Ipswich 3 Leicester 0

[Chrysalis]

I have 2 thoughts.

ipswich adapted better than us to the snow, but of course they may have trained in it whilst our weather has been more mild.

after the ref took the players down the tunnel it should have been called off, for the reasons given above about the muscle injuries.

if any of those players with strains are out for the next game I wonder if the club will moan to the FA about it.

 

[Miles Away]

Get real.

If we had won we would we laughing at Ipswich if they responded like some of us are.

Bollocks. I would have still called it a fecking farce....just as the Portsmouth game was a few years back.

Granted I'd have been less upset had we won...but it doesnt change the fact the game was ludicrous.

 

[East Anglia Fox]

I think that was the most ridiculous football match I've ever been too. I agree with what people have already said about us somehow suffering more from the conditions than Ipswich. For some reason, our players were really below average in terms of ball-control and passing, in contract to Ipswich. The passing and movement was just hopeless. Nothing ever really got going. We were so nonthreatening in front of goal it was just painful to watch. Howard was appalling.

Also, I'm not really sure why it's worth the club paying the money for Chris Kirkland's wages and having Weale on the bench. I'm interested to see what other people thought of him but I really can't see how he's better than Weale.

I think Naughton was probably our best player, but obviously that isn't really saying much.

 

[fcukcov]

April 1970 - Blackpool came to Filbo and we played on a paddy field where one shot goal bound by Rod Fern actually sat in puddle instead of going over the line.

0-0 draw - Blackpool got promoted - we had to wait another year.

Love it. These games truly define what being a supporter of Leicester City is all about. If you don't like it - go support Strictly Come Dancing.

Man City away. Only away win in the prem that season I seem to remeber, played in appaling conditions. We didn't complain too much then.

Attwell is still an twat though.

 

[FoxCovert]

People should take responsibility for their own actions, and if they thought it wasn't safe enough to go they shouldn't have gone.

And what if some fans end up dying tonight (Leicester or Ipswich) because of his decision to put the game on. I don't want him to die I just want him to get some poetic justice in the sense that he lightly goes off the road and is stranded for a few hours

Jeff's right, i often travel 240 miles round trip to home games with my lad. If there s any chance of poor conditions i don't go, end of. It's my decision. If i go and end up suffering the consequences it's not the ref's fault. He is only responsible for what the conditions are like on the pitch and if it's safe for players, not travelling fans. For what it's worth i don't think the game should have started and certainly shouldn't have gone on beyond half time. Attwell got it wrong but he doesn't deserve to come to harm.

 

[syd]

Without wanting to slate Sven (because he's done a pretty good job so far) I think the manager has to take the blame for this. The players weren't motivated; specifically players that he's brought in. There are players on the City books - the Berners of this world - that are well suited to this sort of fare, blood and guts stuff. If you want to grind out away results in ropy conditions (which is, in a way, what the Championship is all about) then you need a backbone. I'm not sure our manager's figured this out yet, and whatever anyone says I didn't see that sort of grit in Naughton, Abe, Davies etc.

 

[beaumontfox]

The ref makes the decision (with advice from the local safety people).

Premier League refs are used to being on TV, so it means nothing to them.

Championship refs see it as something special, so they want the game to go ahead.

And if thats the pitch after it had been messed around with i'd hate to see the outer areas!

If the police in Suffolk wanted the game called off, it would have been called off. Sky may want a game to go ahead, but if the referee or the police/safety officers decide it shouldn't, then the game will not go ahead. I realise many people like to think of Sky as the decision makers, but this people I've mentioned in the post hold the real power.

We spoke to the head steward at hafltime and he seemed to think that the game would be abandoned, especailly when the players all went off during the second half, then he started laughing after the ref had come out for a look and told us he had asked for the corners of the pitch to be cleared.


Today was a farce from start to finish. Fan sat in front of us was a local and told us that it had been on their radio all morning/afternoon said the North end of the pitch was frozen solid and hadn't changed at all- coincedence that was the end we were defending? Maybe, maybe not, but I can understand why players wouldn't want to put tackles in on a pitch that was quite dangerous ot play on, a good tackle could just as easily caused serious injury as a bad one.

WE also heard after the game from the coach drivers that according to the police officers at the coach park, their boss had advised that the match be abandoned, and the fans could make their long journeys home-(over the tannoys several accidents were announced on routes out of Ipswich causing congestion) but Attwell refused cos of the scoreline.

To me, the scoreline should be irrelvant in this circumstances. The safety of the fans and players should be the most important factor in taking the decision to abandon the game.

That said, the defending for all three goals was pisspoor. And yes, Ipswich wanted it more than us, but I suspect that from the Leicester viewpoint, even before the game kicked off they would've had misgivings about playing in those conditions.

Our shite record at Portman Road continues!

 

[beaumontfox]

Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=254698&id=677852270

 

[DillyDing22]

The only players worth mentioning today were Abe (despite the 3rd goal mistake) and Naughton... All the others were pants! :icon_sad:

 

[Biffa Bacon]

If the police in Suffolk wanted the game called off, it would have been called off. Sky may want a game to go ahead, but if the referee or the police/safety officers decide it shouldn't, then the game will not go ahead. I realise many people like to think of Sky as the decision makers, but this people I've mentioned in the post hold the real power.

The local police and the stewards told some of our fans it should be called off just after half time but once the game is on it is upto the officials to make the decisions. Ipswich couldn't afford to lose the TV money so they did everything they could to finish the game. (I should have read BF comments as this is all covered already!)

Ipswich may have destroyed their pitch forcing this game to go ahead and if the weather doesn't change I can't see them being able to sort it out quickly, it's now frozen and covered in snow. They did prove they don't need a pitch to play on though.

 

[Redditch Fox]

It's a lot harder for Sky to put pressure on the Chelsea game because the Metropolitan police will be asking for it to get called off as well as other bureaucratic measures due to the weather.

I genuinely believe Sky wanted at least one live game this weekend and put real pressure on for the game to be started.

Sky more or less call the shots in football and they, Ipswich plus obviously the ref fancied a televised outing.

Its difficult to generalise on the basis of this particular game although it was clear that the Ipswich players wanted it and our's didn't. There is always going to a question about how together a team is going to be when its loaded with loanees, but I think that the main problem is the lack of one or more midfielders with the physical game to sort things out when the going is tough in away games. Sven has made a good deal of progress and we can play nice footballI but we are very vulnerable especially in away games to sides that choose to play a more physical game.

've commented before on the mistake of bringing in a goal keeper who isn't fit let alone match fit. We need a new keeper..but not him.

Too much damage was done by Sousa to make promotion a likely possibility for this season, so unfortunately it may be a case of trying to get things sorted for next season.

 

[Svenation]

Whether or not it should have been stopped is beside the point.

That was, quite simply, the worst game of football I have ever had the misfortune to attend and watch. Certainly caused by the conditions, but nevertheless, it was a truly awful game.

The main reason I wanted the game stopped was because of that reason. It was a terrible match, neither team was likely to score again (certainly not us) and there would have been little point in continuing. I wasn't fussed about the result. Give it to them after the 58 minutes if they so wish.

 

[pork pie fox]

The local police and the stewards told some of our fans it should be called off just after half time but once the game is on it is upto the officials to make the decisions. Ipswich couldn't afford to lose the TV money so they did everything they could to finish the game. (I should have read BF comments as this is all covered already!)

Ipswich may have destroyed their pitch forcing this game to go ahead and if the weather doesn't change I can't see them being able to sort it out quickly, it's now frozen and covered in snow. They did prove they don't need a pitch to play on though.

I should have quoted the post I was replying to.

It wasn't a specific point relating to yesterday's game. It was being said that the Met police have more power in calling off a game than another police force. This was in response to my answer to another post whereby someone had stated that Sky had effectively forced the game to go ahead, to which I pointed out that Sky couldn't force the Chelsea v Man U game to be played. Had I quoted the post I was replying to you would have realised it wasn't a post about this game in isolation and the particular post of mine that you quoted was relating to the issue of calling matches off in advance, not while it is being played.

My fault, but you'd have to have read the series of posts I was involved in to understand that. I hope my long-winded explanation makes sense BB.

 

[Matt_B]

Without wanting to slate Sven (because he's done a pretty good job so far) I think the manager has to take the blame for this. The players weren't motivated; specifically players that he's brought in. There are players on the City books - the Berners of this world - that are well suited to this sort of fare, blood and guts stuff. If you want to grind out away results in ropy conditions (which is, in a way, what the Championship is all about) then you need a backbone. I'm not sure our manager's figured this out yet, and whatever anyone says I didn't see that sort of grit in Naughton, Abe, Davies etc.

I thought it was the lack of racism, we just didn't know how to play without it.

 

[Mawsley]

April 1970 - Blackpool came to Filbo and we played on a paddy field where one shot goal bound by Rod Fern actually sat in puddle instead of going over the line.

0-0 draw - Blackpool got promoted - we had to wait another year.

Love it. These games truly define what being a supporter of Leicester City is all about. If you don't like it - go support Strictly Come Dancing.

Thank you.

I was beginning to believe I was the only one welcoming common sense returning to football.

Next we'll see games played in fog and players being allowed to tackle - a welcome return to the 70s. :icon_bigg

 

[Mawsley]

The pitch was soft and playable, it was not frozen, and the ball ran true.

I really think people need to get over the weather. The condition of the pitch was much worse at Walsall a couple of years back and yet no one complained when we played on that one - I wonder why?

 

[beaumontfox]

That match shouldn't have been played either.:icon_razz

As I said earlier, according to their locals and radio etc one half the pitch was more frozen than the other. How that is possible I do not know, and anyhoo, the way the 'cleared' the pitch at half time did more damage imo than not, it compacted the snow left and made those areas more dangerous to play/skid/slip on.

It made me laugh that they had stewards helping clear it as well, when I always thought they were there to watch over the fans:icon_roll

It also doesn't make it right that if there had been no goals it would've been abandoned due to the conditions- imo you make the decision on the conditions NOT the scoreline.

Incidentally I saw several people fall over outside afterwards, including a friend who has managed to pull a muscle in her leg, we asked the police why the coaches weren't brought up outside for once so that the away fans didn't have to walk on very slippy ground back to them, the copper said it wasn't normal practice to do so, just before someone fell over in front of him.

I pointed out sometimes it's not normal weather so exceptions should be made, he had no answer to that.

 

[Mattmeister]

The pitch was soft and playable, it was not frozen, and the ball ran true.

I really think people need to get over the weather. The condition of the pitch was much worse at Walsall a couple of years back and yet no one complained when we played on that one - I wonder why?

Take another a look at Vitor's fall and then tell us that had nothing to do with the pitch or the snow.

 

[Blue Maniac]

That was an absolute farce on every level. I'm pretty livid the match was allowed to go ahead...particularly after taking the players into the tunnel and leaving them to cool down leading to a series of muscle strains that could leave us short of players for an extended period.

If I were Sven I'd be filing a complaint against that pussy of a ref.

We can give it all "we were shit...players didn't fancy it" I suppose. But all this game proved to me is that Ipswich are better than Leicester at playing in a foot of snow. As someone said, Arsenal, Barca and a few other footballing sides would have probably took a good hiding in similar conditions. All this stiff upper lip, they were harder than us is just bollocks. That wasn't football, end of.

Utterly completely ridiculous.

 

[Kingy_85]

Simply put the way that we play football didn't suit the conditions. Hoof ball was the only way to win this. Our usual threat of pace wingers didn't exist. Absolute zero bottle shown by any of our players. The abuse towards kirkland is baffling in these conditions. Howard was as penetrating as a limp pencil. Woeful game. Ruined my weekend.