Ipswich Town’s only win in February came in the FA Cup as a much-changed Tractor Boys XI got the better of Frank Lampard’s Coventry City away from home.

Kieran McKenna will be hoping March follows suit in gifting his side a well-needed victory, but it will be a lot trickier than the away trip to the Sky Blues was as Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest awaits at the City Ground.

There will be many selection dilemmas for McKenna to address ahead of this tie, with a whole host of first-teamers perhaps worried their spots will be taken up by fresh blood, including an often hot-and-cold Jack Clarke.

McKenna’s Ipswich selection dilemma before Forest

Clarke has shown brief glimpses of his star quality donning Tractor Boys blue this season, with his showing last time out in the esteemed competition seeing him pick up a goal and two assists in a straightforward 4-1 win.

But, with Sammie Szmodics now back and ready for some minutes, the break from the Premier League could be the perfect opportunity for McKenna to gift his attacking midfielder a chance to impress now he’s out of the treatment room.

After all, whilst the ex-Sunderland man did cause the Sky Blues all sorts of bother, those performances have been rare this campaign overall.

Whereas, his former Blackburn Rovers counterpart has four goals to boast about in the more hostile environment of the top flight and will be raring to go again after his unfortunate injury lay-off.

Hailed as “ridiculous” by football journalist Josh Bunting after his golden boot heroics in the Championship, he could be the breath of fresh air needed to pull off a shock away at Forest, with an equally exciting attacker also in the frame for a first-team chance owing to Omari Hutchinson’s untimely knock.

Ipswich’s perfect way to solve Hutchinson’s injury blow

Ipswich’s forlorn manager recently revealed that Hutchinson has sustained ‘heavy damage’ to his shin after the frantic 3-2 defeat to Manchester United, meaning he will be unlikely to play in any capacity against Forest.

This could open the door for Nathan Broadhead to unsettle Nuno Santo’s hosts, with the injury-prone attacker putting in bright displays from the substitutes bench in recent weeks and could now be bumped up to the first-team picture even more due to a lack of numbers.

Indeed, Brighton and Hove Albion loanee Julio Enciso – who is racing to be fit for Ipswich’s next league test versus Crystal Palace – finds himself out of contention here as he is cup-tied, meaning the ex-Everton youngster’s moment in the spotlight might now arrive.

After all, from just 16 minutes of action away at Anfield back in late January, the £6k-per-week Broadhead looked completely fearless with all three of his dribbles successfully pulled off, with an assist also coming his way in the FA Cup this season from two outings.

It could well be a scramble to get Szmodics, Philogene and Broadhead all in the same line-up, but if McKenna was to revert back to his trusty 4-2-3-1 look, it could see Broadhead deployed down his preferred left flank, the ex-Aston Villa man down the right, with Szmodics just behind the lone striker providing chances and adding to the firepower.

The FA Cup, of course, won’t be a major priority, but if Ipswich were to reach the quarter-finals, some smiles would be raised in Suffolk before the battle against relegation kicks back off.

Nuno previously stated Miguel would keep his place for as long as Forest remain in the tournament. However, the 26-year-old sustained a hamstring injury against the Grecians in the last round and had to be replaced by Sels on the hour mark.

Welshman Wayne Hennessey is the Reds’ third-choice keeper after re-signing for the club on a short-term contract until the end of the season in January. But given he has not played competitively since turning out for his country in October 2023, Sels will be the one to get the nod against the Tractor Boys in the fifth round clash (7.30pm kick-off).

“Miguel is still injured. He is out,” Nuno said. When asked if that meant Hennessey could be in line to start at the City Ground, the Portuguese added: “I don’t think it’s the best decision. I think Matz should start the game.

“It’s very difficult for a goalkeeper to suddenly come in the team, especially if you are… Wayne is doing a fantastic job but he got injured last season. It’s all about getting him back, and for this game Matz will be in goal.”

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Ipswich Town have the distraction of the FA Cup to overcome on Monday when facing off against Nottingham Forest, with a surprise win at the City Ground no doubt boosting the Suffolk side’s bruised confidence.

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Indeed, last time out in the Premier League saw the Tractor Boys lose dramatically to a Manchester United team reduced to ten men for all of the second half, leaving Kieran McKenna‘s men deep in relegation trouble.

His lowly team’s defensive fragilities have been their undoing all campaign long – even when his team have looked competent in forward areas – with January loanee Ben Godfrey failing to add any needed stability when thrown into action at the back.

Ben Godfrey’s poor displays for Ipswich

Of course, it’s not all down to the Atalanta loanee as to why Ipswich have leaked so many goals this season, with the Tractor Boys shipping a concerning 57 strikes.

To add context, only Leicester City and Southampton occupying the bottom two spaces have given up more goals, but Godfrey has been responsible for ten of those hitting the back of the net from his limited game-time.

The ex-Everton defender had a hellish debut back on English shores versus Manchester City, with his relegation-threatened side losing 6-0 to the reigning top-flight champions.

Godfrey would last 64 minutes, but in that time he was on the pitch, he failed to register a single tackle, interception or block, with the Man City attackers surging forward with a certain swagger knowing the 27-year-old was way off the pace.

He was equally run ragged last time out at Portman Road when Ange Postecoglou’s rejuvenated Tottenham Hotspur came to town, with both of Spurs’ opening strikes in the mainly one-sided affair coming from Heung-min Son twisting and turning the ropey number 44 for fun, who only lasted one half of football this time around.

Ipswich must wish they could turn back the clocks to when they had this other loanee in defence, who has since gone on to cement himself as a staunch option for his current club on Europe’s biggest stage.

Former Ipswich loanee now one of the best in Europe

Ipswich has been home to a number of top loanees over the years, with the likes of Omari Hutchinson calling the club a temporary sanctuary last season, before then penning a permanent deal before the 2024/25 campaign got underway.

The relegation candidates must rue not winning the permanent signature of Cameron Carter-Vickers now, however. Indeed, the defender has gone from strength to strength since exiting Suffolk in 2018 after making 17 appearances in blue.

The USA international would show signs of his class during his brief loan stint at the club – with a respectable five clean sheets picked up in league action – but it’s safe to say he’s transformed into a crucial part of the Celtic jigsaw ever since making the switch to Glasgow from Tottenham.

From 23 league appearances this campaign, Carter-Vickers has helped himself to a hefty 13 clean sheets on top of averaging 5.6 duels won on average per contest.

However, it was in the Champions League against an intimidating Bayern Munich attack that he would win the tag of being the “best centre-back outside of the top five leagues” by the Athletic’s Alex Barker.

Previously hailed as “brilliant” for his efforts in Scotland by ex-Rangers player Andy Halliday, Ipswich would love to have Carter-Vickers back in his current pomp to shore up their porous defence.

But, they’ll have to make do with what they already have, hopeful that strong performances will come in their battle to beat the drop.

Over the past 20 years, Albion have either had experience of fighting against some of the biggest names in the Premier League or competing at the top end of the Championship, with many of these types of signings helping them achieve this feat.

One terrific bit of business the Baggies conducted was the arrival of central defender Gareth McAuley.

The Northern Ireland international linked up at The Hawthorns on a free transfer from Ipswich Town, with many of the West Brom faithful at the time questioning whether it was the right move, particularly as Albion were pretty new into their top-flight stint.

But the defender would improve as his career went on, being an ever-present figure in the Premier League, regularly involved in top-flight action up until the age of 38.

Particularly prominent under Tony Pulis, not many could have imagined the impact McAuley would have on Albion having such a long Premier League stay, with him contributing to the club possessing such a watertight defense under multiple managers.

There wouldn’t have been many West Brom fans overly excited about the arrival of Gareth McAuley, with the then 31-year-old having an established career within the EFL pyramid, but not quite good enough for the top-flight step-up.

But the defender surprised by taking to Premier League life with ease, improving season-upon-season to be such a valued and imperative player to Albion’s success.

Originally joining under Roy Hodgson, McAuley was a dependable and no-nonsense central defender, with his ability to get on the end of dead-ball deliveries proving a vital weapon for the Baggies during his time with the club.

A towering figure and natural leader in the backline, the former Rangers man was a prominent figure under different regimes, maintaining solid performances under the likes of Pepe Mel and Alan Irvine as Albion suffered some low points in those periods but just about managed to retain their Premier League status.

But when Tony Pulis came into replace Irvine at the beginning of 2015, McAuley’s stock would rise even further, with the central defender such a focal point from set pieces and netting six times in the 2016/17 season.

Forming an integral partnership with Jonny Evans at the heart of the backline, McAuley optimised Pulis’s style of play, a centre-back who would kick and head anything that came his way, while having a threat in both boxes that turned him into such a well-rounded Premier League defender.

Despite overachieving massively at The Hawthorns and creating some wonderful memories with the West Brom supporters, there will be disappointment at how his Albion career came to an end.

With the Baggies a mess both on and off the pitch in 2017, McAuley had lost his place under all of Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew and Darren Moore following the arrival of Egyptian defender Ahmed Hegazi, featuring just nine times as West Brom returned to the second tier.

It may have been a mistake to leave such an experienced defender at that level out of the squad, and we’ll never know whether more regular appearances from McAuley may have turned around the Baggies’ fortunes.

West Brom could only dream of having £200k ace in their side right now

With McAuley’s career at The Hawthorns on the decline, an argument could also have been made that West Brom should have parted ways the season prior and received a sizeable profit from such a small investment, with his contributions to the team not warranting an eventual exit on a free transfer.

Despite the sour ending, the 6’5′ defender was a terrific buy from the recruitment team, fitting into the mold of the club brilliantly and always being there when called upon.

Albion certainly got the best out of McAuley, with the defender experiencing the best days of his career the older he became, and he will always be remembered fondly at The Hawthorns for his efforts.

Ipswich Town take on Nottingham Forest, at the City Ground, in an FA Cup fifth round tie this evening. Here’s what defender Luke Woolfenden, who has captained the team in the previous two rounds, had to say.

We felt like this was a time where we could go there and win, so to concede three set plays, when we haven’t conceded many all season, means we’re all disappointed.

We’ve looked at it back and clarified whose job was what and, to be fair, boys have held their hands up. People have taken accountability. It’s just a learning curve.

There was a lot of frank convos in the changing room afterwards – a lot of honesty came out, a lot of frustration – but it was all channelled in the right way.

Listen, we might not get the reaction we want on Monday, but it won’t be for the want of trying. We’re honest with each other, we’re learning every day and we’ll see where that takes us.Luke Woolfenden battles with Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin. (Image: PA)

On beating Bristol Rovers and Coventry to reach FA Cup fifth round…

I think we’ve played well so far. You saw last year that every game in the FA Cup can be difficult (Town were knocked out by non-league Maidstone), but so far so good.

Coventry, for me, will end up in the play-offs. I think they’ve got one of the best squads in the Championship, so for us to go there, make so many changes, and be relatively comfortable (winning 4-1) was a really good sign of how far we’ve come.Luke Woolfenden has his shirt tugged by Fulham’s Harry Wilson. (Image: PA)

On captaining the team in the FA Cup this season…

I’m probably not a typical captain in terms of going around rollocking people and getting them going. I feel like you can lead in other ways though in terms of performance and calmness and doing things at the right time, which I like to think I’ve done over the course of the cup run.

I’m not like Chambo (Luke Chambers) and I’m not like skip (Sam Morsy)! I don’t think I’ll ever be like them. I just have to be myself.

I feel like the fans will know, as a squad, we represent them very well. Specifically since the boss has come in, we run more than everyone else 99% of the time. We run harder, run faster, more tackles. So I feel like the fans know that the whole squad, not just me as a local lad, get what it means to play for Ipswich Town.

It’s difficult for me to avoid things when things do go wrong. I’ve grown up here, so people maybe think I’m more approachable and can say what they’re feeling! Those are things I can’t always say something back to. To be fair, that is a difficult part of it.Luke Woolfenden heads the ball clear during Ipswich Town’s Premier League win against Chelsea back in December. (Image: PA)

On fifth round hosts Nottingham Forest, who are flying high in the Premier League…

They’re a team that look like they enjoy their football. You see them after the game in their interviews all laughing and smiling.

To be fair, a lot of them have been at top clubs and probably been written off by numerous people. But it’s all come together for them this season. Fair play to them.

On the FA Cup as a competition…

You see the legends around on matchdays and it’s a good reminder of what the club’s done before (winning the FA Cup in 1978).

It’s a competition that’s changed a lot recently. Replays have gone and some of the big clubs, even teams in the Champ now, don’t put as much seriousness into it. It’s kind of lost that bit of magic.

For Ipswich though, it’s always been a special competition because we won it before.

And while it’s not something we bang on about everyday, there is a chance now for us to go and play at Wembley. When you get a few rounds in the chance of getting there (the semi-finals are played at Wembley) becomes a massive thing.

On rotation for the FA Cup…

We’ve got a massive squad. There are boys that don’t play every week champing at the bit to get in. People can see it as a negative that lots of changes get made, or it can be seen as a positive that the squad is strong enough to compete on two fronts.

Motivation will be high because we all want to show we can earn a place in the Premier League team.

One of the many many things to talk about with Ipswich Town’s recent 3-2 defeat to Manchester United was the difference between the two strikers. Neither got a goal, but the one who cost £20 million looked a lot better than the one who cost £72 million. Liam Delap, leading the line for Ipswich, put in an incredible amount of work. He pressed United’s notoriously error-prone keeper Amadou Onana and ran up and down the pitch to make crucial tackles and create space for teammates – something crucial to Jaden Philogene’s second goal. Meanwhile, United’s Rasmus Hojlund looked completely irrelevant, effortlessly dealt with by a back-3 with scant topflight experience and making limited efforts to ever press an Ipswich team that itself is very error-prone.

All of this explains why Delap has had so much attention in the media this season. He sits on 10 goals in a side that sits 5 points adrift in 18^th and has only scored 26 goals combined. Nevertheless, Ipswich have clearly got a lot more going on than one good player, something almost entirely ignored by the media and pundits. In that United game, Jaden Philogene got a brace. Jens-Lys Cajuste has been impressive in midfield. Lief Davis has got among the most assists in English football in both of the previous two seasons, all from left-back.

Even when others impress, Delap gets most of the credit. Take Ipswich’s 2-0 win against Chelsea, for example. Delap got a goal and an assist – certainly impressive. But Omari Hutchinson scored a goal as well while the whole team put in an impressive performance to hold off intense pressure from the opposition. Similarly, in their 1-1 draw with Aston Villa there was a lot of focus on Delap’s goal. This is despite a resoundingly impressive defensive performance where the team clung onto a point despite being down to 10 men.

What’s the point of all this? Well, for one thing I’m an Ipswich fan and it annoys me to hear such reductive talk about the side I support. But if it was just that, I’d save it for annoying my mates. The real point is that coverage of Delap shows everything wrong with modern punditry, and I’m sure many fans of other clubs – particularly those outside of the traditional ‘big six’ – can relate. The basic format of TV punditry about Ipswich this season has been very simple: we’ll get a sentence about the team to trick us into thinking they know anything about tactics and then a minute talking about Liam Delap. There are lots of reasons for this, but at it’s core it’s very simple: football media cares a lot more about being entertaining than informing. With a team such as Ipswich that, whilst very well supported in this country yet lacking a big profile worldwide, there is not that much effort put into an in-depth analysis because most people just won’t find that fun.

Instead, what we’re given is narratives. Liam Delap being a very easy one. A young English player bursts onto the scene in a weak side and looks to be the next Harry Kane, winning himself a move to a big club and us, as a nation, a world cup in a few years. The question of what went on in the game before he had the ball is basically thrown out the window. Clad all that in some basic stats and a former player whose fairly good at talking and you’ve got something fun for people to follow even if they don’t care at all about the team itself.

This also shows the general way that the football media tries to extrapolate as much as possible from individual games or very short periods of time. This is another thing to make everything more entertaining at the expense of actually being informative. The truth is, you can learn very little from one game in a long-term sense. It can sort of tell you how a team looks, especially if put within a wider context, but good teams or players have bad games and bad teams or players have good games. This just isn’t interesting enough, though. So, instead of talking about Liam Delap as an in-form striker who looks like an exciting prospect he’s called things like the ‘English number 9 of the future’ (per the Guardian). If you follow enough football, it can become almost comical. You’ll hear the same person within the span of maybe two or three weeks go from calling something incredible to completely useless.

All of this would kind of be annoying, but basically okay – most other media is also simply driven by money, we shouldn’t expect football coverage to be any different – if it didn’t have problematic real-world effects. The media’s overestimation of the skill of players can have lots of negative consequences, driving unrealistic expectations among fans that causes players to get undue hate for failing to live up to. There’s also the flip side: the media drives way too much focus on players going through bad runs of form, greatly increasing the hate that they get from fans. Take the routine stats you’ll hear about how long it’s been since a striker last scored a goal or a team last won – even small issues become exaggerated into crises.

This also changes how fans think about football. We become encouraged to mirror the erratic coverage we see in the media. There’s a constant sense of precarity as to whether players are good or bad, a disastrous signing or a bit of genius. I’m encouraged to focus on Delap’s form because I’m rarely well informed about how others have played, especially given I can’t watch about half of Ipswich’s games.

The core of the issue is this: football media are not good at covering the sport, as evident with Ipswich and Delap. This is because of a focus on entertainment over informativeness, particularly when appealing to an audience that is increasingly global and thus less and less tied to the teams themselves. As a consequence, players are hurt and fans are short-changed.

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For the majority of Ipswich Town supporters, getting into the Premier League full stop will be seen as an unbelievable achievement, even if the bleakness of relegation envelopes Portman Road very soon.

When Kieran McKenna took over, the Tractor Boys were marooned in League One, two divisions below the promised land.

Now, after two back-to-back promotions, Ipswich have the possibility of Premier League safety on the horizon, with the Suffolk club’s shrewdness in the transfer market another plus point to praise from their whirlwind rise.

Ipswich’s best transfers under Kieran McKenna’s reign

Before a ball was kicked to start McKenna’s first full campaign at the helm, the summer window saw Leif Davis enter the building, joining from Leeds for just £1m.

That has gone down to be a jaw-droppingly good steal, with Davis now worth in the region of £21m – as per Transfermarkt – off the back of picking up a bumper 38 assists from 115 Tractor Boys appearances.

Alongside Davis in the current relegation-threatened camp, the £20m pick-up of Liam Delap also looks to have been a very successful buy, even if it did require the newly promoted side to flex their muscles more than their modest League One dealings.

Indeed, Delap is now being touted to leave Portman Road for double his £20m fee amidst interest from Chelsea, with the ex-Manchester City ace up to ten strikes this term in the league, despite his lowly side regularly struggling to keep their heads above water.

But, it’s not always so rosy at Ipswich when it comes to incomings and outgoings working out, with the Suffolk outfit made to rue letting a homegrown talent go for a mere £1.5m back in 2021.

Former Ipswich star is star now worth 1100% more

Ipswich will surely be planning ahead for this coming summer already as they assess who can make the team stronger. This, of course, will be dependent on whether they’re still battling it out in the top-flight or they’re set for a promotion journey once more.

For either of these scenarios, having ex-academy graduate Flynn Downes back at their disposal would have surely helped, with McKenna’s men looking light in this position past this season ending owing to both Kalvin Phillips and Jens Cajuste being temporary loanees.

This is where Downes could help in the here and now, with the 26-year-old never really sparking into life at Portman Road during the fledging stages of his career, before going on to prove himself away from his boyhood employers.

For both Southampton and Swansea City, Downes would solidify himself as a solid and assured option in the frantic second tier, with the Welsh side selling him for way more than the £1.5m they paid for the ex-Ipswich man at £12m to West Ham United.

His efforts that campaign – which saw him average a calm and cool 93% pass accuracy per league contest – backed up then Saints boss Russell Martin’s claims that the 26-year-old is “incredible”, with Ipswich left to wonder what could have been if they hadn’t signed off on that Swans deal.

With the Suffolk side even reportedly looking at a late deal to bring Downes back to Portman Road deep into the winter window owing to a fall-out at St. Mary’s, there must be a lingering pain still that they did allow him to exit before he fully blossomed.