AKA the morning after the night before.
As I’m supposed to be doing something else right now, this will be a quick one on probably one of the most important results of a while.
It might “only” be the Carabao Cup, but beating a Premier League team is always a good feeling.
I think it’s the second time it’s ever happened in the AFCW era. And I missed the other one by being in a plane on the US east coast.
Instead, last night your editor was in the press box again, and it didn’t distract from the enjoyment of last night (sorry, forgot to take photo).
True, we conceded two piss-poor goals, but we were also denied what looked like a perfectly good equaliser and they couldn’t deal with our free kicks.
Goodman was the reason why we ended up going to the shoot-out, but to be fair he’s also partly the reason why we got through.
The way Ogundere went to take the decisive one as if to say, “I’m fucking scoring this so don’t bother trying to save it” will live in the memory for a while.
Did we do it the hard way? Yes. Did we deserve to go through? Also yes.
OK, the first fifteen minutes I wasn’t thinking that – you just knew the Iraqi Scouser would find the net as soon as he took the field.
He did look genuinely apologetic scoring against us, to be fair, and he did clap us when he went off.
But we weren’t killed off and started getting back into the game. And Bugiel’s goal – the one that was allowed – was a genuine reward.
As was the Stevens effort to go ahead.
I’ll be honest, while it was gutting to see them equalise, I was also half expecting it. Even if we were defending with a resoluteness not seen for a while.
Biler in particular had a blinder, especially the way he tackled AAH as he was preparing to strike his second of the evening.
I cannot confirm or deny whether I broke press box etiquette when the final spot kick went in, but I don’t think anyone objected…
It was quite a good turnout in the end, helped no doubt by close to 1900 coming down to the smoke from tractorland.
Perhaps people still can’t quite believe Ipswich are a Premier League side, as we’ve played them in the FAC last season and in the League not quite so long ago.
Not that I think they’ll be in the top flight next campaign, mind you.
I thought they were quite poor for a lot of the game, and having a collection of eleven individuals showed.
They’ll need to get their arses in gear PDQ because if we can put two goals past them, what are some of the other PL sides going to do?
Our reward for last night is Newcastle at home, which actually feels like a big draw.
It’s certainly going to be the biggest game since we returned to Plough Lane, and to be fair to the Geordies their website knows which side their stottie is buttered (see third paragraph).
We’ll probably get gubbed, but maybe we won’t?
The proper stuff resumes on Saturday at home to Fleetwood, where I expect we’ll lose. That’s what usually happens with us.
But we haven’t had too many mouthwatering games to look forward to in recent years, so it’s nice to start getting a couple of cup runs again.
I just hope we can use it to propel us up the table. We showed we’re good enough.
One final thing – your editor couldn’t shift his spare ticket for last night, but I bet I won’t have trouble finding a buyer for the next round…