615: Kings of Anglia: Ipswich 1-1 Leicester… I’m sure I’ve seen this story before…

30:15This is a tricky one. Who's it given against is the first thing. I think it's been given against Matasiwa, but Furlong also kind of crashes in. For me, both of them end up giving the referee a decision to make, whether you think it's a soft foul or not. It is a soft foul, for sure. But I don't want my players to give the referee a decision to make in that situation. I understand it's competitive, but I also thought it was a bit needless at that point. It was at a stage where Town could have handled themselves without doing what they did. Delivery from Luke Thomas is good. It was the only good ball he played all afternoon.

30:52He was pretty rubbish. And Kipre ends up missing the ball that gets played in. He jumps for it, misses it. and it's a very clinical finish from Pats and Daka near post, times it well, swipes at it, gets it bottom corner and then town trail. And it feels like a familiar story where they kind of done all the hard work for what they were doing in their own third and then in the box. Everything in the middle was okay. But yeah, their own third and the attacking third was where they were being let down.

31:23Ross Halls:Yeah, and I want to talk about now a big talking point in the first half. Dara O'Shea with a big opportunity to, I think it would have been the equaliser maybe, or took the lead. I can't remember how the time frame goes, but he has like a free header and he does find a way to get, you know, the back post, but I don't know, he's not scored from there. I know you sometimes you've got to make sure you get on target, but it's a nice little bit of movement and Dara always goes over to Nunes and he does that little like with his hand over his mouth going, yeah, and stuff like that. Ross it to me. On my head.

31:58Ross Halls:On my head, son. And it did get on his head, but off target. Yeah. I mean, this happened like three times in this game. Leicester had no clue how to pick up Daro Shea from corners. The first one's really unfortunate because he heads it down and it kind of ends up clipping the base of the post. Yeah, he'll be pretty gutted with that. And then he has some other ones later as well where he kind of gets these three headers on, is unable to plant them where he needs to. Somewhere he's able to get it up and heads it back in danger, which is quite good. But others haven't been able to kind of react well enough to that.

32:36It'll be a good outlet, but they need to work on it a little bit more. The fact that they're finding the space, that's the first hurdle to overcome. But O'Shea, who for me was the man of the match in this game, excellent performance, probably does need a little bit of heading practice still in congested penalty areas. and others need to be more aware as well that when the ball comes to him far post, he's not always going to try and head it down and get it into the corner like he did at Borough. He's also going to try and sometimes get it back into play for Kipre or for Hurst, would have a striker there or whoever's in the box to try and prod it in.

33:11Yeah, it's something that needs work, but the fact that creating those chances and threatening from them is a big positive.

33:17Ross Halls:Yeah, it's a great sort of turnaround for Dara as well from the Wrexham shambles because he's been fantastic. I know we conceded in this game, but we've, of course, kept clean sheets and stuff like that. But maybe he should just use his teeth to score because they're so big, aren't they? Yeah. But no, really big improvement from the Irishman. Yeah, it would hurt. But, you know, pain and gain and all that stuff. But no, good to see, though, Towne threatening, you know, trying to score from set pieces, which, you know, has been a bit of their... Achilles heel under McKenna. It's been always about my frustration a little bit.

33:52Ross Halls:But, yeah, good to see him being a danger man, Dara. Then second half, AJ. Sub's making a difference again. And I think we should segue on to Sindra Ophelia Gelli's goal because this is actually another good finish from him. How he turned his body and then boom. And, yeah, makes it 1-1 a deserving equaliser as well. I think, you know, Town were trying to find that equaliser and they got it. Yeah, subs early-ish into this game. It takes a little bit of time for them to make the difference, but the big one for me, and I'll give Syndra his flowers in a minute, but Jack Clark was the one who ended up changing this game off the bench.

34:30I thought that he brought the energy, the legs, the intensity, the running, the dribbling. It was really difficult for Leicester to deal with him, and he was the perfect substitute in this game, and it's his cross from quite a deep left-sided position. Let's see if I can get this right. So it's punched clear by Stilacic, the Leicester goalkeeper. Then Furlong, of all people, is positioned slap-bang in the centre of the box, leaps up, heads it. It ends up kind of bumping down towards Mimeti, who I think sees a shot saved, but it might be a block. It's a little bit of a crowded area. That. It comes back out, and Sindra hits it with power.

35:12He's not done that enough. I want to see you smack it. Really put your foot through it. Zindra, like we see on those highlight reels, it wasn't one where he rips the net, but he does strike it really sweetly, makes it so even though he hits it near post, it just bounces off the gloves of Stellar Chichen into the back of the net. 1-1, plenty of time for Towns to go on and win it. And boy, did they have chances to go on and win it.

35:38Ross Halls:Yeah, they smelled blood, didn't they? I'm just watching back the goal. And yeah, I think Furlong, in my opinion, yeah, I don't know why he's in that position, but he really should have really gone and headed it in because he just, I think he was trying to also set up the Meti, which his shot was blocked. But from that angle I'm seeing, Furlong really should have gone and bulleted-headed it. But unfortunately, not, but thankfully, Sundar did get the goal. And yeah, he was like going straight up. He didn't go and celebrate in the corner. He went straight back up the field. Professional. Yeah, professional.

36:10Ross Halls:Because yeah, as you mentioned, it's 75 minutes on the clock. The game is there to be won. and obviously we had the penalty incidents, which was discussed. But yeah, this town couldn't find it, could they? They couldn't find that winner. No, they couldn't. And this, again, comes back to a point that Leif Davis made where we can be annoyed with the referee and the decisions. We can't control that, but what we can control is making sure that we go and win the game regardless of those decisions. And Ipswich had chances. Jack Clark and Mometti were real threats. There were balls that didn't quite fall for Hurst.

36:44who came on um syndra had space to work the big one for me tube rack bomb had a couple um one that was kind of blocked from a corner from a scramble again i think it might come off the woodwork can't really remember but the first one i think was a scramble from a corner and the second one oh my god it was a cutback from leaf davis down the left it's in perfect placement for tube rack bomb to take this and fire into the bottom corner um this comes off the back of of me asking kieran McKenna last week about the situation we've hardly seen him and him saying I'm confident that there are going to be big moments and big goals for Chubrac Pond to come I had the headlines written up everywhere already and he takes it center of the box he aims it well I think it would beat the goalkeeper but it deflects just off the legs takes a little nick off the off the leg of Ben Nelson the center back and bubbles wide they pushed in in stoppage time, had five minutes to try and break through, ultimately given themselves a little bit too much work to do, but as we've said they shouldn't have needed it with the penalties that they should have had, that should have been enough, but yeah again, professional view from Davis and I'm sure from many in that dressing room that they also needed to do more on the pitch in the game to ensure that they won it by a bigger margin, or rather they'd scored more goals to win it by a clear margin than they ended up doing and drawing the game on more.

38:13Ross Halls:Yeah, because they're still needing to find that way to come from behind, AJ. They still haven't done that since that Southampton night, Sarmiento late winner, April 2024. So, it's been a while and they've had opportunities, but unfortunately not. We have got audio to play from Lee Davis, as you've sort of mentioned, but how can this team find a way to do that, AJ? Because I think that's just something that they need to get off their back. Obviously, we don't want them to go 1-0 down in games, but they need to find a way, I think, for them to really push on this season. They need to find that way because they've dropped points this year because of that.

38:54Yeah, and you look at the other teams who've maybe shown that resilience than Ipswich have at times in games, and it kind of comes back maybe to the fact that when you look at this season and compare it to the last time championship that dips which were in the championship i can kind of draw parallels it feels like coventry or the leicester where they are the team that are grinding out wins they had a wobble people thought they might dip out because of that but they've recovered well and i think we'll go on to win the title you've got middlesbrough who on paper have quite an average squad for this division bar one or two stars um who have a really talented tactical manager uh who are performing well above their means and then you've got ipswich you kind of feel like the leads where they've got the manager who's done it before like daniel farke was with leads and they've got all the talented squad but in certain games it's not quite falling for them for them to to show the character and the comeback ability that borough have for example in games and this is where i start to draw those parallels of course i hope it does end up differently where ipswich can be the ipswich rather than uh middlesbrough who kind of feel like they have that about them at the moment but it does feel like that's something that's lacking at the moment within that group to have that.

40:21Obviously, they were unfortunate it wasn't today being the day, but there are plenty of other times where I would have wanted to see them show that side to their game a little bit more as well. The ability to come from behind, not just to draw, but to go and win the games as well. Yeah, we just haven't seen it enough, unfortunately.

40:42Ross Halls:Hopefully, we will see it in a very important game, but obviously, we don't want them to go 1-0 down, as I say. We want them to take the lead and go on to win the game. easily, but we shall see. But let's hear from Leif Davis, AJ. You've spoken to him a lot recently. He's a very good talker. Especially, you know, he scored that goal at Derby, so you're, of course, going to speak to him. Then you spoke to him another home game recently. I swear you did. Yeah, we've had him a few times. Derby, Wrexham away was the other one. And here, we've probably had him more than that as well. We're talking to him a lot.

41:19Ross Halls:Yes, but he's a good talker Let's hear from Leith Davis Leith, how frustrating was that, that 1-1 draw? Yeah, very frustrating As you've seen that full-time muscle Everyone was frustrated But that's football We can't change our decision now So yeah, we should have put the game to bed as well We had a lot of chances in the game We can't just go straight to the referee And blame the ref We had opportunities in the game to take the three points in that way. A lot of chances from corners, a few chances in open play. So, yeah, you can point the finger, but we do have to score in that part of the game as well.

42:01Ross Halls:So, frustrating not to get the penalty at the end. Consistency's not there at all, but what can you do? It's football, opinions, whatever the ref thought at the end of the day. It's his decision. but we, like you say, we should have took the three points away from the game without that incident. You must be really disappointed. The carrot was huge. You could have been second in the league now. Yeah, definitely. Three points would have been incredible for her. It would have finished off a good week for her. So, yes, we've just got to get our head down now for the next few days and get ready for Stoke on Tuesday night, which will be a tough game as well.

42:40Ross Halls:I think when we played them early on in the season, they were one of the better footballing teams. were, I've said a lot of times, they were very good. I think they were up there with the best team we've played this year. So, yeah, we've got to prepare for that and do everything we can to forget about today, which will be tough, but everything we can do to focus on Tuesday night is important. There's a positive, though, that you got back into this game and you kept the unbeaten run going here at Portman Road. Yeah, definitely. You could see the spirit between the boys. I think if I said this a few months ago, you would have probably not got that goal.

43:16Ross Halls:Where you looked today, where we looked together as a team, and I think that's the confidence from the last few weeks that we've had in the games, especially after the Wrexham game. I think we found that desire together. We had a big chat with each other, and then finding that belief between the team is what we've needed. Let you say three games this week at home, it's been good games, but it would have been nice to take the three points today. Well, it's lively in the mix zone for that game, AJ. You know, it's lawnmowers in the background and someone talking about Pats and Daka there. But a good thing, though, AJ, at least we're still unbeaten.

43:53Ross Halls:At least we didn't lose the game. That would have been worse. You know, we didn't get a penalty and we went on to lose the game. But thankfully, it was a draw, it was a point. Yeah. Town's still in a good position, you know, in terms of, you know, four games unbeaten. Two away games now against teams who are, yeah, not doing well. especially Shiver Wednesday, which we've got to win that one. But Stoke, which we can lead into now, they're having one win in 10 league games, so they're not great. But any other business from the Leicester game, or shall we draw a line under that against the Foxes?

44:29No other business from the game itself. I mean, you can look at it at seven points in a week, obviously a good return. Leicester have a good squad. It's not a terrible result, but there's only so long that you can kind of have weekends where others make ground on you and where you say, oh, we've got this game in hand. Obviously, Townsend will have two games in hand because they've got another one that's going to be postponed. But this is a weekend where, with everyone in action, the top three teams now won. Coventry won, Borough won, Millwall won. Ipswich did not win. And they can't afford to have that happen again.

45:06and you look, well, this will lead on to tomorrow's game, but on Wednesday, Coventry host Preston, who are in terrible form. Borough on Wednesday host Charlton, who are right down towards the bottom of the division, and Millwall host Derby. Millwall in excellent form. So I wouldn't be surprised if all three of those teams win and win quite convincingly, and that's going to leave some pressure for Ipswich in this game against Stoke because they have to match the pace. It is still in their hands, technically, to go and get promoted with the game in hand and with the games against both Millwall and Borough to come.

45:40But there's only so long we can keep thinking about that and look at that when this is a team that's fourth in the division and there's only 11 more games to be played.

45:51Ross Halls:Yeah, but it's exciting. I'm excited for these games. And I do, although I do hate going, OK, let's see how that team's got on. That's maybe the good thing on Tuesday. We ain't got to worry about Barra or Coventry until the Wednesday night. We can sort of be at home. Well, I wouldn't say relax, but at least be at home and go, okay, please do us a favour, Preston and Charlton, which, you know, they've beaten us this year, haven't they? Preston and Charlton. God, jeez. Yeah, that's true. So, you know, they could do us a favour, but we shall see. But we've got to go to Stoke on a Tuesday night. Can Town do it on a cold?

46:29Ross Halls:well I think it's going to be it is due to rain is what I've seen so a rainy the line is and I have it in it is the headline of the preview that's going up tomorrow morning can Ipswich Town do it on a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke I hope it hasn't well I do obviously hope it won't rain and I hope that the I hope the forecast has changed but if anyone doubts me before they read that bit tomorrow I have a literal screenshot where it says it's going to rain in Stoke on Tuesday so with that in mind I think it was okay to use that as the headline there you go, Stoke rain Tuesday that's Tuesday though, that could be any part of Tuesday it could but it's still a rainy day you know what I'm going to take it don't take away from my damn headline here Ross I know, but it can rain in Stoke from 9am to 5pm but not during the game of the football because I'm not a fan of taking pictures in the rain.

47:37Ross Halls:I love the rain in general in terms of if I'm at home and it's hitting the window and funny enough how I go to sleep, me and my missus we play raindrops which is just the sound of that and I can fall asleep to that but sitting in the rain taking pictures is not my idea of fun so please do not rain in Stoke. It will rain in the second half of the game. Oh, that makes it even worse. It's due to be dry up until about half past eight. So the latter stages of the first half will rain and in the second half is what it says. That is according to Apple, who are notoriously a bit crap. So let's see if that is true.

48:21Go check the Met Office. They will know. I'm sure Ross will go and do that at some point. Yeah, I will. I will be doing that

48:27Ross Halls:I will be doing that but if it does rain and town gets three points there you go it doesn't matter but Ross is still going to be wet and soaked I think I've still just got horrible flashbacks to Blackburn I think I think that's still still yeah that still hurts and even Wrexham you know Wrexham the not only FA Cup the 5-3 I got wet in that one so but AJ Stoke quick preview on them we're going to record a boot room so check that out when that goes live ladies gentlemen but um our snap preview on stoke who um yeah mark robbins decent manager they've got you know bank players although sauber thomas is suspended on their better eyes who i thought did well when he came to portland road but he got sent off in the last game against swansea when i was watching their highlights back actually they actually were threatening to take the lead against swansea um they were the better team in that first half an hour and then they went down to 10 men and Swansea went on to win 2-0.

49:24Ross Halls:But yeah, Stoke. Did you see that Liam Cullen stoppage time goal for Swansea? My words. Abdul Fatoum. Yeah, and it wasn't the best from that goalkeeper, Simpkin, who we expect will start today. Let's look at Stoke. They have been pretty bad in the last few weeks, and they've had an odd season where they started the season really well. We all thought, oh, you know what? They might be in and around the playoffs. and even around the time that they came to Portman Road and they put in a good performance there and only lost 1-0 and that was off the back of getting walloped 4-0 at Bramall Lane there was kind of an expectation they could keep pace with the playoff chases and then 2026 has hit and they have been pretty terrible the only win since, let me get this right, January 10th in the Cup after that they've only won once which was a 2-1 win against Oxford United at home they've lost their last two against commentary and against swansea and now obviously they're missing sauber thomas for this game their talisman their top scorer in nine goals eight assists and with a few other injuries in the squad it's tricky now looking at how they might set up how they might fill his role they don't really have another fit left-sided option they're missing key players due to injury uh divine obama broke his leg he was really excited when a former town target Victor Johansson is out at the moment with a shoulder injury.

50:50Their other striker, Bosnick, is out with a shoulder injury. I think he's dislocated the shoulder. Lewis Baker's out with an ankle injury. So even though they've got good players there, I think they could have to tweak some bits there. You look to Junho Bai is a good player. Jezren Raksaki, someone Ipswich know all about. They've got kind of experience at the back. Ben Gibson, Ben Wilmot's been a real threat. He's got a brace against Leicester earlier. They've got experience in midfield with Steven Mzonzi. but I do wonder if, as they drift further and further away from the top half of the table, could they change things around?

51:23I have a sneaky feeling that Mark Robbins, who's a very good tactician, as we've seen before, could look at changing them to a back five for this one because with Sorba Thomas out, they've got far more defensive options than they do attacking options. I don't really know where they'd turn to in terms of trying to replace him. Would it be a million manhoof potentially? good options on the bench but um definitely this is not stoke at their best but beware the wounded animal of course they've still got quality in there and they're a team that um have nothing to lose as well i don't think they're not going to get into the playoffs they're too far off now they're not going to be relegated i don't think they're in a spot where um i think they'll be one of the first teams on the beach and that is quite tricky uh to kind of play against so interested to see how they set up good individual quality with players like by Junho and Jez Raksaki and kind of a solid defensive core.

52:20They've got Aaron Cresswell, wasn't they? Yeah, Aaron Cresswell. He wasn't in the squad. I'm not sure if he's got a knock or something at the moment. They're good defensively. They've got the third best defensive record in the division. By town, of course. 15th by town and borough. 36 goals they've conceded. They just don't score enough. 39 is worse than quite a lot of teams at this level. They probably have done enough to have more points on the board, but yeah, they're a solid team that are far, far from spectacular.

52:54Ross Halls:Yes, so it could be a very low scoring game, we shall see. We won't get your predictor 11, AJ, we'll leave that for the boot room, but McKenna's come out and said there's a few issues that came out of the Leicester game, so we'll find out on the night. who's not available. Obviously, Jalen Finnegan is still sidelined. Hopefully, he'll be back sooner rather than later because, of course, he scored the siding goal against Stoke in the reverse fixture. He scored very early on in that one. But, yeah, I just remember Stoke being very big. A lot of big boys. So, yeah, going to the Bet365 Stadium, it's going to be a tough game.

53:27Ross Halls:We didn't get any points, did we, AJ? Because no one predicted a draw for the Stoke game. Not Stoke game, the Leicester game. And no one picked Syndra to score first. but what is your prediction for this one, my friend? Yeah, well, it's good that I'm going first because I think this will probably be a popular pick. I do think Ipswich will bounce back. I think it'll be a back-to-basics kind of performance. I think it'll be enough to get them over the line. So I'm going to go with a 1-0 narrow KG win, and I think this is one where, especially if they do what I think they might do and switch to a back five, I think that the wingers are going to be the ones to try and exploit little gaps behind Stokes wing-backs.

54:12Even if they don't, I think that players like Wilma and Boca, if they play as the full-backs, will leave space. So, yeah, I'm going to go 1-0 and my first goal scorer for this one is going to be Jack Clark.

54:25Ross Halls:Oh, of course, yes. He'll be back in the starting XI, I'm sure. I've got two predictions in mind. One is going to be a rubbish, rubbish game. is going to end goalless. And that's not good for anyone. That's not good for us trying to, you know, paint the picture after the game and get you excited about reading our stuff. Or do I go for a nice 2-0 win? You get an early goal, second half, then someone else come off the bench. Maybe Chubac, Pom, score a goal. That'd be nice, you know, to round up the win. So, you know what? I'm going to be positive. I'm going to go 2-0 because you've liked to have took that 1-0 prediction.

54:59Ross Halls:First goal scorer. That's fine. It's fine. do I go for a Meti do I take that or do I go for a random goal scorer do I go I'm going to keep it safe I'm going to go with Meti but then will he start do you know what I think Nunes is probably going to not be fit for this one I think I'm going to go with Meti I think he may start in the 10 roll and he will score I had a feeling about he's not my pick but I had a feeling about Sindra he seems to be a little bit streaky Sindra he scored two in his last four obviously he scored um against blackburn and coventry earlier in the campaign they were quite close together got a got a feeling but i'm not confident enough that he'll start i know that wes burns won't start but i wouldn't be surprised if casey mcateer does start so uh i'm not confident enough to put my neck on the line for that one i'll stick with jack clark yeah i'm gonna stick with me i was having a little moment now i was gonna go oh maybe a set piece goal maybe darro she finally scores that that goal from a corner they're big Boys.

56:01Ross Halls:They're big boys. So, yeah, I don't think so. I think Dara will have a bit of a test for corners. So, Mometi 2-0, 1-0 Clark from AJ, and we'll find out Heathie and Stoog. Because, yeah, I need to get some more points on the board. I got the... Which game was it? Where I got Bang on, the 1-0 again, 2-2-1-0, Hull City. So, hopefully I can get another one. Correct, but we shall see. AJ, we're getting close to the magic hour. Quickly just wrap through So, fixture chaos is here for town because no good Friday game because Southampton beat bloody Fulham. Fulham, stupid. You're close. They've got nothing to play for pretty much in the Premier League.

56:46Ross Halls:Why did they not play a strong team and try to progress in the Cup? Because Fulham, they're a team. I think they're a solid Premier League squad. They could go on to win the FA Cup and they really went for it. But no, they got beaten by Southampton. so we've got no good Friday game. Thanks, Fulham. Yeah, I totally agree. Fulham, we've never won a major trophy in their history. They've come very close on a couple of occasions, but if I was a Fulham fan, I'd be livid because this is the end of their season now. They're not going to go down and they're not going to qualify in Europe. It's going to be another mid-table finish.

57:18So, yep, thanks. Thanks, Fulham. So that means that Southampton go through. They will play probably Manchester City away, I'd imagine, knowing how these cup draw works. on Easter weekend, which will definitely rule out the game that they'll play against Ipswich and also will probably take out the game that they'll be choosing to play on Easter Monday against Wrexham. So a bit of chaos for them. That doesn't really matter as much as it does for Ipswich's perspective because it means there's no good Friday game. They could have played Portsmouth potentially on that day, but then Norwich, who are their Good Friday opponents, went and lost to Leeds, which means that Norwich versus Portsmouth will go ahead on Good Friday.

57:58Great, brilliant. So that leaves us with no Good Friday game. There's no other fixtures we can put into that one at the moment. And it means that Town will have an extended international break. We'll come back with the Birmingham City game on Easter Monday until that's, I don't know, abandoned due to World War III or some other act of God, and we'll need to put that in somewhere else. Yeah, so that means that there's two more slots for Ripswich to organise games. One is going to be in between Norwich away and Middlesbrough at home. The other one will be in the final week of the season. And it looks like Pompey away will go into one and Southampton away will go into the other.

58:37I think that Southampton will be played. I need to get this right. So I think that Portsmouth will be arranged for the... I don't know the dates now. so the the they need to be careful because the semi-finals of the fa cup can also clash again so i can't exactly remember there's a good bit that's been done by um by alfie house of the uh of the southern daily echo he's had a look at how it works for southampton but because they could still go through and who knows if they played portvale and then got through and yeah then um it could change again. So they need to be a little bit careful, but essentially I think Town versus Portsmouth will go into the week where we don't have any FA Cup semi-finals.

59:30So I'll try and confirm exactly what that is at some point. But yeah, chaos as you can tell, and there's going to be a hell of a lot of games in April in a very short space of time.

59:41Ross Halls:Yeah, and there are away games as well, so it's not like, oh, I've got comfort, just like, oh, yeah, put it in whenever because it's a home game, but no, we've got obviously travelled to the south coast to Portsmouth and Southampton but also Portsmouth still annoyed at you because two games we're worried about this we're going oh we haven't got a good Friday game which is a shame I do like a good Friday game but at least we're like okay we can fit that in but still we've got this bloody Portsmouth game that's been a long time to be rescheduled just give it switch the points yeah basically now with Portsmouth so sorry lad sorry Pompey sorry the man with the bell but no, Town, three points, happy days.

1:00:21Ross Halls:But yes, and final bit of business, AJ, is the, I don't know what day it was last week but the playoffs. Thursday, the announcement that it will be extended going into next season. Hopefully Town won't have to worry about it but eight teams could be, six teams, six teams, yeah. Six teams in the playoffs. Yeah, yeah. Can find out. What's your thoughts on there, the playoffs being extended in the championship? people got different opinions on it um yeah so brief explanation of what this will look like it will look like the the national league system we all knew this was going to get voted in uh the only club we voted against it was tranmere rovers of league two weirdly um but basically it will see um so third and fourth naturally will progress to the essentially the semi-finals of the playoffs but then there'll be kind of qualifier rounds for the playoffs which will see eighth play fifth and sixth play seventh and they will be one-off games at the higher ranked clubs home ground and then the winners of those will go on to play third and fourth that will be over two legs and then you'll have the final at Wembley so the playoffs will be extended to become seven games and now means that um we'll see it drop down to eighth so yeah six teams in the playoffs and one of which will go up with the top two in the division i don't hate it as much as some people do i like it from an entertainment perspective i like it because it gives clubs more of a chance in a league that's quite often defined by parachute payments um which is quite nice because you've got teams who just fall short because they haven't got the finances or whatever it gives them an opportunity to go and rally with the big boys and i'd like to see more fresh faces in the Premier League.

1:02:08Obviously, I'd like to see Ipswich back there and they're not a fresh face. I'm happier, for example, that this year it's Coventry and Borough and Millwall at the top rather than Leicester and Southampton, which I think is quite a nice difference and a nice change.

1:02:28But does it work in terms of fairness? How would you feel if you're the third-place team who misses out on promotion because you've lost to the team that finished eighth, 30-odd points behind you. Does it just give everyone the chance? It almost feels like you're giving them a participation trophy for some cases. No, yeah. Well, you'll get a shot at promotion as well. You can have teams that at this stage of the season might be 15th in the table, but would still be three points off the playoffs or four points off the playoffs. I know it means that there's more jeopardy going into the final stages of the season, but how does it work kind of competitively?

1:03:08I'm not really too sure. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Let's see how it goes. Hopefully it won't be Towns' problem next year. But my thought would be, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yeah.

1:03:20Ross Halls:I don't dislike it. I don't dislike it. I'm pleased they haven't gone down the Scottish route where the team who finished 11th in the Scottish Premiership, they take on the team who won the playoffs in the Championship. Oh, I thought you meant the league split. No, no, no, not the league split. No, no, no. But the one where, yeah, if someone finishes 11th in the Scottish Premiership. They have that in Germany as well. As well, yeah. Which, yeah, it can easily become like, oh, it'll just normally, I think in Scotland as well, the team who finish 11th, they normally go on to win because they're more the fresher team and they're the Premiership team.

1:03:55Have you ever seen the explainer of how the European qualifiers and promotion relegation works in Belgium? yeah that is no it's a video coming might have been copper 90 or someone like that they did it and it's just absolutely nuts so i'm glad that we have the system that we do but i don't really see the need to change it from from the traditional format it's worked it's worked fine for since you

1:04:21Ross Halls:know the 90s 80s so um but as i don't dislike it i'm not gonna lose any sleep over it but hopefully town won't have to worry because uh well we haven't had to worry about the plaz for a very long time because um automatic promotion second place baby has been the outcome for town hopefully this will be the same this season but uh next season uh six plough spots available but there we go aj um final thoughts um as we wrap up the latest koa pod we're gonna be heading to the bet 365 stadium are you excited for that one uh yeah yeah yeah i am it should be hopefully a better game than we've tried to sell it as.

1:05:04Safe travels, of course, to everyone going. And the other point I should say as well is because we've gone very referee heavy on this podcast, and understandably so, you know, people should be held to account for the decisions that cost teams money and points and promotions and whatever, and we need to hold professionals to a higher standard. But I think it's also important to say, and I know this won't resonate with some people, don't overdo it. Don't overstep the line. It is a game. don't go out and threaten anyone or release anyone's addresses or something like that over a football match, you can be annoyed, you can tell a ref to some explosives as long as they're fairly calm and go back home and be angry about it and whatever but there's a mark and don't overstep it we've probably seen a couple of occasions that has happened, just remember to take some time, settle and hopefully we've been able to help with a bit of post-match therapy.

1:06:00We're annoyed. It is wrong. It's not good enough as well. But don't overdo it. Try and stay down to earth. Hey, look forward, because we've got two big away games coming up.

1:06:14Ross Halls:We do indeed. I don't know how they do it, though, referees. I just don't know how. That's such a tough job. I did it once. I did it once. Did an under-12 boys game. My niece was playing for the boys team. A mixed sort of thing. That was hard. That was bloody, yeah, 11-year-olds. But doing it in front of a massive crowd, I know a few refs and they're good lads, but yeah, I wouldn't want to do it. But no, good point there, AJ. But no, thank you everybody for listening to the latest Kings of Anglia podcast sponsored by Molecular UK. Use the code KOA10 to get a discount at your next order for your clear car cleaning business.

1:06:57Ross Halls:one day one day Roscoe will be able to get this stuff and clean his own car but that isn't going to happen anytime soon unfortunately but one day but as AJ said if you're going to the game enjoy it safe travels if not follow coverage with us me AJ and Stu will be there big shout out to Dr. Stuart Watson who will be driving me and AJ to Staffordshire Staffordshire? it's Staffordshire for the game against Stoke and also we've seen a few people buy some tickets for K-Way Live recently join them because we're going to be going to be at the Baths and Itchwich on April 18th for Coway Live 3 retake and hopefully the Borough game doesn't get moved but we would love to see you there it's going to be a great night talking all things town and some nonsense as standard but thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time bye for now

1:08:00Thank you.

1:08:31Thank you.

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