Ipswich Town 1 - West Bromwich Albion 0

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Ratings submitted so far: 16

aito:

If we had got the 0-0 draw then everyone would have said it was a well earned point! But for me there are so many issues with a performance like that.

Defensively the centre backs were good and kept position well. When we don't have the ball both full backs need to stay tight to their wingers, not doing that seems to happen more and more in games. Diakite, Price and Mowatt need to do a lot more. Lack of creativity is a major flaw, how many shots on goal did we have? I can't remember a decent effort in the whole game! Heggebo tries but no service! Johnston had a go but didn't get any good crosses in. Iling-Junior was no where to be found.

Ipswich are not a great team but over ran us in the end and scored very late in the game. Griffiths has had some great performances this season but what was he doing with that crazy pass! He was responsible and he knows it. Mason was talking to himself when that ball went in the net and I'm sure it was fruity to say the least!

We don't know all the circumstances of player fitness but Maja should be given a couple of games from the start. This team for me will give us a mid table end of season. Bring on Sheffield Wednesday that should be 3 points!?!?

Brendan Clegg:

No getting away from it... that was really bad.

The lineup was probably justifiable... Gilchrist made the bench but with no Collyer or Molumby it as was we were in the middle with Taylor recalled at left back and Heggebø up top. You could make a case for it... equally you could be disappointed that Maja didn't start.

But irrespective of the lineup it is what the players who are picked are doing. There doesn't seem to be a plan. We are so slow to pass the ball forward that either by the time it gets there you're asking a lot of those creative players to get through 7 or 8 defenders... or we have passed it backwards and sideways so long that the entire team is deep and then hoofed it up the pitch and there is nobody up there.

For most of the game we dealt with them okay without really carrying any threat of our own. Our opponents had been walloped at home and had made 9 changes, but we invited them to have the ball and didn't pressure them. We got to half time without incident but it looked like we'd need a set piece, error or another worldie to help us over the line.

No changes at half time, and then from about 60 minutes Ipswich began to put us under more pressure. To be honest, it felt a bit like many other games this season.. that their goal was coming. However, they spurned opportunities and looked like a team with no belief.

We did get some changes on but the SIJ for Grant one annoyed me again because although the former wasn't brilliant again, we have to have him and Maja on the pitch at the same time for 20 minutes at least.

It had felt like we'd ridden the storm at we got to about 80 minutes before we got caught overplaying in silly areas. It was an absolutely brain dead thing to do that late in a game at 0-0 away from home - Griffiths hitting a dangerous pass into Mowatt high and hard... Mowatt was unable to take it and was shouldered off it on our own D.

Ipswich were still so lacking belief that they needed 2 goes to score... but they did score.

After that we went 3 at the back with Dike coming on but we were pretty hopeless and really Ipswich, like Watford on Wednesday, were useless enough to squander 3 or 4 situations where they should have added to their tally.

Overall it was rotten - Price's headed back pass to their keeper in injury time was the only moment I can recall him having to do anything all game.

It is as bad as anything under Bruce or Mowbray part 2... and although I can completely understand why Mowbray had to go, to me it's pretty inconceivable that we'd be this bad under him with a summer of transfers and to work with the squad. I'm sure we'd be seeing goals and entertainment. We look clueless. There has been graft an aggression in most games but in terms of tactical ideas very little... and panic/clear the ball a lot when there is time to pick a basic forward pass. It's like Pulis-ball without the clean sheets and there is very little point in that.

• Griffiths - 5 He is young and you would hope he would never make that pass again... but it cost us.
• Campbell - 6 Getting stick but I thought he did okay most of the time defensively... just nothing at all in attack.
• Phillips - 5 Struggled in patches, got away with a pen to me... would have been a foul anywhere else on the pitch and one terrible pass when we went to back 3 should have been punished.
• Mepham - 6 Also did okay mostly.
• Taylor - 5 Fine, but I expected way more on the ball. We miss Styles' availability and energy.
• Mowatt - 6 Tried... clearly can't do 3 games in a week at the level we need
• Diakite - 6 Again I thought did a reasonable job in screening and winning the ball... passing was sometimes ropey.
• SIJ - 5 Didn't do enough but the supply is so poor
• Price - 5 A real conundrum of a player because he is a quality finisher and he does run about but he doesn't link play well, hit incisive passes or dribble past people in central areas. The comparisons with Alli and, for those older, David Platt are fair but you have to do much more than that in the modern game.
• MJ - 5 Couldn't get enough of the ball in the right areas to hurt them but kept trying. His late rocket-finish was great even though it was disallowed.
• Heggebø - 4 Seems to be going backwards and looks far leggier now than he did in the early games. Looks miles away from a threat and is being dealt with easily too often.

• Grant - 3 Honestly... give Bostock a chance, can't be any worse
• Maja - 5 no service and nothing to work with... came on but we were 1-0 down before he had a touch through our own stupidity
• Dike - 4 Only thing of note was a late long through which was like an exocet missile... but what is your big striker doing taking a throw in when you are one nil down in injury time? Playground stuff.
• Styles - 4 don't recall him doing much

I feel like Mason needs 7 points, arguably 9, out of the next 3 games to relieve the pressure on himself and maybe just demonstrate he has got a plan and we're moving in an upward direction from last season. That might be harsh... but we are still one of the biggest clubs in England and should not be a proving ground for a rookie.

Kev Buckley:

Big back four and knocking it long is still no good

An Albion backline of Furlong, O'Shea, Kipre and the new-to-me, Davis, in for the long-term injured Townsend, were hardly troubled all game, by a visiting side whose main idea seemed to be knocking it long in the direction of a not-that-tall central striker, who wasted a decent player, up alongside him, to feed of scraps that never came, and as a result, neither, rarely influenced the game.

Four minutes in and Iling-Junior had one of those runs that means you want to see on him on the field as much as possible, whilst the miskick at the end of it also suggests that he needs to be on the field for as long as possible to bring the law of averages into play.

Shortly after that, Ipswich's Philogene, perhaps the player that Iling-Junior will become, finished off a similar dribble from our right that brought a top-drawer save out of Griffiths.

Albion seemed to have little idea as to how to create anything, but seemed to be more comfortable denying Ipswich any end product to all of the their moving the ball through the lines, although, as twenty passed, Griffiths was required to save from a free-kick.

The lack of desire to go forwards was perfectly encapsulated, for me, as twenty-five passed, when Diakite, having about twenty yards of open space in front of him in which to advance, simply refused to do so and turned back to look for a pass, however, with so many Ipswich players behind him, he was forced into turn upfield again, before resisting the opportunity to go forwards again, finally turning back again and getting off a little sideways ball - an absolutely abject abrogation of responsibility!

Fifteen minutes into the second half and Iling-Junior had another run that came to nothing but at least he was trying.

Ipswich's playing the ball into spaces high up the field was starting to see then carving us open, although our seemingly being asleep at the back on 63 should have seen us punished, as should the free shot from the penalty spot on 64, as should another chance on 66, that was blasted over by the hosts.

Iling-Junior was replaced by Grant as seventy passed, and, whilst I am not the latter's biggest fan, I doubt even those who are would ever claim that he's ever looked good when playing over on the right.

Ten minutes later and Maja and Styles came on for Heggebø and Diakite, but within a minute, we gifted Ipswich a goal. Griffiths played a hospital pass to Mowatt, who was facing him with a player up his arse. It was not clear what option, other than passing it back to his keeper, our skipper would have had, had he been able to kill the ball stone dead, but, when he didn't, he was bundled off the ball and the hosts had so many players pressing high in our box, that they had the numbers to benefit from Griffiths' first save before we could react.

Ipswich would butcher another golden chance on the break, with five to go, before Mason at least actually tried changing things, bringing on Dike for Campbell and going three at the back, not that it stopped those three from trying, and failing horribly, to play it out from the back, leading to yet more chaos in our box in the ninetieth minute, after an underhit give-away from Phillips saw Ipswich rampage forwards. Styles, for me, way better than Taylor, even if he is a lot smaller, did well to get back and clear.

Don't be fooled by the couple of moments in extra time that our by-then "stick it in the mixer" desperation play "conjured up": this was awful.