Peterborough hammering could be a blessing in disguise

Losing 7-1 to Peterborough might well turn out to be one of the best things that has happened to Ipswich in a long time. It forced Paul Jewell into action, as in the aftermath of the defeat, three new players arrived at the club.

We all know about Jimmy Bullard, who will be a welcome addition to a squad that would undoubtedly have been low on confidence. But the signings of Daryl Murphy and Ibrahima Sonko are also very shrewd.

Having been at the Peterborough game, I was almost tempted to not bother going to watch Town play Leeds this weekend, but it must have been the Jimmy-factor that made me cave in to my obviously extremely weak will.

And what a wonderful reward it was for sticking with Ipswich, with the Blues running out 2-1 winners thanks to a dramatic late strike from Keith Andrews. There are certainly signs that progress is being made.

To be honest, I was not too badly affected by the thrashing at Posh. The fact is, the season is still very young, and following what has been a summer of transition, it was inevitable that the team was going to take time to settle down.

There are now some fantastic players in that squad, and all they need is a bit of time playing together to gel, and form an understanding of one another. It would have been easy to dismiss them after last weekend, but Paul Jewell has replaced the departing players with, in my opinion, better ones.

It took a 7-1 defeat to Colchester before Norwich's fortune's turned around, so many fans, including myself, will be hoping that it is something of an omen. Right now, I am very excited about the season that lies ahead for Ipswich.

We have bags of experience in the squad, and in the form of Andrews and Bullard, clearly an awful lot of quality in the centre of the park.

I was hugely impressed with Ibrahima Sonko's début against Leeds. He seemed to command the back four wonderfully, and not only that, he looks to be technically very good as well.

However, I do hope that Jewell's transfer business is not done in the defensive department. If anything, the quality that Sonko showed only served to highlight the lack of quality his central defensive partner Delaney has.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good things that Delaney brings to the team, but what is patently obvious, the man cannot pass for toffee. Sure, he can hoof the ball clear, but when Ipswich play out from the back, the amount of long, floaty balls from him that go astray, is far too many.

I think I read that Town were enquiring about Marko Šuler, and let me tell you, he looks one hell of a player, and would be a very welcome addition to our back-line. But we must be careful, the club's wage bill must be getting quite hefty right now.

Overall, though, it is brilliant to see that Town are making progress, and hopefully they can get better and better. There is still a long way to go, though, because let's face it, even the win over Leeds was not exactly a vintage performance.

Give Town until 15 games have past until judging them. By then the squad should have settled somewhat, and hopefully Town will even be in a favourable league position.

Jimmy's Back!

We have our Jimmy Back! After what has been such a difficult week for Ipswich Town fans, there has been a bit of good news. Well, I say good news, fantastic news. News of the variety that nearly even brings a tear to the eye of the most hardened football supporter.

It has been a long summer, with many ups and downs. All in all, it would probably be fair to say that the majority of signings made by Paul Jewell have been very positive, but there certainly was a time when most fans almost accepted that Bullard would not be pulling on an Ipswich shirt again.

The midfielder returned to training with Hull, and at first looked to be well and truly back in the club's plans, which saw him included on a pre-season trip to Slovenia. Furthermore, a whole host of Premier League club's were sniffing around the one time loanee.

But we did not lose hope – whether it was in desperation, I am not sure, but rarely would two days pass without Bullard's name being mentioned. It had echoes of the Giovani dos Santos scenario after he had enjoyed a successful loan spell with the club.

I will admit, in fact, I was one of the fans that continued to hold out hope that our beloved Jimmy would one day come home – and the feeling when he finally did was miraculous. Almost emotional, I would argue.

It is true, a move had looked unlikely for much of the summer, but the first shred of hope came when it was announced that Bullard had been suspended by his employers, Hull, for a breach of discipline.

At this point, you would expect most players to receive huge amounts of criticism, and the usual clichés about footballer only being bothered about money and not the club to come up. In the Ipswich camp however, a wave of excitement began to appear.

I'm not sure I have ever seen such a large group of people almost collectively praying that someone would get sacked. Rumours began to emerge that he would be, and the possibility of Hull having to pay off his expensive contract was getting to much for Town fans to handle.

Would that mean he would be prepared to take a massive pay-cut and return to Portman Road?

When it was finally announced that Bullard would have his contract terminated, I must admit, I had to physically tell myself that any move was probably still unlikely. Blackburn, Wolves, QPR and a plethora of wealthy Premier League clubs were all being linked with him. The press almost were giving a sense of 'oh yeah, little Ipswich might try to sign him too.'

So surely there was no way he would come to Ipswich now all the big boys knew they could get him for free, right? Wrong. Bullard and Jewell clearly had been in communication all summer, and the former Wigan player clearly had his heart set on coming back to Portman Road.

He has already said that he took a huge pay cut to sign for Ipswich on a two-year deal, and it is likely that if he had held out for a bit longer, he probably could have got himself a lucrative Premier League contract.

It is refreshing to see a player sign for a club because they want to play football, because they love the fans, and because they have a sense of loyalty to a certain manager. In this day and age, I'm not sure there are many players in world football who would do the same.

Jimmy, I think I speak for most Ipswich fans here when I say we are thrilled to have you back, and cannot wait to see you in that blue shirt for another two years at least.

Below is a little video I have found for anyone reading this to savour. Enjoy.

Is there any need to boo your own players?

Ipswich Town’s defeat to Peterborough on Saturday was probably one of the most embarrassing moments as a Blues fan in some time. In what was quite possibly one of the worst defensive performances since the 9-0 defeat to Manchester United, Town crumbled to a 7-1 thrashing.

However, having supported them all my life, there was nothing more embarrassing than some of the chanting by a small section of the club’s fans at the game.

It was an issue that Liz Edwards, chairwoman of the Supporters Club raised a few weeks ago – and in doing so, she became the victim of verbal abuse on Saturday.

In truth, however, that was pretty harmless, with fans merely having a laugh about the comments she made – I can understand that. Albeit pretty spiteful and inconsiderate, that chant was not detrimental to the team, and is, thus, not what bothers me most.

- Read the full blog at TheBallisRound.co.uk -