Ipswich Town: the boss Kieran McKenna admits the future of the club premier league seems to be dark
When Ipswich won 2-1 in Wolves in December through the heading of the latest Jack Taylor gap which concluded the managerial kingdom of Gary O’Neil in Molineux – They moved three points above the wolves.
The city was still in the third fund at the time, but only one point behind Crystal Palace, while the wolves of the second bottom were four drift of safety.
Fast forward of five months and the defeat in Portman Road lets them need one of the greatest escapes.
The largest deficit passed by a team to remain awake after 30 games of a Premier League season was the West Ham United in 2006-07.
At that stage, Alan Curbishley’s men were eight points from security after being 10 behind a game before. Ipswich has less game and a bigger gap.
Bradford City, in 1999-2000 and Fulham, in 2007-08, came from six points back to survive with only five left games, but it seems imaginative for the tractor guys to think of reaching it.
Only seven of their 20 points have been won in Suffolk this season, a huge Achilles heel for one recently promoted side. Only one victory – 2-0 against Chelsea in December – was celebrated in Portman Road and now they have lost six consecutive games in the league of home only for the second time in their history, combining a miserable race in 1963 when they continued to be relegated.
Leicester won nine points in the house, while the excuse season of the background Club Southampton is epitomized by the five points they have gained at St Mary’s and will be relegated if they cannot win at Tottenham on Sunday.
“You can look at several games, Liverpool, Fulham, (Aston) Villa we started very well, then we came short attempt to break down the teams, like the Crystal Palace game,” McKenna reflected.
“We had some high energy games and the other teams punished us. Today it was a lively and busy performance but not enough to win. We are talking about small samples.
“It is strange to no longer have victories in the house than far. I don’t think there is an exceptional reason. If we were there, we would have found and ordered it.”
On the contrary, the wolves have gained 10 points from their seven games at home since Vitor Pereira replaced O’Neil in December.
Under the Portuguese, the wolves have won more points than the three teams promoted – 23 from 15 games, scoring 19 goals and giving 19.
The three lower have won 16 points from 43 games combined at that moment (IPswich Otto, Southampton Five and Leicester Three).
No side dropped more points from the winning positions in the maximum flight this season of IPswich (25) and they simply were not competitive enough.
They brought against Fulham (twice), Manchester City, Aston Villa, (twice), Brentford, Leicester, Bournemouth, Manchester United and now Lupi and have not been able to win.
Even Liam Delap’s 12 goals have not been able to help them fill the gap at this level. He scored 38.71%of the 31st of Ipswich this season: only Alexander Isak (41%), Mohamed Salah (39%) and Erling Haaland (36.8%) have higher figures in this campaign.
“There will be a lot of time to talk about it, analyze it and reflect on the positive and negative aspects,” added McKenna.
“We knew that entering this block of nine games the balance of probability was really small, but we committed ourselves as a group to show the right values and show full commitment.
“We have Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, in Arsenal later, Newcastle at St James’ Park and Everton in one of the last games of Goodison.
“We have some fantastic fixtures coming for a club that has not been in the Premier League for 22 years.
“I know that today is a great setback and hurts, but I know players and supporters and everyone will collect the energy to compete in the best possible way in the latest games.”
