v Ipswich Town (h) - Good Friday, 29/3/24, 17:30

[philipl]

All season we have been waiting for Ipswich to fall apart and it hasn't happened. They did have a wobble but Russell Martin in the Southampton dug out came true to form at the same time and nobody is taking much notice of the Leicester current form which is w1 d1 l3. Everyone is assuming Leicester have a cake walk to the title but the reality is any 2 from 4 for automatic promotion (Southampton have 2 games in hand on Ipswich) and as the fixture Gods would have it, we have to play all 4 in our last 8 games. So Ipswich are going to be good practice for Rovers attempt to save ourselves by puncturing others' automatic promotion dreams...

This in my view is Eustace first real game- the previous fixtures came so quickly in succession he could only do band aid jobs but now he has a 12 day period of player recuperation and intensive work with his coaches at Brockhall. The only downside is Sigurdsson and Szmodics will probably play twice internationally so the two most knackered looking members of the squad don't get a break.

That said, training ground and international injuries permitting, Rovers will have as close to a full squad to chose from as is normally possible at this time of the season- Barnes, Fleck and Leonard the only certain absentees from the senior group.

The match day squad will see three from yesterday dropping out with the inclusion of McFazdean, Carter and JRC. For once, the kit man won't have to include nappies for the bench in his dressing room supplies...

 

Ipswich can score from all over the pitch, have real dangers from the bench and have lost fewer games than anyone else in the Championship this season. Travis is only a bit part player for them so will be no loss being ineligible to play against us while Hirst is out with a hamstring injury which required surgery and unlikely to be ready by Good Friday.

This is a MUST WIN for them which means they will be attacking us from the get go backed by a vociferous following from Suffolk. Under JDT, these were the circumstances we tended to thrive under. We conceded early and often at Portman Road but still gave Ipswich a footballing lesson at times, pulled it back to 3-3 and were only undone by a late Pears flap.

At the very least, I am expecting Ipswich to know they have been in a game at Ewood and if Eustace gets us uncharacteristically willing to shoot on sight, we might avoid defeat.

The 5.30pm kick off means we will know how Millwall v West Brom, Huddersfield v Coventry, Norwich v Plymouth, QPR v Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday v Swansea have gone. In the worst case we will be worrying that a thrashing will drop us into the bottom three but hopefully it will be a free hit for getting further from trouble.  

 

[chaddyrovers]

We will know the results of other games and it is down to us to get the 3 points. Lets be loud and cheer the players to victory and 3 points. 

My team would be 

                   Pears

Brittain Carter Hyam Pickering

               JRC  Tronstad

      Hedges  Szmodics  Dolan

                    Gallagher

Subs:- Wahlstedt McFadzean Wharton Chrisene Buckley Ayari Moran Sigurdsson Telalovic 

I will go for 2-1 Rovers win with Szmodics and JRC scoring 

             

Edited March 17 by chaddyrovers

[davulsukur]

Well, Ipswich comprehensively dismantled Sheff Wed yesterday, which doesn't fill me with much confidence for this one.

Pressure will be on, knowing the other results but these lot don't do well under pressure, so expecting a defeat.

[jim mk2]

Rovers showed what they are capable of against Newcastle and the players have to play every game to the end of the season with the same level of commitment and intensity. Ipswich aren’t a wonder side and they can be ruffled and got at if every Rovers player can reproduce the fight and battling qualities of the FA cup tie. They’ve shown they can do it - do they want it enough to do it again? 

[OldEwoodBlue]

We will be playing for a draw again.

 

[WacoRover]

49 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

We will be playing for a draw again.

 

If we could manage a draw, I would almost take it right now, after some of the runover jobs the tractors have administered this season. 

However, this game will unfortunately expose our weaknesses, and Rovers will drop it despite heroic efforts, 

1-2. 

[RevidgeBlue]

I think we'll probably get at least one result we weren't expecting against sides higher up in the table and continue to fail to impress in the games we think we should win.

Whether that will start against Ipswich remains to be seen.

[yellowsubmarine]

Let Damien Johnson have a go at managing this game.

[simongarnerisgod]

i hope eustace sees  we can`t play a high defensive line against a renown counter attacking team.whatever the result.im`e sure we will be  "outstanding"😁

[yellowsubmarine]

Just watched Ipswich 6-0 trashing of Wednesday. Killed off any hopes of me thinking that Rovers will remotely get anything out of this game. Their Omari Hutchinson will shred our defence to bits.

[tomphil]

Teams that came at us at home previously you'd fancy scoring a few goals, you knew we'd concede at least 2 but we'd also exploit the space they left and carve them open back to front at times.

Now though other than punts forward that doesn't seem the case and i expect Eustace again will try and park the bus.

Could be a tricky afternoon trying to absorb constant pressure for 95 mins from a team that always seems to find a way to score.

[roversfan99]

7 hours ago, philipl said:

All season we have been waiting for Ipswich to fall apart and it hasn't happened. They did have a wobble but Russell Martin in the Southampton dug out came true to form at the same time and nobody is taking much notice of the Leicester current form which is w1 d1 l3. Everyone is assuming Leicester have a cake walk to the title but the reality is any 2 from 4 for automatic promotion (Southampton have 2 games in hand on Ipswich) and as the fixture Gods would have it, we have to play all 4 in our last 8 games. So Ipswich are going to be good practice for Rovers attempt to save ourselves by puncturing others' automatic promotion dreams...

This in my view is Eustace first real game- the previous fixtures came so quickly in succession he could only do band aid jobs but now he has a 12 day period of player recuperation and intensive work with his coaches at Brockhall. The only downside is Sigurdsson and Szmodics will probably play twice internationally so the two most knackered looking members of the squad don't get a break.

That said, training ground and international injuries permitting, Rovers will have as close to a full squad to chose from as is normally possible at this time of the season- Barnes, Fleck and Leonard the only certain absentees from the senior group.

The match day squad will see three from yesterday dropping out with the inclusion of McFazdean, Carter and JRC. For once, the kit man won't have to include nappies for the bench in his dressing room supplies...

 

Ipswich can score from all over the pitch, have real dangers from the bench and have lost fewer games than anyone else in the Championship this season. Travis is only a bit part player for them so will be no loss being ineligible to play against us while Hirst is out with a hamstring injury which required surgery and unlikely to be ready by Good Friday.

This is a MUST WIN for them which means they will be attacking us from the get go backed by a vociferous following from Suffolk. Under JDT, these were the circumstances we tended to thrive under. We conceded early and often at Portman Road but still gave Ipswich a footballing lesson at times, pulled it back to 3-3 and were only undone by a late Pears flap.

At the very least, I am expecting Ipswich to know they have been in a game at Ewood and if Eustace gets us uncharacteristically willing to shoot on sight, we might avoid defeat.

The 5.30pm kick off means we will know how Millwall v West Brom, Huddersfield v Coventry, Norwich v Plymouth, QPR v Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday v Swansea have gone. In the worst case we will be worrying that a thrashing will drop us into the bottom three but hopefully it will be a free hit for getting further from trouble.  

 

Did we thrive against the big teams who liked to attack us? Against the top 4, we lost all 4 and conceded 14.

"We might avoid defeat." Not an ideal mindset considering we finished 7th last season, Ipswich were in League 1, shows how far in opposite directions both sides have gone. We are at home and we need wins but as it is, it seems a small chance.

[Michael123458]

Good Friday and an evening kick off on the box. Means only one thing all day session then on the riverside watching rovers. RTIFD

[Tricky]

Is the traitor starting for the tractor boys? 

[WacoRover]

11 hours ago, yellowsubmarine said:

Just watched Ipswich 6-0 trashing of Wednesday. Killed off any hopes of me thinking that Rovers will remotely get anything out of this game. Their Omari Hutchinson will shred our defence to bits.

This begins our final eight games; I cannot see us getting more than four points total, from these eight fixtures. 

I’m generally a sunshine pumper here. I’m just trying to get myself ready, in the event we drop to League 1. If it happens, it wouldn’t change my status as a fan. Rovers have shown on the pitch they are capable of competing, whenever we have sufficient quality players. We simply do not have them now, and the current state of affairs with the owners & the people they appoint to be in charge of the club has convinced me not to expect quality on the pitch anytime soon. 

Edited March 18 by WacoRover

[Upside Down]

We'll get bummed here and all this talk about shuring up the defence will be moot.

Time for some more protests. Anyone fancy tennis 🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾🎾

[J*B]

Happy to lose to Ipswich and Southampton as long as we don't get thumped and take 3 points from Sunderland. It'll be vital for moral we don't have a set of results like:

Ipswich 4 -1 Rovers
Sunderland 1 - 0 Rovers
Southampton 3 - 0 Rovers

[tomphil]

Draw all 3 is the same as lose 2 win 1.

3 points 🫣

[lraC]

20 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Draw all 3 is the same as lose 2 win 1.

3 points 🫣

It's the win one bit that worries me.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

5-0 Rovers   30,200 🤪

Edited March 18 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Uddersfelt Blue]

Let’s hope the players and management don’t read this forum.

We can’t go into any game between now and the end of the season thinking it’s lost before kick off. 
 

With more players hopefully back from injury, the squad is getting back to full strength. 

[MarkBRFC]

51 minutes ago, Uddersfelt Blue said:

Let’s hope the players and management don’t read this forum.

We can’t go into any game between now and the end of the season thinking it’s lost before kick off. 

To be fair they haven't given us much of a reason to think otherwise over the past 20 games.

Can't see us winning, maybe we'll scrape another draw.

[ruggles1995]

draw to ipswich, and then beat sunderland....................... Can only dream. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, Uddersfelt Blue said:

Let’s hope the players and management don’t read this forum.

We can’t go into any game between now and the end of the season thinking it’s lost before kick off. 
 

With more players hopefully back from injury, the squad is getting back to full strength. 

If only we’d have signed a striker in January.

[roversfan99]

2 hours ago, J*B said:

Happy to lose to Ipswich and Southampton as long as we don't get thumped and take 3 points from Sunderland. It'll be vital for moral we don't have a set of results like:

Ipswich 4 -1 Rovers
Sunderland 1 - 0 Rovers
Southampton 3 - 0 Rovers

Havent you always been disturbed by a potential season in the Prem due to a potential lack of competitiveness? Yet in the Championship you are happy to lose to Southampton and Ipswich at home (2 of only 8 games left and of only 4 at home) as long as we dont get hammered.