Relegated Tractor Boys spoil the penultimate Goodison party

It almost reminds me of the season under Moyes when he let the team have their head for the last few games as we were already mathematically safe and finished 17th, I think, losing the last few games.

Ndiaye and Alcaraz on the same pitch at the same time.

Good to see Calvert-Lewin back on the bench.

Looking forward to seeing how Ndiaye, McNeil and Alcaraz link up. Add Gueye and Garner. Plus Patterson. And it's like a fan vote 11.

Moyes the Maestro (Mr Blue Sky) has finally seen the light! :-)

Then we may get some shots at the top of the box with their back line drawing towards Beto.

Everyone one of us desperate for a good performance and a thumping win.

Absolutely took the words out of my mouth!!

Moyes forever a pragmatist – never change, Davie lad.

I do like the team but it worries me that the team has the almost universal approval of TW managers. Smiley…

Disaster awaits!!!

Make the Grand Old Lady proud, EFC.

Delap fancies getting his name in the record books.

Looks like it's working.

Okay, McNeil's scremer came from that side… but I just wanna see the three of them, Alcaraz, Ndiaye and McNeil, linking up better with Beto to creat a shedload of chances and excitement!

We would welcome him at Everton.

Then there were two, one each side, of quite amazing goals and, if I was Mr Moyes, I'd have that ball either taken out of play or marked and tell my players to shoot with it at every opportunity as there seems something wrong for it to swirl like that on both goals.

Mind you, I was thinking when we got our second; good team selection, Mr Moyes. Now to see when he makes his changes to try and hold onto the lead.

Mind you, Alcaraz obviously made Beto's goal. And Ndiaye was involved in the build-up to McNeil's goal. Players who can play football, playing football.

You can produce good moments when you've got more players in the team capable of producing good moments.

In neither case did it appear to be moving as a result of spin imparted by the kicker, as there was little rotation for the ball in the air.

Although on a closer look, McNeil does seem to get under the ball a little, getting a combination of back and side spin on the ball, which might be why it moved so far in the air.

Why, it's just like watching The School of Science!

Enciso we can forget about, he is on loan from Brighton and I imagine is part of their bigger plans moving forwards. They sure do know how to pick them from the South American leagues.

Only Everton can do this to their supporters. Roll on the 1980s.

Utterly disgraceful show from some really abject professional footballers.

We had no creativity and were pedestrian throughout. Maybe we did miss the Doucoure engine?

For a regular TW poster to suggest we may have been missing Doucoure probably sums up the general malaise and misery.

Typical Moyes and Everton, I'm afraid.

We've gotta let Beto go, he's just not good enough.

I thought Ipswich's equalizer should have been a foul on Patterson who was taken out away from the ball and this Ref seemed keen to give anything similar to Ipswich but overlooked some obvious ones to us.

I'd like to hear Moyes reasons for the substitutions,; when Beto went off, their defence seemed a lot happier dealing with Calvert-Lewin and, while Harrison didn't do badly, I wouldn't have taken McNeil off and certainly not Alcaraz later while somebody will say for "fresh legs".

I really didn't see any point in Young coming on; the only two I'd have considered for changing would have been Gana and Garner, in that order and maybe both for Iroegbunam and a striker, probably Chermiti, to play alongside Beto.

Still, I suppose we are only playing for money with the higher league position now.

You can see why, sadly, even if sign Delap, that he could struggle here. More than anything, we need pace and quality on the flanks.

All the complaining about Doucoure and Harrison in the team and what happens!

Beto scored a good goal but his touch is comical.

I still think the big issue is that we ask a lot of our midfielders and all season we've been lacking options to bring in fresh legs in that position. We've now got Tim Iroegbunam but he doesn't seem to be trusted.

Disappointing… but hard to get too wound up at this point.

Can't wait for the new stadium; unfortunately, we will still have Moyes (and yes I'm one of the many who never wanted him back).

Some good football; some bang average; and a lot of dogshit football. Massive rebuild yet again required as we know.

Moyesie will be lucky if he gets a full season under the new ownership on the recent outings. Just not good enough all round.

Charly needs to go back to his parent club, as well as Broja and Slack Harrison. Doucoure needs to go. Calvert-Lewin is back-tracking because no fucker wants him. He can do one, the greedy bastard.

Mykolenko ain't good enough; Patterson ain't good enough. Nice to see Dwight back – he was probably the only positive of the game with a top goal.

Will the Yanks trust Davey and his crew with a rebuild job or will they look at alternative managers? Personally, I don't care. I'm just sick and tired of us being fucking crap.

Big season for Moyes, he'll get a budget to bring in better players, let's see what he does. TFG won't put up with him if there is no improvement in results next season

Very disappointing to throw away four 2-nil leads this season.

Not sure any reason to think about buying Alcaraz. McNeil is a better Number 10 and today shows he can't play on the left.
On the subs, both Beto (who was generally awful) and McNeil were knackered.

Patterson had a poor game and probably should have been taken off earlier.

Gana again our best player, along with Jarrad.

Not to mention the great headline to this thread. I'm blaming it on Sharpe for showing up and ghosts of the past regime.

I wonder what the Friedkins are thinking?

Big clearout required; no sentiment (like the All Blacks do) no matter who you are.

Big signings required. Pointless trying to flower things up.

He was a complete passenger in a very poor 2nd half.

A big squad of some quality will totally confuse our manager. Thought he was outsmarted again today.

This was paying homage to all those other games in the 60+ years since I first started supporting Everton where we were well on top and ended up hanging on for a draw.

It is our DNA. It makes us what we are. Evertonians. The greatest supporters in the world.

Don't know if Alcaraz is the player that everybody claims is a must buy.

O'Brien was caught badly for the cross but once again Pickford should be claiming crosses which are within his 6-yard box.

Our so-called best team lacked desire, pace, incisiveness and quality.

I don't see so-called TW managers on here. I read people predicting their preferred line up, something I don't usually get involved in, but I like reading the different views.

I thought that was as good a starting line up as we have today. So did the manager.

Delap will also be an upgrade if we manage to sign him, but failing that we should be talking to Brighton about Julio Enciso. He looks a similar kind of talent to Ndiaye.

Sorry, I must have missed the phone call when Mr Moyes was wondering what subs to make.

But what faults do you think Mr Moyes is getting blamed for? I must get down to Finch Farm next week.

Obviously this summer will see a long rebuilding job start but I suspect those hoping for a European finish next year will be let down. The gap remains large and we could spend £90M adding the likes of Delap, Greaves, Hutchinson and Philogene (to take today's opponents) without closing that gap significantly.

Big challenge for Moyes and the players to push even for top ten next year.

I am becoming more and more disillusioned with football these days; money has ruined the game, players don't seem to want to roll their sleeves and socks up any more, or show any pride in the team they play for.

If there is any, they are in a minority.

My point is that, yes, there are different views… and, from what I see, many of them quite derogatory to our players such as Doucoure, Harrison, Beto, even Calvert-Lewin, while players like Alcaraz seem to get a free pass.

The team picked today is a team which would be picked by the majority of those on TW (and I did say including me) but, from my perspective, they performed very poorly and, as already reading here, the performance is now being blamed on Moyes.

It is not meant to be as you say snidey, just commenting on we got the so-called dream team and the outcome was, as I had initially feared, not what we expected. I did say I hope I would be wrong but unfortunately not.

We had enough control and numbers across midfield that could have seen us tease them out of position rather than going directly to the final third so often. This was not a well-managed strategy, undermined by a poor squad.

Dropping back to see out the first half and more cagey possession early in the second would have served us better.

I'd go along with a lot of what you say but, in terms of players not rolling socks and sleeves up, we surely are in a class of our own.

Fantastic support; gutless players. Still, we may see out Goodison with a point against Southampton.

Does anyone, seriously, anyone, think that David Moyes is the man to win stuff? The man to move us onward and upward?

Unfortunately, with the limited funds this summer, Moyes, is it. It depends on what we want. Moyes is a B+ compared to Dyche's B.

A new system takes time, but whatever system any manager plays has always got to suit his players and I'm not sure that was the case today.

The best thing about today was definitely the reception that the 1878 fan group organised. It got me thinking about the last 30 years with my feelings being that Everton are still only a Premier League club because the fans (who sometimes get criticised by people who don't understand us) have not only never deserted the club, but they have often been the only people trying to galvanise it!

I hope he is backed in the summer to bring in the players he needs. As I said to someone just minutes ago, despite my opinion on him, I don't want him to fail, because that means Everton will have failed.

Fair points, Neil. Everyone has different views, myself included. A lot of people I talk to slate players like Doucoure and Harrison because they are not good enough to be where we want to be if we are to progress, even if under Moyes next season that is getting us comfortably in the top half with a cup run all the way to Wembley.

I know we are light in numbers, but I don't see the logic in playing players who won't be here next season.

I've liked what I've seen of Alcaraz and, in a better team with better players, we will get more out of him. I also wouldn't be against Calvert-Lewin staying if it works out for the player and the club. I don't hold injuries against any player, but he needs to play more and have the supply, something most recent Everton strikers have been starved of.

Replace the manager or not, but that won't change the fact that there are poor players out there.

Alcaraz produced a great cross, but against poor opposition, him and Ndiaye were largely anonymous. For those watching on tv, you will have not noticed that alcaraz's out of possession work rate is dreadful.

Beto scored a great header, but the rest of the game his touch and movement were pretty poor.

McNeil scored a great goal, but for large parts of the game he didn't affect the play apart from free kicks.

The midfield two of Garner and Gana didn't win enough ball, and we're too slow in passing it quickly forward against a reasonably well-organised opposition.

Zero contribution from the full-backs. The quality of the ball in from crossing was predictably poor. Patterson once again caught miles out of position, hoping for a foul that wasn't, and we get done at the far stick. He's done, he's nowhere near good enough.

Great hit from Enciso, but surely players should be doing their homework not to let him get it on his right and stop the shot.

Too many passengers today. An attacking line-up, but pretty low in quality going forward.

In terms of Delap, he put it about a bit, but in terms of quality, it was pretty unimpressive. If he was foreign, I am not sure you'd get a clamour for him.

If I can give a tribute to the 1878s. The effort these people put in is unreal. The Old Lady looked beautiful today. Each and every one, thank you from me and my dad.

Also a ground move that will take a while to feel like home.
The last thing we need with all that going on is a change of manager.

Not my choice originally but Moyes has proved a safe pair of hands, and we will need him next season, whether some like it or not.

With so much change coming, we need Moyes to be a steadying influence on the pitch.

On the evidence, it don't work. One or the other.

No matter what they've thrown at us, and I mean all of us, these past few seasons, we are the constant and lately took over and dragged the club kicking and screaming over the line.

An unwelcome line we shouldn't even think about crossing.

I'm not knocking you, Jeff, and understand your logic to a certain degree, especially after reading what I thought was a very sensible post by Andy.

But I wanted our new stadium to be a brand new dawn, and was hoping it would be used in a very positive manner to help try and galvanise the whole club.

My initial point is that we got what many believe is our best team selection on paper, but I'm a firm believer that the best team does not always consist of the most skilful players but must be a combination of skill, creativity, spoilers and workhorses combined to contribute to the overall performance.

Dare I say, I just wonder if we had started with Doucoure and Harrison today, would we have got a different result? We will never know.

We need to recruit carefully not not make the mistakes during the Koeman - Walsh era of buying individuals without considering their integration into the team.

I just think a change of manager at this time would be a change too many… for now.

You could argue whether there was a better combination with McNeil on the left, Alcaraz central, and Ndiaye on the right, but honestly I think it would have made bugger-all difference.

Also, that Ndiaye and Alcaraz can't really be accommodated together. What they were short of today was a player like Doucoure at his best and I believe that, unfortunately, Patterson is probably not what we need at right-back.

I thought today he showed most of what we want to see. He was constantly moving forward, provided some good touch passing and distribution in traffic, and his cross for Beto's goal was probably the best single cross I've seen from us this season. He's not the finished article, of course, but to me his potential is obvious.

Also, Ian #60, not sure you saw that the cross for the tying goal was deflected and actually looped over Pickford and O'Brien. Not much they could have done. As to Enciso, I strongly doubt that the potential of a shot like that was on anybody's scouting report.

But I heartily agree with you on Patterson. I've really never seen anything from him that hints of top-level quality, and to be lying on the ground in the buildup to that last goal just looked awful. Right-back remains high on my list for the summer.

The circumstances surrounding leaving glorious Goodison Park are somewhat deflecting what has become a downright frustrating last few weeks of the season. Today was no exception; this was a hard watch.

We suspect Moyes is using these games to provide fringe and out-of-contract players a last chance but what can be achieved by bringing on Chermiti for 6 minutes? What was the point of bringing Ashley Young on again?

Surely Coleman would have appreciated a run out for what could be his last time at Goodison. Harrison came on for McNeil who we assume was tiring. We know about Harrison though. Why not throw Broja on on the right?

Criticising Moyes at this stage is tantamount to football sedition but there are slightly worrying signs after the so-called 'bounce'.

My fear right now is of old habits which frustrated fans under previous management returning and the much longed for revolution of our football club may indeed not be as dramatic as initially hoped. Let's see…

I just hope the new owners are as ambitious as they say; otherwise, we will have a frustrating couple of years ahead of us.

People may say "That it's an end-of-the-season match, what do you expect?"

I expect much much more.

Maybe it might take more than one game. There are millions of reasons why we are not managing Premier League teams.

Why Moyes is, is not as obvious… but will be clear as soon as the new owners find a coach who thinks we might win at Chelsea.

Two weeks tomorrow. 2-0 up over Southampton and 5 minutes to go and Moyes brings on Seamus.

Just as the 90 minutes is up, Calvert-Lewin's header is palmed away by their centre-back.

Up steps Seamus and buries it in the corner. The last player to score at Goodison Park.

We can but dream.

Absolutely, Neil. We didn't have a strategy in that fateful period. It seemed like we had a collection of individuals with blank cheques all going to the sweet shop like excited kids and coming back with different sweets.

Mike check out Alcaraz stats.

36 passes out of 40.
1 assist

All great, but then,

0 shots
0 successful dribbles
1 cross
3 out of 6 duels
1 interception
1 key pass

In 90 minutes of football, that isn't enough. 90% passing rate is great, but the amount of attacking output was poor, as was Ndiaye. No shots, no dribbles, and just one cross that we scored from. We need more than that. He flatters to deceive. Punters like him, as the rest are so poor.

His out-of-possession work rate is poor. It's not all about that, but managers notice it, and that's why Moyes benches him.

Beto was a complete passenger in the second half and it was clear nobody wanted to make a forward pass to him cos they know he cannot control it. Very poor and needs to go.

I think O'Brien is a better right-back than central defender. I don't think he played one ball forward. He just gives the ball back to Jordan or Jarrad.

Finally, the 2 full-backs are just not good enough and need replacing.

I thought the only real positive today was McNeil. He looked back to his best and I would have moved him into the middle before taking him off. He was the only one who looked like scoring or doing something.

Regarding Ipswich, I would definitely take Delap and Hutchinson for next season if we could afford them. It is time for Calvert-Lewin to move on. He now only wants to stay because nobody wants him.

Youngest Team we have put out since Wolves away just after Christmas 2023 — 53 games ago.

And a pile of the players from that game are 16 months older.

This squad has always struggled at the sharp end of the pitch and cannot break teams down. They haven't got a clue when they have the majority of the possession and have mostly relied on dead-ball situations to score.

Ndiaye has not been the same player since he was injured. McNeil scored a great goal but is slower than me and I'm 74.

Jake and Jarrad showed they need to play alongside an experienced head like Tarkowski as they left a gap as wide as the Mersey Tunnel for the first goal and O'Brien totally misjudged the ball for the second.

It says something about our lack of creativity when the majority of our passes are side to side from centre-back to centre-back.

I don't know about 12 players going — I would suggest the number should be much higher.

Steady, Jay, you'll be talking yourself into the wide right midfield position. There's always a place for experience!!

McNeil and Alcaraz bring something different. McNeil is no Sheedy or Liam Brady, but he's got a great left foot if we can get players on the end of it.

And he's got goals in him too. My favourite was Brighton away when we thumped them 5-1 a couple seasons ago. Not the most spectacular. He dribbled it into the net after cutting through a couple of defenders, and put the goalkeeper on his arse before poking it in from less than 1 yard out.

I see Garner is getting criticism again from some. He was working very hard for most of match.

Ipswich were very much set-up to nullify our standard play today, including being wide and flat in defence to stop our full-backs doing much going forwards.

However, I was relieved to hear that his contract was for 18 months only with a further 12-month option. One win in ten has reinforced my view that, at 62, he is not the right man to take on the huge responsibility of building a new team and taking us forward; we don't require a safe pair of hands any more, we need a younger man with ambition.

TFG have been ruthless in replacing managers at Roma and surely must be looking at potential replacements. Frank, Iraola or possibly Glasner would be a perfect fit and would be prised away from their clubs without too much difficulty.

Hopefully it will happen.

The Everton supporters, both home and away, deserve more than the shite served up.

As for Moyes, well he won't turn us into a Champions League team but he will keep us safe. Is that enough? I doubt it.

The important thing is that he brings qualities in attack that we desperately need. And at 22, he has a long runway for development. I hope it's with us.

Andy #56, no, I don't. But for the next year, the priority is pulling everything together -- the new club structure, integrating a half-dozen new players, growing into the new stadium. Moyes is obviously Friedkin's choice to manage all that, and he won't be changed out unless things go very, very far off the rails.

C'mon man, that ain't enough...

We've always had the attitude of, "This game doesn't matter" — it's a loser mentality because every game should matter.

Bournemouth have gone to Arsenal today and won, nothing for either to play for but Bournemouth won at Arsenal, imagine us doing that.

As as football club, we have completely lost any kind of standards and have zero ambition to gain any real progress.

Even the rumours I hear this past 7 days about openness to new deals for the likes of Harrison, Calvert-Lewin… a worrying lack of intent that I'm seeing on behalf of The Friedkin Group, to be honest.

He had something big to celebrate and rightly so. Today, we had nothing.

The season after, I don't expect he will be manager. It's all part of TFG's long-term plan.

I reckon that, given the size of our deficiencies, we will struggle not to be very close to the relegation spots for much of next season or for possibly a couple more windows?

Ian P, even in the highly unlikely event that Friedkin would pay up to lure away another club's manager (he has never done so, hiring only off the unemployment rolls), it is wildly overoptimistic to think that Frank or Iraola would be easily lured. I can't recall an example of a successful and popular manager quitting his job to move down the table. Can you?

I get the sentiment, but it hasn't always been that way.

I am not naive enough to know we've been dreadful for most of the last 40 years by my own expectations and standards.

I get called deluded, unrealistic, a dreamer. The list will go on. But my standards and expectations for Everton will never be taken away by any owner, manager or players.

We've seen and know what it takes.

I think we should both get our boots out and show them what a winner's attitude looks like.

The culture at the club has been too soft for too long.

The game didn't get any better in the second half and was even more boring than the first half. Ipswich were finding it easy to hold the Everton attacks when they finally found a way through after fannying around passing backwards mostly to one another before it ended up with Pickford.

Moyes made his subs but didn't improve Everton's game or tempo and Ipswich got the equaliser they deserved and, in the last 10 minutes, looked the likelier team to get the winner.

Another very frustrating home game to watch, leaving the last one v Southampton to provide us with the hope of leaving Goodison Park with a final fruitful game to remember.

Final thought — Would we have lost that game if Tarkowski had been fit enough to play?

Played 56
Won 18
Lost 22
Drawn 16
For 62
Against 73

Embarrassing and shameful records that for what was once a fortress.

The constant moaning on here about team selection and why is he not playing Alcaraz and Ndiaye has now been shown why us on ToffeeWeb are busy in our day jobs and Moyes is managing a Premier League team.

I've read this 43 times and I'm still a tad stumped. So, Phil wants to score a point against ‘us on ToffeeWeb' by explaining that ‘us on ToffeeWeb' picked the same team as Moyes and that is why ‘us on ToffeeWeb are busy in our day jobs and Moyes is managing a Premier League team'.

??????????

When Tarkowski got injured and he bought Keane on, he said he didn't want to make two changes, so O'Brien stayed at right-back. Yet today he makes several player and positional changes and we wonder why we played the way we did?

Throughout the game we did not look comfortable against a team that has been relegated. So Moyes has begun giving some players a chance to show him what they can or cannot do. Today, they failed and looked awful.

Moyes has some really difficult questions to answer in the next 3 games: Who goes? Who stays? And who comes in?

From a long distance away, I already feel uncomfortable about how we will start at the new stadium. Being an Evertonian for nearly 60 years, I guess that is a normal feeling — apart from a few years in the 1980s.

I don't think, when the season starts, we will have more than 2 new players, which a traditional Moyes set up team with a solid back four, a combative midfield, and an attack that will struggle to score goals.

Will it be more of the same in plush new surroundings? Once again, we will need the fans to pull us through.

I really, really hope I'm wrong!

Without him, no leaders on the pitch.

We have had sporadic moments, the start of the Covid season under Ancelotti was exciting, and the last quarter of Silva's first season also gave me hope.

But other than that, it has mostly been mundane and conservative. I have always been convinced that a more adventurous manager than Moyes would have won a couple of trophies with some of the teams that he created.

This, above anything else, is the reason why I have never been convinced by Moyes, but I hope he proves me wrong for obvious reasons.

Each time we went 20 yards forward if the two centre backs were involved, we ended up 25 yards back with the keeper, Pickford is part of the problem as he wants to be involved all the time when he should stay in his box and encourage forward play.

The centre-backs are both good defenders but the possession stuff should bypass them.

Pickford should be bowling the ball out to his fullbacks and wide midfielders, not fannying about with the centre halves.
Frustrating football and Moyes should be rollicking them to move the ball faster and forwards.

I think you have described next season pretty accurately. What is wrong with you???!!

Our goals were good, but came out of nowhere. Far too many of our players were not at full pelt.

I was not impressed with Delap, but Enciso was very good.

It was a pleasure to bump into John McFarlane Senior and his grandson, Josh, walking up to the ground. He said he is unable to post on here now, so I promised to pass on his best wishes to his TW friends.

If there's a younger, cheaper version of Newcastle's Tonali, I'd like us to spot him and sign him.

We met John and Josh before the Arsenal match. As always, a pleasure to meet such a knowledgable Evertonian.

A classic example of correlation, not causation, perhaps?

We’re really not much better than the three relegated clubs. It’s the goals against column that saves us.

All of them started today but we couldn’t beat an already relegated team with a 2 goal start and whom we beat 2-0 at their place when they had something to play for.

We are a conundrum.

Good players around the club but a crap team, even with the majority of those supposedly good players in the starting lineup.

Maybe they’re not as good as we believe.

It’s all about GP now until the end of the season and then a re-set.

But it’s a massive job.

I was disappointed, and he was lucky to stay on the pitch for me.

They defended quite well against the usual inept attack of Everton and got back in the game when the two holding midfielders of Everton failed once again to do their jobs.

Garner and Gana are not up to snuff as far as I am concerned and won't be a factor if Everton are to move to the next level along with the fullbacks

Yes of course big improvements are necessary also in the offensive side of things as the goals tally this season is awful.

I cannot see much in the way of points being gained at Fulham or Newcastle and thank God we are clear of the relegation zone.

All that remains is a decent send off against Soton and then thsi season is best forgotten.

"We’re really not much better than the three relegated clubs."

We have:

17 more points than Ipswich.

18 more points than Leicester.

28 more points than Southampton.

My favourite was "I simply love you more than life itself".

And "The Story We Will Carry On", which has been displayed on the facade of St Johns recently as you leave Lime Street.

The story the the next generation of young blues will carry on.

We and they shall never be moved.

Well done to the 1878s. The club should be doing it, but let's not take anything away from those volunteers, their dedication and commitment.

Player for player though we really aren’t that much better than the three relegated sides - all of which are going down because they can’t defend and play much higher risk football.

I am convinced Dyche would have kept two of the three relegated sides up this season.

Too much sideways and back passing, little confidence to play a positive pass and little pace to ask questions.

But he eventually got Burnley relegated (was bailed out before it happened), and although I I wouldn't openly admit it it at the time as it's not my nature to think the unthinkable, Dyche was taking us down.

You could see it in him, you could see it in the players and most importantly you could feel it sat amongst the supporters.

So, today ...... again.

We have a squad with a plethora of very wealthy (and their wealth grows by the day to the cost of football success on the pitch) players whose abilities and ambitions are limited to their accurately assessed self-assessments, meaning that their contracts are considered more than lucrative according to their agents and themselves.

Thus they don't want to risk their very own lucrative life and, happily for them, but not us, no other club reportedly wants to improve them.

So, Moyes and whoever else is actually managing finance, recruitment, scouting and whip-cracking (if that's still permissible, which I doubt), has a very, very massive series of challenges to improve us on the pitch at all next season, courtesy of the depths to which we've been plunged for decades (and lucratively paid Moyes knows this from day one of his first tenure - where he could do bugger all to win a trophy given the mismanagement above him).

I've written this time and again for over ten years on here, and refrain from holding is it ten managers (?) solely responsible for the mediocrity that engulfs us today, still.

We've been sabotaged from within for decades, in plain sight to anyone with a shred of insight, and are effectively of no interest to the media - I mean tonight on MoTD the BBC applauded the attendance of that self-serving Kenwright supporter Graeme Sharp at today's match!

Friedkin needs to perform miracles with scouting and accountancy to improve us at all next season, or the next.

Danny #98, amen.

The second half was really frustrating. We had a spell around the hour mark when we dominated possession passing the ball around but without a single shot on target. Against a team which has conceded seventy six goals that was very disappointing.

Once Ipswich had made their substitutions they were able to capitalise on their pace in counterattacks which exposed the gaps between our lines. In the end we were relieved to keep hold of a point.

As others have said if we go into next season with substantially the same group the outcome will be little better than it has been this season. One win and only nine points from the last ten games is an accurate reflection of where we are.

We have some players, international players, who can be part of a successful squad but without a reliable striker, extra pace in wide areas and greater strength in central midfield we will continue to struggle to win more than one game in four.

The consolation is that David Moyes will have more scope in the summer to recruit better players than has been possible over the last four years.

I dispute that.

For at least 30 minutes we were in control and very untroubled. Then one of their players carried the ball for about 20-30 yards from deep in their half without anyone challenging him and suddenly they realised they had some ways to combat us.

They also got very narked at going 2 nil down and deliberately tried to unsettle us.

In the vicinity of my seat we were all fuming about their second goal. It seemed clear to us that Patterson was impeded when looking to run through onto a pass by Harrison. The defender threw his arm straight across Patterson’s chest and grabbed his shirt as it looked like Patterson was going to go past him. Clear foul to all who had our view (and the linesman should have seen it clearly) so we were outraged the ref didn’t blow. Next thing it’s cleared and they start the attack that results in their second goal. It was obvious by how quickly their goal was confirmed it wasn’t looked at by VAR.

Only doubt in my mind was how much of a jump did Patterson have on their defender before the arm / hold on the shirt was used to block / restrain him. He did overdo the dying swan stuff in the aftermath, though I’m not sure if he could have gotten back to defend the back post and prevent Hirst from scoring which some did reckon he could have.

I’m dubious about the MotD coverage because they didn’t show enough of the build-up to Patterson’s tumble to show whether he was favourite to get to the pass intended for him to run onto, the camera angle they used was poor and despite highlighting he may have sustained a head injury in that challenge they never scrutinised it like they usually do when it’s possible the ref should have stopped the game.

The ref was constantly booed by guys in my section of the ground after that, up to and including when the officials were eventually walking off the pitch.

Pass accuracy 78%

Goals 0

Assists 0

Shots 0

Possession lost 10

Aerial duels won 0

0 successful dribbles

Key pass 0

Duel’s won 4/9.

And Doucoure was in the CAM position, not stuck out on the wing. Alcaraz will improve, but Doucoure won’t.

We had enough chances but didn't take advantage. Well taken goal by Beto but, otherwise, he offered nothing other than effort. I would like to have seen him subbed after 60 mins (at the latest).

2 nil up doesn't seem to be a safe place for us.