Ipswich 1 Cardiff 2

As a part of the '25 things' project - to do 25 things we had never done before during our 25 anniversary year - friends had agreed to take us to see an Ipswich match. After some discussion we settled on Saturday 13 December.
To be sure we arrived in plenty of time our friends - John and Chris - said they will pick us up at 12:30. So Lunch followed breakfast sooner than ever before as we began to prepare for the journey. Saturday is cold day - about 3 degrees Celsius, with a wind chill factor taking off another 7 degrees from the perceived temperature. There is a small chance of snow in the later afternoon.
At 12:30 I am still on the phone to Karen, and rush to complete putting on the jumpers, coat and walking boots. In the hurry to leave I forgot to pick up my camera, so the pictures are from Jo's. We set off in the rain for the hour's drive up the A12. An hour on a good day, but on a day like today who can tell. A little over an hour later we arrive without incident, or unusual delay on the outskirts of Ipswich. It is still raining heavily, and we are dropped near the ground so that we can get to the ground without getting soaked. There is plenty of time to spare, but we are by no means first. It is very busy already. We visit the shop, and I purchase a woolly hat, as a souvenir, and a way to keep my ears from falling off.
We also buy a match program on our way into the ground. The up to one of the bars for a coffee, to get us warmed up ready for what lies ahead.
Portman Road is a modern ground, the stadium we are in is built in a modern style, with concrete floors and steel railings to hold on to. The seats are comfortable enough for 2 45 minute sit downs.
We are in row R just to the right of one of the goals - its a good seat, but Jo can't easily see over the railing in front of her. Five minutes before three and the cheerleaders must be soaked and wondering whether they should go and live in the Arctic. The players arrived shortly afterwards. The game began on time. Ipswich immediately taking the upper hand and producing most of the play. The first goal arrived on 8 minutes (the official match report says 9, but the clock in the ground said 8) from a scrappy piece of defending.
Ipswich 0 Cardiff 1

Disappointing. The game restarted, and I listened to some of the crowd blaming a particular player. Again Ipswich played well up front and applied some pressure. At 20ish minutes another goal, another defensive error.
Ipswich 0 Cardiff 2

Before half time finally there is a goal in the net below us. No messing about, a good goal, well executed.
Ipswich 1 Cardiff 2

There and been three interruptions to play for injuries and I had counted 6 minutes using the ground clock, but only 4 were added to the half. A much needed break, and a conversation with our friends about the joke defence.

You would expect (I would expect) a home team loosing at half time to come out stronger, more determined. The effort of the first half seemed to sap their strength. They were consistently beaten to the ball. The number of bad tackles increased, leading to a sending off for two bookable offences. By now the crowd were more concerned about the manager and his immediate future. They were worried he might stay. They did try to lift the team a couple of times, but even the suppoerts got dis-heartened in the end. One man said to me "We're poor aren't we" - I had to agree.

Here's the first part of the BBCs match report. "Championship play-off chasers Cardiff won at Portman Road for the first time in 62 years as the Bluebirds beat ten-man Ipswich 2-1.

Jay Bothroyd gave Cardiff an early lead as he tapped in Paul Parry's cut back.

Chopra had an effort cleared off the line before Gabor Gyepes opened his Cardiff account from Parry's free-kick.

Jonathan Stead headed in Jon Walters' cross to give Ipswich hope but Ben Thatcher was dismissed for two yellow cards after fouls on Wayne Routledge."

From Cardiff City:

Ipswich boss Jim Magilton said

"We started brightly and Darren Ambrose had a couple of good opportunities and Cardiff put their bodies on the line to deny us. "They weathered the early storm and came back at us. In all honesty they didn't have to work hard for their goals. "We got punished for two costly errors and you just can't give anybody chances like that. "We forced our way back in the game with Ben Thatcher showing a real desire to get the ball back and we showed quality for the goal. "At half time it was a case of Wednesday night when we beat Bristol City but instead we petered out and didn't show the same intensity and that was extremely disappointing. "The sending off made it even more difficult although we gave it a go. "We went 4-3-2 to try and be positive and try to exploit Danny Haynes pace but they saw the game out." Magilton had little sympathy for defender Thatcher who was sent off on his return with David Wright out with a chest infection. He said: "With the first booking he got a bit of ball but the second was a silly booking."

It pretty much sums up how awful the play was. The problems are many, but mainly: too many back passes - and poor ones at that. At least three very dangerous ones. Too few players up to their peak, they looked tired and uncommitted. The good things: Three excellent second half saves, or it would have been 5 against us.

A word on refereeing: Strange. Following a booking, a throw in - explained later that the offending tackle occurred when the ball was off the pitch (against us). A ball that clearly left the pitch and returned was ignored. A shirt pulling incident in which our stiker was clearly impeded was also ignored. At other times the game seemed to be stopped far too often.

The journey home in the rain listening to the local radio was depressing. Almost all (only one exception) demanding that the manager be sacked. 12th in the Championship is low for Ipswich. Lets hope things will improve.

The overall experience though was good, and I enjoyed the day, if not the result.