The Carling Cup has been a particularly unloved competition where Ipswich Town have been concerned in recent years, but having progressed to the 4th round for the first time in 8 years, the signs are that the relationship is back on track.
An away cup tie, against same-league opposition, presented a win-win situation for Roy Keane when making his team selections. Sending out a weakened side and losing is a quite acceptable state of affairs these days in the League Cup. Yet, sending out a weakened side and winning can only be seen as further indication that Keanes side are upwardly mobile.
Having raced into a two goal lead at the interval, both goals supplied by the outstanding Andros Townsend, a Millwall reply gave the Town side a different sort of challenge as they managed to see out a win in a manner which seems wholly unfamiliar from the last-gasp equalisers of the previous season.
Speaking on Radio Suffolk after the game, Roy Keane was delighted with the performances of the young players in his side “I cant praise them highly enough, I can be quite hard with them, particularly if they are playing in the reserves and they aren’t producing, but tonight I gave some of them an opportunity and they certainly didn’t let me down”.
Despite making eight changes from Saturdays morale-boosting victory over Cardiff City, the blues line-up had an air of familiarity about it. Jaime Peters, Mark Kennedy, Luke Hyam and Tamas Priskin were all returned to the starting line-up, whilst Brian Murphy and Damien Delaney are certainly no strangers to most fans. The latter was making his first appearance of the season after his horrific pre-season injury.
Keane largely kept to the same formation as used on Saturday, with the only exception being up front, where Tamas Priskin was supported by a deep lying Colin Healy. Jaime Peters continues to present himself as the new Mick Stockwell, this time occupying a central midfield role, which Keane described afterwards as a “calculated gamble”.
After an opening quarter of the game largely dominated by Millwall, but to little effect, Tamas Priskins flicked header gave Ipswich the lead, the striker continuing his improved goalscoring form in this new season. Whilst Priskins overall performance was by no means his best, he has a general demeanour of a player slowly ridding himself of the confidence issues which have beset his time at Ipswich so far.
The goal was a platform for Town to produce their best period of the game, the lively Andros Townsend being the pick of the performers, culminating in a second goal just before half-time from Gareth McAuley, on the end of another Townsend delivery.
Millwall pulled a goal back just after the hour mark, with impressive work from Steve Morison to find himself the space. It led to an inevitable period of Millwall pressure, with the crowd of just over 5,000 finally mustering enough noise between them to drive their team on. But, they were able to produce little of real note as Town saw out the game relatively untroubled. Whilst Brian Murphy will be pleased to have got another run out in a winning first-team performance, his managers comments- “Murph didn’t have a save to make”, will perhaps leave him wishing he had been a bit busier.
With such a changed line-up, the other players stepping into the side may feel much the same. Despite this excellent result, with the team in such good league form it would seem unlikely that any of them have significantly improved their chances of pushing their way into the line-up for the match at Scunthorpe on Saturday. The likes of Damien Delaney and Mark Kennedy will have benefitted from an extended appearance in the first team as they return from injury, but the conundrum remains that, since they are so short of fitness, simply playing at Millwall has probably lessened their chances of featuring on Saturday. Jaime Peters earned plaudits from Keane in midfield, yet with Leadbitter and Norris certain to return, he can only hope to oust the improving Tom Eastman at right-back. Luke Hyam would appear to be the only player with a chance of retaining his place, since he clearly benefitted from the rest he was afforded on Saturday; he will wait to see if Keane was suitably impressed enough to decide to return to the 4-1-2-3 formation in which he is so pivotal.
But for now, the players and manager will be able to reflect on another away win, the third such result in a row in the League Cup this season. For the opposition, after 21 unbeaten home games, they now have back to back defeats, which may have dark implications for their upcoming fortunes, particularly in the context of forthcoming games at QPR and Cardiff.
Above all else, there is one thing that the staff, players and chief executive of Ipswich Town will be looking out for when the draw for the League Cup 4th Round is made on Saturday morning. As Keane himself so neatly put it this evening -“We look forward to hopefully, please god, getting a home draw”.
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