588: Kings of Anglia: Two steps forward, one step back as we react to Town’s defeat at Oxford

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0:57Hello everybody, it's me Roscoe and welcome to the latest Kings of Anglia, Itchers Town podcast. On location special once again, I'm just joined though this time by good old Alex Jones. My friend Stu is not here, so it's just you and me. Young Guns on tour, just about Young Gun myself, as Heathie is saying now. We're at a great location for Hull because of a nice wind, a Hummer Bridge in the background. we're currently in your hotel room in Oxford because it's raining in Oxfordshire and yeah we were thinking about going to the Oxford University but I don't think they would have allowed us there but especially your Cambridge boys so the rivalry there and stuff Town of course losing 2-1 but how are you my friend we just got the Premier Inn breakfast in our bellies yeah I'm good have you ever watched The Apprentice with Alan G you watched that and you know how you have like the winning team that goes off and goes bungee jumping or skydiving or something like that and the losing team goes in the pouring rain to the cafe and has to have a post-mortem of whatever they've done wrong.

2:03It feels like we've had the bungee jumping experience in midweek, sat by the bridge, getting to record that in the sun, and now we're here. Ipswich have lost. We're in my hotel room. It's absolutely hammering it down. in about an hour we're going to get an Uber to the station to go home where we can sit in silence and contemplate all of our decisions and life choices as we prepare to go to Blackburn next week. So yeah, other than that I'm great Ross. Love that, that's a very good point. And yeah, last time we did an on-location special in a hotel room was the two on defeat against Borough. So it's sort of a running trend.

2:41I think maybe every time we lose we just have to do it in a hotel. yeah and that was the night of the game as well I think we were recording at like midnight where we went a bit mad and I think the podcast was thinking is this worthy of actually uploaded to be uploaded but it was and we've obviously had a sleep as I said had breakfast in the belly and we're going to be discussing another defeat Oxford we cannot win at the Kassam Stadium it's a curse a modern day bogey team we've never won there in a league fixture and yeah it's your old friend Gary Rowett which I'm sure we'll be talking about later on in the podcast but let's do our just quick reflections because you know the six game unbeaten run has ended my friend the back to back clean sheets it's done as well you've had some sleep you've had time to sort of digest everything you know just your snap thoughts two steps forward one step back is the main thing and it's better that it's not the reverse I don't feel like we're any worse off than we were a month ago which is a positive to say, but it does feel like a setback, no doubt.

3:47It's difficult to really be able to assess the impact of a result like this until we know what happens next. More than anything, it feels like a missed opportunity. We sat looking at the table yesterday, it should have gone second, at least on goals scored. If they'd won by one goal, it would have been goal difference if they'd won by more than one goal. They would have then obviously had the rest of the league play today and the rest of the weekend, but then the trip to Blackburn, which felt like an opportunity to really put themselves back up in contention ahead of the Coventry game and the Stoke game, which again feel pivotal given where those teams are.

4:24So it's difficult to assess in that way, and we kind of have to look at it within the nutshell of the actual performance and what the result means immediately, which is obviously disappointing, frustrating. They've lost to a team in a relegation scrap. they've lost to a team that has won once at home all season um and i just still can't quite figure out this ipswich team i still can't if you'd said to me going into this week that they'll draw rexham at home win at hull and lose oxford i'd say no you've got that the wrong way around so i think they would have maybe beaten rexham lost at hull and drawn here potentially and um yeah it's been a weird old period where this kind of six game unbeaten run they've played well at times, got good results they've not played well at other times but drawn and this felt too similar to the Middlesbrough Charlton period for me, it feels a bit of a setback yeah let's break it down Yes indeed my friend, yeah it's Saturday morning, I'm hoping this will be out Saturday evening time so obviously the other championship games would have been played we sort of know where we could be, I think we could potentially be as low as 12 or something crazy like that.

5:36So that's not ideal, especially when we went into this game thinking, oh, we could be in top two territory and all that jazz. But what we're going to do is going to hear from Kieran McKenna first of all. You spoke to him, which is a different sort of roles reversed. It's normally Stu who speaks to him, but you did this time. Let's hear what K-Dog had to say. Kieran, six-match on beaten run comes to an end tonight. What do you make of that game? It's a frustrating one for us, of course. It feels a little bit like we've given the game away tonight. I think there's two main elements to it really I think we weren't clinical enough in the phases of control that we had started the game pretty well and had real control a couple of good chances and got to some great positions we weren't clinical enough to go and get the early goal and the same at 1-1 we had a couple of big chances to go and take the lead so we didn't manage to take the lead at either of those periods when we had the chances to do so.

6:34And then we've given away two poor goals, no doubt about that. They changed the momentum of the game and the energy in the stadium and everything. And yeah, it took us a bit of time to respond to both after the first one. And then after the second one, then it sort of gives the opponent and the crowd all the energy they need to try and get through the game. Having said that, you know, there was plenty of the performance that was fine. we got to those good areas we had chances across the night the players never give up even at 2-1 even with a couple of blows to be honest we had two big chances to get to 2-2 which you would have said was a really good character to get back in the game in that way so we're really frustrated it doesn't feel like we've been yeah it feels like we've given the game up given it away a little bit tonight which is frustrating from our point of view on the back of a pretty good run but we knew there was going to be bumps along the way especially in this period of games coming in really quick succession and we've taken a knock tonight so we'll learn from it quickly, we'll review it in the morning and we'll get ready for Tuesday Hi then, K-Dogs, verdict on the defeat my friend, let's start from the beginning team news, four changes from the whole City win, obviously only 72 hours removed from that game so quick turnaround because obviously the boys were on the bus travelling to Oxford on the Thursday then of course the Friday night game centre back rotation once again Cedric Kipre comes in for Jacob Greaves Jack Taylor in for Jens Guste which was Jens Guste rolled his ankle so that was always going to be in there of course he wasn't involved in the squad I think you asked McKenna after that and he was just like he hasn't trained so he wasn't going to be involved Sindra Wally Aghelli I'm always saying that wrong but that's how I'm going to say it ok just deal with it he comes in for Casey McAteer and then also Jaden Fidigine in for Jack Clark Just your thoughts on that because I think the rotation has always been a big talking point for a lot of fans but also centre-back is the big one yeah, thoughts on that Yeah, I think I'm having fun passing the mic in person The consensus I think when you look through it I asked this question when I did the live video before the game yesterday I don't know how you felt but when you look at what Ipswich had available to them it felt like the strongest squad it felt like the strongest starting line-up with really good bench options there the one thing the one difference from my predicted line-up was the centre-back rotation other than that I think everything was quite obvious with Keuster out it was always going to be Taylor and I think that at the moment he's in a better position than Keuster was pre-injury regardless Sindra is a better option at the moment than Casey McAteer Jadon Filagene is kind of different to Jack Clark in a way that Jack Clark can be the man to pop up in the key moments but Jadon Villagene has those moments of magic that you sometimes need and Ipswich have needed, especially in those early stages of the campaign to break down play.

9:35Keeping Hurst and Nunez in the starting line-up I think was really important because for me Nunez is comfortably the best number 10 option at the moment. George Hurst, the best striker, although it's obviously difficult to manage his minutes with his fitness issues, but being able to keep him in. Then you've got the centre-back rotation and as I said before I'm not a fan of it I wouldn't do it personally I would stick to one and not the other but up until last night it's worked hasn't it because Ipswich's record it's been zeros and ones they conceded to QPR to Watford to Swansea but they're all ones they kept a clean sheet last weekend against Wrexham they kept a clean sheet against Hull didn't really concede major chances in those games so if you're Kieran McKenna you're looking at that saying well it's working isn't it?

10:24There's no criticism to be had it's another game where the centre-backs swap over yeah not one I'm too big on but yeah fair enough I can understand it based on what we've seen so far Yeah of course there was the debate after the whole game because Tuba Akon scored and it was like oh maybe he could start as a number nine but once again it's just one goal you don't want to get too carried away but yeah four changes then we're going to jump into the game because it was a fast start for town, wasn't it? We had some early chances. Town, as always, do dominate possession. It could have been 1-0 up, but obviously Oxford well organised.

11:02You know Gary were outside very well, of course covering his Millwall team for a season. But how were you feeling in that opening 10-15 minutes where town were on top and they could have took the lead a few times? Yeah, feeling pretty good. It was one of those... Oh dear, he's been locked out of his laptop. Go on, type it in. Go for it. I'm just going to talk it's one of those games one of those performances at the start I was quite happy with what I saw it felt like both teams had very distinct game plans you know what to expect from it which is a mixture of kind of wanting to show off the individual quality but also having the I'm so sorry I'll have to laugh at you getting your password wrong also having the you have to change we have to update our password a lot of people I'm sure if you've got a work laptop it's like a every few months you have to change your password and I just send threatening emails if you don't deadline it expires soon and I was just like yeah I think I already recently changed mine so I was like putting the old one in and I went oh no it's not that one but anyway carry on we continue yeah it's kind of an interesting clash of styles Ipswich wanting to be quite direct at times especially when the centre backs are on the ball it's a trend I've really noticed recently but also wanting to get the ball out to Jadon Philogene combinations with Leif Davis try and find good opportunities for George Hurst bring Cinder into the game more.

12:22Oxford's style from start to finish was in Ipswich's third, it was pressed really intensely. They're a really fit team. They're a team at the bottom of the league. They're really fit. The way that they pressed, the energy they had putting defenders under pressure. They've obviously watched clips of where can we hurt Ipswich? Where have other teams hurt them? Go back and watch how Middlesbrough did it. Middlesbrough did it by pressing and being intense. Charlton did the same. So they've clearly learnt those lessons from the teams that beat in town before. And it felt like if Ipswich could get the opener, the dominoes would have fallen because it would have forced Oxford into something else I don't think they would have been comfortable doing against town.

13:09They had the opportunities, they had some blocked shots. Sindra, Raleigh Gelli had... Hiddell, wasn't it? Yeah, I think he had a couple of opportunities. one that he should have done better with. I think Davis kind of cuts back to him in the box. He's in good space, but rolls it quite comfortably, quite low past the post. And then the other one, the header, which I thought was a save that actually comes off the post when you see the replays. So again, I felt like he could have done better with both of those opportunities. They didn't feel like golden ones. They didn't feel like big opportunities missed.

13:41but Town needed to take something in that period because as we've seen before they can get to a stage where they're getting to 30 minutes they're a way to team they expect to beat they've not been able to do enough to get the opener and they start to grow maybe a bit frustrated a bit, what's the right word kind of not aware enough of what's going on I'm not going to use that as criticism for the opening goal because that's just one of those moments that happens but you could see there was some sloppiness that started creeping into their play. Yeah, and unfortunately this team has got some sloppy errors in them.

14:20Unfortunately, Azul Matasiwa, who's been fantastic, hasn't he? Very unlike him, I know he has had a few missed passes here and there this season, but this one unfortunately shot a self in the foot. I didn't actually know how bad it was until I watched the highlights back because where I was sitting, sometimes you can't see the whole play. and then when I watched the back I went, oh God, that's not good. And of course, you know, people will go, oh, that's why you shouldn't play around from the back and stuff like that. But sometimes when it happens, you know, obviously you go straight away jump on it.

14:52But then normally we can obviously create really good goals from starting from the back. But yeah, a disappointing moment for us all. But, you know, to be fair, Harris still had a little bit of work to do because obviously Walton saved it and then he sort of had to get in the right position. But obviously O'Shea and Kipure were just out, you know, weren't there. disappointing goal to concede Yeah, live by the sword die by the sword a little bit when it comes to Ipswich's style of play out from the back this comes with the territory and Matasiwa has been pretty exemplary but it is a poor goal to concede and although I don't think there's going to be any grudges held against Matasiwa he's the loveliest bloke isn't he and everyone's such a big fan of him he's performed so well we can't ignore the fact it was a really poor goal to concede and the kind of goals that we've seen town concede recently where it's just something that's undercooked or it's a poor pass that's been picked up or maybe a lack of awareness in the own box yeah this is one where he just tries he picks up a pass from Davis he tries to pass back the pass is really weak it's not just him though as well it should be said because you need to be more alert to the fact that these opportunities can happen and I know that we all trust Azor but any player can misplace a pass and with that the pass gets misplaced it's too undercooked basically the centre backs then at that point O'Shea and Kipre are spread out massively they're all kind of too wide and then it opens the space up for Harris Harris who scored I think it's 2-57 for this pardon me should have buried the first one shows the kind of form he's in at the moment falls back out to him and he buries the second one into the back of the net for 1-0 it gave Oxford some confidence as well that was maybe the worst thing the fact that Ipswich's response to going behind was poor was really poor and Oxford didn't knock the door down but they had opportunities Harris tried to score from range yeah they had that which didn't quite come off but that was I think he had four shots on target in that first half three or four but basically had three quarters of his shots on target that he's had this season in the first half of that game which kind of sums it up big chance on kind of a half-time is when Mills takes the ball down the right, cuts inside and forces a low save from Walton.

17:36And actually, in that period, Towne didn't offer anything. And yeah, it was Oxford who looked more likely to get the second. And if they'd done that, that would have been a huge killer blow. Yeah, it would have been. And of course, Oxford fans, they're on their feet. They're loving it. The light show players, definitely. No comment on that at all. But yeah, no shots on target for Richard Towne that first half. so not good at all I'm going to be asking you a question later on in the podcast I'm sure you guys will know about that low block but yeah first half very frustrating of course game live on Sky so I'm sure they were talking about it in the studio and stuff like that as I always do half time I'm sure you went off and had a coffee or whatever or just sort of prepare yourself ready for the second half but did you see Town getting able to get back into this were you thinking about maybe some changes or anything like that?

18:32100 % saw Town getting back into the game for sure given what we've seen against Hull for example where they played poor for the vast majority of the game but two moments of quality were able to change it and I looked through the team the fact it was the strongest starting 11 I thought there's enough in there for two moments of quality to break down this Oxford team there's enough quality on the starting line-up there's enough quality on the bench looking at Jack Clark, Azon, who else is going to go, Tuberak, Pom, McAteer, I know he's not been in the best form, but having all of those options to be able to come on into this game, Cam Humphreys I was keen to see obviously didn't get on the pitch this time.

19:12Yeah, I looked at it, I thought there was more than enough to come in and break down this team, we've seen them do it before. The concern was that Oxford had something to defend, this wasn't an Oxford team that we need to be wary on the counter as well because we need to make sure that we go and grab a second. If Oxford won that game 1-0, they would have been happy. I know Gary Routt kind of had a stick or twist debate in his head, which I think at 1-0 at least, they definitely would have stuck and tried to see out that 1-0 lead into the second half. Yes, and to be fair though, Town came out the second half very strong with press really well, tendency, and you really went for it.

19:54and of course they did go and equalise via a Leif Davis goal funny enough his first ever town goal was against Oxford also a 2-1 defeat so a bit of a trend there unfortunately but yeah he's in the right position obviously Nunes out swing and corner he does get the assist for that doesn't he because he doesn't hit any other player and yeah Leif Davis nice little volley finish to make it 1-1 and you think okay town have got that springboard to hopefully go on to win this game but not but yeah good goal for town and a set piece goal yeah set piece goal really well taken one they've done really well in the first kind of five ten minutes of this of the second half they've been knocking on the door they were really stretching Oxford in the way they were playing the wide players were getting more involved and then this goal comes and there's an element of fortune to it of course because it's not aimed for Leif Davis this wasn't some sort of clever set piece routine that was planned because it's Nunez's delivery from the right, it's a corner that is aimed for the head of Kipre he doesn't make contact with it I think he's under a lot of pressure and that's why you have people waiting outside the box to make the run in, to be a threat and that's why we had Leif Davis, he's kind of on the edge of the D, makes the run inside it's about 15 yards out and he side-foots it and that does that doesn't give it the respect it deserves because he side-foots it with power and with placement this is a superb finish this is a superb finish from a left back at that this was a finish worthy of a Premier League attacker to be perfectly honest, the way he takes it first time finish really nice strike, one of Ipswich's best of the season so far yeah that was again I was talking about I had belief they'd have a moment of quality that was undoubtedly one of the moments of quality that I was kind of envisioning that would break the deadlock from there and in the aftermath again of that goal I thought that they pressed really well to try and get the the second and they had maybe kind of five five ten minutes or so where they had opportunities to go and do it.

22:13I think the best one I can remember in that little period, I'm hoping I'm not getting my time right, was kind of a lob through ball over the top towards George Hurst. And he carries on. It's a really good touch from Hurst. It should be said as well, he's someone that in recent weeks has done all the hard yards without getting anything to work off. And in this game, he had a chance that was kind of cut back from Davis and flashed wide. And then this one was the big one, ball over the top by O'Shea. I think he says tentatively I think so yeah we'll go with it ball over the top Hurst brings it down really well goalkeeper kind of stays rooted to the spot but makes a really good save to deny him I think it was such a good save I think he went down to have treatment for about five minutes after that and after that opportunity it kind of felt like Ipswich had puffed their cheeks and said what more can we do because it allowed Oxford back into that match to steady the ship a bit Yeah, it's the problem with Town.

23:10They huff and puff. They weren't big, big chances, were they? Just a few guilt-edged chances, as you say. But yeah, 1-1. Then subs for Town have always made a difference. We obviously made triple change. Then Oxford makes some changes. And unfortunately, it was the Oxford sub and a former Norwich player that scores the goal. the Polish lad I'm not going to say his name I'm going to let you discuss his name but he makes it 2-1 and it's from Towns attack or from a Jack Taylor sort of cross into the box and yeah that was always the fear I had as well I was like oh god they're going to counter-attack us and unfortunately they did and that's where they got a goal Yeah and Ipswich's attacking play in this situation just annoyed me and it did annoy me for maybe about five or ten minutes beforehand in that they had veered away from stretching Oxford from dragging the midfielders out from them playing it out wide and getting dangerous balls into the box and it was have the centre-backs push up Kipre and O'Shea Oxford have a low block, okay what are we going to do we're going to try and play it direct into Hurst and have them test the back line and it didn't work because you've got Hurst who's battling 6 foot 7 centre-back Mikkel Hellick there's big Oxford defenders in there and the attempted play was poor to watch we talk about entertaining styles of play it was just kind of almost direct hoofball approach and it didn't work, it wasn't effective it didn't create chances the Taylor one came at a point where I think Oxford were tiring and you could see when that ball came in there was quite a lot of space but I can't remember exactly what the duel was in the box, either way Oxford win the duel, win the header comes back out to De Kiesmaja, what a name, love that and he looks up and I'm sure he doesn't expect what he sees which is basically Jack Taylor who's played the pass as the last line of defence because Daro Shea's up halfway up the pitch Davis is basically playing left wing with Davis playing left wing Poichetta

25:26is making that run Davis is caught too far up the ball over the top and Rowett spoke about how with Davis pressing in the latter stages they wanted Puschetta on with his pace because they knew they could expose that side and catch him out really good ball over the top from De Kiersmacher lands at the feet of Puschetta who just runs it gets to the point that there's only one person left to chase him it's Jack Taylor who has to give every last ounce of pace and strength and energy to run from one end of the pitch the other gets close to making the tackle doesn't quite do it O'Shea's playing playing him on side as the ball's done I don't know where Kip Reyes in the replay um it's so open it's such a high line it's such a a simple finish well I say that he's still a good finish still from Braschetta to to win the game um but Ipswich have gifted it in their setup in the fact that it's not showing Oxford enough respect while while hunting for a winner of their own and again it feels like all the lessons have been learnt from Middlesbrough in particular but also that Charlton game they just forgot about them with that goal in particular and that was the one that really frustrated Kieran McKenna.

26:37Yeah and as you said two step forwards, one step back from this game which is very frustrating as my nuttop turn off. I use this as notes because I forget things but yeah Town, they weren't giving up they were trying their best to get back into the game but they were denied at the death I've put as my note Town coming close but no cigar he feel like that because he sometimes smokes a good old cigar doesn't he I'm sure he's doing that in the Peak District this week coming up but yeah Town were trying once again as we said huffed and puffed obviously Azon comes on and some other players Act Poms on the pitch as well Asher Young came on for furlong as well and they were trying to knock down the door but just they just weren't good enough were they to get that goal no they weren't I mean there's this one big moment isn't it where the two subs combine.

27:24It's a ball that's played through. I think it might be Taylor's ball that lands at McAteer's feet and he's in space. And he's really selfless, to be fair, because he easily could have taken it on and tried to get his name in lights and kind of lift his status that obviously hasn't been great in the eyes of Ipswich Town fans. And he does the right thing. But he did have another moment, didn't he, where he should... We'll come on to that. Still annoys me, that. Well, it was a harder one, that one, to be honest. But this was a really good opportunity. It was a good delivery from McAteer. It lands just in front of Azon.

27:59Perfect place, perfect time. And the goalkeeper makes such a good save. Not done there. Comes back out. Nunez, edge of the area. Takes it. Powerful shot. Blocked off the line. Comes back out to Clark. Quick dancing feet in the box. But he just needed to hit it. and the twinkle toes weren't able to kind of muster enough power after that kind of dance into the box to beat the goalkeeper. So that chance went begging. That for me was the big opportunity. There was more, as you mentioned, the McAteer one, similar to the Wrexham opportunity where he's kind of picked up on a tight angle. This was an even tighter angle, though.

28:35This was a really hard one to hit and it almost goes out for a throw-in, I think, with the way that he does it, which I can... it's not the easy one to take on I'd criticise him for the miss against Wrexham, this was much harder those are the two that stood out and again other than that when that miss in particular when that shot went wide it felt that Town again and reverted to Kipre cross into the box, aim towards Azon goalkeeper grabs it, ball into the box from O'Shea, aim towards whoever goalkeeper grabs it or defender heads it clear they need other ways of hurting teams and in recent weeks they've had the defensive solidity and not the attacking play and now they've lost the defensive solidity in this game and they haven't had the attacking play either and that's what killed them in this game It did, and yeah, up to the course go on to win the game and that ends Town's sixth game unbeaten run, my friend and a big question I'm going to ask you and it's about low block what's the answer because it's now become an Achilles heel because down can just, you know, it's happened so many times this season what is AJ's answer?

29:51It's difficult isn't it and I feel like if there was an easy answer Kieran McKenna would have solved it because he's an intelligent man an intelligent football manager I don't think it's anything like a formation change or positional change or anything like that there's two things that stand out to me and it's things that this squad at the moment are lacking to really hurt teams that operate with low blocks one is the one i keep banging on about they need a proper creator in this team and they've got it in nunez to an extent but nunez was marked out of the game there was a lot of kind of pressure on him sindra is the other one that they've kind of looked at um but he wasn't at his best you've got leaf as well who had to basically run the show in a creative term weird setting up a couple of good chances obviously takes the shot for the goal as well but you can't be relying so heavily on your left back for creative output Villagin you know he's obviously had moments of magic but he's not creative though is he that's what they're lacking they need that's no other word for it they need the creative side of it and if Nunez is marked out if Cinder isn't in the right form you need at least two players that you can rely upon to pick a lock essentially and i look through the squad and i'm not quite sure where that falls and that for me is a big problem the other one is speed i don't think there's enough speed in this group at the moment i think that you're lacking a real pacey out ball how many times and we saw in the prem and we definitely saw in the championship was wes burns the out ball down the right and he's the little Sonic Batchelor.

31:28Off he goes, down the flank. And his sheer pace was able to really stretch teams. And they were able to find him. He had the physical element to him as well. Yad Chio, who they've sent out on loan, again, another one that they're now missing, it doesn't feel like they've got that. Cinder's not a fast player. Casey McAteer's not a fast player. Jadon Filogene is to an extent, but he's not... He slows down, doesn't he, sometimes? I think he lets his technical ability work, basically. Yeah, exactly. And they need someone that will just run, beat the man, take it to the byline and bring others into play.

32:06And they're really lacking that at the moment. So as it stands, what's the answer? I don't know. That's for Kieran McKenna to figure out. But other than that, it's just areas I'd look to address in January that I think are a bit of a problem. Yeah, because now it's come in a run of theme, isn't it? most of our defeats because of low block teams especially Wrexham obviously the Charlton defeat Burrow to an extent but yeah how are you feeling right now? in your gut as we sit in this Premier Inn your breakfast is sort of digesting yeah we've got obviously a quick turnaround we've got Blackburn which we'll get into very shortly but yeah first defeat in six games obviously a lot of people frustrated that is the word the big word is just frustration because this team we can't now keep saying they're still gelling you know they need time to work work chemistry and stuff it's now in November well December by the time we play Blackburn so yeah what's your speech to the listeners right now to sort of like yeah get them sort of going okay let's hear from the Kings oh wow that's a lot of pressure on me there isn't it it's okay I used to be frustrated and disappointed and angry and it's okay to ask for things to be better because although there are issues within the squad, although there are issues with new players betting in and settling in, as I said yesterday, there are players within Ipswich's squad that are worth more than the starting line-up on the bench that Oxford fielded last night.

33:43So it's okay to voice criticisms and concerns because it's not good enough, that's fair enough. On the flip side, you are still looking at a team that has underperformed this season, will get better as the season goes on for sure. And had they'd won yesterday, then they would have been second. They don't. They sit fifth still. They will drop out of the top six, but it's not a case that they're a Southampton. It's not a case that they're a Leicester or something like that. With Ipswich, it does feel like there's hope and there's reasons to think. and Gary Wright mentioned it yesterday, there's enough reason to think that Ipswich will be in the automatic promotion push because it's such a different league in the way that it's kind of set out and the way that the top six is at the moment and the teams in and around the playoff places.

34:33So it's good that we don't have much time to simmer on it because the narrative could shift totally again if Ipswich got to Blackburn and win. The big frustration for me is how many times we've sat there and said, right, they've won, they've put in a good performance, whatever. Ipswich have turned a corner, that's it and now we can expect Ipswich have come to the party and then they go and have a setback in the most frustrating almost unexpected way possible so that for me is where it comes, we know what this team is capable of because we've seen it, we've seen it in games, it's just a case of being able to do it week in and week out I don't think it's major things that are wrong I don't think it's anything systematically wrong with the club with the players, with the recruitment there are things that need to be ironed out will be in January with certain bits will be on the training pitch with certain bits pressure's on to do it but at the moment there's still enough leeway and still enough wiggle room and still enough credit in the bank to think that they will go and do it it's just difficult sat there saying trying to convince all of you guys listening and watching that that is also the case after a 2-1 defeat at Oxford.

35:51But when you're in the middle of this horrible run, there's not that much time to sit, pause, think. That's a good thing. Let's try and hope that it will be water under the bridge soon enough. Yes, it was never going to be playing sailing, was it, with this new group, the big reset, a lot of the promotion heroes leaving and then obviously replaced by multi-million pound players. and there's still players still working their way through, which that excuse is losing a little bit now. But the good thing is we've got games to turn around and we've got an international break to go, God, we've got to simmer on this defeat and go, it's now back on it.

36:30What are you thinking? The whole thing with the squad is quite interesting, isn't it? Where the success was built over consistency and having the squad over a long period of time. Were these promotion heroes good players, great players? Of course they were. But you look at the fact that Nathan Broadhead's gone to Wrexham, has scored some good goals, hasn't been able to really consistently get in their team. Connor Chaplin's gone to Portsmouth on loan. He's hardly kicked the ball. There's been big criticism that's been aimed his way. Luke Woffenden's gone to Coventry. Last I saw of him was getting bullied by Kiefer Moore, who scored a perfect hat-trick on that day.

37:09and I don't think he's really getting in the team consistently. Cameron Burgess, great, love him. Scored two-one goals. Scored two-one goals against Ipswich. Swansea are in a relegation battle, and there's criticisms that have been firing his way that he's had to address with statements. You can look through the bulk of these players who, and I'm not talking about, you know, the laps scoring against Barcelona or Amari helping Forest beat Liverpool 3-0. We're talking about, like, the promotion heroes that gets addressed a lot. and they're good players and great guys but they were great because they were in a great system they knew at the back of their hands that's where this built from People will say, why did you break them up?

37:51but every team has got a cycle Every team has a cycle and ultimately Ipswich had to take themselves to the next step and they got broken up because of the fact that would that have worked in the Premier League we won't know obviously because we didn't get the opportunity to see it but the Premier League's killer, it's ruthless. And then some people are saying, this team, if we get promoted, happy days, but are they good enough for that step up? And it's like, oh, then you've got to do another reset. But how much of it is an ability thing and how much of it is just about getting used to Kieran McKenna's ways and his systems?

38:22And look, that falls onto him and that falls onto getting things right. Coaching, but he also needs to figure out what the best approach is tactically with this team. I don't think the way that they're going about it at the moment is in terms of being quite direct, a lot of creativity coming from centre-backs at the moment, things like that. But it's not easy and I think that Kieran McKenna's got enough credit in the bank to be afforded time to figure out the answer with it. He was able to do it really quickly with that last group and that's what took them to the Premier League. But that was a group of players who were good players but players that now find are struggling outside of the Ipswich system.

39:01So these players have to get used to the Ipswich system. the Ipswich system and the one that Ken McKenna sets up have to find a way to get used to those players as well and the frustrating thing and the annoying thing and the thing that they'll get criticised for is the fact that it won't be a quick thing to happen and I don't think that's down to the quality of these players but it is something that will take time and I'm aware that people will be screaming in frustration, they're£20 million players I totally understand that but that is just the way of this football club and what that should mean is that when it works and hopefully it will that it will be really good and we'll put Ipswich in the best possible position but there's no success without suffering Yes very much so and at the end of the day we'll go into this game we'll have six games unbeaten back-to-back clean sheets three successive away wins everything was looking rosy and then you could just get a setback but we haven't got long to dwell on this because we've got Blackburn take two, my friend.

40:07Lovely. And I've seen the forecast and it's raining a lot on Monday. So we shall find out if that game does actually happen and this time before we travel up. But yeah. Any other notes from the Oxford game? We had a nice pie before the game. Check out behind the scenes if you haven't already. Me and AJ had two different pies. I had the same pie as Mick Mills, the Irish town legend and former England captain. Which one did you have? A steak and owl pie. which was very nice indeed but yeah I want to give a shout out to Christian Moulton because I thought he had an okay game you gave him your man of the match yeah I did if it wasn't for him Ipswich should have lost this game by more he made some really good saves six in total some easier than others some really difficult ones in there as well so credit to him for sure he was the standout which it's never good when you're giving your goalkeeper a clear man of the match to be honest the player ratings will be an interesting one when people go and read those because have I been generous?