Home
Phil Parkinson’s pre-game preparations can barely have been more disrupted, with an IT failure late yesterday the latest problem for Wanderers to overcome, but his opposite number, Ipswich manager Paul Lambert, says his side have been unaffected by the hectic week in Bolton.
Today’s visitors looked certainties for relegation, having won just three of 39 Championship matches.
While Parkinson admits all in the Whites’ garden is far from rosy, Lambert has been impressed by the positivity evident at Portman Road, where League One football will surely be played next season, and the team’s modest ambitions cannot realistically stretch beyond avoiding 24th place come the season’s end.
“It can’t be nice up there with what’s going on,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
“There’s probably a lot of animosity there and we’ve got the total opposite.
“You’d think we were at the top of the league the way things are at the training ground and the stadium, but we just prepared for the game as normal.
“Before we came in the fans were uninterested and with the apathy at the club things were not going right. It can affect everybody and I just thought, ‘why’s it happening?’ and have tried to bring everybody together.
“And we’ve done that here – without getting the results – but the feeling at the club is really good. We’ll do everything we can not to finish bottom. The pleasing thing for me is that we’re playing well.”
Parkinson, by direct contrast, has had yet another trying week, with last Saturday’s victory at QPR a distant memory. Since then, a High Court adjournment, the threat of the game going ahead and a players’ strike – criticised by owner Ken Anderson in his address to the supporters – are among the issues that have threatened to derail their bid for victory over the bottom club.
Factor in the technical issues affecting the stadium and he can barely have had a more difficult build-up for any game in his career.
“As I’ve said many times, if people in any business in any industry don’t get paid it’s going to cause a level of unrest in the camp and that’s what is happening within the football club,” he admitted.
“The lads didn’t come in on Tuesday and, as they have stated, it was as much for the staff who have to come in to enable the training ground to function properly.
“A lot of those staff have subsequently been paid and a lot of other staff who haven’t been paid, including the playing staff, including the scholars and the under-23s are still waiting, not just on the wages but also on some news about when it’s likely to happen, and I think that’s heightened the frustration around the camp.
“We got to the stage where the lads have gone to the PFA. Sometimes things get above and beyond what I can do and what Paul Aldridge or the players can do and it’s up to the PFA to go above us and go straight to Ken Anderson.
“The PFA are the players’ union and they’ve got people who are paid to deal with these situations.
“We’ve got to try to put that behind us now and concentrate on the game.”
Source
Today’s visitors looked certainties for relegation, having won just three of 39 Championship matches.
While Parkinson admits all in the Whites’ garden is far from rosy, Lambert has been impressed by the positivity evident at Portman Road, where League One football will surely be played next season, and the team’s modest ambitions cannot realistically stretch beyond avoiding 24th place come the season’s end.
“It can’t be nice up there with what’s going on,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
“There’s probably a lot of animosity there and we’ve got the total opposite.
“You’d think we were at the top of the league the way things are at the training ground and the stadium, but we just prepared for the game as normal.
“Before we came in the fans were uninterested and with the apathy at the club things were not going right. It can affect everybody and I just thought, ‘why’s it happening?’ and have tried to bring everybody together.
“And we’ve done that here – without getting the results – but the feeling at the club is really good. We’ll do everything we can not to finish bottom. The pleasing thing for me is that we’re playing well.”
Parkinson, by direct contrast, has had yet another trying week, with last Saturday’s victory at QPR a distant memory. Since then, a High Court adjournment, the threat of the game going ahead and a players’ strike – criticised by owner Ken Anderson in his address to the supporters – are among the issues that have threatened to derail their bid for victory over the bottom club.
Factor in the technical issues affecting the stadium and he can barely have had a more difficult build-up for any game in his career.
“As I’ve said many times, if people in any business in any industry don’t get paid it’s going to cause a level of unrest in the camp and that’s what is happening within the football club,” he admitted.
“The lads didn’t come in on Tuesday and, as they have stated, it was as much for the staff who have to come in to enable the training ground to function properly.
“A lot of those staff have subsequently been paid and a lot of other staff who haven’t been paid, including the playing staff, including the scholars and the under-23s are still waiting, not just on the wages but also on some news about when it’s likely to happen, and I think that’s heightened the frustration around the camp.
“We got to the stage where the lads have gone to the PFA. Sometimes things get above and beyond what I can do and what Paul Aldridge or the players can do and it’s up to the PFA to go above us and go straight to Ken Anderson.
“The PFA are the players’ union and they’ve got people who are paid to deal with these situations.
“We’ve got to try to put that behind us now and concentrate on the game.”
Source