Ipswich Town 1 - Bolton Wanderers 0

Trained in the art of not scoring! Brilliant! I cannot watch the pre-game shooting practice it is so woeful and embarrassing and I mean for many years, which also tallies with my theory that all goals are flukes. Normal shots miss by miles, flukes are on target!!

Pedro - you sum up the pitfalls of football, had Eagles buried both shots in the net for another priceless victory, no dissapointment or critisism would be expressed. Alas that did not happen, the reason we did not beat a team ripe for taking -given the importance of victory to our chances of grabbing a play off spot - comes down to our inability to make chances and score goals with any regularity, which has blighted our entire season. We put 4 past Hull, 3 past Barnsley, then struggle in the next three games. Pre Christmas I lost count of the points missed due to our struggle to get more than one goal a game - it all comes down to our weak attack and our failure to have any forward in the team worth 15 goals + a season. The sole purpose of any game is putting that ball in the net, our management appear to ignore this fundamental fact, whatever they teach the players in training scoring must be way down the list, after tax avoidance and polishing the porsche

It's not the end of the world. That's our first defeat for TEN games. A quarter of a season. That's not half bad. Only Notts Forest have a better last 8 record than we do this morning. Our form is still ridiculously good and I'm not even mildly concerned beyond the fact that we've left things a bit late so it's going to be a little tight.

Robmoss - your optimism is inspiring, just hope you can still see through those rose tints. My cynisism runs like an on off tap, I concede that transformation takes time and has its highs and lows, my frustration is directed at our persistant failure to score. With a full strength squad available, failure by DF to change the team, the apparent reluctance to start with our best players is baffling and why does SKD even warrant squad selection ? is it his prowess in front of goal, his killer instinct, his speed afoot , or his ability to foul the opponents at every opportunity, facts suggest the latter - great, we can leave the goalscoring to our other centre forward, but then again we only have one centre forward on the pitch at any one time, okay lets leave the scoring to our midfield and defence, after all by the time SKD has controlled the ball and passed it back, allowing him to creep slowly forward, our defenders will have had the time to join him in the box together with the entire opposing team. Something should be done about that - it cannot be right that opponents are allowed to defend in depth, how do they expect our geriatric attack to suceed otherwise ?

I think a big part of the goal scoring problem rests in the fact that our midfield is too defensively focused. Also we don't move the ball fast or accurately enough except in short bursts. Then, the forwards themselves are not mobile enough. All this adds up to very slow build up where we're trying to pass our way through defences who've already marshalled themselves behind the ball. On Saturday Ipswich were happy to let us pass the ball in front of them and closed off any gaps to get through fairly effectively. Our few chances came from wide via Eagles or CLY, and Alonso a bit but often the delivery was poor and spoilt the opportunity. There were also a lot of passes astray all over our game. I can see how they're trying to play but it often doesn't cause the opposition that many problems due to the slow build up. It's quite telling that a lot of our goals seem to come early or late in games, when we often start at a high tempo or pick up the pace late on when chasing games. Few clear cut chances = few goals. Having said that our strikers scoring ratios are dreadful and although I think there are goals in both Sordell and CD, Ngog has never shown signs of being prolific and SKD is obviously in the autumn of his career. I think in the next transfer window DF must find some more consistent goalscorers and in the meantime work on the coaching to play our passing game with more movement and pace to give the guys up front something to work with.

Posted on Lion of Vienna Suite site http://leagueslider.com/championship-2012-13 Really cool !

Dear Bowton, I apologise if my constant critisism of SKD is annoying, yes - it will be annoying to everyone who accepts the contribution SKD makes, be it a target for playing the high balls off to others around him or a holding player when we attack. I have thought about this and rather than sit on the fence I am not convinced it merits sacrificing the option of having a faster player able to run past defenders. If SKD still possessed the ability to regularly score from corners, free kicks or crosses entering the box, fine, keep him in, but I genuinely cannot remember when that last happened. If DF chooses to play two wingers in Eagles and Chungy I cannot see how we are capitalising on the crosses they can deliver if we dont have a goal threat receiving them in the box. Dont get me wrong I think SKD is a fabulous player, a great ambassador, his loyalty and effort are unquestioned, I fear his past reputation precedes him he is an expensive option we can no longer afford, for me our attack needs goal scorers and SKD struggles to deliver that, equally I question whether N'Gog does. It would be different if SKD or N'Gog where creating chances, making that pass or flick on for CD or Sordell to collect and score from, that seems lacking also. At the end of the day - what do I know ? - very little, if anything at all - hopefully SKD plays at Charlton, gets a hat trick and shuts me up good and proper - I wish - truly, I get sick of listening to myself most days, convinced I am turning into a hypocrite. I agree with what you said about Nolan, bang on. I was also a fan of Vaz Te, if only for his blistering speed. I could add Taylor, O'Brian, El Habsi, Cahill, Elmander to the list, I have to add Big Sam also. Bear in mind Bowton - all comments this week following the Ipswich game are centred on our failure to score, sure we will have frustrating games when nothing comes off, but if you look at the list this season, even you have to admit there are far too many games with too few goals or none at all for any team with ambitions of gaining promotion.

Hi guys Al is still unwell I'm afraid. He's told me he will definitely get something out tomorrow. He's really sorry, he did think he would be well enough today to write one.

i don't think your comments are annoying i've enjoyed what you have been saying for the last 2 and a half years or more. but the thing with kev, in the instance, is you critised the decision of him starting and the fact that we don't put enough shots at goal, but he didn't start against ipswich and we lost. and comparing when he has started in the recent run of games we have been far better, i totally agree with you about the fact that we need to score more, of course we do and i know your a big fan of stats but we are clearly a better side when hes playing, regardless of if its annoying that sordell, ngog or CD are just not good enough at the moment, they should stand and be accounted for. i just think think kev is getting far too much stick for something he isn't in control of. he should be seen as an influence, impact sub at his age considering the job he has to do, rather than be a match winner that people are expect him to be. he can't hold the club up any more on his own.

Bowton - I appreciate your guidance on the stats regarding SKD, I was not aware that was the case. Do you think we should use him for 45 minutes, per the 1st half in games and then weigh up where we stand at half time ? . Still cannot get my head around Sordell, how can a player worth £3 million turn out to be such a bad buy, add N'Gog to that question too. Hope AL soon feels much better, this blog might struggle during the 2 week break. Skopelos is right - the 1st half of this season has dictated our destiny, since January to date our results have been top drawer, even if the actual performances have'nt, just imagine we would have consolidated a top 6 place had we not lost some of those earlier games when nothing was going right, DF seemed to have a slow impact and of course OC appeared to have lost the plot along time ago - although I still feel relegation was unjust under the cruel circumstances in which it transpired, you would never belief WBA would snatch that draw, nor that QPR would get that last minute winner, in the space of 2 minutes 4 points and safety where snatched from us then very bad decisions against us at Stoke sent us down, not even OC deserved that.