
THE MATCH
Rovers bowed out of this season’s FA Cup with a whimper, losing 3-0 to Ipswich Town at Portman Road in this Third Round tie.
The home side scored all of their goals in the first half and should have added a fourth, but squandered an early second half spot kick.
Head Coach Inigo Calderon made two changes to his starting XI, as Shaq Forde and Romaine Sawyers came in to replace Luke Thomas and Jamie Lindsay.
Ipswich dominated proceedings early on and Cameron Burgess headed over the bar before Wes Burns sliced a shot wide of the target.
It came as little surprise when the home side took the lead, on 18 minutes. Goalscorer was England international Kalvin Phillips who rifled a shot into the bottom corner of the net from 25 yards.
Six minutes later Jack Clarke doubled the advantage for the hosts when he slid in to convert after Connor Taylor had blocked a shot from Ali Al-Hamadi.
As Rovers struggled to make any impact on the game, Ipswich scored again with 37 minutes on the clock. When Jack Taylor was played in by Conor Townsend he calmly slotted the ball past Josh Griffiths, though there was more than a suspicion that Taylor was in an offside position.
There was little respite after the break and it should have been 4-0 to Ipswich when they were awarded a 51st minute penalty after Grant Ward handled in the area. Fortunately, though, Al-Hamadi hit his spot kick wide of the target.
Josh Griffiths saved well from substitute George Hirst as Ipswich cruised to the Fourth Round; There was very little pressure from Rovers, who never looked likely to even reduce the deficit. Ipswich, as if to say that they were under no pressure, even substituted their goalkeeper nine minutes from time.
Rovers registered just three shots during the 90 minutes, the best of which fell to Ruel Sotiriou who saw his effort saved by the legs of goalkeeper Arijanet Muric. Not
for the first time this season, there were no leader for Rovers out on the pitch, something that needs to be addressed in the January transfer window as a matter of urgency.
THEY SAID WHAT?
‘I’m obviously not happy. I was disappointed, especially in the first half. We did not start well enough with or without the ball. You could see a goal was coming, and you cannot stop that. At the same time, you have to understand that it is a big difference. That’s why they play where they play, and that’s why we play where we play. So, we knew that it would have to be nearly a perfect game and especially in the first half, we were far from that.
‘For me, in the first half, we could not have the ball. When you don’t have the ball, you have to defend for 45 minutes. There has to be a balance. You have to try to attack well so you have better chances to score, and then you defend for less time. We learn during the game. The last game was against Cambridge. Today is a totally different game. There is nothing to compare at all, so you cannot guess something from the last game into this one. But we have to adapt quickly, and we have to try to understand the game better.
‘I am seeing progress in the team. Today is probably not fair to evaluate how we are because the opposition is not going to be near what we face next Saturday. Even being a good team, it’s a big, big difference. I would say it is not fair. The process is coming, and the process is going good. I can see that in the training sessions, and I saw that today a couple of times. Especially in the second half, not the first one. It’s a matter of time. As I said from the very first day, it’s going to be one week, two weeks, three weeks or four weeks, but we are going to get there.’ (Rovers Head Coach Inigo Calderon)
‘I don’t like losing, so it’s a tough one coming here today. We’ve obviously not come just to turn up and play against a Premier League team. We came here to get a result. But, unfortunately, the first half really cost us, going three goals down like that.
‘It’s very hard to come back from that afterwards. But full credit to Ipswich, even from an internal point of view, playing up against that team is very, very difficult. They are in the Premier League for a reason. It’s incredible to see what they’ve actually gone and done and some parts of their game we struggled to deal with today.
‘There is so much to learn. I just had a conversation with Kieran McKenna. It was a three minute conversation, and you get a bit of insight into what he’s thinking with his team, how he put his team out today and what he asks his players to do. There’s a lot to learn from, and so much to admire, about this club. They have gone from League One to Championship then Championship to Premier League so quickly. So, a lot to learn from and a lot to be inspired by.’ (Rovers defender Taylor Moore)
‘I think it was a really good performance, individually and collectively. The first half was a really good game and I thought we played really well. We scored good goals, could have scored more, gave very little away and managed the game well in the second half. So through to the next round and a good day for us. I think that’s a really good sign for the group.
‘We’ve had that for the last few years on different occasions where in cup competitions we’ve been able to change the whole team and, it hasn’t always worked out, but very often we’ve been able to produce very cohesive performances still and have players ready to come into the team and be match ready and fully understanding their roles.
‘When you can make changes like we did today and look as cohesive as we did in the first half especially, I think that’s a big, big positive for the group, and especially when you consider quite a few of that group have been here for a few years but there’s also quite a few of that group who have been here for a few months and you can see are starting to settle in, and Ben Godfrey’s only been here for a few days. In those circumstances, to look as cohesive as we did on and off the ball, I think.’ (Ipswich Town Manager Kieran McKenna)