Impasse in Ipswich

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 24 August at the GBS Stadium, Humber Doucy Lane
Result	Ipswich Wanderers 0 Heybridge Swifts 0
Competition	Isthmian League Division One North (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 788 on the lifetime list, here pragmatically rather than randomly today because of the weather prospects. The steady rain eased during the first half and there was plenty of covered space for a smallish crowd. Ipswich Town were being dismantled at Manchester City at the same time, which could have been a factor.
Context
Second league game of the season for both sides.
Match Report
My match report theme this season will be the idea that every game has a hinge point or turning point, and if it occurs later rather than earlier in the game, the more enjoyable the experience for the passing neutral such as myself. In this game it happened just after the hour. Heybridge were awarded a penalty for handball. Wanderers’ debutant keeper Warren Burford saved it. Within a minute at the other end they had a penalty appeal of their own turned down as their attacker couldn’t get a shot away in a tangle of feet. Then they headed narrowly over from the resulting corner. I’d already had my suspicions that this was going to be a scoreless afternoon, and now I felt certain with about half an hour to go. This game, which had started in steady rain, was never boring. Defences were on top for both sides but had to work hard. These are two strong and well-organised sides, trying to play the modern way whenever possible. It’s now an era where players wearing number five are expected to control and pass for a significant portion of the game. The teams largely cancelled each other out during the poor weather of the first half with no significant chance at either end. Heybridge will rue the missed penalty, Ipswich will point to a strong final fifteen minutes in which they stretched the Heybridge defence several times in succession. However, they could also have lost a player with a straight red near the end of the first half for a cynical trip to end a Heybridge break. Overall, the draw was probably a fair result.
So What?
I am not a fan of league tables this early in the season, but Ipswich Wanderers have four points and Heybridge Swifts have two. Much too soon to be saying anything more.
Pix
Groundhoppers beware that some satnavs will take you to the wrong place. “We get it all the time!”, said the gatekeeper at Ipswich Town’s nearby academy after I drove in through their half-open gate. The ground had a good clubhouse and plenty of covered areas, and is clearly now under further development given the club’s rise to Step 4 level. However, surely the attendances will need to be larger for this to be sustainable. In these pix, the home side is in blue.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today, Green (three simultaneous shades, no less) and Grey both keep clean sheets. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (81 from 167)
What Next?
Not going to jinx it in case the traffic on my least favourite section of motorway ruins things, but I have provisionally planned a Sunday-Monday Bank Holiday double, with a few alternatives if I cannot get to the furthest destination on time. These days I am posting on Threads rather than the toxic wasteland of Twitter.