560: Kings of Anglia: Two signings and a draw at Birmingham as Bromley await

25:03Stuart Watson:So sort of different leagues have slightly different windows. And when they start, it's really hard to sort of align it all. So there probably is no obvious solution. But yeah, it's not the best, is it? But it is what it is, to use the football cliche.

25:19Ross Halls:Indeed. And AJ, just to round off the transfer talk, obviously Nathan Broadhead, one, is still up in the air. We know the position really right now. We can obviously need to sign players before Nathan Broadhead goes. What's the update on that? and also Aaron Muric could be going to Italy, which is not a bad move for him. Yeah, let's go with Broadhead first. I'm not going to take you to this whole thing because I've done it a couple of times on the pod already. Interest from Wrexham, Torx, kind of£7.5 million deal agreed but not signed off just because of speculation with Amari. I think it is going to play a part in it and also just the lack of options.

25:56So there's too much up in the air to let Nathan Broadhead go. Keira McKenna said he'd like to explore the option to go to Wrexham. And looking at it, it would be a good deal for the club, wouldn't it, for a player with a year left on his contract. £7.5 million is a fair wedge to get. So the situation hasn't really changed that much, but Nathan Broadhead's fit and he's coming in and putting in a shift. And I think he deserves credit for that. He could throw his toys out the prowess and say, I want to go to Wrexham. You've agreed a deal. why haven't you signed it off? But he's done really well. And to make himself available, came off the bench against Birmingham on Friday night.

26:36Jim McKenna said he's had a part to play in that. Wouldn't be surprised he has a part to play at Bromley tomorrow night as well. We'll wait and see. But yeah, definitely deserves credit for that. And we'll see where that one goes probably towards the end of the window, I'd say. As soon as Ipswich are in a position to let him go, I think he could go. So I could see it kind of coming to a quick conclusion. My gut feeling is it will end with him at Wrexham, but never say never, of course. And then with Aro Murek, he's one that I think everyone expected to go. There were kind of some whispers of interest.

27:07Sassuolo was mentioned early in the window. Then it was Turkey. Now reports from Italy saying it will be Sassuolo who are pushing to get this deal done, which is an initial loan with an option to buy at the end of the season for€10 million, which again pretty much means that Ipswich would get their money back if they chose to sign him at the end of the season. And one of those deals where you just hope he goes there and performs and wins over the fans. And it's probably best for all parties if Tam can get their money back and we can all move on and he can have a better kind of next stage in his career in Italy.

27:38So we'll have to wait and see with that one, with Arrow. But yeah, that's the latest with him and Nathan Broadhead.

27:46Ross Halls:I know you wanted to jump in there, so go ahead.

27:49Stuart Watson:Well, on Mürich, getting your money back might be difficult, but at least some of your money back, you hope he goes there and does well. And it's not too big a financial disaster for Ipswich. I think it was eight million pounds. We said there were some high fees reported at the time, but eight million plus some add-ons. So hopefully Ipswich can call back a decent amount of that in the long term. Nathan Broadhead, we talk about sort of players, where are their heads at when these things are going on? didn't look like he downed tools on Friday night to me. Came on, looked really fired up. He was wanting the ball, running at people, very much got to the speed of the game quickly, screaming at the referee when he wasn't getting fouls and things like that.

28:36Stuart Watson:So, you know, fair play to him for being all in in that situation. Didn't look like someone who was worried about getting injured and deals being off. I know kind of the opposite has been said about Leif Davis's performance on Friday night. he was nowhere near as influential as we've seen him at left back what I would say is there's a couple of things on that one he's just back from an injury I believe it's a hip injury that kept him out at all's air so there might be that that was a late fitness call for Ipswich maybe they pushed that a little bit more than they would have liked given the lack of left back options so we don't know sort of how he was physically so I would say that and yeah and it was it was a difficult game as well wasn't it was high precip which didn't have a lot of the ball um so i'm not i'm not going to read too much into leaf davis's performance kind of being being wrapped up in any kind of transfer related issues but um yeah that probably brings us onto

29:32Ross Halls:the game doesn't it yes it does good segue stew and uh we've got a lot of talk about um it wasn't the most prettiest of games um the championship curtain razor um obviously birmingham on a high after 111 points in League One. Of course, Town relegated from the Premier League last season. We're going to play Kieran McKenna's thoughts on the game, boys, first of all, and then we'll jump into our snap thoughts and talk about the team and the first half. So, K-Dog, over to you.

30:00Stuart Watson:Kieran, a fiery, intense, I think, day fixture. You've managed to get the point at the end. What's your verdict on that?

30:09Ross Halls:Yeah, it was a really intense game in the first half. Probably some of what we expected really, mostly as we expected. Yeah, it wasn't great quality, to be honest. Both teams with good intensity, good organisation, but not enough passages of play in the game. We had a couple of good chances, maybe the better chances in the first half, but probably less of the play. There was nothing really in the game until the first goal. And after that, we improved. and probably that was maybe what we needed to sort of go for the game a little bit more. So there's positives in how we battled. It was always going to be a difficult place to come here tonight and the group fought well in the first half.

30:54Ross Halls:For sure, we need to impose ourselves on the game earlier than what we did and to be the team that we want to be this year, we have to impose ourselves on the ball better than what we did. But the players stuck at it, good impact off the bench with all the substitutes and the late goal, which we know in a championship season, getting them are really absolutely vital, especially with good impacts on the bench. So positives in terms of coming away from the point will be stronger for the game. There's no doubt in my mind it came early for us, to be honest, as a group. And I think a lot of teams would have came here and lost tonight.

31:25Ross Halls:So it wasn't a fantastic game, didn't play as well as we would have liked, but we found a way to battle for a point, which hopefully will be an important one at the end. Very important. AJ, start with you. Snap thoughts on the game. Feisty, fiery. Vows galore, a hostile atmosphere. Yeah, thoughts of the game? Beautifully violent. Not what I kind of expected from these two teams. Thought it would be less like that, basically looking at the way that Birmingham played in League One, possession heavy, wanted to control games, quite kind of open and expansive. Ipswich, we all know what they're capable of under Kieran McKenna and especially in the Championship.

32:07So I was expecting kind of two teams really going at it. and from an attacking sense, it wasn't that. It was fairly limited in chances, especially from open play and it was one of those games, I think there was a foul about every two and a half minutes and it was kind of broken up but it wasn't done so in a way that didn't make it enjoyable to watch just because you could tell it was a really kind of passionate, aggressive game and both teams kind of bought in A, to the atmosphere and B, to I think the narrative as well. these are going to be two teams I would expect to be right at the top of the division.

32:43I think Ipswich know that Birmingham will be promotion rivals and Birmingham will expect to be in that position up against title favourites Ipswich. So yeah, that's kind of the feeling on the game. You can have a look at Ipswich's performance in a couple of different ways. There are things that you can like and there's things that need improvement on. It definitely was probably a step down from smash and grab. I wouldn't call it a smash and grab, but yeah, maybe a tear down from that one. No denying that they were probably fortunate to get the point from it. But all in all, Birmingham kept going deeper and deeper.

33:21And although it was a handball and a controversial one at that, I think that town probably were in a position to go and take a point from it towards the end of the match and push hard to do so. Push hard to get three even at the end. So up from here, not an ideal first fixture, as Kieran McKenna said, against this kind of Birmingham team. If that is one of the things that George Hurst said, and I'm worried I'm going to take the line out that you might have used, but he said if that's the best performance of the season, then it's going to be a pretty bad season. It should all be kind of an improvement from here.

33:58Ross Halls:And Stu, a new rivalry is born, I'll say, because going into this game, Birmingham was always that team like they've got the money, they've got Tom Brady effect, but this game had a lot of talking points.

34:11Stuart Watson:It's fun and games, wasn't it? You could feel it in the atmosphere and we know, don't we, the power of the feel-good factor, the rebirth, the momentum. There's so many similarities between Ipswich and Birmingham with the US money, returning from League One, a young career coach that's got them going. I guess the difference is Ipswich were a bit of a surprise factor when they came up to the Championship 1 or 2 we're talking about them maybe being able to to go up again but nowhere near the amount of people now that are talking about Birmingham being right up there as promotion favourites but yeah red hot atmosphere and it carried into the game I think those players those Birmingham players were were fuelled by adrenaline it reminded me a lot of Ipswich versus Liverpool on the opening day of last season and how Ipswich caught Liverpool by surprise with their in-your-face intensity with that Jacob Greaves tackle and Sir Bozly early on that got people going and for an hour or so Ipswich were probably the better team and then ran out of steam a little bit and then Liverpool's quality obviously came to the fore it wasn't obviously then Ipswich didn't have that level of top, top quality that could then sort of take over when Birmingham tired.

35:30Stuart Watson:But in that final half an hour, certainly the reaction to going behind was really good. And yes, as Alex says, the goal comes in slightly fortuitous circumstances, but pressure had been building. And, you know, looking at the final stats, it's easy to get caught up in the fact that Birmingham, I think for the first half an hour or so had 84 % possession and it felt quite one-sided at times and Ipswich under the cosh but when you look at the game as a whole and the way Ipswich responded in the second half and the way the subs made a difference I don't think a draw was sort of wildly out of kilter with what we saw of the game as a whole so probably you know the worst time to go to Birmingham a time when the squad is still being built which we've already discussed time where sort of relationships on the pitch are still building.

36:20Stuart Watson:Players are kind of adapting and getting up to speed. Birmingham chucked absolutely everything they had at Ipswich. Their players were going down with cramp left, right and centre at the end and they still couldn't win. And so for me, I am at the more sort of positive end of the spectrum with this result, certainly, and elements of the performance within the context of everything that's going on.

36:44Ross Halls:Because, yeah, there was obviously a lot of town fans not really happy, you know, disjointed performance and stuff. But as Kieran McKenna said in his audio, this game came a bit too soon for this squad. But obviously that was the fixtures, how it sort of randomised to be the opening game of the season. But AJ, obviously Birmingham, I want to quickly go on to their disallowed goal because that was very soft. Obviously, you know, Jake Greaves got fouled and yeah, talk us through it. Yeah. When I saw it in real time, I was like, absolutely no way no way should that have been this loud and when i saw it on the replay the first time i also felt really strongly that town had been given a lifeline when i've kind of taken time since then to look back at it again i can understand it more kind of when you watch it you see the angles you check the rules of the game i can but it is soft there's no denying it's a very soft disallowed goal.

37:40Jacob Greaves lets the ball bounce and then loses out to Kyogo, who is about what feels like about a foot shorter than him as well. Really good finish from the Japanese international as well. And look, if I'm a referee, that's 1-0 personally, but I can understand why it had been disallowed. There are probably quite a few referees who in that moment would have given it. So yeah, definitely a let-off. an early warning sign that I think Town understood, but maybe just given the intensity and the fact that there were, I mean, you use the term disjointed, there were kind of a few sloppy passes and a bit like that.

38:21It was difficult to try and build against that and build a bit of momentum to counter it.

38:26Ross Halls:And yes, Stu, obviously Birmingham did in the end score. It was, yeah, not a great goal, I have to admit. Yeah, your point of view on that?

38:36Stuart Watson:Yeah, not great. You shouldn't be conceding seconds after your goalkeeper's just kicked it straight upfield. That's what happened. Alex Palmer knocked it up to the halfway line. It's which lose first contact. Loops back onto the edge of the box. And got themselves in a bit of a muddle from there. Kiogo, again, very similar to the incident Alex has just described. Loops the ball over the goalkeeper. comes back off the inside of the post. And Stansfield, to be fair to him, in pressure circumstances, took his time and emphatic finish, but not a great goal from an Ipswich perspective.

39:15Ross Halls:Yeah, Doros Shea was tempted to do a Christoph Berra, wasn't he? He was like, should I save it? But no, he didn't. But yeah, it was obviously a 1-0 and obviously the atmosphere was blue, blew up at St Andrews. But still, as you mentioned, it sort of woke town up a little bit. And I want to talk to you about the subs make an impact because we had that last time. It was a super strength back in the Championship, you know, when Town got promoted and it could be the same this time around. You know, Chaplin, Broadhead, El-Hammadi, Ashley Young, Cameron Humphries come on and they made an impact. That's what changed the game for Town.

39:47Stuart Watson:All five of them, to be fair. And I did, you know, Alex and I talked during the game and I felt in the early stages of the second half, Birmingham, again, started fast, but, you know, it didn't last that long, a few minutes. And actually leading up to the goal, I felt like we were starting to see elements of Birmingham tiring and the adrenaline just starting to wear off and some tiredness creeping in. And I was feeling quite confident that Ipswich would finish the stronger. Then they get the goal, which kind of breathes new life into them and the crowd. But Ipswich's response was great. And we looked at the two benches beforehand.

40:22Stuart Watson:For all this talk about Ipswich's squad looking a little thin in certain areas, which it certainly is, I still felt like Ipswich had the stronger bench. and that's without certain players being injured. That's no Philogene who didn't pass his fitness test, no Hutchinson as we've talked about, and they were still able to bring on the joint top goal scorers from the last championship promotion season in Chaplin and Broadhead. That's not a bad position to be in, and I mentioned it already. I thought Broadhead, no hint at all of his mind being elsewhere. He looked very much up for it. Chaplin's the one that deserves the biggest credit for me.

41:01Stuart Watson:I thought he really changed things. I just think he knits the attacking side of things together a bit more. We talk about Schmodix being a second striker. He is more, Chaplin is more of a playmaker, I would say, there. And obviously, he's a goal scorer as well. But he was dropping into little pockets, playing nice little sharp first-time passes. And that just got Ipswich playing a little bit more. Again, the caveat against a... It's slightly easier to do against a tiring team than it is from the start, but I thought he made a big difference. Ali Alhamadi then comes on and plays right wing, which I don't think we've seen an awful lot of.

41:39He was his usual sort of hustle, bustle.

41:43Stuart Watson:I think he committed a foul within seconds, but he provided a bit of drive and got Ipswich going. Ashley Young then comes on, gets absolute dog's abuse as a former Aston Villa player. He comes on to a cacophony of boos, every touch, cacophony of boos, various chants, but he looked probably the calmest player on the pitch. I thought everything he did was just assured at right back. And likewise, Cameron Humphreys, who came on for the, I think, in the 84th minute, I thought he added something to Ipswich, a real element of calm to his play as well. So you're right, subs were a massive part of the championship promotion season.

42:23Stuart Watson:how many times did we see the front four changed on 70 minutes and that grind teams down? How many times did we see Ipswich score late, late goals in that promotion season? Leicester, Southampton, there's several more in there as well. So, yeah, it came in fortuitous circumstances, but it did also feel like pressure was starting to build and the subs played a massive part in that.

42:48Ross Halls:Although I will admit deep down, I didn't think we were going to score. Thankfully, we did get the penalty. But Aja, how were you feeling at that fondamental, even though we were knocking down the door? But we weren't really knocking it down. We were just having little moments. But I have to admit, deep down, I didn't think Tan was going to score. No, nor did I. You kind of have those flicker of hopes. I think you get it after covering, watching, supporting Ipswich for long enough. I mean, I say long enough, basically the last kind of two, three seasons, especially the championship promotion campaign, that when you see a board go up with more than three minutes, your initial thought is, goal, there's got to be a goal.

43:25There's a goal in this. But having watched Ipswich, it wasn't a game of many chances. It felt like, to me, it was going to be a one-chance game and Birmingham had had it. To be fair, it kind of was. Should we talk about the goal then, the equaliser? Town putting on pressure and they get the corner. well delivered in and I think it's Greaves who jumps up with Lyndon Dykes off the bench and again this is where the controversy comes in now and you've got to look at the rules and is it right, is it wrong, is it hard, all these different kind of things Dykes as you naturally have to do when you jump up to challenge for a corner jumps with his arms so he jumps up like that raises his arms up to challenge for the ball as he does it the ball strikes him on the arm because his arms are up because he's challenging for the ball from a corner.

44:19Referee blows for a penalty. Birmingham Fury Town a little bit confused because it's so kind of out of the blue. It didn't really, especially from our point of view, look like a penalty. We took probably about 30 seconds to properly realise it was a penalty. I know that some of the players who were actually on the pitch didn't realise it was a penalty for a while. But that's what it was. and yeah, I mean, look, my perspective is it's harsh, but by the letter of the law, true. So it's probably the right decision there. George Hurst steps up, sticks into the back of the net. Cups his ear to the home fans, which sees some cups, funnily enough, thrown at him.

45:05Connor Chaplin boots the ball into the home end, which sparks all sorts. Massive kickoff, huge scenes. Bit of a fight. a lot of aftermath to that goal but another one that will live long in the memory won't it

45:19Ross Halls:yeah incredible scenes Stu because uh yeah that was just a moment of madness that five minutes

45:25Stuart Watson:or so just loads of things were happening yeah in the press box as well sort of corner comes in referee blows it looks like he's pointed to the spot no one kind of reacts that way it was hard to see live from our vantage point what for we're all looking at each other is he giving a penalty Is it a penalty? I think it might be a corner. No, it is a penalty. I think he's given it, hasn't he? And we're all sort of looking at each other. I thought it was an indirect free kick again. Yeah. And then a couple of Birmingham fans kind of come running over towards the press box because we've got the screens there.

45:58Stuart Watson:They're craning their neck. Then it becomes clear that sort of as players disperse and somebody's got the ball, Hurst has got the ball in his hands, he's given it. All sorts of expletives are coming from Birmingham fans at that stage. It was absolute chaos. Really emotional game. I'm not going to sit here and bemoan ugly scenes. Should Connor Chaplin smash the ball into the crowd? No. Should people in the crowd be throwing things onto the pitch? No. You see Ali Alhamadie kind of boot a bottle away or something that's come on in it all. George Hurst cupping, is it? It's everything that we've discussed.

46:42Stuart Watson:It's the context of this game. It's the moment it arrived in. It's been a game where they've been kicking lumps out of each other all match. It just all came to boiling point. Are we going to say we don't want to see that in football? We certainly don't want to see a fan sort of running down and swinging at one of the players. Of course we don't. But the rest of it, I quite like. We don't really want sort of sanitised football matches. And, you know, we've been moaning the fact that football isn't like that anymore. and then we get a game like that come along and everyone's going, oh, don't want to see that.

47:17Stuart Watson:We kind of do, don't we? There has to be some limits. As I say, fans getting involved in stuff and all of that is not great, but I'm all for it. Nice bit of spice. It was good.

47:28Ross Halls:Yeah, it's a shame, obviously, it was the other end because if it was in front of the town fans, that away end, it was unbelievable scenes anyway. Limbs, as they say, but town players, they would have ran, of course, right to that end and I'm sure they would have been town fans jumping on the pitch and it would have been unbelievable scenes. But yeah, it wasn't great scenes, obviously, with the Jack Taylor incident and stuff with a fan coming on. But yeah, that was just carnage for a bit, wasn't it, boys? Just the game wasn't able to kick off until that got sorted and then obviously at full time.

47:56Stuart Watson:And then straight from the kickoff, George Hurst charges 50 yards and smashes into one of their centre-halves. I mean, it had been boiling and boiling, hadn't it, in that second half. I think as Birmingham players realised they were starting to run out of gas, they turned to the dark arts a bit more. There was one where I think Kyogo stood on Greaves' ankle. That looked a bit naughty to me, sort of after the ball had gone. I think it was Cochrane left a bit on Sammy Schmoddix long after the ball had gone down the side. And there's one that I think people are talking about being a potential penalty earlier in the game, where it is Cochrane who sort of blocks off Darroche.

48:36Stuart Watson:I think that probably would have been a free kick. It looks like that first contact was just outside the area possibly. But again, that was no eyes for the ball at all, just literally looking to block him off as a set piece came into the box. Ipswich gave as good as they got, and I like that. This isn't the sort of game that this squad has been built for, but we saw it in the Championship. The main memories from that Championship promotion season and the 4-3 wins and the late winners and the sparkling football and the Davis cutbacks. But it's easy to forget they had to grind out a lot of results along the way.

49:15Stuart Watson:The 0-0 draw or the draw at Blackburn on Good Friday. There's plenty of others if you go through it. Is it 0-0? Alex is... They won that game. Conor Chaplin won. Oh, Blackburn won. 1-0 win at Blackburn. But that was a proper sort of grind it out result, wasn't it? And there were some others along the way. You have to roll your sleeves up in the championship. and they did in this game and I like that. I think as well, it's quite refreshing, isn't it? Having had a season of, and you talk about sanitised football, of VAR moaning rightly in a lot of cases about decisions and, oh, Connor Chaplin's been pulled back and it should have been a penalty against Leicester and if they win that, you think about all this and how many times have we just seen quite robotic football and of course it's high-level football and it's great players, but like, this was a totally different world.

50:06This is what you expect of the Championship. And although it's not the kind of game I want to see Ipswich Town playing week in, week out, because we'd all be exhausted and Ipswich probably wouldn't win that many points. It's not the style of play they want to kind of have. It's also a bit refreshing, isn't it, after a season of VAR and just sometimes kind of boring, clean football.

50:29Stuart Watson:This isn't the game to judge Ipswich on as an attacking force. Awesome. And I've seen enough in pre-season to know that they're going to be fine with scoring goals from open play. I know we come away from this one going one shot on target is a penalty. 95th minute didn't create a lot else. Couldn't get the attacking players going. I think that's a lot to do with the occasion, the opposition, the style of the match. Sunday's game against Southampton, you would imagine stylistically is going to be completely different. So let's see a few of those matches before we start making judgments on players and how ready Ipswich Town are.

51:03Stuart Watson:I wrote in my verdict piece on Monday, I'd be fascinated to see what the ball in playtime would have been from this game, because I think it was 38 ,000 in the end. It was really stop-start. I've been reliably informed this morning. I don't know if you want to take a guess at this, what the ball in playtime was.

51:25Ross Halls:Hmm, it's got to be very low.

51:30Ross Halls:I'm really bad to even guess.

51:32Stuart Watson:44 minutes. Less than half a game of football where the ball was actually live, which could well be a record low for Ipswich. I don't know where those stats are still. We haven't got access to that, but 44 minutes. Yeah, very little football actually played in this game.

51:55Ross Halls:Yeah, I'm sure Sky loved that, but that is what it is, as football terms go. AJ, you spoke to George Hurst as well after the game, so we've got a bit of a clip here, and then we're going to do a stand in any other business from the game before we look ahead to a cup game. So let's see, from Hurst, Town's new number nine. George, did you kind of enjoy buying into the blood and thunder of this a little bit? It kicked off multiple times, fans throwing stuff, you had a little bit of everything in that. For sure, I love these kind of games. you know that's no other boy like myself it's a game that I've been involved in plenty of times you know coming up from Sunday League you get games like that so yeah I love it it's a game that you know we're ready for if it needs to be that then I know we've got a changing room full of lads who no matter who's on that picture are ready to go and put you know put themselves out there you're happy at times to be dare I say the wind up merchant cup you hear after you get a bit of stick and sometimes give it back a bit as well yeah you know I don't necessarily do it to wind them up it's just a thing in the moment I just do it, I do what I feel and when you've been getting stick for 95 minutes sometimes you don't mind giving a little bit back when you score the goal it gets us a point so it's part and parcel of football I'm going to get stick, I'm going to give us the stick back and yeah, fine by me The managers kind of mentioned that this could be two teams up there at the end of the season two teams with similar aspirations do you feel that with this game today?

53:19Ross Halls:Yeah for sure, I think watching In Eclipse of Birmingham, we knew what kind of team they were. We saw what kind of team they are today. They're a hell of a side. They made us work for the point, for sure. I think they'll have a good season, but ultimately that's not of interest to me, really. It's about what we do as a team and how far we can go with Upswich. Lossam, from me, the penalty decision at the end seemed quite drawn out. We didn't have any clue what was going on with that. Have the referees been in and spoken to you about, I know there have been some changes in terms of contact at set pieces, there's handballs and other occasions.

53:50What have they kind of said to you if you've had that talk?

53:54Ross Halls:It's just handballs are handball. You know, if it's accidental, if it's, you know, your arm's in a natural position down by your side, then they're going to be, you know, more reluctant to give it, which I think is fair because, you know, you can't get out of the way of everything. But I think when Grieves is going up for the header and, you know, whoever it was, his hand is above their head and it hits them on the hand, I think that's probably the right decision. And I didn't know what he'd given at the time, if I'm being brutally honest, But once he told me it was a penalty, then yeah, obviously I was pretty happy about it.

54:25Ross Halls:I don't think George Hurst has ever done a bad interview. He's just such a great talker in his e-boys. He says some good stuff there. All right then, what else would you like to talk about from the game, guys? Azor Matasiwa. Now I'll do it again. He had a very tough Championship debut, didn't he? Probably not an ideal game for him, Stu, to make his first debut for town. Obviously, not a bad pre-season, but he got chucked into a very tough game. Yeah.

54:54Stuart Watson:New country, new league, new teammates. He's not been here that long. He only signed, I think, a day before the trip to Austria, playing in one of the most vital roles in the team, filling huge boots in Sam Morsi. And it was difficult for him at times. It looked like the speed of it caught him unawares on certain occasions. He got dispossessed and pressed quite a lot. But in amongst all of that, I thought we saw some flashes of his qualities, his energy, his willingness to tackle, his desire to play forwards. As I say, we'll see different. Sunday's game will be very different. There'll be some other matches where Ipswich are facing deep blocks and having lots of possession.

55:42Stuart Watson:and that's when we can really start to truly judge as all matter see you are. So an adaptation period is going to be required for him, but I think we knew that. And he'll have learned a hell of a lot from that match, I think.

55:56Ross Halls:Yeah, I think most of the players will do as well. AJ, any other talking points before we move on? There is positives from this game. There'll be some people disappointed, like how need to wake up if they want to be up there, but there's still some positives to take. Yeah, I don't think it's wake up. I think they're very well aware of the situation. I think it's just a tricky game at a tricky time when things are not settled. And I think people will look at this weekend and say, well, Southampton have come down and they've taken three points and Leicester have come down and they've taken three points.

56:32Well, yeah, Southampton had to score twice in stoppage time to beat a Wrexham side that, whisper it quietly, I don't think are great. and Leicester only just squeezed past 10-man Sheffield Wednesday. You can hardly feel the team. So I don't think that the comparisons are fair. I think that it's going to take, and this will be the same for any team, it's going to take probably eight to 10 games to start to get a feel of what a side season is going to be like. I'm not going to sit here and say Bristol City were good against Sheffield United and they're going to be in the top. They'll be in the mix.

57:04I think you just have to wait and see. So good things, bad things. Sammy Smoddix, I think, would be having nightmares of his miss in the first half because I feel like he's the kind of player that would tuck that away because the goalkeeper passed to him and he fired wide. But he and everyone else will soon, I think, hit the ground running. Don't look into this one too much.

57:26Stuart Watson:I like the way Upswich defended. There's been a lot of talk about how Upswich didn't create a lot and how the attacking side of things didn't really get going. but in tough circumstances, let's not forget, Birmingham didn't have a ton of really good chances in the match. I know Stansfield had two or three in the first half that were sort of guilt-edged chances, where they probably would have been disappointed not to hit the target, a player of his standards. But I think in general, Ipswich limited Birmingham to very little, as Kieran said in his interview, Ipswich probably had the better chances in that first half.

58:02Stuart Watson:Alex has just mentioned the Schmoddix one Taylor had a header, Davis at the far post Where he couldn't quite get the right connection Outside of the boot So Yeah, I didn't come away from it Blown away by Birmingham And I know there was a lot of other people In the press box that came away going That definitely Birmingham are going to be up there Really impressed by Birmingham Really disappointed by Ipswich That seemed to be the general consensus From the neutrals in the press box and maybe from the neutrals in terms of fans watching on. But I didn't necessarily feel that, to be honest.

58:41Stuart Watson:So, yeah, as Alex says, let's give it a few games before we start jumping to too many conclusions.

58:48Ross Halls:Very much so. And I want to give a shout-out to Ashley Young because he was fantastic. And also, as you mentioned earlier, he obviously got a lot of abuse from the Birmingham fans. But at the end, he had the last laugh because, yeah, he's one more than you with the town of fans chanting. So Ashley Young, he is one more than you and he had a really good cameo and obviously I said his set pieces will be a thing that we'll look forward to and he was obviously part of that handball incident. So Ashley Young, if you're listening, good cameo from you. But boys, any other business before we wrap up and look ahead to Bromley?

59:24Stuart Watson:No, not the business. We go again, Bromley.

59:27Ross Halls:Bromley indeed. which is a new team that town will be playing. I don't think they've ever played Bromley from my knowledge in terms of competitive game anyway. They're obviously a newly they're in League 2. They've been there now this is their second season. 11th of last year. Andy Woodman their manager. They've had an unbeaten start. They drew with Shrewsbury on the opening day and they beat Barnett 2-0 which of course Kieran Slicker has recently signed for them and he was in goal making his debut. But Alex you've got a little bit of connection with Bromley you've spoken to their chairman or somebody of sorts that'll be online tomorrow really good chat with him Mark Hammond just kind of talking through a bit about the game and also about Bromley's rise because people don't know a lot about Bromley they've kind of come from nowhere in the eyes of maybe fans who don't follow National League and and Interleague 2 with great interest, which is understandable for a lot of people.

1:00:29But this is a club who's primarily kind of played level, kind of step two non-league. So the sixth tier is where they've spent a lot of their time. And just through obviously some investment, but also really clever running of the club, they've been able to get themselves up. So they were conference south up until 2014-15, then ended up into the National League. They spent just under a decade there until winning promotion in 2023-24. Did that one at Wembley. Came up with Chesterfield and then had a really good season last year. Teams that come up from National League into League 2 generally do.

1:01:11And the ambition is in the mid to long term now to see if they can kick on and go again. They've got a real consistency in the manager who's done quite a lot in terms of his coaching at previous jobs. He's bought into what Bromley is. I know that he got linked with Cambridge when they had a vacancy and he made sure that he wanted to stick it out with Bromley and has been really keen on this project. And they've been clever with their recruitment, got a good squad. I think the headline has to be Michael Cheek in terms of what he's able to do. Veteran striker, 33, been with them since 2019, 20, back 26, 25, sorry, league goals last year, which made him the top scorer in League Two.

1:01:53So he's probably the one to watch. He's the big goalsman who's been also linked with the move away this summer. Does have the feeling, and I'm sure Sky picked up on this by putting it on TV, does have the feeling of a potential banana skin. This is one of Romney's biggest home games in terms of the opponents that they've played at cup level in a long, long time. But yeah, they've got Binham. They went up to Newcastle, actually, in the Carabao Cup last year and took the lead in that game as well. Good home form, good League Two side. Definitely not an easy match by any means.

1:02:32Ross Halls:Carabao Cup first round, just to mention. Normally, I think Premier League teams who just got relegated don't go in the first round. But because of the amount of teams in England are playing in Europe, we're obviously having to start in the first round, Stu. How are you feeling for this one? There'll be obviously a rotation from Kieran McKenna.

1:02:51Stuart Watson:Yeah, Ipswich could have probably done without this fixture, given everything that we've discussed. Transfer situations up in the air, a few little knocks that players are recovering from. 3G pitch, is that right, at Bromley, Alex? I don't know if that's still in case. I'll have to double-check that. Let me get back to you. I might have a look while you're talking. Certainly a modest-sized stadium. I think around 5 ,000 capacity, only about 1 ,500 or so seats. in there. We can only send Alex tomorrow night because the press box is with restricted people to one person per organisation. So I will have to watch from afar on TV while Alex gets himself to Bromley.

1:03:35Stuart Watson:Yeah, it's got potential banana skin, hasn't it? The League Cup hasn't been particularly kind to Ipswich over the years. I can think of several upsets, certainly during in the Mick McCarthy era, always seem to play the likes of Stevenage and Northampton. I'm trying to think who else there's been along the way. Obviously, Wimbledon on penalties this time last year. Should we try and have a stab at the starting line-up? I would imagine it would be wholesale changes, but it's a bit of a struggle to make all 11 changes, given the options at the moment.

1:04:11Ross Halls:or the big question mark is uh chubac pom jens gus day could they start or will they be on the bench and then bring them on um do you think they're ready to go they haven't really had a

1:04:20Stuart Watson:neither have had a pre-season of sorts certainly haven't played any games for napoli and ajax uh respectively now do you just basically treat this as well you need to get some minutes into their legs at some stage and this is an opportunity to do that whether that is from the start or off the bench I'm not so sure but you would think that they would take this as an opportunity to try and get some minutes into them yeah I mean there's some obvious ones that will definitely start Walton in goal, Walfenden and Kipre will almost certainly be the centre half, Ashley Young will start but in what position we'll have to see Broadhead, Chaplin Ali Alhamadi and then it's whether Kuyusta, Akpom start.

1:05:06Stuart Watson:I would imagine young Finlay Barbrook, who I liked in pre-season, he will start probably in midfield. As all I'm at to see, we're out. That Friday night game will have taken a lot out of those players. So I imagine there will be as much rotation as possible.

1:05:24Ross Halls:And no penalties, please, Town. Do it in the 90 minutes. I think there's no extra time, is there, AJ? I think it goes straight. Depends with the Carabao Cup. Straight penalties in the Carabao Cup, yeah. Good for deadlines, I think, is the best thing. I've had a couple before. I remember going to Brentford with Cambridge and they won on penalties, and that was nervy with one of the Prince bits we were doing. Definitely. And how are you feeling for this, mate? Do you think Towne can get it done in the 90 minutes?

1:05:55Got a feeling as kind of it is a banana skin. It's a team that has obviously played another league game, is probably ahead in their season again because they had to start pre-season earlier. end pre-season earlier and then I've had a couple of league games to play as well it's probably a little bit of a more settled squad because they've not had huge changes to make you have to factor in the level there's a big gap in terms of on-pitch quality between Bromley and um and the Ipswich but that hasn't mattered when it's been Wimbledon for example and they were over or Maidstone is the obvious one of course so i mean the mage stone one i'd look at more of a uh a fluke in terms of i mean you can never say it's a fluke necessarily but you know if there is ever going to be one freak result yeah we'll go with that um then that was going to be the one whereas the wimbledon game for example was one where they kind of reacted well and played well and built the crowd and i I think it's a small capacity crowd at Hayes Lane.

1:07:00And it's the kind of atmosphere where they're going to go direct. They're going to try and get it on top of you. They're going to make it uncomfortable. And if they can sense an upset in that crowd, it's going to be a pretty special atmosphere. So yeah, of course, Ipswich can go there and get the job done. But I do have some lingering concerns in the back of my head.

1:07:20Stuart Watson:I've just looked. It's not a 3G pitch. I think they had to change it for grass upon promotion to the EFL. So I just sort of rectify that. But yeah, this is not the fixture Ipswich needed after a really physical opening day. At least it was the Friday night, so there's a little bit more time to recover for this. But now to go to a League Two team who are going to be treating this as their cup final and going to be bang up for this, it's going to be another test of character for what will be a well-changed Ipswich Townside but as always, we go into these saying, you still look at a team on paper.

1:07:56Stuart Watson:I mean, this is the one I've got written down. Walton in goal, young right back, Wolfenden, Kipra, maybe Humphreys at left back, potentially. Barbrook and Kajusta, question mark, central midfield. Akpom on the right, Chaplin, Broadhead, Al Hamady up front. I mean, you could put Akpom up front and Ali on the right where he finished, but that would be a kind of all 11 changes. Some obvious question marks in there as to whether Kiyusta and Akpom are thrown in from the start. That, on paper, should be enough to beat a League Two side. But as we know, it doesn't always work out that way in these cup games.

1:08:35Ross Halls:Yeah, because it's played on the grass, not paper. But yeah, we shall see. I want to quickly name-check actually a Bromley player as well. Omar Swomney. Butchered that completely. Swomney, I think, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Obviously a town youth graduate who is a unit, by the way, six foot six. He's one of their defenders. But yeah, he left town, I think, back in 2015. And he's had a bit of a journey at Yeovil, Colchester and Bromley and Sutton. And now he's back at Bromley. So he's sort of named to look out for on the team sheet coming up against his former team. But boys, another podcast in the books.

1:09:10Ross Halls:AJ, sponsor, what are they called? Oh, cool. We're going to have to do this. um no okay molecular yeah manufacture cleaning products automotive agricultural uh commercial industries this is going to be top of the range stuff really really good really like from what i've seen from their website so far based out in layston so local business that's www.molecular-uk.com go purchase the stuff uh find out more information on that website uh yeah best products and the best service and you can rely on them koa 10 that's full caps koa 10 for 10 off all their products and you put that in the coupon section when you check out that'd be a nice little touch ross maybe

1:09:56Stuart Watson:to uh you could you could get some gifts for all these people yeah dozens slash hundreds of people that have given you lifts over the years you could maybe gift them all with a little molecular cleaning product gift set perhaps nice idea isn't it

1:10:13Ross Halls:I'll chat with Molecular why is it so easy for you guys to say but for me I don't know I think my brain just doesn't want to say it properly maybe it's just deliberately doing it Stardust Spirits easy because they're obviously another sponsor which is great to have Gary and the team on board Stu but yes we'll be back obviously later in the week to bring you another pod to react to Bromley and also look ahead to Southampton which will be a big game of Porton Road. Can't wait to be back there. But Stu, AJ, thanks for joining me. Of course, make sure to follow us on all our socials, Kings of Anglia on all the bits and bobs we do, and follow our coverage.

1:10:47Ross Halls:But if you're going to the game, enjoy it, and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye for now.

1:11:12Thank you.

1:11:42Thank you.

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