THE AWAY END
IPSWICH TOWN v MIDDLESBROUGH
John Powls, 8 Feb 2010
The Build Up To The Game
The websites this week were dominated by the events of the closing day of the January transfer window - February 1st of course - and the day that the ComeOnBoro acronym - COB - became also known as 'Celtic Old Boys'.
It was a busy window for Strachan's Red Rebuild Revolution with - as it turned out - seven new players in with five from Celtic and almost the same out, depending on how you count the move of Midough's Gregg's order from Egypt to East London. Pie with mash, now, presumably.
Column Continues Below...
Boro created all the interest as the deadline - that never is, of course - came and went. Scott McDonald - who isn't. A Scot, that is - and Lee Miller - who is. But isn't an ex-Celt - came, and Johnno went - to moneybags City to fund those deals.
Though there was the usual debate and variety of views amongst posters to website message boards and blogs most were supportive of what Strachan was trying to do in creating his own squad and team. McDonald's arrival was universally welcomed.
Gibbo joined in with his positive reaction. He confirmed there was money left in the kitty for a couple more loans to make up for missing out with a three million bid for Blackpool's goalscoring midfielder - and Scot - Charlie Adam and to beef up the midfield, now the lightest resourced of the team units in the push for the play-offs that the Boro owner confirmed as the season target - if at all possible.
Generally, the DiasBoro also took the news of another Boro left winger disappearing to The Prem for big money phlegmatically, regarding it as pretty well inevitable. The dominant reaction was to wish the lad well, just as happened with Stewie before him.
At least opposing managers won't now be able to send out their sides with the instruction 'stop the left winger and you stop Boro'.
Meanwhile, the hex of the Boro 2010 calendar continued. Mr. January was Johnno. Maybe a punt that he wasn't going to be around after then wasn't too hard.
Mr. February? Femmer Frenchie, Part Deux - Didier Digard. And, even better, an inset thumbnail of International Man of Mystery - Shawky.
Mr. March? Pogi - you have been warned!
Tractor Boys' Boss, Keano - a Celtic fan and player under Strachan there too - may have to join The Parmo Army but maybe not until after this game. He has raided his old club - The Mackems - too, both in this window and previously.
The big interest for The Away End was how many debutants Boro would field for this one. I would have debated it with Phil on the way - but I traveled to this one alone. His birthday all-nighter on Friday/Saturday meant he hadn't been able to get the bed off his back. Lightweight!
The Game
This was my first time at Portman Road - a ground that must be one of the closest to its main line railway station in the leagues. As I was scoffing the ritual gristleburger with cheese and onion from the stall opposite the Cobbold Stand I got another, different, taste of local culture.
A bloke with a mini-megaphone and some sort of music player paraded up and down the road shouting or trying to sing almost unintelligible snatches of what I took to be Ipswich chants and songs - some of which he seemed to be recorded and playing off a walkman.
The Ipswich Programme seller told me that no-one knew who the gadgie was, that he was there at every home game but never went into the ground. Bizarre.
When I got inside it seemed a shame for the Ipswich support and the atmosphere of the game that he wasn't there. The Riverside is often quieter than you'd like but I've never experienced a quieter ground than Portman Road.
If it hadn't been for the constant racket from The Away End the silence would have been both eerie and deafening.
When the teams were announced it was clear that McDonald and Arca weren't even in the squad. A text from a mate confirmed that neither had travelled. The Land Crab had succumbed to a sore claw; sorry, toe - and Boro's new striker was deemed not fit enough to start, despite all the brave words from him and Strachan during the week.
What was even more odd was that the team included - count them - at least four full backs. But, even with all the head scratching that went on in The Away End, none of worked out that Boro would line up 4-4-2 with Hoyte in the centre of midfield and Andrew Taylor in the Johnno role, wide left!
Twenty seconds after kick off it was clear that the team hadn't worked it out either. At least Jon Grounds has experience as a left back at this level but he's most recently been filling in at centre-back, and it showed with his first contact with the ball. He cleared but only into the Ipswich midfield. Realising his error, he tried to correct it by racing forward to engage the Tractor Boys in midfield and vacated the left back slot.
Tayls - who should have engaged them - didn't and neither did he drop back to cover Grounds. Healy got into the wide open acres where Grounds should have been. His cross - into the 'zone of uncertainty' - found Murphy who'd got goalside of Wheats and was strong enough to hold him off and resist a brave dive at his feet by Danny Coyne to squeeze the ball home.
Darryl Murphy is yet another of the legion of non-scoring centre forwards - except against Boro. He last scored in a competitive game almost two years ago against - guess who?
As Strachan put it, "We were embarrassed down the left and for twenty minutes the players out of position went into shock and we were rocking."
The remaining forty-four minutes of the first half were amongst the poorest The Away End has experienced in a very poor season. Boro were simply awful but Ipswich weren't much better and couldn't capitalise.
That they didn't was mainly because of the Trojan efforts of Gary O'Neil and Willo Flood in the midfield with Wheats and debutant McManus at the back. GON and The Redcar Rock were, jointly, my Men of the Match for getting the team through this game.
At half-time the only consolations were that Boro weren't out of it and, 'surely', they couldn't be as bad in the second half. We also discussed the petty and disorganised stewarding of The Away End. The intrusive heavy handedness was totally out of keeping with the occasion and the behaviour of the travelling Parmo Army.
When Boro emerged to line up for the second half Hoyte was shifted to wide right and Flood joined GON in the middle.
The Reds picked up the pace too and began to give the healthily sized Away End something to shout about - although, to be fair, they weren't exactly quiet in the first half either.
Town began to look suddenly porous and when Strachan gave Boro some width by correcting the second of his mistakes and subbing Jon Franks for Tayls they began to seriously threaten the home goal.
Miller hooked a shot over his shoulder from the angle of the six yard box that just cleared the bar and then Killen forced a scrambling save from Lee-Barrett that led to a corner that GON swung in from the Boro left.
The Reds' Captain planted his cross right on the mark - centre of the goal on the six yard line - where it was met perfectly by Wheats who thumped his header home for Boro's equaliser and his first in eighteen months.
Boro almost followed it immediately with a second. Hoyte was sent clear on the right - in the same position as Healy punished The Reds in at the start. Unlike the Town forward he had at least three team-mates to find but produced a cross that was more like a back pass to Lee-Barrett.
After that there were half chances at both ends from headers. Killen had an effort cleared off the line and Miller forced Lee-Barrett into a clutch at the second time of asking. At the other end Wheats, Grounds and McManus made blocks and McAuley struck his own player with an effort that looked goal bound.
But, largely, the game became a stalemated, blood and thunder midfield battle. With Flood fading a little, Hoyte as ineffective as ever but at least out of harm's way on the wing and Jon Franks going forward the burden was shouldered by Gary O'Neil - and he relished and won the battle with the likes of Leadbitter, Norris and Colback with tackles that you could feel in the Cobbold Stand flying in.
We were treated to yet another display of poor reffing and we wondered - out loud - why we always get 's**t referees'. We also tried to get the Town fans going by taunting them about how quiet it was and with 'Are you Mackems in disguise' but nothing worked.
Then it got followed up with 'We are Celtic in disguise'. At least that got a laugh out of the home fans.
Over the game, neither side deserved to win - or lose - and the fair result duly came about, though you'd think there was more in it for Strachan than for Keano. The Away End stayed to applaud the players off the field.
Later
At Ipswich station on the way back a few Away Enders discussed the debutants. The consensus was that McManus looked steady and a good, old fashioned defender who relished heading it and kicking it away and was capable of a crunching tackle but with a cool head. His distribution wasn't great but he hadn't played much at all recently - let alone in this team and division.
Kyle Naughton, understandably, looked rusty too but he grew into his defensive role as the game went on. What was most disappointing, though, especially with Boro's midfield weakness and lack of width was that the young man barely got forward at all and showed none of his electric pace or overlapping that have been such a strength of his game.
We didn't know whether that was under orders or force of circumstances but we were sure there's more to come from him.
It was difficult to make any sort of judgement on Killen and Miller in this one, especially as a partnership because the got so little service but it's clear that they are similar in style and ended up trying to be in the same spaces doing the same things.
They were no threat to the Ipswich goal in the first forty-five but neither did the Boro front two hold the ball up anywhere near well enough to give their hard pressed midfield any relief. They were comprehensively shackled by Town's centre-backs and weren't yet strong enough for this level of physical challenge.
Both had half chances in the second half and Killen came closest and probably had the best of the touches bringing in other Boro attackers. So, as soon as McDonald is fit enough to start, it will be the Aussie plus one of the two - but neither did enough yesterday to stake their claim or to suggest that they're going to get a load of goals either.
It's a bit odd, though, that Strachan could say in his post match comments that 'it's a farce that a club like ours has to play with a right back and left back in the middle of the park' and that 'we weren't ready for the ferocious game that Ipswich played' as though the bizarre selection and set out had nothing to do with him and that the way a Keano side was going to play came as some sort of surprise.
When I got home Phil had decided that 'hair of the dog' was the best medicine and had gone out on another all-nighter.
The BBC Football League show - unsurprisingly - relegated the very briefest 'highlights' of the Boro game to the depths of their Championship round up package and the Sunday and Monday newspaper comprehensively ignored it - as has become usual.
The feeling from my mates on e-mail and text? If a draw was OK - just - in this game it won't be in the two home games to come.
The Away End will return after the Blackpool game on 16 February.
