take

too lightly, 2 years ago they made the knockout rounds of the Champions League and have many times played in the group stage of the Champions League. 7 times they've made

the knockout round of the Euro Cup as well... but have never advanced past the first round.

-- Newcastle plays AC Milan, Liverpool vs Spanish side Athletic, Aston Villa vs FC RB Salzburg, Arsenal vs Cagliari, Chelsea vs Turkish side Kayserispor. Chelsea and

Arsenal failed to make it out of Champions League group play, leaving only Man Utd and Man City there.


Euro Cup Second Knockout Round Draw

The first two rounds are drawn at the same time here:

-- If we can beat Spartak Moscow we will face the winner of French side Valenciennes FC or Italian side Juventus. We were in a champions league group with Juventus last

year and were able to beat them. Ipswich vs Juventus is clearly the most likely possible outcome.

December 21st, 2025

Arsenal (12-2-3, 1st) @ Ipswich (8-5-2, 6th)

We begin an extremely tough stretch hosting Arsenal here today. They are 4:5 favorites at our place, we are 3:1 to win. We are 4-3-12 lifetime against Arsenal. We've played Arsenal 10 times in the last 3 years, two FA Cup Semifinals, FA Cup 6th Round + Replay and 6 league matches. We're 3-2-5 in that stretch, 2-1-1 at home.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Ballester/Heywood
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

We're running a 4-1-4-1 today against them, they are scoring so so much this year and we're told they struggle against 4-5-1 variants. They have 42 goals in 17 matches, 8 more than 2nd best in the league and 13 more than 3rd best. Their two stars, Bugra Yildirim and Hans Nooij have 12 and 10 goals.

We'll counterattack today.

9': Bogdanovs sends a long ball forward, Di Giuseppe gives chase but their defender gets there first, heading it back to his keeper, the keeper comes out to the right to head it back to a defender, but its mishit it would seem, right at Di Giuseppe and he heads it into the open net!!! 1-0

13': after a bad pass by them Crespo gets to a loose ball first and sends it long, their man heads it back but Di Giuseppe is again giving chase, he gets to the ball about 30 yards from goal well wide left but he's got some room to run, he comes into the left side of the area, shoots to the near post at a really tough angle, the keeper gets down and gets a hand on it but can't stop it and it deflects into the goal!!! 2-0

28': Yellow for their defender Hernandez.

32': Yellow for Mills.

37': After an injury we throw the ball to their defense, they begin to work it forward but Mills takes it away from his man in their defensive end, a very aggressive tackle! A pass to Gordon out right, he passes to Di Giuseppe who gets around one man, into the area... and he's brought down and its a foul, penalty!!!! Di Giuseppe takes the penalty and he's got a first half hat trick against Arsenal! 3-0

HALF: We have 6 shots, they have 5. Each of us have put 3 on target but Di Giuseppe has been EVERYWHERE. We had a key interception and a key tackle to start our offense up but not a single time was Di Giuseppe given an easy look, he has busted his ass to generate them (the penalty was an easy look but he had to beat one defender and draw a foul from another to earn the PK). We change nothing.

61': Jean a yellow.

62': Yellow for their midfielder Gamliel.

73': Chrzanowski, Smith, Connolly in for Gordon, Jean, Mills, fresh legs throughout the midfield.

88': Di Giuseppe is hurt, ugh.

Ipswich 3 : 0 Arsenal

Well then!!

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (9.5)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 3 -- All 3 goals Unassisted
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.6), Heywood (7.5), Kirkland (7.6), Ballester (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.9), Sergio Roberto (7.0), Gordon (7.0), Crespo (7.3), Mills (7.0)

Sergio Roberto's first season is feeling an awful lot like Jean's. I'm hoping his second season ends up like Jean as well. I believe this is Sergio Roberto's first 7.0 for us.

-- No long term injury for Di Giuseppe, whew.

3 unassisted goals! As I mentioned in the writeup, key interceptions and key tackles led to those goals but Di Giuseppe really never got a ball in a great position to score, he had to make all 3 of those goals happen himself after receiving the pass and did an unbelievable job.



This win pulls us up into 4th place, this was a really really big one. In fact we now have two matches in hand on Arsenal and Chelsea and are 6 points behind them, first place could be in sight if we were to win all our extra matches.

That said we may drop back to 5th by our next match, Man City is a point behind us and plays tomorrow.

[Radii]

Injury Update

-- Ballester is hurt in training and is going to miss 2-3 weeks.

-- Contracts are brought up again, i re-sign a bunch of my coaches, but MC Clifford and ST Khan both still linger and I think neither will be getting a new offer this year.

December 27th, 2025

Ipswich (9-5-2, 5th) @ Blackburn (7-3-7, 9th)

We're 8 points ahead of Blackburn with one less match played and as a result are massive 4:7 favorites even on the road. Blackburn are 4:1 to win. We are 5-5-4 lifetime against them but actually haven't lost in a long time. Lots of draws though, 2-4-0 in the last 3 seasons. Draws at Blackburn every time.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Mattle starts for the injured Ballester and Bryan is in up front instead of a DMC, otherwise no changes from the team that crushed Arsenal.

Counter attacking today.

5': They try to work it around on offense but pass back to a defender, a pass across the defense is lazy and intercepted by Chris Bryan, Bryan can't get it into the area for a shot himself, but he pulls it wide, passes back to Mils, to Di Giuseppe, he's heavily covered by now but finds the space to get a shot off and its into the right side of the goal!! 1-0

13': Di Giuseppe beats two men before laying a through ball for Bryan, but its a little deep, Bryan is just a foot or two from the keeper and can't do anything but shot it off him.

31': Di Giuseppe is hurt. Can stay in.

35': Bryan earns a clear cut chance all on his own making a great 30 yard run through 3 defenders, but doesn't finish well, saved.

41': After little buildup on offense Mills plays a ball from 30 yards out to the penalty spot, Di Giuseppe is behind the defense, controls it well, shoots and scores! 2-0

44': Mills a yellow

48': Mattle a yellow.

48': Well that's the worst defense I've ever seen. A pass ahead to ST Lindqvist... it seems very obvious that Aldrovandi should be marking him and he's in a good position to close down/stay in front of him, but he doesn't move, except to turn and watch as their man goes out to the right, by our defense and into the area for an easy goal. Miscommunication of some kind there I assume, but I blame Aldrovandi. 2-1

HALF: We shoot 9 times, 5 on target with 3 clear cut chances, only actually converting one of them (our first goal wasn't a clear cut chance). They have 4 shots, 2 on target. One defensive lapse at the end of the half gives them some hope, but we are playing much better overall.

54': Jean a yellow.

65': Smith in for Mills, who played great but is exhausted.

71': Their ST Lindqvist takes a free kick from 25 yards out, very low, but bent around the wal and into the net... amazing strike and we lose a 2 goal lead. 2-2

72': We're going to attack, perhaps a risk on the road but meh.

84': Chrzanowski and Hughes in for Gordon and Crespo.

That's it.

Blackburn 2 : 2 Ipswich

How many times this year have I said "well a tie in this spot isn't really bad but we had this/we should have done better". *sigh*

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.8)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 2
Assists: Mills 2 (8.2)

Aldrovandi a 5.9 today, and no one else above 7. We just flat out gave away two points and its very frustrating.


-- No long term injury issues again today for Di Giuseppe, we are getting lucky there.


Next up, on the road against #4 Man City.

[Radii]

December 31st, 2025

Ipswich (9-6-2, 5th) @ Man City (11-4-3, 4th)

Man City are even money favorites at their place today, we're 11:5 to win. We're 4 points behind them but have a game in hand. Beating them would put us in a position to leapfrog them with our match to make up, that's a lot to ask on the road though. We are 5-7-11 lifetime against man city. We played them an amazing 6 times last year. They knocked us out of the league cup and the Champions League while we knocked them out of the FA Cup. All in all we went 2-2-2 against them last year, winning at Wembley in the FA Cup Semi and at home in league play, losing at home in the league cup and CL, tying on the road in the CL and in league play. Complicated!

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Jackson
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Crespo/Connolly/Smith/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

Back to a 4-1-4-1 with Di Giuseppe up front. Both MC's change and we run Jackson at DR. We'll defend today early on at least. Their star ST Jeroen Mihci has 13 league goals in 16 matches.

9': A through ball from one of their strikers to the other leads to an early clear cut chance but they whiff on it and send it way wide.

11': Free kick for us in our end, sent long, they win a header about 30 ayrds away and head it back into their own area, their defender who picks it up has the worst first touch ever, the ball goes loose a solid 5 yards away, Di Giuseppe is as always chasing hard, and he is there to pick up the loose ball, attack in the area, and put it in the net!! 1-0

14': We win it in our end, a ball ahead to Di Giuseppe in midfield, a long run down the left, pass into the center of the area for Smith who shoots, but the keeper is there to stop it, there's a rebound though, Connolly is first to it and puts it into the net before the keeper can recover!!! 2-0

27': they're trying to push forward but we win headers in midfield to push them back, finally a pass across the field is... just awful, Craig Smith runs forward and intercepts a ball about 35 yards from their goal, he has no one on front of him at all, forward into the area, shoots, and he beats the keeper!!!! 3-0

HALF: We watch them take a corner and head it over but that's the only highlight the last 15 minutes or so. What a half!! We control 55% of the possession, shooting 6 times, putting 4 on target with 3 clear cut chances and 3 goals. They have 7 shots but not a single one on target. We did get very lucky, they missed a clear cut chance that would ahev put them up 1-0 early and could have made it a drastically different match. Di Giuseppe took a hit in the first half that didn't injure him but knocked his fitness down pretty bad. I bring Darcy in for the second half.

51': Yellow for Aldrovandi

69': They shoot wide from 35 yards out... pointed out b/c its the first shot we've allowed all half.

82': cross in from the right, a brilliant volley for their other ST Alipio and he's got a goal. 3-1

82': Bartlett in for Aldrovandi, Hughes in for Kirkland.

84': Bogdanovs with a great diving save on a rocket of a free kick, they almost cut it to one here...

That's it!

Man City 1 : 3 Ipswich

A beautiful win today!!!

Man of the Match: Craig Smith (9.0)
Goals: Smith, Connolly (7.5), Di Giuseppe (7.3)
Assists: Smith ... two unassisted
Notables: Kirkland (7.2), Crespo (7.1)

Bogdanovs a 6.6 for whatever reason, the rest of the team 6.8-6.9.


Most of the league has 19 matches played now and are at the halfway point. We're at 18. Winning our match in hand could put us in 2nd place but at this moment we sit in 5th. I'll do a midseason update here since its the end of December. We've beaten Arsenal and Man City, we get another chance to make a huge push in the standings as we host Man Utd in a few days.

[Radii]

2025/26 Midseason Update

19 matches unless otherwise noted.

1. Man Utd - 42 pts
2. Chelsea - 39 pts
3. Arsenal - 38 pts
4. Man City - 37 pts
5. Ipswich - 36 pts (1 less played)
6. Liverpool - 32 pts
7. Huddersfield - 32 pts (1 less played)
8. Everton - 28 pts
9. Blackburn - 25 pts (1 less played)
10. Southampton - 24 pts
11. Aston Villa - 24 pts (1 less played)
12. Exeter - 21 pts
13. QPR - 21 pts
14. Nottingham Forest - 20 pts
15. Newcastle - 19 pts (1 less played)
16. Tottenham - 19 pts (1 less played)
17. Stoke - 19 pts
--------------------------------------
18. Watford (18 pts)
19. Sheffield Utd (18 pts)
20. West Ham (6 pts )


Sheffield Utd, Tottenham and Newcastle all in the bottom 6, all have played in Europe since I've been up in the EPL.

We actually have the second best goal differential int he EPL. Arsenal +26, Ipswich +21, Man City +20, Man Utd +19. No one else is better than +9.

Man Utd have 29 goals and have only allowed 10. We have 32 goals but have only allowed 11. Huddersfield only has 18 goals but have only allowed 13. Those are the 3 best defensive teams through the first half.


Goals

1. Jeroen Mihci - Man City - 13
2. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 12
3. David Thomas - Chelsea - 11
4. Hans Nooij - Arsenal - 10
4. Sultan Al-Inezi - Chelsea - 10
4. Ivan Popov - Nottingham Forest - 10
4. Rick Heatubun - QPR - 10
...
11. Yuri Di Giuseppe - Ipswich - 8
15. Constantino - 5
38. Adagsmar - 3

We have a bunch of guys with two league goals and a bunch with just 1 league goal. Darcy, Bryan and Khan all with just 1 goal. Switch that to "overall" stats to include cup and Continental play and Darcy has 7 goals, Bryan 4. Each have 8 starts/4 backup appearances.


Assists

1. Tal Gamliel - Arsenal - 10
2. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 9
3. Sultan Al-Inezi - Chelsea - 8
4. David Moreno - Man City - 6
Many tied - 5
...
15. Yuri Di Giuseppe - Ipswich - 4
15. Neil Gordon - 4
32. Constantino - 3
32. Chris Bryan - 3


Average Rating

1. Jeroen Mihci - Man City - 7.65
2. David Moreno - Man City - 7.54
3. Yuri Di Giuseppe - Ipswich - 7.52
4. Sultan Al-Inezi - Chelsea - 7.41
5. Stuart Wray - Man Utd - 7.38
.........
10. Stuart Kirkland - 7.31
10. Otmar Mattle - 7.31
30. Jose Antonio Ballester - 7.14
42. Clive Jackson - 7.08
51. Carlos Aldrovandi - 7.05
51. Jean - 7.05
56. Steven Mills - 7.03
58. Dmitrijs Bogdanovs - 7.01
69. Neil Gordon - 6.98
80. Juan Pablo Crespo - 6.97


This is really a major, major shift for us. Instead of our offense and midfield dominating all the stats, we do still have our star up at the top, only its Di Giuseppe instead of Constantino or Bryan.. but after that its all defense with a couple midfielders sprinkled in. Our defense is really stealing the show for this team this year, and its great to see how far we've come from desperately trying to outscore everyone a few years ago.

[Grover]

Ugly, ugly season for my Hammers there.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Grover

Ugly, ugly season for my Hammers there.

Very much so. In this dynasty West Ham were in the EPL from the start until the 22/23 season. Their best finish was 9th and typically were in a 11-15 position at the end of the year. They demoted down to the Championship though and took two seasons to get back up, and that's where we are now, they are depleted and sure to fall back to the Championship again it seems.

[Radii]

-- Our upcoming match against Man U is in the FA Cup, I think I mentioned in a previous post that it was an EPL match, nope!

Goalkeeper of the Year

Monaco's Mario Masella is the Europe Keeper of the year playing 38 matches and allowing 44 goals, a 7.10 average rating. Man Utd's Alphonse Areola is 2nd with 56 appearances and 30 goals let in, 7.03 rating. Ipswich's Dmitrijs Bogdanovs is rated the 3rd best keeper in Europe for the past year (calendar year I can only guess here) with 51 appearances, 44 goals allowed and a 6.97 rating. WOWOW!


January Update

-- We play on the 3rd, 10th, 13th, 17th, and 27th. If we win in the FA Cup 3rd Round we'd play again on the 24th as well.

-- Young DC John Ashworth and ST Eoin Darcy are singled out for training well.

-- Man U's Stuart Wray scored 5 goals in 5 matches and is player of the month for December in the EPL. Yuri Di Giuseppe scored 6 goals in 4 league matches (and 3 more in a Euro Cup match) and got robbed :P

-- Craig Smith is 2nd and Di Giuseppe 3rd in young player of the month voting.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. The results I am getting out of Di Giuseppe is the highlight. Our 1-0 loss to Southampton the lowlight.

-- We lost $3.39M last month.


Transfer Window

-- Jose Antonio Ballester might be hard to keep around this month. Arsenal bids 25.5M for him on day one. Roma, Inter, Juventus, Betis and Real Madrid are all talking about being intersted in him. I reject this offer, I am not confident I could necessarily replace him for $25 Million. And Ballester is unhappy I won't let him talk to Arsenal. This will be a big story throughout January I am sure.

-- I have $12.6M available but no specific holes that I feel like I need to fill. I may just look for players who are itching to leave their squads, or bosman players. If I feel forced to sell Ballester or someone else as the month goes along then things could change.

-- There is interest in Di Giuseppe in many places as well, but the offers for him.. well lets say I think the board would have to step in and force a sale before I'd accept an offer. I know I would turn down $60 Million without blinking.

January 3rd, 2026

FA Cup 3rd Round

Man Utd (1st, EPL) @ Ipswich (5th, EPL)

We're 7-7-7 lifetime against Man Utd and have notably done very well against them since I've been the coach. We've already met three times this year though and only won once. The win was in EPL play, we lost in the Community Shield and went to penalties before losing in the League Cup. Prior to this year we'd gone 10 straight matches against Man U without a loss. We are slim 6:4 favorites at home today.


GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Bartlett/Mattle/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Bryan/Constantino

We sub out most everyone on short rest today, Bryan/Constantino up front, Gordon most notably has a day off but Chrzanowski has been damn good this year too.

Standard mindset today in a very heavy rain.

9': Free kick for them 40 yards out, passed short and then after a couple more passes AM van Schijndel blasts a shot from 25 yards out.. that is perfect and in the net, nothing we could do to stop that I dont think. 0-1

14': Corner for Man U, taken to the near post, headed across to the far post... and headed in by midfielder Wynter. Not good. 0-2

20': A strong attack for ipswich, a pass to Bryan who pulls the ball out wide left, passes to Jean who is 18 yards out, he fires.. but a diving save is made.

23': They get their man Wray into the area by Bartlett, he's got a clear cut chance but Bogdanovs makes a good save to keep this from getting completely out of hand

30': Jean with another shot from about 20 yards away and this one hits the crossbar, close!

34': Bryan is hurt, he can stay in.

40': Breakaway counter attack for us, Jean wins it in our defensive end, a quick pass to Bryan, ahead to Constantino and its a footrace, that's usually a good sign for us, and it is here, Constantino into the area, a clear cut chance, and he beats the keeper and gets us back into this! 1-2

HALF: We shoot 7 times, 4 on target. They shoot 6 times, 4 on target, just those two damn early goals. They have 55% of the possession and are passing and heading better htan us. We're tackling equally... average heh. Adagsmar a 5.8 and Heywood a 5.7 out there so far, they need to step it up.

50': They get their second clear cut chance, their star Wray beats Mattle way out away from goal and has a free run into the area, but just completely whiffs and puts his shot well wide.

61': We control things on offense, Mills out wide to Chrzanowski, a cross to the far post, Bryan heads it.. just wide, I'm surprised that wasn't a clear cut chance.

64': A perfectly timed run into the area by their AMR Martin leads to a trivially easy goal after a nice pass from ST Wray. That might do it. 1-3

64': We'll attack.

66': Hughes in for Adagsmar, Darcy in for Bryan.

72': Constantino receives a pass 30 yards out, blows by his man and into the area, his shot is stopped, but the rebound falls to Darcy who puts it in easily! 2-3

73': Heywood a yellow.

75': After a throwin in their end Constantino receives a pass, he's running out wide right and cuts through the penalty area just for a moment.. and in that moment he's tackled and fouled and its a penalty!!! Jean takes it, and we've tied it up!! 3-3

85': Free kick out wide left, crossed in to Mills who heads it just over.


That'll do it, we live to fight another day. Next time we play Man U at home maybe just attack, I think I may have said this before.

Ipswich 3 : 3 Man Utd

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.3)
Goals: Constantino, Jean (7.3), Darcy (7.2)
Assists: Constantino 2, Bryan (7.6)

Kirkland has a godawful second half and ends with a 5.6 rating, Adagsmar left with a 5.8 rating. Heywood was worst at the half but recovered some and finished with a 6.5.


So our last two goals... the defender that Constantino beat to trigger out second goal, the defender htat tackled him for our penalty to tie it... DC Abdul Skhosana, the guy Man U paid us $46 Million for last year that allowed us to go get Di Giuseppe. He's been pretty good for Man U, 6.9 and 6.85 ratings last year and this year in 10+ matches. Dunno if that's worth $46 million though!


-- Our replay against Man U is on the 14th. This bumps a match against Aston Villa back a week and gives us a much more crowded schedule.

[Tellistto]

Nice come back there for the tie. Maybe your ex player felt some lingering loyalty for you? Haha.

Tell

[Radii]

-- I look at potential Bosman signings but we are a little over our wage budget and the board won't let us do much. I go and drop our remaining transfer budget from $12.5M to $6.3M and that gives us more room to work, our payroll budget is now up to $1.6M/wk.

-- We keep seeing stories coming from German power HSV about Di Giuseppe. They haven't pushed for him yet though. Betis bid $12.75M for Crespo which I reject.

FA Cup 4th Round Draw

-- If we can manage to beat Man Utd on the road in our 3rd round replay, we'll get a break and travel to League 1 side MK Dons for the 4th round.


-- The main guy I was looking to sign on a Bosman transfer is headed to Leverkusen. It was another striker, just too good not to try for, but he was available because he was unhappy with the boring life at Palermo and wanted a bigger club. that's not quite us yet.

January 10th, 2026

Ipswich (10-6-2, 5th) @ Nottingham Forest (5-5-9, 14th)

Nottingham Forest are considered relegation candidates this year and we are 4:5 favorites today. We're 12-4-9 lifetime against these guys but struggled to a 0:0 draw back in November at home and would like to get our 3 points against them today.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Jackson
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

Back to a 4-1-4-1 today but we won't be packing it in to defend really, our coaches just tell us Nottingham Forest does better against a 4-4-2.

2': Di Giuseppe receives a pass 25 yards from goal, gets around two defenders to get a shot off from the edge of the penalty box, actually considered a clear cut chance, but the keeper dives and turns it behind. Corner goes nowhere.

28': Corner for us, a header by Aldrovandi is headed out of the area, Di Giuseppe heads it back in, Crespo goes for it and he's brought down in the area going for the loose ball, penalty!! Jean takes it... and the keeper saves it. Ugh.

38': Yellow for Kirkland.

HALF: That's a boring half though we had the better of it with 5 shots, 2 on target and 2 clear cut chances, its a pretty big failure to be tied right now. They have 2 shots only, both on target. We're going to come out attacking in the second half.

50': A turnover in midfield as we try to set up our offense leads to a quick counter attack for them, a run down the left, cross into the area and their leading scorer Popov is basically able to walk it into the net... 0-1

64': We pass it around in our defensive end looking to set something up, Jackson plays a long ball down the right straight for Neil Gordon, Gordon is there, has a half step on his man, controls it into the area and puts a shot by their keeper! A very quick strike! 1-1

77': Throwin in their end, thrown short to Jackson, a cross into the area, Di Giuseppe controls it with his feet, shoots near post and its in, we take the lead! 2-1

78': Smith in for Jean, Hughes in for Kirkland.

89': Di Giuseppe attacks, draws an extra defender 25 yards out, passes to Mills, he gets into the area and gets a shot by the keeper! 3-1

That'll do it, we take control late, whew.

Nottingham Forest 1 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Clive Jackson (8.4)
Goals: Di Giuseppe (8.3), Gordon (7.7), Mills (7.4)
Assists: Jackson 2, Di Giuseppe
Notables: Aldrovandi (7.0), Crespo (7.0)


-- Everyone above us wins but Huddersfield loses, we remain in 5th but we now have a 6 point advantage on 6th place.

[Radii]

-- Ballester resumes full training. He was out 3 weeks.

-- Man City makes an official inquiry about Yuri Di Giuseppe's availability. I tell them to piss off.

-- Rob Lines is going on Loan to Coventry in the Championship for 3 months. He hasn't gotten the playing time I wanted him to for me and he needs first team experience. I think I do a terrible job grooming young keepers.

-- Huddersfield bid $11.5M for Darcy, I say no.

-- MC Conor Clifford begs me for first team playing time. He won't be getting that here and I won't be renewing his contract either. I go ahead and transfer list him, I'll accept any offer for him, he is only valued at $190,000 now. If he can go play somewhere on his way to retirement he should.


January 14th, 2026

FA Cup 3rd Round Replay

Ipswich (5th, EPL) @ Man Utd (1st, EPL)

A replay of our thrilling (but terrifying) 3:3 draw just 11 days ago. They are 5:4 favorites at Old Trafford. This one must end with a winner, extra time/penalties if needed. We have a busy schedule and really do not want that to happen.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Jackson
M: Crespo/Jean/Smith/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Constantino

I rest Gordon, Mills and Di Giuseppe today. We travel to Chelsea in 3 days, I want to give it my best here but can't ignore what's coming up either. This should be a good balance.

Standard mindset on the road today. This may be a big mistake but I *think* I would rather lose than have to play 120 minutes.

7': Early yellows for both Smith and Darcy.

15': Throwin near midfield, after a pass back to a defender its ahead to Smith, he plays a beautiful ball 30 yards ahead into the area between two defenders, Darcy gets to it with a perfectly timed break and scores!! 1-0

22': A pass to their man Wray, both Mattle and Aldrovandi try to go attack him a solid 30 yards from goal... he splits them, gets into the area and scores easily. Horrible. 1-1

26': Craig Smith again! A perfect pass into the left side of the area for Crespo leads to a clear cut chance that is finished nicely, Smith is setting up everyone today. 2-1

30': They have a throwin and after a pass get a clear cut chance that Bogdanovs makes a great save to stop. Whew. Chances everywhere here.

35': I drop back to a counterattacking mindset with the lead.

43': A highlight opens with us on the break, Constantino has it 35+ yards out, he continues his run before passing to Smith who is not covered at all, Smith with a shot from 15 yards out, but its stopped... rebound to Chrzanowski, he shoots far post... but their keeper makes a quick recovery and gets to this one too! Damn, great play by their goalie.

HALF: Lots and lots of offense today, we have 8 shots, 4 on target, they have 7 shots, 6 on target. A combined 6 clear cut chances with 3 goals. No change at the half for us.

48': Another crazy sequence here... We attack and have many men forward, a pass into the penalty area is deflected and intercepted... they end up with a lazy pass through the penalty area to try to clear the danger though and Jean makaes an interception just 15 yards away, shoots immediately, but puts it right at the keeper. Our 4th clear cut chance. They counter attack quickly, getting the ball into the left corner, a cross goes in for them, a shot is blocked by Bogdanovs but the rebound falls to one of their mids who puts it in easily and we're tied back up. 2-2

53': Jean with a yellow.

87': It seems we're going to extra time here as we've only had a couple highlights in the last 30 minutes with no real action... and things fall apart in about 5 seconds here... Darcy goes for a loose ball, he's hurt, the ball goes free, Craig Smith goes for it along with a Man Utd player, Smith is called for a foul, given his second yellow, and he's sent off. I bring Connolly in for Darcy and Bryan in for Constantino and we will run a 4-4-1. No long term injury for Darcy but his fitness is shot.


FULL TIME: I did not want the extra minutes here, but Man Utd shut it down once they tied things up and we'll have to deal with it... a man down. Whee!

93': We hold off an attack and send it forward to Bryan near midfield, he makes a long run down the right side, gets by a man, cuts into the area near the end line, into the 6 yard box... shoots, but the keeper makes the save, a great individual effort there but couldn't quite finish. That was our 6th clear cut chance.

96': Through ball for them leads to their 4th clear cut chance but its shot right at Bogdanovs and he pushes it away and we clear.

ET HALFTIME: Gordon in for Chrzanowski, getting to penalties a man down would be great at this point.

113': Connolly a through ball into the right side of the area for Gordon, he's there, its clear cut chance #7... but no, saved.

113': they counter attack and get down the left side, a low cross into the area, Mattle is there, but the ball goes by, and their star Wray takes advantage and puts it in. 2-3

And that's it.

Man Utd 3 : 2 Ipswich

We can only blame ourselves here. We had 7 clear cut chances and scored twice. A good effort against an incredibly strong Man Utd team on the road but a frustrating finish, giving up a lead, going to extra time when I wanted anything but that, and losing before we could drag it out to penalties once we did have to play the extra half hour.

Goals: Crespo (8.1), Darcy (6.9)
Assists: Smith 2 (7.7)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.3), Aldrovandi (7.0), Chrzanowski (7.0), Jean (7.0)


-- Smith will miss one match for his red.

-- "Mattle distraught over costly error" - Mattle tells the press that he is afraid I'm going to cut him or stop playing him because of his mistake today. Ok buddy... calm down.

-- We were expected to once again reach the 6th round of the FA Cup. Drawing Man Utd right away makes the loss understandable but still disappointing.

[Radii]

-- Matthew Khan is upset about his playing time. He could see some action if we had an injury or two so I'll be hanging on to him but not renewing his contract.

-- Much like the media reports about how Di Giuseppe to HSV will be happening and their fans are really excited... Barcelona's fans are stoked about the idea of our GK Bogdanovs heading their way... no no no.

-- My 3* potential DC John Ashworth is valued at $3.2 Million. West Brom just offered me $0 for him. HMMMM. Its a tough choice, but I'll reject it. No clauses, no nothing. Just "hey can we have this guy?"

-- we receive $140,000 as GK Jamie Schulz is sold from Newcastle to Everton. Schulz came up in our youth system the same year as Rob Lines and Schulz was the worse of the two so I went ahead and sold him.

January 17th, 2026

Ipswich (11-6-2, 5th) @ Chelsea (14-3-4, 1st)

Chelsea are in first but have a match in hand over Man Utd are are only 2 points ahead of them. They have 2 matches played over us. Chelsea are even money favorites at home today, we're 11:5 to win. We are 7-4-8 lifetime against Chelsea. We got our season off to a great start against them with a 3:0 win back in August at home. We've been beating them consistently at home, the last 3 years on the road we are 0-1-2 though.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Bartlett/Heywood
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Adagsmar/Connolly/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

4-1-4-1 on the road against Chelsea seems obvious. Smith is suspended, Jean tired, so we have Connolly/Mills in the midfield, Di Giuseppe up front. Everyone is fully rested in our lineup today except Kirkland. Hughes is available but Kirkland has to be a lot more tired than this to not play against Chelsea.

We counterattack. Its raining extremely hard today.

22': Di Giuseppe is hurt, he can stay in.

25': We have 3 shots, one on target, we've watched one highlight so far, Gordon had a shot saved.

30': After we clear a Chelsea corner they shoot from 25+ yards out and have a shot blocked. That is their first shot today.

40': Di Giuseppe gets a ball into the left side of the area for Adagsmar, he has his shot saved, wasn't a clear cut chance but definitely our best look so far.

HALF: Each team has 4 shots, 2 on target. They have 59% of the possession but are doing absolutely nothing with it. Technically they've been very sound, 84% passing, 76% tackling, 71% heading, all of that combined is amazing, but our defense (plus the rain i'm sure) have slowed them to a crawl.

54': Sergio Roberto is injured.

70': Aldrovandi in for Sergio Roberto, Aldrovandi DC, Bartlett, DMC. Bryan in for Di Giuseppe.

73': After a pass from one forward to the other, their man Al-Inezi makes a run by Kirkland, by Connolly and into the 6 yard box before putting a shot to the near post by Bogdanovs. A great individual effort and two missed tackles hurt us. 0-1

-- We'll attack.

We can't do anything, they eek out the 1 goal they need and that's it.

Chelsea 1 : 0 Ipswich

Kirkland a 7.0 today, Gordon struggled with a 5.8, everyone else in between.


-- No long term injuries for anyone today.

-- We stay in 5th. We have a match in hand or two on everyone once again but we also sit 5 points back of 4th now.


1. Chelsea - 48 pts - 22 played
2. Man Utd - 46 pts - 21 played
3. Arsenal - 44 pts - 21 played
4. Man City - 44 pts - 22 played
5. Ipswich - 39 pts - 20 played
6. Huddersfield - 39 pts - 21 played
7. Liverpool - 32 pts - 22 played

[Radii]

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Radii

Good lord. I just realized I did this. Awful.

My apologies.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Grover

Good lord. I just realized I did this. Awful.

My apologies.

Nah, no big deal at all, I have *almost* posted an update in the wrong thread many many times.

[Radii]

January 21st, 2026

Aston Villa (8-3-10, 10th) @ Ipswich (11-6-3, 5th)

We are big favorites at home today, 4:6 to win, making them 7:2. This is still one of those teams we struggle against, 3-6-8 lifetime, but we have won the last two meetings at home. We tied 1:1 at their place earlier in the year.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Ballester/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Standard mindset at home as big favorites.

15': Our first highlight involves a large number of passes before Bryan puts a ball into the area for Neil Gordon, he has a clear cut chance charging in from the right, aims far post, but sends it wide.

18': We intercept a pass around 30 yards from our own goal and counter, a pass to Crespo, long run down the left, a pass into the area for di Giuseppe who is unmarked, he lines up a shot and buries it! 1-0

31': Gordon takes a corner, Ballester wins a header in the far side of the 6 yard box, but its high.

38': Gordon with a cross into the area, they head it away, Jean heads it back into the area, Bryan heads it back out to Jean, he controls it and shoots from 25 yards out... and its into the left side of the net, a rocket by the keeper!! 2-0

43': We win a loose ball in midfield, passed up to Crespo, he brings the ball into the offensive end, passes to Di Giuseppe who is at the left corner of the penalty box, he cuts right by the nearest defender, places a precise shot just inside the right post and we've built a huge first half lead! 3-0

HALF: We shoot 10 times, 3 on target. They shoot 7 times, 1 on target. We only see 2 or 3 of those shots, most not deemed worthy of highlights. We are obviously in full control here. We'll drop back to a safer counter attacking mindset for the second half.

55': Gordon a yellow.

64': Darcy in for Di Giuseppe, Chrzanowski in for Gordon.

72': They get one back after some nifty passing, ST Greenhouse drills a shot from the edge of the box, Crespo misses an interception and takes the blame for that one. 3-1

81': Kirkland a yellow.

That'll do it.

Ipswich 3 : 1 Aston Villa

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.8)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 2, Jean (7.6)
Assists: Crespo 2 (7.8), Bryan (7.5)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.1), Kirkland (7.2), Ballester (7.0), Aldrovandi (7.1)



We now have the same number of matches played as #2 Man Utd (we trail by 4 points) and #3 Arsenal (we trail by 2 points). We have a match in hand on #1 Chelsea (-6 pts) and #4 Man City (-2 pts). We're in a good position but as we learned last year, cracking that top 4 is damn difficult.

[Radii]

-- Man City bid $64,250,000 for Yuri Di Giuseppe. $12M now, $46.5M over 24 months, $5.75M after 10 goals in the EPL. That's their first offer, that's their starting point. And its not even close. This guy is irreplaceable. Its January 23rd, I'm allowed to sit on the offer for a week. I'm going to do that to try to prevent Man City from bidding repeatedly, which might make Di Giuseppe madder if he wants to leave, or potentially make an offer that my board deems too big to turn down.

-- Man City also bid $8M for backup MR Chrzanowski. Chrzanowski has really performed as well as Neil Gordon and we would be hard pressed to find another guy willing to come off the bench as much as him and play as well (7 starts/12 backup appearances almost always with the sole purpose of resting Gordon when we're ahead). Easy rejection on this one.

-- Chrzanowski is unhappy that I won't let him leave for Man city.

-- Huddersfield bid $17.25M for Eoin Darcy. He's valued at $9.25M, has played in only 15 matches for me but has 9 goals/5 assists in those 15 matches. I reject this offer as well, Darcy's value to me is more in the fact that Constantino turns 31 next year and very very soon our pecking order is bound to be Di Giuseppe/Bryan/Darcy/Constantino and he'll be playing *much* more.

-- Liverpool is making news in the media about Ballester. They know he can be made unhappy when we reject offers, but again we have no intention of selling him away now.


January 27th, 2026

Exeter (6-8-8, 11th) @ Ipswich (12-6-3, 5th)

We are once again big favorites at home, 4:5 today, making Exeter 3:1 to win. We drew with Exeter 1-1 on the road earlier this year and are now 10-1-2 lifetime against them. That's one of those that we regret, a team we dominate that just promoted back up to the EPL, even if they are playing above expectations.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Ballester/Jackson
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Constantino/Darcy

Exeter are playing a 4-1-4-1 today.

We attack today.

2': Darcy receives a pass at the edge of the box, turns by his man, has a clear cut chance, but the keeper makes a diving stop, no goal, and nothing on the corner.

26': We have 5 shots and all the highlights but nothing yet. Here we earn a corner but they clear it away.

31': Mills with a through ball into the area for Crespo, our second clear cut chane, but shot right at the keeper.

47': Constantino a yellow.

HALF: No highlights in the last 15 minutes. We have 59% of the possession, 10 shots but just 2 on target. They shoot twice, both off target and we see neither of them. We are in complete control but just need to wear them down for a goal. I switch Constantino and Darcy, I had put Darcy in the role that usually generates more chances/goals (for everyone but Di Giuseppe who scores from anywhere)

48': And its that fast... Jean a through ball to Constantino for a clear cut chance and a goal. 1-0

53': They attack hard, their first highlight on offense all match, their ST Carcarno to get all the way to the end line, tries a pass through the area, its right at Ballester, but he fails to intercept it and it falls to oen of their mids who puts it in easily. 1-1

57': Jean with another ball into the area, this one for Crespo and he places a shot neatly inside the right post for a goal! 2-1

59': Crespo is hurt.

62': Jackson is hurt...

66': Hughes in for Crespo

78': Jean is hurt... ugh ugh ugh.

79': Smith and Connolly in for Jean and Mills, that's all our subs.

82': Gordon with a cross in from the right, Darcy wins a header, its a clear cut chance... but its off target, wide.

83': We'll defend the last few minutes as they get desperate and attack.

90': Smith passes ahead to Darcy, he runs into the area, begins to cut out wide, but before he leaves the area he's tackled, and its a penalty!! Gordon takes it and we seal the win there. 3-1


Ipswich 3 : 1 Exeter

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.8)
Goals: Gordon, Crespo (7.8), Constantino (7.4)
Assists: Jean 2 (8.7), Darcy (6.8)
Notables: Jackson (7.0), Kirkland (7.3), Mills (7.1)


This is the second time a former Ipswich defender gives us a penalty... the offender on the foul that gave us our 3rd goal was Mark O'Brien. He's 33 years old now, one of my first "big" purchases when I began bolstering my defense with a new player nearly every year. We bought him for $9 Million but he always underperformed for us and we ended up selling him to Exeter for $1.3M 3 years ago. He was very good for them in the Championship but not so much in the EPL. 6.57 rating in 20 matches this year.

-- Man City plays Arsenal to a 1:1 draw at home, they were both 2 points ahead of us, with our win we create a 3 way tie for 3rd. Goal Differentials: Arsenal +31, Ipswich +26, Man City +25. We're in 4th for the moment. Incidentally, those are the 3 best goal differentials in the EPL. Man Utd also played to a draw today and we're only 2 points behind second.


-- I'd be *way* more excited about today's results if I wasn't typing that stuff up to stall looking at the post game messages... we had 3 starters hurt today.

-- WHEW. We breathe a huge sigh of relief. No injured players have long term injuries. I don't know how much of our injury situation is luck this year and how much is an improvement in facilities and physios. Either way... well I was going to say something more about our lack of long term injuries but lets avoid tempting fate shall we?

[Radii]

-- January 30th rolls around and I reject the $64M offer from Man City for Di Giuseppe. We hit the 31st with no more offers and no fallout from Di Giuseppe himself.

February Update

-- We play on the 1st, 7th, 10th, 14th, 19th, 24th and 28th. 19th & 24th are our Euro Cup matches vs Spartak Moscow. We hopefully will gain some rest advantage over the other top 4 teams with our early exit from the FA Cup.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the highlight, our FA Cup early exit is the disappointment.

-- We lost $2.21M last month. We've now lost $27.7M on the year but still have a net cash balance of $6.3M. Our losses almost exactly coincide with the fact that we spent $26M in the transfer market, so we're operating at near breakeven otherwise and should be in a position where a strong Euro Cup performance + EPL prize money will get us slightly in the black for the year.

-- We're playing on Sunday on TV, so we get to see all the Saturday matches before we go out there... Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal all win. Arsenal laughs at our goal differential, traveling to West Ham and beating them 7:0... so we know we need a win to keep up. Holy Crap! Their star ST Bugra Yildirim scored SIX of those 7 goals.. He now leads the EPL in goals by 3. Chelsea plays on Sunday along with us.

February 1st, 2026

Ipswich (13-6-3, 4th) @ Watford (4-6-13, 19th)

We travel to Watford, back on the road but this is as "easy" as it gets outside of West Ham (sorry Grover!). We're 1:3 favorites here, making them 7:1 to win. We always worry about the complacency when that is the case. We did beat these guys 5:1 at our place earlier in the year.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Mattle/Olvera/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Sergio Roberto/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

We start a strong lineup today but do throw in a couple backups against a team we should beat, Olvera at DC, Hughes at DL. They run a 4-1-4-1.

25': Olvera a yellow.

27': Sergio Roberto with a long ball into the area that Adagsmar controls beautifully, our first clear cut chance, but their keeper makes a diving stop.

35': We have 8 shots but I've seen 4 headers just put well over, not much to say so far.

42': Sergio Roberto with a yellow.

HALF: We have 57% of the possession, we have 11 shots to their 1, but jsut 3 on target, too many really poor headers. We appear to be totally in control though and just need to find the net.

49': Mills a yellow.

53': Some great play in the air, a few headers back and forth to control it in the midfield, Olvera wins a header and sends it about 10 yards forward for mills, he heads it on about 15 yards ahead to Di Giuseppe, he heads it into the penalty area where Bryan gets to it, Bryan heads it... and it hits the right post and rolls in, goal!! 1-0

67': Gordon takes a free kick from the left sideline out near midfield, a long cross is played in, Adagsmar is behind everyone somehow... heads it.. but the keeper dives and stops it. A stronger header scores easily.

73': Smith in for Mills.

82': Free kick from just outside the penalty area, like inches, near dead center. Gordon takes it and blasts a shot into the upper right corner of the net, that seals it hopefully! 2-0

87': Sergio Roberto is given his second yellow, I'm glad we got that extra goal just to be safe now heh. Chrzanowski in for Bryan, he plays MC (remember one of the reasons I liked him initially is that he's competent throughout the midfield, though I haven't used him anywhere but MR in a real long time).

We finish this one off easily.

Watford 0 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (9.0)
Goals: Bryan, Gordon (7.7)
Assists: Bryan, Di Giuseppe (6.8)
Notables: Heywood (7.4), Hughes (7.1), Mattle (7.8), Mills (7.0), Sergio Roberto (7.0)

-- Sergio Roberto is suspended for our next match.

Transfer Deadline Today

-- The transfer deadline passes without additional incident. Di Giuseppe is only 19 and he's amazing. I suspect this will be a yearly concern for us.


-- The other top 5 team that didn't get mentioned this week, Chelsea, played Sheffield Utd to a draw at home, a poor result for Chelsesa.

24 matches played unless otherwise mentioned:

1. Chelsea - 52 pts
2. Man Utd - 50 pts (1 less played)
3. Arsenal - 48 pts (1 less played)
4. Ipswich - 48 pts (1 less played)
5. Man City - 48 pts
6. Huddersfield - 43 pts (1 less played)
7. Liverpool - 35 pts
8. Everton - 32 pts
9. Blakcburn - 29 pts
10. Exeter - 29 pts


We've never been safer for a top 7 spot, and never been this close to 1st after the first 5 or 6 matches of the year I don't think! About half the time someone just totally runs away with the league title. When its not one team its usually 2, occasionally 3 teams competing at the top and then a huge gap. This year we've got 5 teams that could get hot at win the EPL and we're one of them.

[Radii]

Injury Update

DC Jose Antonio Ballester is hurt in training for the second time this year, he's out 4 weeks.

-- Man Utd continue on in the FA Cup and we have a match vs them pushed back to March.

February 7th, 2026

Everton (8-9-8, 8th) @ Ipswich (14-6-3, 4th)

We are big 4:7 favorites today hosting Everton at Portman Road, they're 4:1. We're only 4 spots ahead of them in the standings but we are 15 points ahead with 2 matches in hand. We're 5-5-6 lifetime against them, losing the last two times we've played but both were on the road. We've actually never lost to them at home a single time.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Smith/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

Their star Brian Kelly has 12 league goals, one more than Di Giuseppe (Di Giuseppe has 5 more total goals thanks to continental play). Everton runs a 4-1-4-1 with Kelly up front. This is our 4th match in a row we use the "I expect a win" team talk pre-game as we are favored by so much there is no other reasonable outcome.

We'll attack.

4': Smith fights for the ball as they nearly intercept a pass and nearly tackle it away, once he controls it a quick pass to Constantino, he lays it off into the area for Gordon who has a clear cut chance and scores! 1-0

22': We're in full control but have had a couple nice attacks falter at the end due to their congestion in defense.

39': Adagsmar is out left and looks to easily blow by defender Scheepens... Scheepens comes in with a hard sliding tackle from the side and misses the ball completely, its a straight red, he's gone! We'll play the rest of the match up a man.

HALF: We go into the locker room up a goal and in full control here. We have 10 shots to just 2 for them, 56/44 possession edge and it seems like it should only get worse for Everton down a man. We'll continue to attack.

69': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Connolly in for Jean. Fresh legs in the midfield, boring half so far.

86': Smith to Constantino who puts a well placed shot into the right side of the goal, hopefully that locks up another win! 2-0

89': Connolly to Constantino pads the stats a bit, and helps our goal differential a bit too! 3-0

Ipswich 3 : 0 Everton

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.3)
Goals: Constantino 2, Gordon (8.2)
Assists: Smith (8.1), Constantino, Connolly (6.9)
Notables: Heywood (7.7), Kirkland (7.4), Aldrovandi (7.1), Mattle (7.5), Adagsmar (7.1), Darcy (7.1)



-- Wins from Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea as expected but Man Utd struggles against QPR and can only play them to a draw, our hot streak pushes us up into 3rd and Man Utd down to 5th for the moment!


25 matches unless noted:

1. Chelsea - 55 pts
2. Arsenal - 54 pts
3. Ipswich - 51 pts (1 less played)
4. Man City - 51 pts
5. Man Utd - 51 pts (1 less played)
6. Huddersfield - 49 pts


Yep, we are 4 points out of first with a match in hand! We're in an easier part of our schedule but we've handled it beautifully. Next up we're at home but its a tougher match against Tottenham.

[Radii]

-- Chelsea plays Man City today, an outcome that will be good for us in some fashion no matter what happens.

February 10th, 2026

Tottenham (10-4-11, 8th) @ Ipswich (15-6-3, 3rd)

We're 5:4 favorites over Tottenham at home today, the closest expected match in awhile for us. We're only 2-4-9 lifetime against Tottenham but those two wins came the last two times we played Tottenham at Portman Road, so we can be hopeful of pulling out a win here.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

We make some changes today to keep people fresh on 3 days rest. Standard mindset at home.

15': They have a throwin deep in our end, we head the long throw out of the area but they control and after a number of passes get a through ball to the penalty spot for MC Smart and he scores easily. 0-1

17': We get our first good look as Di Giuseppe beats a defender and gets a solid shot off, but its at a tough angle and saved.

24': We've had 5 corner kicks but aren't doing crap with them.

25': Mills with a through ball into the area for Chris Bryan, their keeper rushes out but Bryan catches him before he can close and puts it into the net! Their keeper takes the blame there for a poor decision to leave his line. 1-1

37': We win a ball near midfield, a quick pass to Crespo, to Di Giuseppe, into the area for Bryan and Bryan scores!! 2-1

HALF: We get to the half with the lead, a great thing considering falling behind early against a pretty solid squad. We are dominating but want that 2 goal lead, we have 10 shots/5 on target to their 5 shots/2 on target and have 60% of the possession. Aldrovandi had an especially bad half (5.5), i guess he took the blame for the goal we gave up.

47': Two early clear cut chances, Bryan and then Mills on two separate plays have shots saved after nice passes to set them up.

70': A solid 20 minutes fly off the clock without a highlight, and I change us to a counterattacking strategy as they are gonna try to pressure us to tie this up.

72': smith in for Mills

81': They have a free kick 35 yards out, one short pass and a shot, and its a solid shot that Bogdanovs has to tip over for a corner, it was definitely on target. We head the first corner behind for a second. The second one they send a header way off target, goal kick.

We end it easily.

Ipswich 2 : 1 Tottenham

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (8.8)
Goals: Bryan 2
Assists: Di Giuseppe (7.7), Mills (7.4)
Notables: Jackson (7.2), Kirkland (7.1)


Arsenal plays to a draw today and Chelsea beats Man City. This gives us a little bit of an edge over 5th with Man City getting 0 points today.

12 matches to go unless otherwise noted:

1. Chelsea - 58 pts
2. Arsenal - 55 pts
3. Ipswich - 54 pts (1 less played)
4. Man Utd - 52 pts (1 less played)
5. Man City - 51 pts
6. Huddersfield - 50 pts

[Tellistto]

Nice run of form there! Keep it up, go Ipswich!

Tell

[Alf]

Gotta aim for Champions League here Radii ! (of course, a title would be super awesome too)

[Taz13]

Man I leave town for a conference and Ipswich takes off in the stands. Now it is time to shoot for the top of the table.

[kingfc22]

Woot! Nice run of late

[Radii]

-- We get a full 9 days to rest here since we are out of the FA Cup and Man Utd is still in (we had a match vs them rescheduled) and will play our two Euro Cup matches back to back.

-- In a random league game amongst all this cup action, Man Utd can only muster a 1:1 draw with West Ham at Old Trafford. We now have a match in hand over everyone else in the top 6 and still sit in 3rd place.

February 19th, 2026

Euro Cup First Knockout Round - First Leg

Ipswich @ Spartak Moscow

They are 5:4 favorites at their place today. Because of the leagues I have in place I guess, Spartak Moscow doesn't have any other matches on their books and as a result their team isn't even match fit, wonder if that's a bug or what, first time I've encountered such a thing.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

I go ahead and run the same lineup I ran my last match since we're all rested. They run a 4-2-3-1 with aging striker Arsenio Valpoort up front, he played with Aston Villa for a long time and scored a number of goals against Ipswich I do believe.


12': They get the first shot on target with their 4 attackers overloading our defense and opening up a hole allowing a clear cut chance, but Bogdanovs makes a nice save.

14': After a shot by Valpoort is blocked their midfielder Pashkov picks up the loose ball 20 yards out and blasts a shot into the right side of the net, catching us quite off guard. 0-1

26': A ball ahead to ST Valpoort is missed by Mattle who seemed in line to make the interception, and he has an easy finish once he receives the ball and we're in a bit of trouble here. 0-2

30': Chris Bryan is hurt and forced to leave the match... Constantino is in.

38': Jean is hurt.

48': A shot from Mills 20 yards out is our first on target shot of the match but they save it...

HALF: Well that was pretty disgusting. We had a couple stretches where we had crosses come in and good headers that were just off target, but that was it for us until the very end of the half. We have an amazing 66% of the possession, 6 shots, just 1 on target. They have 4 shots, 3 on target. We are not tackling well at all and its shown in their goals. Just 40% success rate on tackles. We're passing much better than them. We will attack in the second half and try to get these goals back.

55': Mills passes ahead to Constantino, he's 20 yards out, turns by his man but doesn't have the best control of the ball and ends up in the right side of the area, he cuts back left though, beats a second defender, generates his own clear cut chance and scores!! 1-2

64': Gordon a yellow.

69': Smith in for the injured Jean.

74': After a throwin in their end Neil Gordon cuts into the penalty area, receives a pass and shoots.. just saved by a diving keeper, so close. corner goes nowhere.

77': Di Giuseppe with a really difficult bending shot from 25 yards out.. another diving stop by their keeper. They clear out the corner, we recover and push back ahead but they clear the danger again.

78': Di Giuseppe a yellow.

And that's it, we can't do anything else but cutting the deficit to one goal coming back home helps.

Spartak Moscow 2 : 1 Ipswich

Goal: Constantino (6.9)
Assist: Mills (8.2)

Gordon 6.2 today, everyone else in the 6.6-6.8 range.

Injury Update

-- Chris Bryan is only out 2-3 days

-- Jean is going to miss 3 weeks with a hamstring pull that he suffered in the match today.


A 1:0 win or a 2 goal win of any kind would see us through to the next round at home.

[Radii]

Injury Update

Yuri Di Giuseppe turns his knee in training and will miss 12-14 days.

February 24th, 2026

Euro Cup First Knockout Round - Second Leg

Spartak Moscow (2) @ (1) Ipswich

Today we're the 5:4 favorites at home and we need to come through big time after our poor performance on the road.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

Heywood starts for Jackson, Smith for the injured Jean, and Darcy/Constantino up front, Bryan is available.

We will come out attacking at home today with goals to make up.

12': We have 5 early shots but I've only seen one on a highlight, a long shot saved.

13': Darcy with a great individual effort to generate a shot in the area but its saved.

17': They have a free kick in our end, a cross goes into the area, we head it out wide but they recover it and try to send it back in... we have 3 defenders there, Mills tries to head it but doesn't clear it cleanly, the ball falls to their man Valpoort like 8 yards out and he drills it into the net and we are in huge trouble. 0-1

41': They look to defend and we're not doing well getting anything going. Here we earn a corner but they head it away. We get a throwin but end up with a shot from Mills that's high.

HALF: Wow, is this ever ugly. They shoot twice but score once. We have 8 shots, 2 on target but no goals. We need 2 to send it into extra time at this point. We can do it for sure but what a frustrating half!

49': Smith into the right side of the area for Gordon but his shot is right at the keeper.

50': We look to attack again, here Smith puts a ball to the penalty spot, Darcy cuts inside his man and gets there first, the keeper comes halfway out and realizes that was a mistake and Darcy has an easy finish! 1-1 Just one more goal boys!

54': Smith is having a huge impact here, a ball into the left side of hte area to Crespo leads to a decent shot but blocked by the keeper and hoofed away. We recover and Smith goes the other way, passing to Gordon in the right side of the area, he strikes it really well but saved. Gordon takes the corner, sends it to the far side of the 6 yard box, Aldrovandi wins the header and its drilled into the net and we are level!! 2-1


-- So if the match ends like this we go to extra time. We need another goal to put it away.

74': They earn a free kick, then a corner off that, Mills heads it away but not very far out, they get a shot 20 yards out but its blocked. After the blocked shot we recover the ball and push hard. A ball ahead to Constantino, the defense is back but we have men trailing the play, Constantino cuts out left, crosses into the 6 yard box, Craig Smith is there and heads it into the right side of the net!!!! 3-1

79': Gordon is out right, blows by his defender, passes into the right side of the area for Mills, he shoots from a crazy difficult angle... and somehow places the shot to the near side between the keeper and the right post!!! 4-1

79': Bartlett in for Darcy, 4-1-4-1.

95': Crespo gets hurt in the final seconds, ugh.

Ipswich (5) 4 : 1 (3) Spartak Moscow

Well we sure made it exciting, didn't we? Finally in the second half of the second game we showed the explosiveness that I expected to see all along and its enough to get us through to the next round.

Man of the Match: Craig Smith (9.0)
Goals: Smith, Mills (8.4), Aldrovandi (8.0), Darcy (7.6)
Assists: Gordon 2 (8.9), Smith, Constantino (7.7)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.1), Heywood (7.0), Kirkland (7.4), Mattle (7.0), Crespo (7.1)


-- We receive $287,000 for playing in this round.

-- We'll play Juventus in the next round. Its not official yet but they won their first match 7:0, so they're probably going to make it through.

[Radii]

-- Chelsea, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool all advance to the next round of the Euro Cup as well. Newcastle lost to AC Milan. Chelsea will play Arsenal and Liverpool will play Aston Villa so we'll get at least 2 teams in the quarterfinals but no more than 3 depending on our result against Juventus.

-- We're playing Juventus on the 12th and 17th of March. First match on the road. We have 3 league matches between now and then, including a critical road match at Man Utd.

-- We have matches vs QPR and Huddersfield pushed back to late March/April due to our two matches against Juventus.

February 28th, 2026

Stoke (8-5-15, 17th) @ Ipswich (16-6-3, 3rd)

Stoke are 1 point ahead of Sheffield Utd for the last relegation spot, its seeming like West Ham and Watford are sure to fall at this point, Stoke, Sheffield Utd, Aston Villa and QPR are the ones in the most danger of the last spot right now. We are huge, huge 1:6 favorites today, they are 10:1 to get a win. We struggled to a 0:0 draw at their place earlier this year, the first time we've ever played them in the EPL.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Bartlett/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Ros/Sergio Roberto/Smith/Chrzanowski
F: Khan/Constantino

Lots of backups in today though not a lot of the younger kids as we have some injury issues with Olvera and Battersby down there. David Ros plays at ML, Khan up front with Constantino, trotting my old dynamic duo out possibly for the last time.

We'll attack.

4': Constantino to Smith for a clear cut chance and an early goal! 1-0

24': They have a goal kick, their keeper sends it long, all the way into our penalty area, we have 3 players back with their striker, but Aldrovandi commits a foul going up for the header and its a penalty... they score on the PK, ugh!! 1-1

26': Bartlett intercepts a pass and launches a ball forward, Constantino runs onto it and is well behind the defense when he gets to it, he gets into the area and finishes easily. 2-1

39': Heywood is hurt.

42': Smith takes a throwin in their end, moves towards the middle and shoots from 20 yards out, he barely misses, just inches wide.

43': Khan brings the ball forward to attack, Sergio Roberto breaks ahead of him, Khan passes it into the area, Sergio Roberto shoots low and beats the keeper, his first ever goal for Ipswich!! 3-1

HALF: We've got this as long as we don't give up two more penalties :P

54': Connolly in for Smith.

73': We drop back to counter attack to make sure we keep this lead.

88': Heywood picked up a yellow earlier, and now he's given his second and he's sent off. Jackson is in, Constantino off, 4-4-1 to finish it up.

Ipswich 3 : 1 Stoke

Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (7.9)
Goals: Constantino (7.7), Sergio Roberto (7.4), Smith (7.5)
Assists: Khan, Constantino, Bartlett (7.8)
Notables: Hughes (7.0), Chrzanowski (7.2), Ros (7.4)

I'm happy to see Matthew Khan play well here!



There were a few matches played here and there while we were finishing up our Euro Cup knockout series.. 10 matches left unless otherwise mentioned:

1. Arsenal - 61 pts
2. Chelsea - 61 pts
3. Ipswich - 57 pts (2 less played)
4. Man City - 57 pts
5. Man Utd - 54 pts (1 less played)
6. Huddersfield - 50 pts (2 less played)

Yes, that's right, if we were to win both our matches in hand we would be in first place with 10 to play.

[Radii]

March Update

-- We play on the 4th, 7th, 12th, 17th, 21st, 25th, and 29th. 12th and 17th are Euro Cup matches. Four of our Five league matches are on the road, opening @Huddersfield and @Man Utd. Right now we have an equal number of home and road matches played so if we can make it through this month still in the top four, we'll have a pretty big advantage in April and May.

-- Constantino is second in player of the month voting for February, Chris Bryan is 3rd.

-- Di Giuseppe is 2nd in Young player of the month voting for February. Our strikers were on fire!

-- We were perfect in 4 league matches in February, scoring 10 goals and allowing two. That earns me manager of the month in the EPL.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the highlight, our FA Cup Performance the only negative.

-- We lost $2.3 Million last month.


-- Man Utd beat Huddersfield 1:0 to win the league cup. Both teams are virtual locks for top 6 spots so it likely is irrelevant.

-- Connolly and Craig Smith are called up for international matches, Smith for an English U21 and Connolly to Australia. With Jean hurt that kinda sucks.

March 4th, 2026

Ipswich (17-6-3, 3rd) @ Huddersfield (14-8-4, 6th)

We are very slim 6:4 favorites on the road today. We are 10-8-9 lifetime against Huddersfield, I hadn't been noticing as much as when our Man City matches kept getting postponed last year, but this is actually the first time we've played this season. We'll get them at home in April I think. There hasn't really been a home field advantage in this series, its been pretty equal and We are 2-1-2 the last 6 road meetings against them. The results at our place are similar.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Crespo/Clifford/Mills/Gordon
F: Bryan

Even with our weakness at MC I think a 4-1-4-1 is the best play today, on the road against a very good team and we're told that they struggle against this formation.

We'll counterattack.

5': Yellow for Sergio Roberto.

29': Sergio Roberto pretty deep in our end, passes back to Jackson, but its a lazy pass and they intercept it, a pass t ST Van Praet and he's in the area for a clear cut chance... Bogdanovs saves the day and blocks the shot.

46': We have a free kick from 20 yards out, Gordon takes it, the shot is by the wall... but hits the left post and goes out of play.

HALF: Its a boring half and I guess I need to decide if I'm ok playing for a draw and hoping to get a counter attack or if I need to get more aggressive. Man UTd in 3 days too. For now no changes. 5 shots for us, 6 for them, almost all from long range for both teams, just 1 on target.

60': they've come out attacking harder and are up to 10 shots, we don't have any this half.

66': Just too much pressure from Huddersfield, their star ST Cavallieri shoots from 18 yards out and beats Bogdanovs 0-1

73': Constantino and Chrzanowski in for Sergio Roberto and Clifford, Chrzanowski MC, back up to a 4-4-2 to try to get even.

88': Jackson a yellow.

90': Our first shot of the second half, Bryan is 18 yards out but shoots well wide.

That's it, we only manage 1 shot in the half, pretty ugly.

Huddersfield 1 : 0 Ipswich

Their scorer is man of the match.

Notables: Gordon (7.2), Kirkland (7.0)


Man City also played today and won while most of the league was off. This drops us to 4th. 10 matches left unless otherwise noted.

1. Arsenal - 61 pts
2. Chelsea - 61 pts
3. Man City - 60 pts (1 MORE played)
4. Ipswich - 57 pts (1 less played)
5. Man Utd - 54 pts (1 less played)
6. Huddersfield - 53 pts (1 less played)


Our next match against Man Utd in a few days is a make-up match as well with none of the top 7 playing but us. Its going to be a very difficult road match, but we cannot fall to 5th here, so that's good. A win would put 6 points of distance between us and 5th and would be huge.

[Radii]

March 7th, 2026

Ipswich (17-6-4, 4th) @ Man Utd (15-9-3, 5th)

Man Utd are even money favorites at home today, we're 11:5 to win or draw. We're 3 points ahead of them with the same number of matches played. We're 7-8-8 lifetime against Man U, a win here would even up the series so lets do that. With the Community Shield, League Cup, FA Cup + Replay we've played Man U FIVE times this year. We're 1-2-2 in those 5 matches despite 3 of the 5 at home. Our FA Cup series back in January was really exciting, a 3:3 draw at home and 3:2 loss on the road.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

Our coaches tell us Man Utd struggle against a 4-4-2 and we've run that against them most of this year I think and scored well if we just can limit the goals we give up.

Its raining very hard today, we look to counter attack.

3': an early attack from them as their ST Wray put a ball into the area for AML Szatan, he has a clear cut chance and the defense failed completely, but he pushes it left.

5': Another pass into the area for them and our defense just lets down, a clear cut chance from MC Steer, right at Bogdanovs, he blocks it and we clear.

29': We have a throwin deep in their end, Mills gets it 20 yards out but puts a shot wide.

47': They have a throwin in their own end after 15 minutes w/ no highlights, Gordon here makes a nice tackle and passes ahead to Constantino, we try to attack before they can set anything up, ahead to Darcy, into the area for Adagmsar, its a clear cut chance but its a tough angle too and its saved.

HALF: We end up taking 7 shots but only 2 on target and we only saw a couple in highlights. They shoot 3 times, generating 2 clear cut chances. It actually seems like we have the edge here if we could keep up at this rate, but we expect them to try to put a lot of pressure on us in the second half.

52': Some nifty passing from Smith to Constantino to Darcy sees us get a clear cut chance, but Darcy shoots it wide right, damn!

68': Adagsmar is hurt and must leave the match immediately. Crespo comes in for him, and Chrzanowski is in for a tired Neil Gordon as well.

69': Smith puts a shot from 20 yards out miles high. We haven't allowed a shot yet but we are not shooting well ourselves at all..

84': Aldrovandi in for Mills, Aldrovandi to DC, Bartlett MC.

91': we build up slowly here before Chrzanowski fires a pass ahead to Darcy, he lays it off to Crespo who is just outside the6 yard box and wide open... and he puts a shot just inches outside the left post wide, I scare the cat away with a rather loud "WHAT!? NO!" and watch the rest of injury time run off.

Man Utd 0 : 0 Ipswich

It was really raining hard today and it clearly impacted the players, their man Wray was having his shots go all over the place too. A draw on the road holds our 4th place spot really nicely and is a good result.

Man of the Match: Adagsmar (7.7)
Notables: Heywood (7.5), Kirkland (7.3), Mattle (7.0), Darcy (7.0)

No one was really bad here outside of Neil Gordon who had a rough 6.3 before being subbed out.

Injury Update

Adagsmar is hurt in the match today, it must have been at the very end, I didn't notice at all. He has ab broken wrist and will miss 3-4 weeks.


This match was the only one played today that impacted the top teams. Still 10 to go unless otherwise noted.

1. Arsenal - 61 pts
2. Chelsea - 61 pts
3. Man City - 60 pts (1 MORE played)
4. Ipswich - 58 pts
5. Man Utd - 55 pts
6. Huddersfield - 53 pts (1 less played)


We play Juventus twice over the next 10 days before getting back into league play on the 21st.

[Radii]

-- Ballester, Di Giuseppe and Jean all resume full training, great news for us.

-- Liverpool defender Paul Young has been unhappy there for awhile and he's finally getting his way as he wants to leave the team. I'd gone after him pretty hard before, he is the starting DL for England with 66 caps for the national team at age 28 and is the reason Kirkland gets called up but rarely plays. We don't quite have enough of a transfer budget to meet their $13.2M asking price but I'll be doing what I can to sign him. It seems unlikely we'll land him as Real Madrid makes an offer, so even if they do let me offer him a deal we're likely to lose out.

March 12th, 2026

Euro Cup Second Knockout Round - First Leg

Ipswich (4th, EPL) @ Juventus (5th, Serie A)

We played Juventus in Champions League group play last year and got a win and a draw to win our CL group. A nice rematch for us here. Juventus are even money favorites at their place to open the series. They are led by ST Petros Rovas who has 12 goals in 10 Euro Cup Matches and ST Wim Groen who has 9 goals in 8 Euro Cup matches, he has 23 total goals and makes twice as much as anyone on our roster.


GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
DM: Smith
M: Crespo/Connolly/Mills/Gordon
F: Constantino

Di Giuseppe and Jean and Ballester aren't really ready yet but all three will play in the home leg next week. We run a 4-1-4-1 with Smith at DMC and Constantino up front and will defend outright on the road.

4': A through ball from Rovas to Groen leads to a clear cut chance early for them but he puts it wide, seems like no one can hit the net the last couple matches, that was from really close range!

23': mills a yellow.

23': They have a free kick 25 yards out, a shot comes streaking in, Bogdanovs calmly turns it over the bar. We head away the corner and there is an offside call as they try to get it back forward.

32': they are passing it arond their defense in midfield, Mils makes an interception of a lazy pass and sends it ahead to Constantino, he has a man on him but cuts to the right and gets a shot off... just inches wide, doh!!

35': They counter attack quickly after winning it in our end, a shot by their star Groen from 18 yards out is by Bogdanovs and into the left corner of the net. 0-1

HALF: They control 61% of the possession, shoot 9 times and appear to be well in control, they could have scored a couple times eaisly. We'll open up slightly and try to counter attack in the second half, we're not going to take any big risks this match though and risk falling behind by a lot. We have 2 shots, 1 on target.

50': CONSTANTINO!!! They have a corner, Crespo heads it out of the area and it ends up near the right sideline, they are attacking hard and only have two men back. Constantino races to the ball and picks it up in our end of the field, one defender tracks him, he sprints by that defender and the other starts to come back in defense, Constantino races down the right side, cuts towards the penalty area, he's in the right side of the area and gets a shot by the keeper before their defender can close down!!! Incredible effort!! 1-1

81': Jean in for Mills, Chrzanowski in for Gordon.

After our goal we go 40 minutes without a highlight and that's just fine by me. They get a long shot off in the final minute of injury time but its wide.

Juventus 1 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.3)
Goals: constantino
Assist: Crespo (7.1)
Notables: Kirkland (7.0)

A very average match with the one brilliant spot of speed and skill getting us a goal to come back home tied at 1.


Man U travel to Southampton and get smashed 3:0, helping our top 4 cause greatly. We're still 3 points ahead of them but now we have a match in hand as well.

1. Arsenal - 61 pts
2. Chelsea - 61 pts
3. Man City - 60 pts (1 MORE played)
4. Ipswich - 58 pts
5. Man Utd - 55 pts (1 MORE played)
6. Huddersfield - 53 pts (1 less played)

[Radii]

-- Star DL Paul Young agrees to a deal right away with Real Madrid. Liverpool rejected our offer which came up a few million short of what they asked for, and I'm pretty sure he'd have chosen to go to Spain anyway.

March 17th, 2026

Euro Cup Second Knockout Round - Second Leg

Juventus (1) @ (1) Ipswich

We are very slim 6:4 favorites here at home. We should field a stronger lineup with players coming off injury today. A 0:0 draw would see us advance, 1:1 extra time, 2:2 or more and we'd lose. Win and advance/lose and go home as well.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

Di Giuseppe and Jean are back, Ballester is available off the bench. Standard mindset at home today.

5': Mills to Crespo for a clear cut chance early but shot right at the keeper. We earn a corner, they clear it.

9': We win a ball in midfield and its sent up to Darcy, he isn't the fastest guy in the world but he keeps his edge on the defense and gets into the area, has our second early clear cut chance, but the keeper is able to push his shot away. Corner is cleared again.

40': We intercept a pass while they are attacking, Di giuseppe has it near midfield and makes a long run down the left side, he crosses into the area, Darcy wins the header... but its just wide, close!

47': They tackle the ball away as Crespo is trying to find an open man about 25 yards out, the ball fall to Mills, he immediately passes into the right side of the area, Neil Gordon is there, shoots near post and beats the keeper!!! 1-0

HALF: We are playing great here so far, 9 shots to just 1 for them. We put 5 on target, we've had 3 clear cut chances and only lead by 1 so that might be a concern. They will surely press us hard in the second half.

50': a throwin in their end, Heywood puts a ball into the area for Crespo but he just isn't finishing well, this one is wide.

53': Aldrovandi a yellow.

58': A goal kick for them, sent long, its headed high up into the air. Heywood controls it in the area as it comes down, but not well.. the ball squirts away before he can clear it and their star ST Groen is there to take advantage of the mistake and he scores easily. 1-1

77': Constantino in for Darcy.

93': Jean with a yellow.


FULL TIME: We're tied at 1 after 90 minutes, so the series is tied at 2, away goals are even, and there is more to be played.

91': We kick off, play the ball back to the defense and then long forward, Gordon has it running down the right, crosses into the area, Di Giuseppe wins the header.. but its just high, close.

97': Connolly in for Mills.

104': After a throwin in our end, the ball is headed around our penalty area 3 or 4 times, we're unable to fully clear it, finally they get the ball down for their star Groen but Bogdanovs makes a huge clutch save from close range!!

HALFTIME/EXTRA TIME: Gordon has played great but he's so incredibly tired. I bring Chrzanowski in for the final 15 minutes. It seems like they're playing for overtime, I'm going to attack.

110': We have a throwin in their end, after a few passes, Jean hits Constantino in the penalty area and he gets a shot by the keeper and in!!!! 2-1

110': We will defend now.

113': Oh no. Di Giuseppe is hurt and forced to leave the match. I'm out of subs and we'll play a 4-4-1 and check on his status post match.

116': They are pressing extremely hard now, and Kirkland makes a key interception as they start to build up on offense, he passes to Jean, Jean plays a ball from our own half forward, Constantino gets ahead of the defense, picks up the ball, makes a run into the penalty area and scores!!!!!! 3-1

Ipswich (4) 3 : 1 (2) Juventus

Constantino the hero!!!!!

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.7)
Goals: Constantino 2, Gordon (7.8)
Assists: Jean 2 (8.5), Mills (7.6)
Notables: Heywood (7.4), Kirkland (7.4), Mattle (7.0), Crespo (7.2), Di Giuseppe (7.0)


-- We receive $430,000 for this round of the Euro Cup, and advance to the Quarterfinals.


Injury Update

Superstar Yuri Di Giuseppe is going to be out 4 weeks with an ankle injury he picked up near the end of the match today.



Everton beats Man City 3:2, Man Utd can't buy a win (1:1 draw at home vs Liverpool), Chelsea does beat Nottingham Forest but we pick up some really strong edges over Man U and Man City.

.. a couple days later Watford pulls off a 2:0 upset over Arsenal, we have to take advantage of all this!

9 matches to play unless otherwise noted:

1. Chelsea - 64 pts
2. Arsenal - 61 pts
3. Man City - 60 pts (1 MORE played)
4. Ipswich - 58 pts (1 less played)
5. Man Utd - 56 pts (1 MORE played)
6. Huddersfield - 53 pts (1 less played)

[Radii]

Injury Update

Sergio Roberto is hurt in training and will miss 7-10 days.

-- Chelsea beats Arsenal and Aston Villa beats Liverpool, we'll have 3 of the final 8 in the Euro Cup. Germany fields 3 teams as well with Leverkusen, Frankfurt and Dortmund. Olympique Lyonnais and At. Madrid round out the field. The finals will be played in Germany this year so if they get that far any of the German teams would have a crazy advantage.

Euro Cup Quarterfinal & Semifinal Draw

At. Madrid vs Ipswich
vs
Aston Villa vs Chelsea


Frankfurt vs Leverkusen
vs
Dortmund vs Olympique Lyonnais


All three English teams end up in the top half of the draw along with Athletico Madrid. All three German teams end up in the bottom half with Olympique Lyonnais. At. Madrid currently sit in second in La Liga. They have two world class strikers that we'll have to contend with.


-- We play three more league matches to finish up March and then play At. Madrid in back to back games starting at their place. Scheduling conflicts with the Euro Cup push matches vs West Ham and Huddersfield back later in April.

March 21st, 2026

Newcastle (9-10-10, 10th) @ Ipswich (17-7-4, 4th)

We are fairly slim 5:4 favorites today at home. We beat Newcastle 1-0 on the road earlier in the year and have beaten them 3 times in a row, evening the series at 10-0-10.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Ballester/Jackson
M: Ros/Connolly/Smith/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Bryan

Lots and lots of changes today, the entire midfield, two in defense and Bryan in for Di Giuseppe who is hurt.

Standard mindset today.

16': Lots of highlights of us attacking but just some headers off target to show for it so far.

17': Throwin in their end, eventually a pass goes to Bryan in the area, he's covered by two defenders, looks for an opening, and he's tackled and fouled, penalty given!! Connolly takes it and scores! 1-0

20': Bogdanovs picks up a loose ball and everyone goes forward, he drops it and dribbles it around awhile.. finally he launches a long ball that lands right outside their penalty area, Bryan somehow has a step on his man as he runs onto the ball, controls it beautiful, shoots and beats the keeper!! 2-0

30': Their ST Joel beats Mattle and gets into the area, clear cut chance for Newcastle, but Bogdanovs saves it!

35': We win a ball in midfield and counter attack, Chrzanowski to Darcy, Darcy ahead to the left for our youngster Ros, he is into the area and shoots and scores! 3-0

HALF: We allow 8 shots and they get 6 on target but Bogdanovs has been huge. We shoot 10 times, 5on target, 4 clear cut chances, 3 goals, and things are looking great! Hughes in for Kirkland at the half. We drop back to counter attack, also commentary only.

61': Ballester a yellow.

61': They finally get a goal here as defender O'Rielly is forward after a free kick, runs by two defenders somehow and scores. 3-1

We finish it off strongly after that.

Ipswich 3 : 1 Newcastle

Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (9.4)
Goals: Bryan (8.0), Ros (7.8), Connolly (6.8)
Assists: Bogdanovs, Bryan, Darcy (8.7)
Notables: Kirkland (7.2), Mattle (7.4), Chrzanowski (7.0)

Great win! Bogdanovs stopped everything today, almost. Huge match for him.


Man City draws on the road at Tottenham, Man Utd and Arsenal play to a 1:1 draw and West Ham helps us out once again by beating Chelsea 2:1. Everything's coming up Ipswich right now in league play.

8 matches to play unless otherwise noted:

1. Chelsea - 64 pts
2. Arsenal - 62 pts
3. Ipswich - 61 pts (1 less played)
4. Man City - 61 pts (1 MORE played)
5. Man Utd - 57 pts (1 MORE played)
6. Huddersfield - 56 pts (1 less played)

Goal differentials:

Chelsea +25
Arsenal +45
Ipswich +35
Man City +34

Our next two are on the road to end March.

[Radii]

March 25th, 2026

Ipswich (18-7-4, 3rd) @ QPR (9-6-15, 14th)

We are big road favorites, even money to win, they're 11:5. We're 7-7-4 lifetime against QPR though most of that is in the Championship. We beat them 2:0 at home earlier

in the year but haven't won the last two times we played at their place.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Bartlett/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Jean/Smith/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

Some changes today to rest players, we'll be doing a lot of rotating for awhile I assume. Standard mindset as big favorites on the road.

24': Gordon dribbles up the right side, passes to Constantino, he's 25 yards out and well wide right, runs down towards the end line, cuts into the area, splits two defenders, goes by a 3rd getting into the 6 yard box, and shoots it into the far side of the goal, another incredible individual effort!! 1-0

HALF: We only saw one more highlight all half. They shot wide from 25 yards out... wow. Each team has 3 shots today, 1 on target, but we've got the goal. We'll drop back to a counterattacking mindset with the lead and maybe the second half will go by as fast as the first.

69': corner kick, taken to the far post, Aldrovandi with a header, just high.

69': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Hughes for Kirkland.

79': They're getting more offensive highlights but can't do anything but find long range shots right now.

83': They have a midfielder, Bright, who got an earlier yellow, he gets a second one here and is sent off!

QPR 0 : 1 Ipswich

Once again, one spectacular individual effort and we get a win!

Man of the Match: constantino (8.8)
Goal: Constantino
Assist: Gordon (7.0)
Notables: Jackson (7.5), Aldrovandi (7.1)

6.8-6.9 elsewhere.


Arsenal get a win and Chelsea doesn't play, so we make up our match on Chelsea with a win and move into second.. a match in hand on Arsenal and just 1 point out of first place!

7 matches to play unless otherwise noted:

1. Arsenal - 65 pts
2. Ipswich - 64 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 64 pts (1 less played)
4. Man City - 61 pts
5. Man Utd - 57 pts
6. Huddersfield - 57 pts (1 less played)

We are now 7 points ahead of 5th place with 8 matches to go... getting there!!

[Radii]

-- Constantino isn't quite ready to turn over the belt to Yuri Di Giuseppe. In 26 matches Constantino now has 24 goals, 9 assists and 10 man of the match awards with a 7.74 rating. Di Giuseppe has 25 matches, 17 goals, 10 assists, 5 MoM, 7.73 rating. I have when both were healthy played Constantino against easier opponents and saved Di Giuseppe for tougher matches, but yeah, Constantino is still a beast.

-- Constantino has 10 of those goals in league play. That's noteworthy because he turns 31 years old next month and he relies on his speed more than most. When his physical abilities start to go, he'll fade really fast, and he's sitting on 294 league goals in his career. 300 will be an awesome milestone.

March 29th, 2026

Ipswich (19-7-4, 2nd) @ Sheffield Utd (8-8-15, 16th)

Sheffield Utd are a solid 3 points out of a relegation spot, right now its West Ham, Watford, Stoke, Aston Villa and Sheffield Utd are the next closest. Sheffield Utd somehow get to be the favorites here today at their place, 6:4 compared to our 13:8. This is a team we struggle with, we're 6-4-14 lifetime. We won 3:0 at home earlier in the year and are actually 2-1-0 the last 3 times we met on the road so the series has slowly, finally started to turn in our favor.


GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Khan/Constantino

Some more changes today, Gordon rests, Khan up front with Constantino. We will counterattack on the road here.

14': A long pass ahead from MC de Konig to ST Kane leads to a clear cut chance and easy goal as Kane beat Heywood into the area badly. 0-1

35': They have a corner, taken to the far post, Bogdanovs dives out for it and doesn't get the cross, their defender Shi Tao heads it into the net and we're in big trouble. 0-2

HALF: I'm more concerned about the complete lack of offensive highlights than the deficit, we're not competing today at all it feels like. We have a ridiculous 68% of the possession but only have 5 off target shots to show for it. They shoot 7 times and score twice. We'll come out looking to attack in the second half.

53': Mills with a ball into the right side of the area, Chrzanowski is there, a clear cut chance.. but taken pretty weakly and their keeper gets to it.

71': Nothing is happening. I sub Bryan in for Khan, Connolly for Jean, Ballester for Aldrovandi.

94': In one last moment of frustration Ballester fouls one of their men in the penalty area and gives up a penalty, but Bogdanovs saves it, heh.

Sheffield Utd 2 : 0 Ipswich

Notables: Heywood (7.0), Chrzanowski (7.1), Crespo (8.1)

A few really strong ratings there, Aldrovandi 5.5, and lots of 6.4-6.6's.


Arsenal won't make this easy but we continue to get help behind us. Arsenal over Tottenham 2:0, Exeter over Chelsea, Huddersfield over Man City, Man Utd with another draw against Blackburn. As a result we stay in 2nd but give up a chance to put some distance over everyone else.

6 matches to play unless otherwise noted:

1. Arsenal - 68 pts
2. Ipswich - 64 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 64 pts (1 less played)
4. Man City - 61 pts
5. Huddersfield - 60 pts (1 less played)
6. Man Utd - 57 pts

Everything is still pretty damn wide open.

[Radii]

April Update

-- We play on the 2nd, 7th, 11th, 15th, 19th, 22nd, and 25th this month. 2nd and 7th are Euro Cup matches. Should we advance the semifinals would be in late April and with the World Cup coming I'm not sure how much further back matches can be pushed. We could end up with a crazy schedule to finish again. This is the reverse of March where 4 of our 5 matches will be at home.

-- Eoin Darcy is 3rd in Young Player of the Month voting last month.

-- Constantino has the 2nd best goal of the month for his spectacular individual effort against QPR.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Increase in stature is the highlight, our 1-0 loss at Huddersfield is the lowlight, really?

-- We lost $2.99 Million last month.

April 2nd, 2026

Euro Cup Quarterfinal First Leg

Ipswich (2nd, EPL) @ Atletico Madrid (2nd, La Liga)

They are even money favorites today in Madrid.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Hughes/Jean/Smith/Gordon
F: Darcy/Bryan

Hughes starts for Crespo out left today, Smith for Mills and changes up front.

ST Vladimir Aleksic is a 27 y/o valued at $31 Million. 11 of his ratings are 17+ across the board, he has 31 goals in 40 matches between Spain and Europe this year.
ST Alfonso is 23 years old. valued at $44 Million and has scored 30 goals in 45 matches, he leads La Liga with 21 goals in 28 matches and has an 8.41 average rating. This guy is a beast. So that's what we're up against.

We are counter attacking today.

11': Aleksic to Alfonso who shoots from 15 yards out with Ballester trying his best to stick to him, but we can't stop them, easy goal there. 0-1

HALF: We watch them take a number of shots from 25 yards out that just bend wide. We don't really do much ourselves. Darcy and Ballester are having really bad games so far. We have 54% of the possession but they have 9 shots to our 5, I only saw 2 of our shots I think and hey were both poor efforts.

52': We counter quickly after clearing a cross out of the penalty area, a long ball ahead to Bryan, their defender tries to challenge him at midfield and fails, Bryan makes a long run, they start to close down though and Bryan goes into the right side of the area, to the end line, crosses through the 6 yard box, Darcy gets his head on it... and it hits the crossbar, close.

58': Gordon with a long run down the right, we have 3 men in the box, a cross goes in.. but they head it away, its not headed far though and Jean recovers the ball 20 yards out a bit left of center, one dribble into the area, a shot and its in!!! 1-1

64': They answer quickly, a cross into the area from the right, a header by Aleksic won over Heywood and its drilled into the net. 1-2

77': Constantino for Darcy, Crespo for Hughes.

In the final 5 minutes they put an immense amount of pressure on us, we see 4 shots in highlights and a couple more dangerous moves cleared out. We hold them though.

At. Madrid 2 : 1 Ipswich

Aleksic is man of the match for them.

Goal: Jean (7.7), unassisted
Notables: Bogdanovs (8.0), Gordon (7.3)


We'll play them again next week at home down a goal.

[Radii]

April 7th, 2026

Euro Cup Quarterfinals Second Leg

At Madrid (2) @ (1) Ipswich

We are slim 6:4 favorites for the second leg at home here. A 1:0 win sees us through, 2:1 sends us to extra time, 3:2 and they're through. win by 2 and we're in, draw or lose and they are.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

Standard mindset at home needing the win.

5': We win a ball in their end, a pass down the right to Gordon, a long ball down the middle, Darcy stands strong and shrugs off a tackle, loses his man and gets into the area, clear cut chance, and he finishes!! 1-0 What a start!!

7': We give it right back, doh. A ball to their star Alfonso, Mattle misses a tackle allowing him to get into the area and he scores. 1-1

13': Bogdanovs with a diving stop of a strong shot from 25 yards away.

23': We earn a corner.. then a second.. then a third... then they clear harmlessly.

24': After they clear our last corner out they try to push on offense but there's an interception by Jean in midfield, a ball down the left side for Darcy, he makes a long run, Constantino streaks down the center, Darcy with a low pass and Constantino is totally unmarked, goal!!! 2-1

35': They earn their clear cut chance getting a man open in the left side of the area, but Bogdanovs makes a great diving save.

44': We build up on offense, Darcy tries a cross into the area, its deflected away, Jean recovers, passes into the area, Constantino has it, he jukes by the keeper rushing out and has an open net about 6 yards away... and passes it into the left post. Oh My God.

HALF: Constantino's miss near the end of the first half may be the worst missed shot I've seen in this dynasty. That said, we have evened the series up. We can't give up a goal, then we'd need 2 to stay alive. They shoot 10 times to our 7, 4 on target to our 3, but we have 3 clear cut chances to their 2, we've each missed one.

56': And now we're in real real trouble. A long ball down the left, ST Aleksic into the area, a pass to Mc Rodriguez and he scores... 2-2

-- We'll attack, we need two goals now.

63': Mattle a yellow.

65': Bryan in for Darcy.

77': Aldrovandi is hurt.

We don't see another highlight until the 87th minute, they are strong enough to just totally shut this down.

Ipswich (3) 2 : 2 (4) At. Madrid

Good effort, this is a world class team that's been in that top 10 in Europe with some consistency. It sucks to be knocked out, but they were better.

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (7.6)
Goals: Constantino (7.1), Darcy (7.4)
Assists: Darcy, Gordon
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.5)

Bogdanovs again with a superb rating despite giving up multiple goals. He made some amazing saves.


-- We receive $574,000 for making it this far in the Euro Cup.

-- No shame in making the final 8 of the tournament, and now we have a chance to give our complete focus on making the Champions League and if we do everything right possibly even competing for the Premier League title.


-- A Man City win over Man Utd drops Man U back even further but it also bumps City into 2nd for now:

FIVE to go unless otherwise noted

1. Arsenal - 71 pts
2. Man City - 64 pts
3. Ipswich - 64 pts (2 less played)
4. Chelsea - 64 pts (1 less played)
5. Hudersfield - 60 pts (1 less played)
6. Man Utd - 58 pts
7. Liverpool - 52 pts
8. Newcastle - 44 pts
9. Southampton - 44 pts

Man City and Ipswich both have A +34 goal differential, Man City are ahead based on total goals scored.

-- All those road matches are finally about to pay off. Of our final 7, only two are on the road. Looking ahead a bit, two of our last 3 are vs Man City, @Arsenal

[Radii]

April 11th, 2026

Southampton (13-5-15, 9th) @ Ipswich (19-7-5, 3rd)

We are even money favorites today, Southampton are 11:5 to get a win or a draw. We're 7-4-5 lifetime against Southampton but they were our most disappointing match of the year, a 1:0 loss at their place when we were heavily favored.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Ballester/Jackson
M: Crespo/Sergio Roberto/Smith/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

We'll attack at home today.

31': Its been even til now, here Crespo with a run down the left, a pass to Khan in the area, he's tackled and its a penalty! Gordon takes the penalty and scores to give us the lead. 1-0

35': Khan to Constantino for a clear cut chance in the area and somehow he puts it well wide, ugly effort.

HALF: A pretty boring half, we shoot 5 times, they shoot 4. We got 2 on target, 1 for them. We'll keep pushing and hope to get an extra goal.

51': Khan is hurt and must leave the match immediately. I bring Mills in, drop sergio roberto to DMC, mills MC and go with a 4-1-4-1.

62': We have a corner, taken near post, Ballester heads it, saved and deflected away by the keeper. Constantino picks it up and makes a move... he's tackled and we get our second penalty of the match! Gordon makes this one as well. 2-0

72': Hughes in for Kirkland, Chrzanowski in for Gordon.

89': They have a free kick from 35 yards out, blasted right down the middle... Bogdanovs gets his hands on it, but it slips through and into the net. 2-1

That'll do it, we hang on to win.

Ipswich 2 : 1 Southampton

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.7)
Goals: Gordon 2
Assists: Khan (6.7), Constantino (6.8)
Notables: Jackson (7.1), Kirkland (7.4), Ballester (7.0)


Injury Update

Matthew Khan is out for 3 weeks.


-- Man Utd play to another draw, continuing to struggle. Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City all get wins. Arsenal beats Huddersfield which helps our efforts to clinch a top 4 spot.

FOUR to go unless otherwise noted

1. Arsenal - 74 pts
2. Man City - 67 pts
3. Ipswich - 67 pts (2 less played)
4. Chelsea - 67 pts (1 less played)
5. Hudersfield - 60 pts (1 less played)
6. Man Utd - 59 pts
7. Liverpool - 52 pts

Man City now have a goal differential edge on us. We host Huddersfield next, a win puts us just a couple points from clinching a top 4 spot!

[Radii]

April 15th, 2026

Huddersfield (5th) @ Ipswich (20-7-5, 3rd)

We're 4:5 favorites today hosting Huddersfield, they're 3:1 to win. Huddersfield beat us 1:0 at their place earlier in the year, evening the series at 10-8-10. We actually haven't beaten them at home the last 3 meetings, two draws and a loss.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Ballester/Heywood
M: Hughes/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Bryan

Wholesale changes in the midfield and up front on short rest for the second match in a row.

Standard mindset at home.

15': Jean a yellow.

19': Jean is hurt and forced to leave the match, yuck. Smith is in.

26': Bogdanovs makes a save on a shot just inside the area... first highlight of the match.

44': Second highlight of the match.. Mills drills a shot from 25 yards but it hits the right post. We recover and build up, a pass from Mills into the left side of the area for Hughes, but his shot is wide.

HALF: Two highlights shown all half. We will press harder next half for sure, we need to see more at home. 5 shots to their 4. We put 1 on target, two for them. We control 59% of the possession just haven't done enough with it.

48': Yellow for their midfielder Clark.

52': Throwin in their end, a cross from Chrzanowski in for Darcy, but his header is high.

80': When the commentary read: "Hughes hacked Clark down with two feet" I knew it would be bad.. and yeah, its a red. Crespo in for Darcy, Constantino in for Bryan and we will run a 4-1-4-1 the last 10 minutes.

83': We give up a corner as they put a long shot on target and force a save. Ballester wins a header on the corner and sends it out wide, they get a throwin out of that. Heywood gets a yellow for a foul right after the throwin.. they get another corner off the free kick... finally Crespo wins a tackle in the area and clears, whew.


That's it.

Ipswich 0 : 0 Huddersfield

Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (7.5)
Notables: Heywood (7.3), Ballester (7.3), Smith (7.1)


-- Hughes will miss a match for his red card. I issue a warning for his violent tackle.

-- Jean will miss 7-10 days, that's going to be 2 matches maybe 3.


That was a makeup match today, while we'd like 3 points the 1 does bump us back up to second.

FOUR to go unless otherwise noted

1. Arsenal - 74 pts
2. Ipswich - 68 pts (1 less played)
3. Man City - 67 pts
4. Chelsea - 67 pts (1 less played)
5. Hudersfield - 61 pts
6. Man Utd - 59 pts
7. Liverpool - 52 pts

We're 7 points ahead of 5th place, we've got 5 left most teams just have 4 left. Man City is the only English team alive in the Champions League so there's no risk of the 4th place team getting screwed this year unless Man City collapses and falls to 5th.

[Alf]

Funny seeing underdog Huddersfield on top of that list next to you. Didn't they promote the same year you did ?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Alf

Funny seeing underdog Huddersfield on top of that list next to you. Didn't they promote the same year you did ?

The first time we made it up, following the 18/19 season, we won the Championship and beat Huddersfield by 2 points. 19/20 was the year we finished last and relegated back down, but they stayed up. Their finishes... 17th, 17th, 12th, 8th, 3rd, 15th, 12th, and now 5th right now and still they have the potential for a top 4 finish.

[Radii]

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe has resumed full training. Just in time for the stretch run.

-- Otmar Mattle is talking about possibly wanting a new challenge. We don't want to lose him, I love our defense. Neil Bartlett is unhappy about his playing time. Fair enough, when we don't suffer injuries I do tend to rotate Ballester/Aldrovandi/Mattle and not use my 4th guy as much. Bartlett is good though and deserves the PT.


-- We play on Sunday in prime time so we have the advantage of seeing all the Saturday matches first. Man Utd continues their slide, losing 2:0 to Aston villa. Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Huddersfield all win. That means we'd have to win to get back up to 2nd and could drop to 4th with a loss or tie.


April 19th, 2026

Ipswich (20-8-5, 2nd) @ Liverpool (16-7-10, 7th)

Liverpool are 5:4 favorites at their place today, they're in pretty good shape for 7th but with Man U faltering they have a lot to play for and could bump up to 6th still. We beat them 3:2 at our place earlier in the year, I remember that one, we took a 2:0 lead, let them tie it and then got a last minute goal to take the 3 points back. The lifetime series is completely even, 6-4-6.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Bartlett/Ballester/Heywood
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Constantino

4-1-4-1 counterattacking today.

41': The first shot of the game is a scary one from their ST Bailey, Bogdanovs makes a good save though.

HALF: They shoot 3 times, we shoot none. Only 4 highlights all half. All show Liverpool attacking.

53': Ballester is hurt, and he's got to leave the match immediately. Mattle is in.

61': Gordon with a horrible dribble into two men, its taken away and they are on a little break, a great pass through the area sets up a clear cut chance... that's just pushed wide.

70': Connolly in for Mills.

82': Gordon a yellow.


And that's it.

Liverpool 0 : 0 Ipswich

I was honestly a bit frozen in the second half, they were attacking much harder and generating tons of chances and we were turning it over any time we touched it... but I was afraid to get more aggressive, they still only generated a couple scary looks. So in the end I just pulled us back to defensive and hoped for one Constantino breakaway. It never came but we didn't allow a goal either.

Notables: Bogdanovs (7.0), Kirkland (7.6), Bartlett (7.0)


Injury Update

Ballester is out for 3 weeks. Ugh. Well that will guarantee Bartlett is playing time.


-- The draw here does drop us to 4th, but this was a tough one for us.

THREE to go unless otherwise noted

1. Arsenal - 77 pts
2. Man City - 70 pts
3. Chelsea - 70 pts (1 less played)
2. Ipswich - 69 pts (1 less played)
5. Hudersfield - 64 pts
6. Man Utd - 59 pts
7. Liverpool - 56 pts (1 less played)

It seems like Arsenal has made their big push to win the league, but we do still play them and get a chance to pull 3 points back. Top 4 is most important though and not having a let down against a West Ham team that's getting relegated is next.

[Alf]

How many games has Ballester played for you since the time you refused a transfer offer for him ?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Alf

How many games has Ballester played for you since the time you refused a transfer offer for him ?

He's played 9 and missed 13 matches. 5 of those missed were due to injury, the others rotation or whatever.

[Radii]

April 25th, 2026

Man City (21-7-7, 4th) @ Ipswich (21-9-5, 2nd)

We're 6-7-11 lifetime against man city, but we got a big 3:1 win at their place earlier in the year. We ran a 4-1-4-1 with Di Giuseppe up front in that one, and our coaches remind us that they struggle against 4-5-1 variants. We are 6:4 favorites at home.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Constantino

Di Giuseppe is slow to get back to match form and may not play the rest of the year, just the timing and length of his injury really. Constantino up front in a 4-1-4-1 today. Standard mindset though.

29': Kirkland is hurt and has to leave the match. Heywood could play DL but instead I shrug and bring Bartlett in for Kirkland and Bryan in for Jackson and switch to a 3-5-2 instead.

45': We get our first good look of the half as Gordon wins a ball in defense and blasts it down the right sideline, Constantino is first to it, crosses it into the area, Bryan heads it.. it hits the crossbar and comes back down in play, but they clear.

HALF: The highlights have been more Man City than us, but its fairly close, 5 shots for them with 2 on target, just 3 shots for us. They're tackling better and better in the air. Hopefully we can break through in the second half though.

48': Smith with a through ball into the right side of the area, Constantino has the first clear cut chance of the match... but the keeper makes a diving save, so close! Corner is cleared.

58': Mattle a yellow.

64': Mills into the area for Constantino, he shoots and puts it into the left side of the net! Some good passing in their end to slowly pull a couple guys out of position and allow that goal. 1-0

68': Sergio Roberto is hurt.

73': Connolly in for the injured Sergio Roberto.


We put them away in the final 20 minutes and get a huge win!

Ipswich 1 : 0 Man City

Man of the Match: Constantino (7.4)
Goal: Constantino
Assist: Mills (6.8)
Notables: Kirkland (7.0), Mattle (7.2), Aldrovandi (7.2), Crespo (7.1), Smith (7.0)


-- Kirkland is out 2-3 days.


Arsenal win today, but chelsea lose.

TWO TO GO

1. Arsenal - 80 pts
2. Ipswich - 75 pts
3. Chelsea - 71 pts
4. Man City - 70 pts
5. Hudersfield - 67 pts
6. Man Utd - 62 pts
7. Liverpool - 57 pts (1 less played)


Ipswich have clinched a top 4 spot and Champions League entry!

-- Man City are still in the Champions League, and they could still fall to 5th place, BUT, we can't drop behind Huddersfield, so if we fell to 4th it mathematically have to be behind Man City and Chelsea. If Huddersfield were to overtake Man City for 4th, we would be in the top 3, so we are safe.

Now, we're 5 behind Arsenal with nothing to lose. We travel to Arsenal next match, will go all out to beat them, and if by some chance we do, we root like crazy for Newcastle to help us out on the last day.

[Radii]

-- Craig Smith is hurt in training, he'll miss the rest of the season.

May Update

-- @ Arsenal May 3rd, vs Blackburn May 10th.

-- Eoin Darcy is 3rd in Player of the Month voting for April

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Our FA Cup early exit is now the only complaint, that was a good while ago!

-- We lost $29,310 last month, hah.

-- "Darcy Rallies the troops" - Eoin Darcy has rallied his teammates ahead of Sunday's clash with Arsenal by declaring that Ipswich can gain victory at Emirates Stadium and keep alive their bid for the title. !! Darcy has 18 influence and if he would become a regular would be a great candidate for captain later. This'll earn him a starting spot against Arsenal for sure.


May 3rd, 2026

Ipswich (22-9-5, 2nd) @ Arsenal (25-5-6, 1st)

We're still alive for the EPL title in May, its unlikely but we've got a shot. It starts with Arsenal today. We're only 5-3-12 lifetime against them but have beaten them the last two times we played. Last year they crushed us 3:0 at their place, we have won on the road before but its been a few years. We'll see what we can do!

Arsenal are 4:6 favorites at their place today, we are 7:2 to win.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

Arsenal are a scoring machine, Bugra Yildirim has 31 league goals, Hans Nooij has 23. If we can shut down those two their 3rd leading scorer only has 4! We have 2 players with 11 league goals by comparison.

We'll counterattack.

9': Darcy has it up front, runs towards the center, puts a great ball into the area for gordon, its a clear cut chance... but saved. the ball deflects off the keeper, off the back of a defender and falls loose about 8 yards away, Constantino pounces and he puts it in before they can react!!! 1-0

28': They have 2 off target shots, we totally have the better of this so far.

32': Mills to Constantino for a great goal but Constantino was just offsides, sooo close. I do think he was but man not by a lot.

34': We clear a ball out of our end, Darcy up long to Constantino, he's got men closing down, cuts out wide left, passes back inside to Jean, ahead to Mills in the area and its a clear cut chance... but saved.

43': they get a free kick less than a yard outside the penalty box, but the shot is well over.

HALF: They have 6 shots, just 1 on target and 4 from long range. We have 6 shots, 4 on target, 3 clear cut chances. We are really outplaying them right now but still a full half to go.

48': Aldrovandi with a yellow.

58': A free kick off the wall earns them a corner, taken short to Nooij, Crespo ends up covering, he rides him out wide and forces a shot into the side netting.

65': Mattle a yellow.

69': A long run down the right for them... a cross into the area, Nooij with a header from close range, but wide. That was their first clear cut chance.

72': Sergio Roberto in for Constantino, we will defend hard.

91': Connolly and Bartlett in for Jean and Mills, fresh legs to hold the midfield.

That's it!!!!

Arsenal 0 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (7.9)
Goal: Constantino (6.9)
Assist: Gordon
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.1), Kirkland (7.3), Aldrovandi (7.2), Darcy (7.6)

What a win!!!!!

ONE TO GO

1. Arsenal - 80 pts
2. Ipswich - 78 pts
3. Chelsea - 72 pts
4. Man City - 70 pts
5. Hudersfield - 70 pts
6. Man Utd - 62 pts (1 less played)
7. Liverpool - 60 pts

Huddersfield has tied Man City for 4th, but Man City leads in goal differential. Liverpool plays twice and gets 3 points, Man Utd didn't play yet, Man U only up by 2 for 7th place. I'm not sure if anything else going on could put the 7th place team out of the Euro Cup though.

We have clinched 2nd place!!!!!

-- As great as our win vs Arsenal was, it just gave us a chance to win the league, but we still need help.

We host #16 Blackburn, Arsenal travel to Newcastle. We must win and Arsenal must lose. We have the 2nd best goal differential in the EPL but they are so far ahead of us that won't be a factor.