Ipswich Town 0 Burnley 0: Karl Fuller on FA Cup draw
If I’ve grappled with too many questions over the past week, Town has provided some quick answers over the last two games.
Let’s get the Morecambe game out of the way first.
As the players switched gears at kick-off, memories of the Fleetwood evening game came flooding back. Ipswich stepping towards the North Stand in the first half never feels right.
And just like that Fleetwood game, we scored an early goal to calm early nerves. But here the pattern ended. Before the game, without wanting to be smart, I told my brother Shaun that we were going to give someone a good spanking.
I spoke of last season’s games where we played six against Doncaster and four against Portsmouth and Wycombe.
Only at Charlton have we scored more than three goals in a league game. As the halves go, the first was flawless last Tuesday night.
At half-time I was excited about how we were supposed to bottle up those feelings at that moment.
Of course, Morecambe wasn’t particularly good in that first half. But that was up to us.
I thought it was a brave decision to change three quarters of our defense. But Richard Keogh and George Edmundson managed admirably with what little they had to do.
As for Harry Clarke, what a debut he had. Strong, fast, an eye for a pass and one of us. He can very quickly become a cult hero for us.
With so many changes from both coaches at half-time and in the second half, it was no surprise that the game lost some of its momentum.
If there was one complaint it was that we didn’t dig deeper into Sheffield Wednesday’s superior goal difference. But that would have been a harsh grumble.
Then we met Burnley and few gave us high hopes of avoiding defeat.
The Clarets are flying at the top of the Championship and it was a natural step to assess our credentials after our last-round mauling of Rotherham.
Burnley have made some changes, as have we. And we didn’t look out of place.
Only Watford and Manchester United have kept clean sheets against them before this season.
It was no more than we deserved to be the third team to stop them scoring.
Our high-intensity performance ensured we got what we deserved and it should ensure we can confidently continue this season.
We’ve met toe-to-toe with a club tied to the Premier League.
Our roster depth is really insane. I think if we were a championship squad we would more than hold our own.
We just have to get out of League One any way we can to prove it.
Few will give us much of a chance to win the repeat at Turf Moor. I’ll take you back to an FA Cup third round match with Blackburn Rovers in January 1996.
The first game also ended 0-0 at Portman Road and Blackburn, like Burnley, were a league ahead of us in the Premier League (they ended the season in 7th place, by the way).
In the replay, Town won 1-0 after extra time with a goal from Paul Mason and a performance from young Richard Wright.
There’s no reason Kieran McKenna can’t repeat George Burley’s team’s feat on Lancastrian soil.
A special mention also for the 25,420 fans who attended on Saturday.
It’s further testament to where Gamechanger 20, our board and McKenna have just taken our club.
What an incredibly good place to be. The sky can be the limit for those responsible.
Unsurprisingly, only Manchester United had a larger participation in the FA Cup on Saturday.
You have to look back to the 2006/07 season, when we last drew in the fourth round.
A 1-0 win over Swansea City was watched by just 16,635 fans.
These are more exciting times as a Town fan!
