Pride?

Probably the most one-sided derby in years, with Ipswich doing themselves proud. But is it simply a reminder of where we should be this season?

The game on Sunday showed everything that is good about Ipswich Town Football Club.

If Marcus Evans was present, and it seems unlikely he would turn down this opportunity to see the potential inherent in his purchase, he cannot fail to have been delighted at the sight of a capacity crowd positively buzzing at the sight of their team tearing apart their neighbours with an outstanding show of entertaining, passing football.

But it also highlighted that this season is currently on course to end deeply unfulfilled.

With the bright sunshine over the stadium and the team playing at a high tempo from the off, it brought back memories of the opening day victory over Sheffield Wednesday. Back then, the performance raised real possibilities for the season. Yesterday, the performance was equally good, possibly better, and served as a reminder of where we hoped we might be able to go this season.

The fact that we look increasingly likely to fall short of those aspirations is an indication that, through all the positivity that will be thrown upon it, this season looks set to go down as a missed opportunity.

Whereas in previous seasons we could argue to have played well in odd games against good opposition but struggled in others, this season we can say that we have beaten most sides (Watford excepted) and the majority of them have been beaten comfortably. We are clearly capable, on a regular basis, of being one of THE best sides in the championship.

The almost entire failure to translate that form away from home could live to haunt Jim Magilton. It is not every year that, with just 3 games to go, a team outside of the play-offs are still only 7 points adrift of an automatic promotion place. We could be a far more consistent side next season, yet find that our progress up the league does not match up in comparison to this years standards.

After Sundays performance, it really does feel like a case of "what might have been".