The Football League Paper says...

Ex-Canary Paul does fit Town bill

IF YOU had told Ipswich Town fans at the start of the season that Paul Lambert would be their manager before October was out, they would have thought you were crackers.

For one thing, Paul Hurst had only been appointed as manager over the summer and there were high hopes that he could do a good job following his exploits with Shrewsbury Town last season.

No-one expected the Shrews to be up at the top end of the table all season long in League One, though the campaign did end in disappointment with League One play-off final and Checkatrade Trophy final defeats at Wembley.

Nonetheless, there was belief that Hurst could reinvigorate the Tractor Boys after the Mick McCarthy era ended in somewhat sour fashion.

It wasn’t to be and Hurst’s troubled tenure – including just one win – came to an end after their 2-0 defeat at Leeds on Wednesday night.

In addition, if the Tractor Boys were going to make a change, then few would have predicted they would plump for a former Norwich City manager to replace Hurst.

But that is how serious the situation has become.

The Tractor Boys are stuck in the brown stuff and someone needs to get them out before they end up in League One.

So while virtually all Ipswich fans would prefer not to have a former Canaries manager in charge, many are realistic enough to know that he does provide the club with the opportunity to move up the table and secure their status.

Okay, the former Scotland midfielder’s star is not as bright as his early managerial days when he earned two promotions with Norwich, guiding them to the Premier League in the process.

He has done the rounds to a certain extent since then with spells at Aston Villa, Blackburn, Wolves and, most recently, Stoke.

Perhaps he has taken one or two wrong turns, but he is an experienced manager and you would expect him to make Ipswich competitive at the very least in the Championship.

He will have seen the size of the task ahead of him at The Den yesterday in Ipswich’s 3-0 defeat against Millwall. It won’t be easy to turn their fortunes around, but he has the ability to do it.

Most Ipswich fans would settle for that right now.