On Saturday, Ipswich Town defeated Plymouth Argyle 2-0 to take second place in the Championship standings. Karl Fuller, a blues lover, shares his opinions. That weekend wasn’t so horrible, was it? It was nearly as ideal as we could have imagined, save a late winner for Southampton. To be honest, I wasn’t holding out much hope for a victory in Plymouth. It went completely against my extremely optimistic outlook of the previous eighteen months. First of all, I don’t have many positive memories of my recent excursions to Plymouth. At Home Park, they did appear to have a slight influence over us. At Home Park, Kieran McKenna thanks the visiting Town supporters. Picture: PA I wondered if we would lose our spark moving ahead without Wes Burns and Nathan Broadhead. I was also concerned that forced alterations to our starting lineup might undermine our customary substitutions later in the match. Considering Massimo Luongo’s absence, I thought a point would be a fantastic result. However, what am I aware of? I should have known better and believed my preconceptions about how exceptional this squad is early in the season.
What made this even more delightful, and I’ll tell you why, were a few scenes that could have been taken from the Plymouth Argyle textbook.Conor Chaplin celebrates his heavily deflected goal at Plymouth that broke the deadlock.Picture: PA First off, they were able to rely on a number of loanees for much of last season’s success. Some fans referred to them as Loan FC. We had to send four loanees into the starting lineup when we played Town on Saturday. All four of those players are contributing just as much to the team as any long-term player. It never occurred to me that a January signing would have the same kind of impact as Marcus Stewart did in 2000, but Kieffer Moore has yielded similar results thus far. Although we will have George Hirst returning for the upcoming campaign, I wouldn’t be opposed to looking at the possibility of bringing Moore on as a long-term player. The other beautiful moment of the day occurred on Saturday when a deflected goal helped us win. The memory of Bali Mumba’s late deflection leveller at Portman Road from the previous season was largely erased by it. Ian Foster, the manager of Plymouth, described Brendan Galloway’s own goal as a “freak” goal, even though that did not happen during his tenure. Hey Ian, what goes around, comes around? Town hasn’t won five straight Championship games since October 2003. That run of games included a 4-3 victory over Crystal Palace in the fifth game. Who will never forget the goal in that game by Shefki Kuqi? Harry Clarke rejoices as Ipswich wins the league for the seventh time straight.Picture: PA Rewind to how wonderful Saturday was. Is it premature to suggest that today may turn out to be crucial? Will the previous season’s climax be mimicked this time around? A bit before our game, Leeds’ draw against Huddersfield helped to calm my worries. Who would have predicted Queens Park Rangers to triumph over Leicester City then? The manner we have ensnared the league leaders is simply amazing. Recall that, even though we still had two games left to win, we were 18 points behind Leicester just four weeks ago. With the advantage of an early kickoff on Saturday and a repeat of Tuesday night’s results, we have a good chance of leading the league when Leicester City visits Hull City. Yes, I’m getting ahead of the game, but all I’m doing is sketching the potential brightness of the scene. What odds would you place on our boys to win the next two games? We will need to somehow maintain the same level of focus for the next game, even if I’m not sure how Kieran McKenna and his staff manage to do so. Eleven important contests are on the horizon. Moore’s goal on Saturday marked McKenna’s 200th league goal during his tenure with the team, which was another wonderful moment. 200 goals in 104 games is it. With 61 victories, a 59% victory percentage is now in effect. I have no idea where this is going to end.We have to just enjoy every second. Save it in a bottle and savor every last bit. It’s not typical. Tomorrow night is Bristol City’s visit. Is it possible for us to win six straight?
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