Ipswich 1-0 Bolton

Lennon out!

BoltonTillIDie wrote:Resting for Wigan!

You don't rest players when you're mid table with little to play for.

Rochinha is better than Messi

Another game given away. It's clear Lennon had one eye on Wigan but that's just unforgiveable when you're mid-table with little to play for.

Megson got death threats for doing the same thing.

We had the chances to win that game. Lennon can't put the ball in the net for them.

If Le Fondre had the chances Davies had tonight, we'd have won comfortably

Rochinha looks to have something about him though.

---EDIT--
Just saw this on Twitter: "Strong stuff from #bwfc boss Neil Lennon. Hailed Rochinha but said some senior players have weak mentality & won't be around next year."

I don't know who he was referring to but I'm looking at you, Trotter.

That's the third time in a row I've been to Ipswich and watched us lose 1 nil so that's it for me.
Game could have gone either way but Tabb just seems to have all the luck against us the little git.
Rochinha was well worth watching though. He's tiny and very tricky but his final pass wasn't good and he missed a sitter having done all the hard work to split their defence. Great turn and control on the lad. He could be a cracker in a year or two but I doubt we'll be able to afford him.
Our defence was solid apart from a couple of panicky bits - and Dervite was very comfortable at RB - but the players that really impressed were the youngsters - Walker, Rochinha and Vela - Walker probably being the best overall putting in some great runs and good passing. Josh looked like the real deal and his defensive work and positioning was excellent. Coke looked like a more solid version of Dannsy to be fair - dominated for the most part with only a couple of passes going astray and didn't give away too many free kicks.
Sadly Eidur played poorly. Too many fancy tricks that didn't come off and surprisingly poor final passes. Cavies wasn't great either although the ref clearly didn't like him and pulled him up for every challenge which didn't help. Trotter was poor at times, average the rest.
Bottom line is we didn't create enough clear cut chances and those we did create we missed. Despite the result, I thought we put on a decent performance and the Ipswich crowd were kept very quiet until they scored late on.

Report: Ipswich 1-0 Bolton

IN BRIEF

Wanderers suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat against Ipswich Town at Portman Road on Tuesday evening.

The Whites had enjoyed good chances in the first period of the game, with Eidur Gudjohnsen, Rochinha and Tim Ream all coming close to breaking the deadlock.

The home side however proceeded to open the scoring ten minutes from time, with Jay Tabb’s half volley inside the box bouncing into the ground before eluding Ben Amos in the Bolton goal – a strike which would prove decisive at the final whistle.

TEAM NEWS

There were five changes to the side who began against Millwall at the weekend, with Dorian Dervite, Liam Trotter, Rochinha, Craig Davies and Giles Coke all coming into the fray in place of Paddy McCarthy, Neil Danns, Liam Feeney, Adam Le Fondre
and Barry Bannan.

Adam Bogdan was also including in the matchday eighteen for the Whites following his return from injury, while a late change to the substitutes saw Kaiyne Woolery replace Le Fondre on the bench.

FIRST HALF

The game began with some trepidation from both sides, although Rochinha was looking lively for Wanderers inside the opening stages.

The hosts enjoyed the first goalmouth action of the night however with five minutes gone, although Jay Tabb was unable to capitalise on a weak clearance by Matt Mills in the six yard box.

From thereon in, Wanderers were put under pressure but almost hit Ipswich on the counter attack as Davies shrugged off his man to play the ball into the path of Eidur Gudjohnsen, only for the Icelander to be dispossessed at the pivotal moment.

Buoyed by the opportunity, Bolton did proceed to cause numerous problems for the Ipswich backline with Davies in particular proving himself a handful.

Freddie Sears however look certain to open the scoring with 15 minutes on the clock as he broke free of the Whites’ defence to find himself one of one with Ben Amos, only for the keeper to repeat his heroics against Millwall at the weekend by denying the Ipswich forward.

Rochinha meanwhile almost capitalised on a loose ball 30 yards from goal, but the on-loan youngster failed to make any real contact with it as he saw two Ipswich defenders steer it away from danger.

A real thorn in the Tractor Boys’ side though, Davies also fed an unmarked Josh Vela at the far post following a clever run down the left flank in the 27th minute, but there was just a little too much on his cross for the midfielder to catch.

On the half hour mark, Tyrone Mings looked set to head Ipswich ahead after good work from Sears only to narrowly fail to connect with the ball, while straight on the counter attack Rochinha was unable to take advantage of an impressive run by Gudjohnsen when the Icelander found him in the box.

Shortly after, Gudjohnsen squandered a glorious chance as he saw his effort from six yards deflect agonisingly wide of the post, while Tim Ream came within inches of opening his account for the club as he saw his shot from range cleared off the line.

Rochinha came within inches of marking his debut for the club with a goal on 40 minutes following a beautifully crafted move with firstly Gudjohnsen and then Davies, but the midfielder’s final shot trickled inches wide of the upright with Bartosz Bialkowski stranded.

Both sides enjoyed chances to break the deadlock as the first period drew to its conclusion, but the half time whistle ensured that the half ended goalless.

SECOND HALF

With just the one change for Ipswich at the break, with Jonathon Parr being replaced by Luke Varney, the second period started brightly under the floodlights at Portman Road.

Davies was right back in the thick of the action inside the opening two minutes, with the frontman narrowly failing to control a smart cross-field ball from Vela.

The pressure from Wanderers continued, with Rochinha again causing problems while Gudjohnsen’s clever flicked backheel narrowly eluded an advancing Davies in the 50th minute.

Walker meanwhile, after coming close against the Lions on Saturday with a free-kick, tried his luck against from distance, although this time saw Luke Chambers block his thunderous effort.

Chambers was to be the first Ipswich man to test Amos in the Bolton goal with 56 minutes gone, although he dragged his shot wide of the mark with the goalkeeper untroubled.

Cole Skuse was next to try his luck, only to see his looped effort from the edge of the box clear Amos’ crossbar by inches, while the Ipswish man saw a thunderbolt cannon off the post moments later.

Just after the hour mark saw the introduction of Bannan in place of Gudjohnsen as the game fell into a fast-paced end-to-end clash with both sides looking dangerous on the attack.

Having withstood some pressure from the hosts, Wanderers began to work their way back upfield with Dervite seeing his floating header finally being cleared away from danger following a goalmouth scramble from a corner.

With time ticking down, Bolton were the team in the ascendancy although Ipswich were still threatening on the counter attack.

Against the run of play however, the home side snatched the lead courtesy of a half volley effort from Tabb midway inside the box with ten minutes remaining.

A goal which was cruel on Wanderers to say the least, substitute Rob Hall almost had Bolton back level two minutes later but failed to get any real connection on the ball inside the six yard box.

Mills was then thrown into a more attacking role alongside Davies, with the latter coming within inches of equaliser after connecting with Walker’s cross, only to see his header fly wide of the mark.

With four minutes of added time indicated, Bolton threw men forward in a bid to force a late equaliser but their efforts were in vain as the hosts held out for all three points.

FULL TIME

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frustrating again, we created loads of chances and as Danno said above, if Le Fondre had been playing we would have taken some of those chances i reckon.

On the plus side it sounded like Walker and Rochinha had good games, on to the pie eaters now. We cannot afford to lose there as it will give them a sniff of staying up and performing another miraculous comeback like they did a few years ago in the Premiership

Does anybody really care? 
I mean, this seasons as good as dead anyway. Il start getting stressed again at losses next year.

Norpig wrote:frustrating again, we created loads of chances and as Danno said above, if Le Fondre had been playing we would have taken some of those chances i reckon.

On the plus side it sounded like Walker and Rochinha had good games, on to the pie eaters now. We cannot afford to lose there as it will give them a sniff of staying up and performing another miraculous comeback like they did a few years ago in the Premiership

Not ALF's kind of chances TBF. Our best chance was when Rochinha beat 3 players, burst through, played a 1-2 with Cavies to beat the last defender - then rolled it agonizingly wide. ALF wouldn't have been able to get into that position. He would have been a better option than Eidur overall though - with the benefit of hindsight.

Reebok_Rebel wrote:Does anybody really care? 
I mean, this seasons as good as dead anyway. Il start getting stressed again at losses next year.

i'm not relaxing until its mathematically impossible for us to go down, next season is a long way away.

Lusty there was a lot of jokes flying round the chatbox last night about you sat in your armchair in the away end, is it true and were you comfy?

Norpig wrote:Lusty there was a lot of jokes flying round the chatbox last night about you sat in your armchair in the away end, is it true and were you comfy?

Inevitable really.

A plastic seat in the corner of the Cobbold Stand was all they could offer but I'd taken the precaution of wearing long john's, a Motty-esque sheepskin and comforted myself with a flask of Jura so yes - I was very comfy. I was that comfy, I nearly played pocket billiards when Rochinha ran through their defence but the miss was a real turn off so the bird next to me was spared what could have been a not so pretty sight.

Loads comfier than the Norwich game where I was anything but as the daughter booked tickets smack bang in the middle of the home fans. Didn't stop me shouting my head off though.

Definitely giving Ipswich a miss next season as it's getting to be like Groundhog Day.

Apparently we played well but got nothing out of it as per usual. That's why we are a bottom half team. Something needs to change for next season. What that is I'm not sure.

Well still 10 points clear at the moment.....better than nowt.

I get the feeling Lennon thinks we're safe now and is using the games now to experiment with line ups and personnel. Personally I agree with him it would take a monumental dip in form from us and an equally extraordinary upturn from one of the bottom three for us to get relegated now and we can pretty much put that to bed against Wigan.

We've got some really exciting young players on our books at the moment, I've no idea what the chances of signing the loans permanently are but there's a lot to feel positive about IMO. As it has been since Coyle our problem is the defence, have to wait and see what Lennon's plans are for that over summer,

Playing devil's advocate now, so don't all shout at once......

We're in 16th place (9th off the bottom) and it isn't beyond the realms of conceivability that we'd be in the same position if "you know who" was still at the helm.


So why the positivity and lack of anti-Lennon invective?

(I think I know why but I'm interested to hear what others think.)

Because lennon doesn't plan his teams 3 weeks in advance, he doesn't drop in form players, he tries to integrate young players, he doesn't give us some bullshit in his post match interviews and finally, he isn't an arrogant, deluded, prick

It's a good point Bread, Lennon's done a number of things that Dougie would have been slaughtered for-

- Signing a Palace reserve (McCarthy) or a Sheff Wed reserve - Coke
- Signing players and not playing them much
- Signing a raft of central midfielders
- Playing one up front at home
- Resting ALF last night

Reason he's getting away with it? Well a lot of fans hadn't heard of Freedman when he came in and were never happy with him in charge, every victory was in spite and defeat because of him. I could name a few on here who found it impossible to look at his performance objectively. Lennon's a bigger name meaning everyone's been willing to give him a fair chance.

Lennon's also been more attacking than Freedman and blooded more youngsters (successfully on the whole), this was always going to be popular with fans and it's really helped lift the poisonous atmosphere at the club.

Final reason, our expectations have been tempered since Dougie came in. We're more realistic and as such will accept mid table for the moment.