566: Kings of Anglia: Part one - Fantastic Four arrive and Town claim dramatic Derby draw

21:33Mark Heath:And you were kind of sharing that you enjoyed talking to him from that point of view. You know, a guy who's a bit of a leg end in terms of what he's achieved and the places he's been. Yeah, I mean, for context, I hate Manchester United and everything. like most people who grew up not supporting Manchester United, well they were good like, you don't really like them but when I was stood there realising hang on, this guy's won the Premier League under Sir Alex Ferguson, he's won the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup, the Europa League, he's won the Serie A title with Inter Milan, he's a 40 odd cap England international, I was like wow this is kind of cool that I'm stood in the mixed zone at Portman Road leading an interview with him so So, yeah, that was kind of a pretty cool moment.

22:23And then it kind of also makes you wonder as well, where you have these players, maybe especially younger players as well, that are sat there playing with them and also thinking, hang on, I'm in the same team as someone who's won the Premier League here. Yeah, quite a cool experience.

22:38Mark Heath:Anyway, let's hear what he said, and then we can get on to the various talking points around the game and other thoughts arising. Ashley, a tour draw today, a little bit of everything in that game. What did you make of that one? I think you've got to take the positives out of it. Obviously, the character for us to get back into the game so late on. I think on a different day, if we go 2-0 up, it's a totally different game and we all play with three points. I think if there was a couple more minutes, then maybe we would have got that third goal. Like I say, we take the positives out of it, go into international break and then we come back again fighting as we showed.

23:17Yeah, a scrappy game. It feels like this is a group, given the players that you've got, wants to play football sometimes. In these games, you have to show that kind of grit. And you had that at times as well in this one. Yeah, of course. We had that resilience and, like I say, that grit. You know, you need that at times, especially with teams that, you know, when we've come out of the Premier League, teams are going to come and sit behind the ball. And, you know, you have to break them down. You've got to be patient. But, like I said, especially that first half, we were on top. And, like I say, if we got that second goal, I think it would have been a different game.

23:47but we definitely take the positives out of today. I think we've been saying that it's coming, it's there. We haven't been able to get to the level where we know we can get to, but we're not far off at all. What's the next step in getting to that stage? You've got an international break coming up, I'm sure will help, but what are the steps to getting to where you want to be? Of course, we're going to international break now. The boys will go away and then they'll come back and the ones that are staying all training do everything that we have been doing. Like we say, as long as we keep focused on what it is we have been doing and just build on that, like I say, I think it will be coming and we'll turn them draws into wins.

24:32Mark Heath:All right then, let's get right into the talking point, shall we? I guess the first talking point, before we get on to the two main ones, is that Town scored from a corner, AJ, which is something we've talked about. The set-piece coaches have got two of them. And we sat watching before the game, them rehearsing, practicing the set pieces, the corners. And Jacob Greaves kept heading over, didn't he, as they practiced that. So to see him actually, you know, scoring the game, clearly that's a good thing before we get on to the main talking points. Yeah, Jacob Greaves in a way somewhat annoys me from set pieces because the amount that lands on his head, given how big and tall physical he is, he doesn't score that many.

25:13but also he has scored three. Okay, one is in pre-season, but three this calendar year. Liverpool away, of course, pre-season in Ozean, and now this one. It's so important, and we spoke about it in the Premier League, they're not going to have many opportunities from open play, so you need to capitalise when you get your set pieces. They haven't had hardly any opportunities from open play so far this season in the Championship, and it's good that they've been able to capitalise off a set piece. goalkeeping left a little bit to be desired. In this one, Zetterstrom kind of comes out, tries to get it.

25:50It's a deep corner from Ashley Young that kind of gets flicked on a little bit. And to be fair to Jacob Grease, he positions himself well, gets his body in front of his marker and manages to head in. A little bit of a gift. It'd probably be one of the easier headers that he's going to score. But A, they all count. And B, it's the right kind of confidence booster, the Ipswich A. can score from set pieces and B, that he can be a threat as well and get himself on the scoresheet.

26:20Mark Heath:Yeah, right then. Let's get into the two big talking points for Rossi, which are clearly George Hurst penalty that wasn't, got him booked for simulation and then the Lewis Chavez challenge on the end's Cuyusta. So 1-1 it is, and we're going to circle back at some point to talk about the goals that town conceded because that's another talking point. But at 1-1, George Hurst, who had a bit of a stinker of a game, you've got to say, surges into the box. Matt Clarke, who's had his number all day long, Clarke kind of dominated that physical duel, clips him, almost kind of scissors the ankle. And Hurst goes down, admittedly, slightly flamboyantly down in sections.

27:01Mark Heath:And we all go, Penna, Penna. And somehow Hurst gets booked. Now, obviously, where we are, we've got the benefit of replay. So we're getting replays and, you know, a stone wall penalty. You were pitch side, so you didn't have that. What was your impression of it, kind of sitting there watching it in real time?

27:21Ross Halls:I'm not going to be helpful because I was the other end of the pitch. So obviously at Porton Road, we've got to be in set positions. Of course, we have two photographers for home games. So good old Steve Waller was the north stand end. I was obviously, you know, south stand. So, yeah, didn't see any of that until, obviously, after the game and seeing the highlights. But, yeah, definitely a pen. And I'm sure, yeah, Hurst was not happy with the ref because, yeah, like any striker, you're going to go down when you get contact. And maybe, yeah, he went down a bit dramatically. But sometimes you've got to do that.

27:52Ross Halls:You know, dark hearts. And we've said that before, haven't we? Even Luke Wolfton said that last season. This team don't really have a dark arse, really. And I've got a what?

28:00Mark Heath:Sorry?

28:01Ross Halls:Dark hearts? Yeah. Oh, dark hearts. yeah anyway moving on um but yeah should have been a pen but it wasn't given so yeah it wasn't

28:15Mark Heath:it wasn't it wasn't given aj and reflecting on that in in the uh in the press in the press box um stew said well maybe it's because he made a bit of a meal of the challenge but then of course there's also the argument that unless you do that you don't get decisions had he kind of not gone down he wouldn't have got the penalty anyway so where do you stand on that one and also clearly we're not we don't have far anymore but this this is one of the occasions it might have been quite useful yeah um i think he was within his rights to make at least a bit of meal of it if there's contact then you're supposed to make the best of it and and that's what you're taught at top level football and you see it especially in the premier league how many times, and I know he's going to be the first name that comes to my mind, how many times have you seen that Mo Salah feels contact in the box and he's within his right to go down and he goes down like he's been shot in the back.

29:11It's just how it works in the Premier League and you see it across the board with top level players. So I don't have any kind of gripes with him doing it. Given where the referee's standing, I think he should do much better with the decision. I always try and him be lenient and i said this a bit in the championship season last time it's not easy is it when you've got one first time view at it and that's it so yes he's in a good position for it but um if you don't have the benefit of a replay like we did then it's much harder on the flip side yes would have been a good time for for var but how many times have we seen var has actually proven just to be a total waste of time like manchester city away leaf davis getting brought down or the Leicester City fiasco, Portman Road or whatever happened with that Jack Clark penalty against Everton.

30:02Yeah. I'd still rather be without it and have moments like this as frustrating as it was.

30:09Mark Heath:I'm going to stick with you then because the next and kind of in terms of talking points, the next big one, the other big one is Lewis Chavis. It gets, at that point, the game was pretty spicy, wasn't it? It was bad temper. but Tarby were clearly wasting time and, you know, doing everything they could to frustrate down. And then Jens, who had been absolutely fantastic, and we'll come back to him in due course, because I thought he was brilliant with the Zora in midfield. He kind of gets, he gets felled by another challenge from behind. And as he falls, Lewis Travis kind of lunges in. And for not a better word, kind of kicks out at him and catches him sort of in the arm slash chest area.

30:52Mark Heath:and it's one of those ones that gets worse every time you watch the replay Lewis has since come out and said it was totally accidental but you know on another day that could have been quite easily a red card should have been I think to be perfectly honest again another one where you look at the photos and the videos and the referee stood right in front of it he's in the perfect position for it you could kind of see at the time that it happens that Travis turns his head back to Kajusta. So I'm not buying it personally. I'm going to be honest. I'm not buying this idea that was accidental. Look, it's difficult.

31:28Lewis Travis is a very competitive and aggressive midfielder. We know that from his time at Ipswich. I think he quite enjoyed playing the pantomime villain, didn't he? And we saw that on multiple occasions in this game. For example, coming off incredibly slowly and winding the fans up. who were booing him, doing a nice clap across the entire stadium. There were different things that we saw from him. I think as well there could have been a bit of frustration that he had been embarrassed twice by Jens Kjusta in this game who just breezed past him, showed the clear levels in quality when Kjusta just made him look silly a couple of times in midfield, had the opportunity to lash out, and he did.

32:09Yeah, for me, that one's a red card, another one that the officials have got wrong.

32:14Mark Heath:I'm going to play Kieran McKenna and also John Eustace because he had an interesting take on this post-match before I do that Rossi you got some really good pictures of this did you get a good view of it live or were you consumed by clicking the old count taking the snappy snaps

32:31Ross Halls:yeah I will admit when you are in the zone getting those snappy snaps sometimes those sort of incidents go away because you're like taking a picture of that then you move on to something else and I didn't see that incident until I obviously saw it online and then going through my pictures I went, oh, there it is. And obviously you see, with my view, the end's basically, he's been trampered on by Lewis Travis on his arm. But yeah, watching it back, Lewis Travis is a very lucky boy. If VAR was involved, then you'd think once again, they would have looked at that and gone dangerous play and he would have been off.

33:02Ross Halls:But yeah, I'll have to admit, I watched the game very differently to you boys, in the press box, because you've got replays, but I'm looking through a lens and sometimes I do miss things because normally I'm sending photos over to you or I'm just in the zone trying to get a certain picture of a player, especially when there's subs come on. For the first five minutes when Ivan Azan was on, I was just focused on him, just trying to get as many pictures of... Is that a bad pronunciation? How many times? Ivan Azan? Ivan Azan. Do you know which one Ross has really struggled with of the four? Darnell Furlong oh really?

33:41I was going to say Agelli what's

33:44Mark Heath:what's difficult about Darnell Furlong Ross?

33:46Ross Halls:I think I've been saying Furlong for some reason

33:49Mark Heath:Darnell Furlong yeah

33:55Ross Halls:I'll get there in the end don't worry although I didn't get there in the end with what player was it last season I was struggling with most seasons no he was fine he was one player anyway it doesn't matter

34:08Mark Heath:Anyway, let's get back to this challenge. I'm going to play John Eustis first because he was the first guy who came in. He spent the first probably three or four minutes kind of moaning about how much time had been added on, suggested it was some sort of world record. And he couldn't believe, he asked the ref where he got it from, et cetera, et cetera. And then at the end of the presser, Stu asked him, obviously, about the two town incidents. And this is what he said because he'd gone from being very chatty to something not quite as loquacious, it's fair to say. John, sorry, you mentioned some refereeing incidents in the game.

34:41I'll ask Kieran McKenna about some in a moment, so it's only fair to ask you. The booking for simulation for George Hurst and a Lewis Travers tackle on Jens Kjuster that may have been a red on another day, did you agree with the referee's decision on both of those?

34:56Mark Heath:I can't remember the Hurst one. I didn't see Travers either. You know, listen, Travers are a competitive player. You know, I don't know. I couldn't comment on that. I'm sure Kieran will comment on it. But I won't. Thank you. OK. OK, so he couldn't remember the massive penalty controversy and he didn't see Lewis Travis almost kicking a hole in Jens Kijust. But Kieran McKenna would comment on it. And here we go. Let's hear from Kieran.

35:28Kieran McKenna:Again, it felt like the most broken game. I didn't have my stopwatch on, but it felt like the most broken game I've been involved with. That's a big challenge this year. the minutes of ball in play in our game so far has been incredible. First game is 44 minutes, I think on average about 46 minutes at the moment. I think it makes for a really poor spectacle. I don't think it's helping the league. I think it's poor for the league. I understand why it's headed in that direction and it's much more at the moment than our last time in the division. But I think it's a real backward step. But it is what it is.

36:01Kieran McKenna:It's what we have to overcome back. But yeah, I don't know what the ball in play in the second half will have been. but I think it will have been really low. Most amount of injuries I've ever seen on the pitch without anyone going off injured, without being able to count them, anyone going off injured, and 60 minutes of out of time without VAR probably sums up what the flow was. I thought George Hurst was a penalty at the time. I cannot accept that the ref gives that from where he is, from that angle when you see a defender dive and go to floor and clip at an ankle without a microscope to see how much, but when a striker is at false stretch and knocks it past him, it doesn't need much contact.

36:38Kieran McKenna:Any contact in that situation is a penalty and for me there is contact. I haven't seen the second one back, but it looked stonewall, honestly, from where I was, but maybe that's an Ipswich lens, but I didn't even think it was an argument from where I was on the sidelines. So everyone can have their peace and say what they want to say.

36:57Mark Heath:There we go then. I don't think we're going to hit 45 minutes. We might have to have 16 minutes of added time ourselves for this podcast because there's still quite a lot for us to talk about so that's the two big talking points there quite interesting the contrast between the two managers um john used this i didn't see it i can't remember it um time wasting then aj that was another point that we just heard kieran talking about of the four games that town have played so far kieran has referred to two of them birmingham and this one as barely a football game because of the i guess the physical approach and the fact that ball is in play for such a little amount of time derby started time wasting felt like at nil nil um and then continued to do that throughout the second half you mentioned lewis travis who when he was substituted he he started walking off the pitch then he broke into a job which somehow was slower than walking um and it took him an age to get off the pitch and they were doing that again and again and again um and i was surprised i think that there was only um 13 minutes added on because it felt like it should have been more than that is this something that we're just going to have to get used to because how can I put this respectfully teams that maybe aren't on town's level footballing wise are going to think this is the way that we can compete is by making it a bit of a scrap and an ugly game to watch and frustrating them as much as we possibly can the gap in the championship has only got wider and we saw this last year where you have teams like Leeds I mean the last two years with Leeds for example and other sides they're just clear in terms of the quality and the way that they play and what that means is that probably over the course of the last two three years where you've had the teams that come down are so far clear it means that sides have started to adapt and realize that even though it might not be the most enjoyable way of playing it the best way of being successful against these teams is by doing that.

38:55So, yes, I think we are going to see more of it. I think that you will see it more from some teams than others. I think I said this on Saturday where Derby and, to an extent, Preston a little bit, not quite as much, but teams of that ilk will do it more and you will see it with other sides. For example, I can imagine Nathan Jones' Charlton would be the kind of team to do it. There will be others. you won't have it, for example, I don't think, when Sheffield United come to town if Ruben Sayers is still in charge, because he's the polar opposite to that, so there is definitely an aspect of you do have to get used to it, and you do have to find ways around it I think that the way the referee handled it was quite good, I think 13 minutes was probably about what I would have gone with, I think this idea that it should have been 7 or 8 is absolute nonsense from some derby fans that I've seen I think it was handled quite well in terms of the stoppage time in terms of how it was handled during the game you also have to have a faith in the officials that they will be able to deal with these things they are supposed to be cracking down on these things thus far I haven't really got that faith to be perfectly honest but it's difficult to find a way around it isn't it?

40:08Mark Heath:Yeah our old friend Carl Fuller I think has actually worked it out and he estimated it or worked it out as 23 minutes of time that should have been added on which would have been extraordinary wouldn't it if that board went up and it was 23 minutes can you imagine anyway 13 was also was more than justified um kieran made particular point in his press conference about keepers going down injured and the amount of times that happens and then the keeper miraculously stays on the pitch you know never goes off injured but um spends a lot of time on the floor anyway moving on um rossi they look like they're going to lose 2-1 down derby he was shit housing all over the place, time wasting, sitting next to AJ.

40:48Mark Heath:He's basically already written that, that, that town have lost. And I said, Oh, you're going early. And you went, well, doesn't really look like, you know, I feel, I feel fairly confident. Wasn't it? That's fair enough, mate. It didn't feel like they were going to, town were going to get a level. It really didn't. And then Jack Clark, the Jack Clark, sorry, Jack Taylor, who'd come off, off the, the bench gets filled in the box. This time it is a penalty. felt like it might even be the last kick of the match, Rossi. George Hurst off the pitch. First thought is, who's going to take it? Sammy Smoddix?

41:22Mark Heath:Shuba Akpom? No, it's Jack Clark. And I must confess, I and Stu both kind of went, oh, I'm not sure about this. Jack Clark taking this penalty. But to be fair to him, he showed the balls of steel, did he not? It was a great penalty. A fair play to him for stepping up and a big moment for him. yeah because his town career would have been over i don't think no one would be able to like yeah

41:47Ross Halls:look at jack clark the same again i know he's obviously had a tough sort of spell since signing uh but if he missed that that would have been yeah not good but um i will admit i wasn't confident at all when jack clark did step up um i was the other end of the pitch as i mentioned so i was a long way away from it so i just sort of like just sat there and just waited so I thought, oh, Steve's got that sword, he can get a good celebration and get the penalty because there's no point in me getting a side-on sort of thing, so I watched it with my eyes closed and I was like, come on please, please, please, and he did score and yeah, balls are still, as you mentioned so yeah, fair play to Jack Clark that's a big moment, a pressure penalty I know it's at home and you've got the North Stand cheering you on, but how the game was going, you just thought oh no, that would be the worst moment after what just happened.

42:37And yeah, fair play.

42:40Ross Halls:Got the goal. And I'm sure that would give him a bit of confidence as well because as I said, Jack likes had a tough start for life at town. I'm pleased. Sad to say, Ali, if Ali sort of stepped up for that, you'd be like, oh no. If he was obviously available and, you know, playing. But yeah, I was just having a little chat with the next photographer next to me and going, I don't know who's going to step up for this because I was looking on the pitch and I was like, hmm, maybe Ashley Young could have stepped up. You know, he's a veteran, an experienced man, but there's no one else sort of obvious candidates.

43:07Ross Halls:I don't know if you guys were thinking the same, like you think was going to step up.

43:11Mark Heath:Well, we thought Smoddix. That's what we were talking about. So for Clark, who, you know, interesting at that point, was playing left back, by the way, with Leif Davis off the pitch. Yeah, it would be, no one actually asked about whether or not it was always going to be Jack Clark. He's like the backup penalty taker or whether it was literally just him going, no, I'm going to take this. but yeah I think the consensus was it would either be Smoddix or ACPOM on press row wasn't it AJ

43:41yeah I think so looking at it I mean there Smoddix and ACPOM are two former golden boot winners at this level aren't they and they've had previous for doing it I like the fact that Jack Clark stepped up and done it and look he's been a penalty taker before he was Sunderland's penalty taker I just had fears and a bit like Ross alluded to I had visions of it being an Ali Elhamadie situation against Bristol Rovers and I don't think it would have been quite as kind of given where Jack Clark isn't the player that he is it wouldn't have been like it's a hard one to come back from but it would have been a real sickener given that it was a penalty to equalise deep into stoppage time we'd also had to deal with Carlton Morris ex Norwich of course got right in his face before the penalty was kind of trying to square up to him almost.

44:34Bit of a kind of a bully striker. Trying not to use any derogatory terms or explosives about him. But yeah, he was not the nicest behaved, I'd say, Carlton Morita in the build-up to that. But yeah, full credit for more than anything for Jack Clark, because stepping it up, took it really well. He's someone that I feel, even when his confidence is low, he still backs himself. He still takes shots from range, still will step up and take a penalty and, yeah, deserves real credit, not just for finishing it, but also just for going up there in the first place.

45:12Mark Heath:Yeah. Okay. Well, the game finishes 2-2. Let's talk around things arising from the game because, as I said, I felt at the end of the game it was like, how have they not won that given the decisions that have gone against them? But equally, they didn't play very well and we can't kind of sugarcoat it. I felt that it'd be interesting to get your boy's take on this, that the play is just not quick enough, particularly in the final third. And I would say Jadon Filagene was a big culprit of this on Saturday. He just takes too long with the ball and he'll end up sort of finding himself double marked and he kind of just runs down an alleyway and loses the ball or whatever.

45:54Mark Heath:But there's not that – when Tam were in their pomp, it came so easy to them, the way the ball was moved around and, you know, it's fizzing around. And it just feels now like that is so much more difficult for them. And I appreciate it's a new team and new group and new partnerships, but there's just not that dynamism there once was. Certainly watching on Saturday, AJ. You got any thoughts on that? They're really – clearly, they're struggling to create. They still haven't scored a goal from open play other than the own goal against Southampton. And that's not something we expected going into this season.

46:28Yeah, I mean, on the flip side, and it's not a huge problem, it's good that the defence and midfield are shaped up quite well and look quite good. But yeah, it's the attacking play that seems to be the problem at the moment. And it's not what we expect, given the quality, given that Ipswich have two left-wingers who they've spent about, what,£20 and£15 million on. they have two golden boot winners they've got george hurst who is i think second favorite for the golden boot going into the season they've got a right winger they've just spent 12 odd million or 11 and a half million pounds on um they've got a lot of depth and quality now and you look at the options on the bench and it's looking much healthier as well it just isn't clicking there's two parts to this one is i feel like when they get into good areas and you see these really nice passages of play starting to come it always feels like there's one or two passes away from from it happening and it's just over here or one player doesn't realize where the other one's moved to and it rolls out of play or it's then easily defended um that's the bit that i think will be an easier fix and will come with time the one that confuses me is the one you've alluded to which is when they hit on the counter which is so crucial they run into space and then it just feels like they slow down and they wait for everyone to catch up it's almost like they don't have the belief to to take on their man or to go alone and they're thinking especially i've noticed with the wide players, and you saw it with Jaden Philogene, as you mentioned, and a little bit already with Casey McAteer, where they'd get into these good areas, and then it'd be like, right, slow down, stop, let's see where I can pass the ball, where can I go next?

48:01By the time they've done that, they've waited two, three, four seconds, and Derby's three beefy centre-backs have already come back and got into the box, and then everything becomes so much harder, and you're trying to break down that low block again. So that's the frustration for me. It feels too pedestrian. that is something I think will be harder to fix and to kind of get sharper and piece it all together. But they don't have long to fix it, do they?

48:26Mark Heath:No. Do you know what I'd do, Rossi? This is what I'd do. At the moment, we know that Leif Davis is kind of trying to play a new inverted role to accommodate Jadon Filagin ahead of him. I would bench Jadon Filagin. I'd get Jack Clark back out on the left wing. He wants to cut inside anyway, doesn't he? I mean, that's literally what he does. Every time he gets the ball, he comes inside on his right foot. and I'd say to Leif Davies, you play like you were before, just keep bombing on down the side of the wing, get those assists, get those cutbacks into the box. Jack Clark can do his dribbly boy cutting inside on his right foot.

48:53Mark Heath:That seems to work. Obviously, we know he did well at Sunderland with that. He was a superstar with that. So that would be my very amateur approach to fixing that particular part. Do you reckon there's any merit in that?

49:07Ross Halls:No, I will admit I've started to see Leif Davies at the moment because he's not been on it, but it's because of the role that he's been told to do now. And yeah, I'll be on the phone to Mark Asher right now. I went, you know what? Mark Keefe could be the man. Yeah.

49:23Mark Heath:Oh, no. I mean, that certainly would be interesting. Yeah. Covering me in charge of town, that would be interesting. But yeah, so that's just one thought I have around the game because I found Villaging particularly frustrating on Saturday, I would say. The other thing, AJ, I'll ask Ross about this because I'm going to stick with Ross. You alluded to there that generally the defence has been pretty solid to start the season. But you have to say that the two goals they conceded on Saturday were shit. I mean, completely carved open by long balls. First one, obviously, Deef Davis gets back, handles the ball, immediately knows what he's done.

49:59Mark Heath:He goes to the ground with his head in his hands. He's not hurt. He knows he's handled the ball. He knows the penalty. And the second one was just a hoof from a goal kick. Dara O'Shea miscontrols it on his chest. It was Rhian Brewster, wasn't it? Picks it up and then basically just runs through the defence and scores. And Rossi... Oh, sorry, go on, AJ. Defensively, those are not good goals. Yeah, no, they're not. I mean, in general, Ipswich's defensive play has been pretty solid across the season so far when you look at the chances they've conceded. they've been punished by momentary lapters which you'd kind of also be punished for in the Premier League and Championship Tides have taken advantage of it as well yeah this game was definitely the worst that I've seen it so far this season when you look at the first goal I don't understand how Brewster ends up in so much space to be honest because it's him.

51:00He draws the penalty. It's a ball over the top that people just aren't aware to. I think it comes more down. It's just right side. Dara O'Shea is too high up. Not really sure what Alex Palmer was doing for this one. Gets caught in no-man land and chipped. Leif Davis is back and throws his body on the line. Gives away the hand ball. Can't criticise him for that because it would have been a goal otherwise. And then the second one is in two parts. O'Shea is really heavy touch. Let's it kind of bounce through good work from Brewster, but how is he allowed to just dance his way through Ipswich's defence?

51:37It's kind of weird criticising, because then I look at other than that and Derby didn't do a great deal, did they? And you can say the same about Preston, and maybe even Southampton, to be perfectly honest, didn't create that much kind of in terms of real clear-cut chances. but this is where you give teams an opportunity and these are good players they're coming up against as well Carlton Morris played in the Premier League Rian Brewster was a£30 million striker and technically has a Champions League medal to his name and they've been punished and you need to be sharper to these moments and even though they're solid defensively for 85 of the 90 minutes it's only five minutes it's only a couple of opportunities that will allow good quality opponents to come in and punish you.

52:26Mark Heath:Yeah. Okay, right. That's negatives from the game. I had one or two, actually, massive positives, and that was the midfield pairing. It's the first time we'd seen Azul Matasiwa and Jenski Uster play together. We know they've done it before in France. And for me, boys, that is the one shining light from this game because, good Lord, those two together, I think, could be absolutely exceptional at this level. Jens Kijusta looked like a completely different class in this game. He was that kid at school. There's always one kid at school no one could get near in the playground. It was just so good. There was one point where he literally just held the player off.

53:03Mark Heath:It was like, you're not getting the ball. I've got the ball and I'm going to do something with it. You can't get near it. And the amount of times he was doing these little flicks and turns, he was behind pretty much everything good that Town did, particularly in the first half. And then in contrast to Zormatasiwa, Watching him live, he is so strong. He's such a strong player. And the way he's constantly in the middle of stuff, getting in the way of things, he's a bit of a destroyer. And I think those two together, Rossi, they could be the best midfield pairing in the Championship. I'm already feeling confident about saying that, as long as they both stay fit.

53:39Mark Heath:But Zor just looks like he's bulletproof.

53:43Ross Halls:Yeah, you know, still adapting to English football. But, yeah, obviously last week at Preston was always going to be a tough one at Deepdale. But, yeah, that partnership, I'm pleased McKenna has been able to get that sorted quickly. He's able to get Jens up to speed. And, yeah, Jens was just silky and smooth as we know he can be. You know, that one turn that led to a potential goal where Jadon Filagene, you know, shot, you know, into the side net. And I thought that would have been incredible. Just watching that back and if that did go in, we would have just kept watching that back and back. because of Jens' turn and the ball.

54:18Ross Halls:But yeah, great partnership. And that's what we need, this team. McKenna's team, we've had that before with Morsi and Luongo. We need a good partnership in that midfield to start the possession, start the attack. So yeah, it's good to see them both up to speed. And I'm looking forward to them playing against a team who wants to play football because that's when they'll be on their very best.

54:39Mark Heath:Yeah, AJ, we've said pretty much every time now, Azor gets better each game. and I thought he was tremendous on Saturday. I think he was your man of the match. But Jens as well, I mean, he's just class, isn't he? There's no other way to describe him. He always looks like he's got more time as well. That duo, am I getting too excited in terms of saying that he could be the best in the league? No, not at this stage. Let's keep Jens fit. That's an important one. Definitely. I think they complement each other so well. You've got the physical, brave battler who gets himself around, gets into scraps, wants to be aggressive in midfield, and someone like Kiyosu takes people on, dances through, is involved in attacks.

55:23It's just such a nice battle. Not a nice battle, sorry. It's such a nice kind of complement, the way they complement each other. It's such a nice balance. That's what I was going for. I think that's pretty perfect, to be perfectly honest. And the fact they've got other players that can come in, like Nunezu, I think, has similar qualities there as well. But Matasiwa and Kajusta, having played with each other in the French top flight, I think, yeah, that's one that will continue to grow over time.

55:54Mark Heath:Yeah. Other positives, which we'll just briefly come on to, because now I want to finish inside an hour, which would be 15 minutes of added time. The bench looks so much stronger already with the new signings. That was a super strength of town last time they were in this league. Chuba Akpom, I thought, looked lively when he came on. had a good opportunity, didn't they, from distance. And Ivan Azon Rossi, who I think is going to become rapidly a bit of a cult hero slash fan favourite. He's got that cast that he wears on his wrist slash hand, which is a good luck thing, apparently a bit like Jamie Vardy when he was scoring all the goals for Leicester.

56:29Mark Heath:He doesn't actually need to wear it. It's become a good luck thing. And you look at him, you think, right, he's a bit of a unit, a bit of a tank. But he uses that as well. I mean, he was right in the thick of it, wasn't he, in terms of throwing himself around as soon as he came on the pitch.

56:46Ross Halls:Yeah, the shark, which I'm sure will hopefully be able to use at some point when he scores a very important goal. He was very close as well, wasn't he, at the end? Lily headed a goal in. It was like a ball into the box, and I thought he was about to score from it, but it wasn't the case. But yeah, he's going to be a man that I think will become a bit of a cult hero. We had Pablo Canago back in the day in the 2000s. I think he hopefully will follow suit because we hadn't had many Spanish players before. But just for him just throwing himself about and just he's going to run 100%. He's just going to work so hard.

57:22Ross Halls:And I just can't wait to see him fully up to speed and scoring some goals.

57:26Mark Heath:There was a bit when he came on, he challenged for header. He got elbowed in the face and went down kind of clutching his face. And then he realised the ref was going to kind of stop play. And he immediately just bounced straight back up. And he was like, no, no, no, I'm OK, I'm OK. and got straight back into it. So I was really encouraged by our first sighting of Ivan Azan. Rossi, have you got anything else to mention before we think about wrapping up? I think AJ's got some potentially breaking transfer business to look at. But anything else to mention from you, Rossi? Either from the weekend or indeed deadline day today?

58:00Mark Heath:Do you think, for example, that Town need to go out and sign a backup for Matis Iwa, who, you have to say, as I just said, looks pretty bulletproof. But clearly, if he goes down injured, they don't, at the moment, have a natural backup for him.

58:15Ross Halls:Yeah, that is obviously the obvious sort of position we need to strengthen in this window on deadline day. But who's going to come in to be a backup? Will it be like, yeah, Jordan James has obviously been linked and all that jazz, but it'd probably have to be like a young player who's willing to like, yeah, sort of compete in that position. but if it doesn't happen I wouldn't say it's the end of the world you just hope Azor does stay fit but yeah you do like that light for light and McKenna obviously love those options but yeah we'll just have to see but anything else from the game not really just hopefully town can have a good international break obviously a lot of players Irish players going away with their countries and then the team the players who are staying hopefully they can work on a few little bits and bobs and get ready for Sheffield United Right then

59:02Mark Heath:let's put a cap on it by playing the final clip, which I just realized I haven't played, which is McGinner talking about the start to the season and kind of thoughts going forward, which seems a good time to play it before we finish this pod today.

59:13Kieran McKenna:Yeah, I think, look, whether it's three points, six points, five points, seven points, it's been a really, really difficult summer in almost every aspect. Certainly by far the most difficult in my time here.

59:28Kieran McKenna:And yeah, we come out the back of that period now when we go on to the next chapter. I wouldn't feel, I don't think, drastically different if we had five points or six points. Of course, points are important. We want to win our first game as soon as possible. I feel that we're not far away from that. But we've come through an incredible amount as a club over the course of the summer and as a team over the course of four games. We now move on to the next phase. I think by Monday night, we'll be in a really strong position in terms of the depth and quality we have in the group. That's not been the case right through the summer, but we'll be there by Monday night.

1:00:01Kieran McKenna:And now we're on to the next challenge because we have to now bring that group together. We have to keep working hard on the training pitch. It's going to be really difficult to do that over the international break, of course, but we'll work really hard with those that we have. And really importantly, we need to work really hard with a group coming together and building that sort of shared mindset and mental strength and resilience and all those things that you need to be successful in the championship. So it's been an incredibly difficult summer. We've got a real big challenge ahead of us. In some ways, it's quite exciting because I know there will be expectation on us.

1:00:33Kieran McKenna:I know how difficult it is and how it's going to be. But I really believe that we can still have a really good season. So that's the challenge ahead of us. We're going to take it on full steam ahead. And we'll do what we can over the international duty. But the reality is we're not going to get the group back together until 48 hours before Sheffield United. And then we'll be out there again competing. So it's going to be tough. I think we have most of what we need in the building now to be successful and you know it's up to us to to do that work and trying to pick up some results in the in the meantime that keeps giving us the time to do that work okay that feels like a good

1:01:08Mark Heath:way to end the show as we enter the 16th minute of added time aptly on the 45 minute original runtime i was aiming for um just a reminder friends supplier sponsors um we have two of them and they're both excellent local uh family businesses stardust spirits is the first they've been with us for a few months now gary and the team there you can use the code koa at stardustspirits.co.uk to get 20 off all their excellent alcoholic concoctions flavors beverages um some really good stuff that they're doing there and also our new one is molecular uk based out in layston who manufacture cleaning products for the automotive agricultural and commercial industries are a family-run business operation for more than 40 years making products to the highest possible standards and you can visit their website which is www.molecular-uk.com to buy stuff or find out more about them and if you are going to buy some of their excellent products you can use the code KOA10 at the coupon section and that gives you 10 % off at the point of checkout on all their stuff which is a fantastic deal so jump on board support those really good to have those two local businesses associated with the mighty KOA right we're coming to the end of part one of today's double serving you lucky people of the kings of anglia podcast we've talked about the transfer window so far we've talked about the derby car crash slash compelling game of football we witnessed at the weekend uh and who knows what we might be talking about later on tonight after the deadline has passed the window has slammed shut um aj you able to to come back in here um we're not expecting we're not expecting it's fair to say uh a lot of incomings or indeed maybe any um it's more going going to be about outgoing today, isn't it?

1:02:49That's the expectation. I mean, in terms of the bits that I've been tapping away in the background while also trying to talk about the Derby game, it looks like Chiwok Beno is going to be heading out on loan. Sheffield United, the destination for him looks like. Reports from BBC Radio Sheffield that he's been given permission to undergo a medical. I saw Lester and Wrexham were interested, but it looks like he'll be heading to Yorkshire to Bramall Lane instead. Won't be able to play their next game, of course, because that's against Stipswich. Has been a report, which I understand is true, that Luka Fletcher is going to sign for the under-21s from Manchester City, loaned with an obligation to buy.

1:03:31Exciting, eh? Yeah, I think it's going to be more about exits than signings.

1:03:38Mark Heath:Imagine if Chiro Gunning had signed for Leicester. They literally just swapped right-wingers, gone on loan. with McAteer coming the other way. That would be interesting, wouldn't it? Rossi, any more thoughts from you? If Luke Wolfenden does go out today, that's another sad one, isn't it?

1:03:55Ross Halls:Yeah, you know, obviously, Itchwich Boy, you know, has had a rollercoaster time at town. You know, three different pools and obviously back-to-back promotions and playing in the Premier League. He probably never thought he'd ever do that, you know, especially with Itchwich Town. It will be sad, but like anybody he's at an age now he wants to be playing week in week out and he sees that it's his town it's not going to happen so we wish him all the best I'm sure we'll do a whole podcast around it you know if he does leave on deadline day to discuss his time at town because there's a lot of chapters in Luke Orphan's it's his career

1:04:31Mark Heath:Absolutely right then friends we'll leave you there then part one is in the books part one of the double dollop of KOA today we'll be back in a matter of hours after the after the deadline has passed and the window has closed sorry slammed shut we'll be back later on tonight to talk about what's happened or indeed hasn't happened today plus reflect on the window as a whole so until then friends we will speak to you later on

1:05:17Thank you.

1:05:49Thank you.

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