The Simon Williams Column

Last updated : 22 August 2005 By Simon Williams
So, four games in; four goals scored, 3 goals conceded and 7 points on the board. Cue cries of ‘Boring, boring Ipswich’.

It sounds average when compared with the past few seasons, but it is not a bad return at all, and I for one, welcome this newfound resilience.

However we are not a dull team, far from it, and although against weak opposition in Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, we showed that our youngsters are some of the most exciting crop around.

The defence has been well documented, and despite the lack of changes they are holding their own extremely well indeed, and at this point I must mention what a fantastic acquisition our Spanish full-back, Sito Castro has been, he has adapted himself incredibly quickly and will be a further boost when he reaches full fitness.

It is all the more astonishing that we have made a decent start this term when you discover that Dean McDonald became the 20th different player to be involved in first team action this year, just one short of the total number used for the whole of last season.

To credit Joe Royle, he hasn’t been afraid to give the youngsters their chance even if some of the decisions were made for him through injuries.

It is especially pleasing to see some end product from the rapidly progressing academy.

With a fairly stable back line being supported so well, our attacking nature has been slightly reduced, but what impressed me at the weekend was how we can play two players in Jaime Peters and Dean McDonald who are not afraid to run at the opposition and wreak havoc.

The end product isn’t quite there yet but this type of pressure will certainly crack the majority of defences in this division.

This season’s results so far may look uninteresting, but once we get the confidence going, there will be more performances like the first half on Saturday when we passed Wednesday off the park with tremendous assuredness.

Indeed, even if we go through the season winning by the odd goal here and there it can build up a momentum that has seen the likes of West Brom, and last year Sunderland, who went on to grab promotion by grinding out results.

I’m getting slightly carried away though now perhaps as we do have a tricky run coming up throughout September and with injuries already stretching the squad it is going to be a big ask of the players to maintain a top half position for the opening months.

I am encouraged though, and results have already proved that anyone can beat anyone in this division, so even if we end the season with our goals for and against tally being as much as goals scored alone from last season, it may not be as boring as it sounds.