IPSWICH COLUMN + HIGHLIGHTS: ‘Animosity should be aimed at our owner’

Keep calm and carry on will have been the mantra at Playford Road, following back-to-back away defeats.

But among the fans, it has been anything but that.

It has been like witnessing an inquest into our play-off chances dying.

It was hugely frustrating to see us miss out on the chance to pull level with sixth spot, but let’s get perspective, all is far from lost.

The sacking of Paul Clement at Derby has helped perpetuate a debate about style over results that, to be fair, has been threatening to boil over at Town for some time.

Fans want to be entertained, and despite the last minute goals and run of home Tuesday night wins - 16 ahead of hosting Hull in our next fixture on Tuesday (7.45pm) - they feel Mick’s team is not doing enough.

For the majority of the games I’ve seen this season, I do have sympathy. I largely get the privilege of not having to pay to watch us (though working them is not the jolly it appears), but perhaps I’m able to be more emotionally detached from the argument.

As someone who grew up bursting with pride at the football we played under George Burley, for today’s younger generation it is very different.

But perspective is needed and the tools Mick has had to work with and the job he is asked to do requires further inspection.

If, like Clement, he had been told to implement ‘an Ipswich way’ passing style and had been given the funds to do it, I could understand the animosity.

Mick’s the man to take us back to the Premier League in my book, whereas Marcus Evans is the man fans should be questioning

Leicester City have the worst pass success rate in the Premier League, by the way, so how do you define stylish?

But Mick’s the man to take us back to the Premier League in my book, whereas Marcus Evans is the man fans should be questioning.

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