Pre-match preamble
Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of The Wednesday Cricket Club (itself formed in 1820), our opponents today were known as The Wednesday Football Club until 1929, unsurprisingly (but not imaginatively) so named because the founding members had a half-day off work on Wednesdays.
According to Wikipedia, Wednesday is one of the oldest surviving football clubs in the world of any code, and the second-oldest professional association football club in England.
Since 1899, the club has played all its home matches at Hillsborough Stadium, in the north-west Sheffield suburb of Owlerton – presumably the origin of their nickname 'The Owls'.
Wednesday's biggest rivals are Sheffield United, with whom they contest the 'Steel City Derby'.
Ipswich Town vs Sheffield Wednesday's head-to-head record shows that in the previous 24 meetings, Ipswich Town has won eight times, Sheffield Wednesday has won five times, and 11 ended in a draw. Ipswich Town scored 31 goals and Sheffield Wednesday scored 25 goals in these matches.
Sheffield Wednesday have failed to win their last 14 matches (Championship).
Team changes
Ipswich have three confirmed absentees for this game, but Alex Palmer could return in goal from injury.
Sheffield Wednesday are now without Sean Fusire and Yan Valery, with both players heading to the African Cup of Nations.
Will today prove to be a fairly easy ride, or will it be another banana skin? The Owls must be buoyed to some extent by recent events, with a possible new owner bringing a more certain future. Problematically, if a bid is below the club's £30 million debt obligation, they would face a potential 15-point deduction next season. Very difficult situation for their players – you have to empathise with them…but still beat them.
Will Walton retain his place in goal, or will Palmer be back? That's a difficult one – I think they are both equally good, but I do think Christian has earned the gloves in the last few weeks.
Yellow cards. A very apt song comes to mind: "How do you solve a problem like Matusiwa?" (Replace the noun with Maria and Google 'The Sound of Music' if you are not familiar with the line).
Moving on to Hamlet – to play him or not to play him, and in which games? It would be great to think he could play to the end of the season without a ban, when already only one card away from it, but there's still a long way to go. He might be a big loss in a crucial game; he has been consistently good for us so far. And who would take his place…?
First half
Town's first good chance came just after kick-off when Philogene swung in a cross from the left to Hirst, which he headed narrowly over the bar.
I found the first 20 minutes a little slow, as if the two teams were weighing each other up, apart from a nearly goal from the Owls on the 15-minute mark, which had us all holding our breath. Cadamarteri's header from a corner was followed by a poorly placed pass out, and when Lowe struck, it looked like a certain goal. His shot beat Walton, who was out of position, but not Kipré, who ran in to clear the ball off the line.
Hirst picked up an injury early on and was replaced by Azón, who almost immediately headed just wide from a Núñez free-kick.
The pace picked up a little from there, and a shot from Cajuste, saved by Charles, rebounded to present a header for Núñez, which was also fired just wide.
On the half hour Jaden 'oh so nearly' scored an incredible goal with an overhead kick from a deflected Azón shot, only to see it hit the post.
More of the same followed with a few more near misses from Town – was it going to be one of those days? Kipré answered that question within the next minute by heading the ball into the right-hand corner of the net. Going into the break ahead is always a good feeling.
Second half
Both sides came out looking purposeful, and play moved from end to end with Town dominating possession but also being called on to defend well at times.
It was largely one-way traffic towards the Wednesday goal with several abortive attempts to break through the defence. Azón headed wide from a Furlong pass, and Town kept pressing until, on 60 minutes, a breakaway pass by Núñez to Cajuste and finally on to Philogene saw his trademark brilliance curve a shot past the keeper into the net, his eighth goal of the season so far.
Azón came close again not long after with a curling effort just wide of the mark, and Walle Egeli was unlucky to see his shot blocked on the line.
After a defensive slip-up, Cadamarteri forced Walton into a good save, the only time he had been troubled so far, before, on 71 minutes, a Bannan free-kick from the left dropped for Liam Cooper to fire a strong shot through a medley of bodies into the net.
On 87 minutes, Town got another breakaway courtesy of a perfect ball from Matusiwa through to Clarke, who managed to hold off a challenge from Otegbayo by pushing the ball at an acute angle into the right-hand corner of the net (reminiscent of the Sarmiento toe-poke) – for his seventh goal this season.
Town were still pushing during the nine minutes added on, with McAteer and Azón coming close, but a fourth goal was not to be.
Men of the match
Three brilliant goals, all very different, must be applauded along with their creators and assisters.
Jack Clarke's game acuity is genius.
MotM for me was Cedric Kipré: not only did he score a goal, but he also saved us from conceding a certain goal with his quick thinking.
Runner-up would be the inimitable Matusiwa, who was stellar in all areas.
Post-match ponderings
Wednesday deserve respect for their efforts; they came to play a game, not simply to defend and gave it their best shot (fortunately only the one)! Having said that, their 'falling down' and time-wasting tactics, plus some odd refereeing decisions, slowed the game down to a frustrating level at times.
Chatted to a very pleasant young man on the train, Toby from Salcott, dissecting the match and all things Ipswich Town. We agreed on quite a few aspects of the modern game.
There are some fans who seem to delight in negative thinking, but they are still very much in the minority, I believe. They are also not exclusive to our club; they are everywhere. And since the birth of online fan forums, they have a platform for their ire. They call it 'voicing an opinion', the only problem being their insistence that theirs is the right one, and often the language in which it is framed.
Our club is still developing – with 10,000 more seats promised, capacity will be upwards of 40,000. We are also promised wi-fi, so we'll be able to Google the scores of our nearest rivals throughout the match, instead of relying on those with current connectivity.
We are also promised new strikers during the January break. Will a batch of new rivals for their starting positions help the confidence of our current players or undermine it? I have to wonder. When does healthy competition turn into desperation to perform? A genuine question. No one has ever wanted to be the last one picked for the netball team…
Some will criticise today's performance (it seems everyone is an expert these days), but although it was not the most exciting game I've seen – WE WON. We. Got. Three. Points. Not all games are pretty or perfect, and even the top-flight teams do not always get it right – where would the fun and interest be if that were the case?
We are now third in the table with the second-highest number of goals scored. That's not too shabby, is it?
As we drifted away from the ground, there was mostly a comfortable air of content that we got the game over the line and with three brilliant goals to boot. An apt expression.
But if the crowd is not always singing, it is sometimes because we are holding our breath.
