This week In Focus takes a look at our next opponents high flying Ipswich Town who have a glamorous history that is littered with well-known high profile names from the footballing world, and look to have finally made a good start to the season.
We of course were due to play Ipswich in the final game of last season, but as we know Covid 19 put paid to that, and in this home fixture last season, Ipswich took the lead early on and despite us battering the mean Ipswich defence we just couldn’t break them down, and that was with the likes of Lewington and Gilbey on the bench, and Bowery, Boateng and Dickenson leading the charge.
FORM AT A GLANCE – WWW
LEAGUE RESULTS 2020/21
Ipswich 2 Rochdale 0
Bristol Rovers 0 Ipswich 1
Ipswich 2 Wigan 0
YEAR FORMED – 1878
HOME GROUND – Portman Road (30,311)
CLUB NICKNAMES – The Blues, Town, and the Tractor Boys.
THE MANAGER – Paul Lambert aged 50 years, born in Glasgow, Scotland.
Lambert started his playing career as a midfielder back in 1985 for St Mirren, he went on to play for Motherwell, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic and Livingston playing over 686 games scoring 41 goals.
Lambert also played for the Scottish National side on 40 occasions and scored a solitary goal, and that coming against the mighty Faroe Islands.
His first managerial appointment was at Livingston in 2005 and he has gone on to manage the likes of Wycombe Wanderers, Colchester Utd, Norwich City, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Wolves, Stoke City and now Ipswich Town since October 2018, becoming the first ever manager to manage both Ipswich and arch rivals Norwich City.
Lambert has seen success and some rock bottom times, whilst at Norwich City his WIN RATIO was nearly 50%, in contrast his short spell at Stoke City saw that plummet to 13%, and his time at Ipswich especially in the Championship also saw him record a 13% WIN RATIO.
His Lifetime stats though do show him as above average with a record of GAMES 604, WON 224, DRAWN 147, LOST 233, giving him an overall WIN RATIO of 37%.
FORMER IPSWICH MANAGERS –Legends of the game such as Sir Alf Ramsey, Jackie Milburn, Sir Bobby Robson, Bobby Ferguson, John Lyall, George Burley, Joe Royle, Roy Keane, and Mick McCarthy.
FORMER IPSWICH TOWN PLAYERS – Hundreds to choose from, so a snapshot of Ray Crawford, Mick Mills, Kevin Beattie, George Burley, Brian Talbot, John Wark, Paul Mariner, Alan Brazil, Arnold Muhren, Terry Butcher, Frans Thijssen, Chris Kiwomya, Kieron Dyer, Tony Mowbray, Jim Magilton, Dalian Atkinson and Darren Bent.
PLAYED FOR BOTH – Keith Andrews, Nathan Abbey, Dean Bowditch, Jimmy Bullard, Cody Cropper, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Stephen Gleeson, Ian McLoughlin, Stuart O’Keefe, Steve Palmer, Jordan Spence, Nigel Reo-Coker, Andros Townsend, Ed Upson and Jonny Williams.
CLUB MASCOT – Bluey the Horse and Crazee Horse.
FAMOUS FANS – Nigel Havers, Griff Rhys Jones, Julie Andrews, Bill Oddie, Des Lynam, Jon Pertwee, and John Peel, possibly Fat Boy Slim, most of those are unconfirmed.
IPSWICH LEADING SCORER 2020/21 – Sears, Bishop & Edwards on 2 goals.
CIURRENT INTERNET ODDS – MK Dons 23/10, Draw 13/5 Ipswich 6/5
LAST TIME ROUND – Tuesday 17th September 2019 – MK Dons 0 Ipswich 1
Team – Nicholls, Poole, Martin, Walsh (Brittain), Williams, Houghton, Boateng (Agard), McGrandles, Dickenson (Bowery), Kasumu, Nombe
Unused Subs – Lewington, Gilbey, Moore, Harley.
Goals – Nolan 12’
Referee – Lee Swaby (3 Yellows)
Attendance – 10,167
HEAD 2 HEAD
2019/20 – Ipswich v MK Dons (Cancelled – Covid)
2019/20 – MK Dons 0 Ipswich 1
2015/16 – Ipswich 3 MK Dons 2 – (Revell 2)
2015/16 – MK Dons 0 Ipswich 1
2006/07 – MK Dons 3 Ipswich 3 AET (LG Cup) – (Knight, Gallen, OG) – Dons won 5-3 on Pens.
