Ipswich Town travel to Cheltenham Town still seeking their first three points of the season

Embed from Getty Images

Ipswich Town are yet to really gel as a team with new arrivals still coming into Portman Road even after the season has begun.

The second matchday of the season was a difficult challenge for Paul Cook’s men, as they came up against a strong Burton Albion side full of confidence. Ipswich went behind early on in the game however were quick to react through a Joe Piggott deflected shot which was adjudged to be an own goal.

Although they showed good tenacity to get back into the game, the joy was very short lived as they failed to take their chances in the second half and lost the game. A Scott Fraser missed penalty came back to haunt the Tractor Boys late on, when a Burton penalty of their own saw them take all three points in the final minutes.

Cook put the loss last week down to ‘fine margins’ and said that his side has to get rid of these if they want to get promoted.

“It’s fine margins again and if we cut out the mistakes, there were positives to take for sure. We have to cut them out quickly, though, because we’re not stupid and we realise that if we’re going to try and get promoted, we need to win games.”

Ipswich will now travel to Cheltenham for their Tuesday night matchup with the newly promoted side, who have struggled early on with life in League One.

Having also only picked up the one point in their first two games, the Robins will be eager to show why they got promoted from League Two last year. Two disappointing results means that momentum is certainly not with the home side for the encounter, however, Cheltenham Town manager Michael Duff recognises the challenge and will relish the opportunity to play a ‘big team’.

“We’ll be right up against it, but without wanting to repeat myself this is why we tried to get out of the last league for opportunities to play against big teams,” he said.

“We’ve got to embrace the challenge. We are at home, can we be competitive?”

A competitive game on Tuesday night is certain to happen, with an exciting affair expected as the two sides battle it out at The Jonny-Rocks stadium in desperate search of their first three points of the season.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt