Leaderboard

I wonder if this could be the last time a thread is entitled with the name Ipswich Town included within. Suffolk County Council seem set on a path to take the fair saxon town of Ipswich to city status although should that be awarded by our monarch it likely would not happen until her platinum jubilee in 2022. The popular myth for city status to be either bestowed or exist is for a settlement to have a cathedral; this requirement ceased to be in the mid 19th century having been enacted in the 16th century by Henry VIII. Ipswich City is no more incongruous that Swansea City which, prior to 1969, was called Swansea Town. This was the last time a football club changed its name to reflect the change in status of the settlement in which it was located. Since then Derby, Sunderland, Wolverhampton, Brighton, Preston and Chelmsford have all become cities. In a recent poll 60% of local residents thought the councils idea to apply for city status for Ipswich was wrong. Money wasting and time wasting being cited as two reasons to drop the idea. I wonder though if city status might propel the club more into the limelight, attract more investment into the new city and perhaps the club and send it again toward the top flight of English football. It did not seem to do Swansea too much harm and Derby, Wolves, Brighton and Preston are all doing fairly well in the history of their clubs. A spark perhaps for the elevation of all things civic and sporting. Conversely Bristol has long held city status, since 1542 in fact, although it is by no means the earliest. Today's cathedral was founded in 1140 and consecrated in 1148. It was originally St Augustine's Abbey but after the Dissolution of the Monasteries it became the seat of the newly created Bishop of Bristol and the cathedral of the new Diocese of Bristol after Henry VIII's break with the Pope and the dissolution of the monasteries, the formerly monastic cathedrals were "re-founded" with secular canons. The south west, of which I include Salisbury, is bestowed with some of the finest medieval monastic architecture in the land. The cathedral cities of Salisbury, Exeter Gloucester and Wells, particularly, come to mind. There is something remarkably whole and humbling to walk amongst these hallowed yet magnificent structures and while city status no longer requires a cathedral the very existence of one creates an aura, a resonance and a stability to the place. Bristol is very fortunate to have such medieval status; something that can and should anchor the success of our sports teams now that we have the structure to support them. Ipswich will never have that, at least not for many centuries to come. I think the majority of its residents understand that and this is reflected in their refusal to endorse the idea of the council; call it psychological without necessarily understanding the historic significance. And call football a religion without understanding what it means, like they do in Liverpool, then maybe the inside of a place of worship like Bristol Cathedral can also become Ashton Gate. A factor for not playing Ipswich TOWN again comes with promotion. I rank our chances somewhere near where the bookies are I think; around 20% which seems to factor in there are 5 teams left with a fighting chance of 6th place; down to Millwall one might suggest. And, equally considered, our diabolical run of form which might otherwise place our percentage forecast at closer to 50%. So why has our form collapsed and, more importantly, can it be arrested in time? Nine matches left, historical data considered, three points adrift all suggest we probably need 6 wins out of 9. True enough Hull City went on a late charge under Phil Brown 10 years ago and that is what it will likely take for us but you have to consider the wily Tony Pulis at Boro. Rarely do I make predictions and in the hope I am proven wrong I think our trajectory remains downward albeit with temporary arrests to that slide with occasional but insufficient wins, today perhaps being one of them. All in all it will not be through lack of support from the City faithful. The feeling I get is the City board did not really want promotion this season, or is that just them trying to take the pressure off? If it is, and it somehow works, then more the credit to them for pulling a genie out of the bottle in these next 9 games. A solid, decent season will have become truly magnificent. Enjoy the match everybody.

Neither Eliasson nor Engvall have done anything particular to justify their inclusion ahead of Diony and Kent, certainly not the the extent that it is “absolutely shocking” that they haven’t been selected, to use your words. You make it sound as if Messi has been dropped in favour of Bas Savage. The way you talk with comments like “glad I’m not wasting my time today” it’s as if we’ve been relegated already. For all this talk of how terrible we are, our last four home games have brought two wins and two draws with a realistic prospect of victory today. Find some perspective.

Hilarious!

If we beat Ipswich today at the Gate, at least Mick McCarthy has a ready made ex-Skuse.

from the Plymouth forum: Vyner can play sadly those around him think they can too and it doesn't suit. What a thoroughly horrible club Bristol Rovers are, no-one likes loosing and the banter is part of the game. But when you have grown men and women trying to break the cordon, to fight Argyle fans just because they are losing, damn Neanderthals. I hope they get a large fine and a few score banning orders, you can stick your GAS where the sun don't shine you horrible lot.

The atmosphere is flatter than a witches tit . COYR

Elliason and Engvall must be well fed up with Kent and Diony chosen ahead of them not for the team but for the bench.

Someone's been following the City just a bit too long .

As I said you can clearly draw a distinction between our home and away form. The away form is the issue. Apalling form is when you’re losing every week. We’re not, we’ve lost 3 times in our last 11 games. It’s average and it’s disappointing in the context of our season, but it’s not appalling.

Well done lads . Badly needed win . I don't care that it wasn't pretty. About blooming time we came out on top. Respect to the Red Army on this foul day . Get home safely.

We win, Preston win. Boro, Brentford, Sheff Utd all drop points and Derby have a very tough game tomorrow. A good day. The season is still alive, despite what some will tell you.

Could you disappear and come back again?

Was just coming on here to see how the depression fest is coming along and lo and behold we’ve scored!

How many other clubs have improved their league position for four seasons in a row, including a promotion, while simultaneously spending £45m redeveloping their ground, releasing plans for a new training ground, and growing their attendances by around 50%?

5ft 2 inches

Players just getting through the games now. They can keep themselves injury free and be off in the summer to more ambitious clubs with serious aspirations.

Wow another in our latest instalment of dull, uninspiring and truly poor performances. We play nice one touch football up until the halfway line and then totally run out of ideas and then revert to a ‘chuckle brothers’ style of ‘to me, to you, to me, to you, oops it’s been intercepted’, we even tried that tactic on the edge of our own box a couple of times. No invention, no penetration, poor crossing, poor decision making, we have not created a single chance. Diedhiou is having a mare, his first touch is awful, his passing is awful and he is simply not holding the ball up and going down far too easily. Kelly looks really comfortable as does Pisano, in fact the defence looks relatively untroubled but so does Ipswich’s. If I had to come up with a phrase to describe this game so far it would be ‘a steaming pile of rancid dog shit’.

Lovely to see you positive for once

2-0 Ipswich. Bobby snaps his ACL in the third minute. Dennis in Dolman A block shits himself and the whole stand has to be evacuated. Skuse beats 3 players and puts it in the top corner, and Garner gets Fielding sent off when he wins and converts a penalty.

Nothing like the Dolman. In the cathedral there is somewhere to sit and somewhere to put your drink. They probably sell chips as well

That's my own gut feeling-they didn't want it.................................yet. If they think that they can pick and choose and will have the right to be up there again next season...dream away.

Not sure, I do know they sold a whopping 5,400 for this season....but fair play to them, they also do sell a ‘flexi ticket’ where you pay £140 in advance and then you can choose 10 home games to attend as the season progresses....they also do a 5 game flexi ticket for £70...and you can decide up to 1.30pm on the day of a game whether you want to attend or not. For people with difficult work shift patterns and uncertain home life arrangements etc, this seems pretty good...

I`m sure the Post will be all over this on Monday with a front page of pictures asking if anyone knows these people and police dawn raids will no doubt result. Or am I living in a parallel universe where it`s not just City fans that they do that for?

Lost 3 2 to Plymouth, a team we spanked 5 nil in the cup. With half our reserves. Mind the gap

8 more 1-0 wins and playing dire is fine by me, looking at Derby & Boro’s run in I still fancy us to sneak in there

I am quite happy to consign this result into the ‘result more important than performance category’ but anyone who believes that we are contenders on this form is sadly mistaken. This is what I said at half time and it is true, We play nice one touch football up until the halfway line and then totally run out of ideas and then revert to a ‘chuckle brothers’ style of ‘to me, to you, to me, to you, oops it’s been intercepted’, we even tried that tactic on the edge of our own box a couple of times. A classic example of this was on 82 minutes, we had a free kick in a reasonably advanced position and we have a giant to aim at in the box and Pack gives Smith a sideways pass which was behind him, Smith slips and has to take a yellow to stop them breaking away, get into the ******* box FFS, we need some creativity and a leader who can organise better and more practice at crossing and free kicks. No invention, no penetration, poor crossing, poor decision making, we have not created a single chance. Diedhiou was awful and rightly replaced, Kelly by far the MOM and great to see one good cross in a game. As for Paterson yet another master class in mediocrity, I don’t think LJ is doing him any favours by continuing to play him, he is defensively a liability and is offering nothing going forward.

What, full of shit drinks?

Blades 0-0 Trees FT

Plymouth winning now against Gas.

The man's got wood at half four on a Saturday afternoon?? ... Well, fair play to him!

Very well, looks composed, no nonsense when defending and now has the assist for the goal too

Leeds losing to Wednesday

It's the hope that gets me. I was really quite happy grumbling away about our season going down the pan.

Yep!

Good Djuric on, Fammy off

This has been like the SOD days, loads of ineffective passing sideways and backwards.with no threat going forward, what has happened to all the quick interplay and whole team pressing to get the ball, back.

Calm down dont get your knickers in a twist. Its not my fault they have ****** it up

Yeah all those transfer disasters that have seen us develop from relegation to playoff contenders while heading for a 4th consecutive season of league position improvement despite operating with a bottom half budget.

Paterson has been litter since Christmas hasn’t he mate. No idea what LJ thinks Hegeler will be able to bring to the team. Even at 100% fit he offers nothing let alone at his current state. Bring Djuric on and have....no one that can cross a ball on each wing. Eliasson’s delivery is made for Djuric.

Or a t-shirt with 'Mind the Gap' on it!

I posted this else where, but seems fitting here too. Evening Post at it's finest

Zak scores Plymouth's seventh goal in stoppage time in front of the away support and lifts his green Janners shirt to reveal a nice shiny red BCFC one! How good would that be?

I think the majority of City fans believe we've blown it , add in the perceived injustice of the increase in ticket prices and the solidarity required for a promotion push is wobbly to say the least. Why on earth are next season's ticket on sale already ? I don't buy the argument that progress has been made . The facts are that for three months we have been in relegation form and need to pull out of this nosedive today . No excuses. Do or die. We have some injured players back who could make a difference. We can still do this .

Secular canons can go off at any moment and are a health and safety issue.

I realise the opposition are only recently out of non league but today you are representing the second biggest club in the South West so it's like a cup final to them- a trip to Plymouth more than they could have dreamt of . Play well , help keep a clean sheet and get yourself into the playoffs and if any opposition player wants to exchange shirts after the match- just say no no no. .

We will win today definitely and that will give a little hope once again before we lose the next game!

3 points of the playoffs 9 games still to play 5 of them at home we still have to play boro,blades,Millwall, players returning from injuries i cant believe people are waiting our season off!! Coyr or as my mate would say ctid.

https://goo.gl/images/dZbGxF

I am not sure why but seeing the constant references to a "field" in that thread, made me think of these rather apt lyrics by Jarvis Cocker. Oh is this the way they say the future's meant to feel? Or just 20,000 people standing in a field And I don't quite understand just what this feeling is But that's okay cause we're all sorted out for E's and wizz