Coventry & Ipswich

[Sligo Hornet]

For some reason Ipswich always struck me as a good club.With the Irish lads on board would like to see them do well.

Offered very little up front on saturday against Watford....good passers of the ball without any threat...too easy to defend against.....fortunately!

[Stuttgart88]

Anyone see Ipswich & Coventry play each other on TV on Saturday?

Owen Garvan oozed class, some errors like overrunning the ball excepted, but he is always looking for the ball, has a great range of passing and takes excellent set pieces with his left. He covers ground effortlessly. He was the heartbeat of a very good Ipswich performance. The first goal came from a floated free from Garvan which was headed in at the back post, though the 'keeper could probably have come for it. His corners were superb.

Alan Lee played well and probably deserved a goal. Jon Walters, Stephen Elliott's former strike partner for our U21s, plays wide right for Ipswich these days after losing his way in the last couple of years. He doesn't look an overly effective wide player but he is an excellent attacking header of a ball. He scored one good headed goal and had a couple of other good efforts.

Alex Bruce, apart from one howler - a weak, uncommitted headed back pass followed by a tumbling rugby tackle trying to recover! - actually looked good, a centre back who looks calm on the ball.

Michael Doyle was overrun in Coventry's midfield and Tabb didn't see much of the ball. Leon Best saw plenty of it and tried hard but it wasn't his day. He looks a sulky, moody individual and one late effort at winning a penalty was such a pathetic attempt at a dive it was shameful. I'm not sure he's the kind of guy who'd boost morale at the Irish camp.

[OwlsFan]

Yep, saw it and pretty much agree with your summary, apart from Bruce. He's an accident waiting to happen and he played on loan at Wednesday for a while and was very average. Garvan is the only one of the Irish lads on display who might make it. Lee, if for some reason we revert to the Big Jack game and need a target man, would do ok as most of the rest of our forwards are midgets.

[shakermaker1982]

let's hope Stan realises Garvan is Irish.

[tetsujin1979]

let's hope Stan realises Garvan is Irish.

I think he knows, Garvan played for the U-21s against Portugal less than a month ago

[shakermaker1982]

I think he knows, Garvan played for the U-21s against Portugal less than a month ago

Are you confident Stan checks up on the u21s??? maybe I'm being harsh but this is a guy who still hasn't worked out that Steve Finnan is a RB and O'Shea/Kilbane are not good enough to play centre MF!!!!

[Torn-Ado]

Lee, if for some reason we revert to the Big Jack game and need a target man, would do ok as most of the rest of our forwards are midgets.

That reason being our total lack of creativity in midfield and our insistence in defence on booting high balls forward. Lets face it, we need a targetman to compliment either Keane or Doyle because having the two up front together is futile with our players.

[Stuttgart88]

Jon Walters hat trick on Saturday, with Garvan, Lee & Clarke all heavily involved.

Great to see a guy resurrect a promising career after it was seemingly drifting into oblivion.

[Stuttgart88]

Extracts from The Guardian's write up on the above match:

There was such precision on the field... Jonathan Walters started it with his left foot and finished it with his right to complete a hat-trick. The former Bolton midfielder, wide right here, was called up for Republic of Ireland B last week. "Today opened up for me," he said. City certainly did. Owen Garvan, selected for the senior squad, was twice provider and once dummy runner for him but left early with a knee niggle that makes him doubtful. Most good things flowed through him but there was deft work from Pablo Counago too, wickedly for his goal, and sweet, firm movement of the ball in all areas. They even had to adjust to Alan Lee's departure for a shorter target man in Danny Haynes but not before Lee's persistence had laid on the second goal for David Wright's incursion.

Man of the match Owen Garvan

To score a hat-trick and not be man of the match says something for the man who was. Garvan was the fulcrum of this fantasy football

Best moment

His receipt of Billy Clarke's ball from deep and his pass on to Walters for his second goal

[drummerboy]

I think Garvan is the most promising Irish player for a long time.

[Closed Account]

selected for the senior squad,

Where did they get that from?

[Stuttgart88]

I highlighted it as I thought it looked wrong. I think he's in the U21s.

[Closed Account]

I highlighted it as I thought it looked wrong. I think he's in the U21s.

You underlined it.

[Stuttgart88]

I highlighted it by underlining it!

[geysir]

You could have put a question mark

[Stuttgart88]

I could have done a lot of things.

[jbyrne]

Coventry have brought in bucketloads of new players under Dowie. They aren't short of a few bob.

i think Coventry are in huge financial trouble (debts of £28m +) and are currently banned from bringing in players due to the non payment of a transfer fee to southampton. id say its more likely they will have to sell in january than buy

[livehead1]

They are as skint as a bint!

[youngirish]

i think Coventry are in huge financial trouble (debts of £28m +) and are currently banned from bringing in players due to the non payment of a transfer fee to southampton. id say its more likely they will have to sell in january than buy

They are still going well. If they win their game tonight they will jump to 4th.

If Ipswich can improve on their dreadful away form they can be one of the best teams in the Championship. We'll see. They threw a 2 goal lead away last weekend against a very poor Norwich side.

[eirebhoy]

Extracts from The Guardian's write up on the above match:

There was such precision on the field... Jonathan Walters started it with his left foot and finished it with his right to complete a hat-trick. The former Bolton midfielder, wide right here, was called up for Republic of Ireland B last week. "Today opened up for me," he said. City certainly did. Owen Garvan, selected for the senior squad, was twice provider and once dummy runner for him but left early with a knee niggle that makes him doubtful. Most good things flowed through him but there was deft work from Pablo Counago too, wickedly for his goal, and sweet, firm movement of the ball in all areas. They even had to adjust to Alan Lee's departure for a shorter target man in Danny Haynes but not before Lee's persistence had laid on the second goal for David Wright's incursion.

Man of the match Owen Garvan

To score a hat-trick and not be man of the match says something for the man who was. Garvan was the fulcrum of this fantasy football

Best moment

His receipt of Billy Clarke's ball from deep and his pass on to Walters for his second goal

Sounds promising. Every time they went to Charlie Nicholas on Sky Sports on Saturday he just had to mention the beautiful football Ipswich were playing. Ireland U21s played fantastic football against England in the first half too. He's a pure playmaker and there's no doubt in my mind he'll be a big player for us in the future. He was the captain of an FA youth cup winning team and you could go back through all winning teams from the previous years and find at least one player that had a good career.