WELL, well, well - The Man was not expecting that. As I sipped a beer at 8.30am prior to catching the train to The Land that Time Forgot, I knew we might lose, but I was convinced we would at least compete.

WELL, well, well - The Man was not expecting that.

As I sipped a beer at 8.30am prior to catching the train to The Land that Time Forgot, I knew we might lose, but I was convinced we would at least compete.

“If one thing is for sure, Grant will have them up for this,” remarked The Man to his entourage.

Yet, as the game unravelled, it was clear we were not competing, on any level.

Half-time came and went and - worryingly - nothing changed.

The Man was not angry, more bemused; utterly bemused.

We had heard big noises all week about how Dickson was going to exact revenge: blah, blah, blah…

How Grant was the battle-hardened veteran of 1,967 Old Firm games (how many did he win on that evidence?)

Even Earnie weighed in to tell us the West Brom win was good - but the s**m was the big one.

And yet a bit of determination from the opposition, a dodgy pitch and we wave the white flag.

Very, very peculiar.

Grant needs to find himself a leader, and soon.

Dublin can do that but he dropped him, because apparently the Double D has romantic notions of still being a striker.

Hell, I want to be the next James Bond - but it ain't going to happen - so The Man will just get on with his day job.

Dion should have been asked to do the same. Clean sheets against Sunderland and West Brom are not to be sniffed at.

To be fair, The Man thought Shackell did all right - and Drury and the much-derided Doc too - but the rest of them were rubbish, for want of a better word.

In fact, a kindly gent sitting next to The Man came up with a better word. He described the performance as milquetoast*.

There's only so long a defence can hang on without a midfield to help it out.

Hopefully the shambles will have taught Peter the Pointer (PTP) a valuable lesson about the characters - or lack of - in his team. I guess some would say Sunday was a typical indictment of modern football.

One week players give a monkey's, the next they don't. C'est la vie…like it or lump it.

The Man does not wish to dwell on this result. Getting out-fought by that collection of loanees, rejects and stumblebums for the second time in a row was unacceptable.

I have faith that PTP will knuckle down now and by the time Norwich Union next roll into the Carra - doubtless with a new selection of loan players we've never heard of - we can give them a proper fight.

The Man means that. He wants to see us fight. Football comes second in games like these.

Our players should have known that…

The Man is sorry if the above is a little harsh on PTP. I don't really want it to seem that way.

He has inherited this situation, and needs to be given ample time and patience to sort it out - just not in games against Ipswich.

*Before Sunday The Man had never heard the expression “milquetoast”.

When the old boy next to me said it I just nodded and agreed, not knowing what the duffer was dribbling on about.

But it is spot on.

Taken from the internet - so it must be a fact - is the following history of the word: “It's an eponym, named after a fictional cartoon character named Caspar Milquetoast, invented by the American illustrator Harold T Webster in 1924.

“The strip was called The Timid Soul and appeared every Sunday in the New York Herald Tribune up to his death in 1953.

“Mr Webster said that his character was 'the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick'”.

In more recent times the word has come to mean someone who is unmotivated, ambivalent, timid and apathetic in their general demeanour.

Or, in short, our midfield and attack last weekend.

In fact, I think I might take to calling one of our midfielders (guess which one) Casper Milquetoast…

FANS' 'EASY' CHANT JUST TEMPTED FATE

“Easy, easy, easy.”

Of all football chants, this is the one The Man hates most.

I think it dates back to that traumatic day when our fans did it at 3-1 up in the Premiership at Selhurst…

It is always - I mean always - followed by the opposition scoring.

The only time it can be sung in relative safety is when you are five goals to the good at home to Barnsley.

Yeah, it was great when we did it to Man U, but we are a million miles away from that day now.

When our fans started doing it after Chadwick scored The Man's head fell into his hands.

An image came into my mind of Portman Road doing it to us at the final whistle, and so it came to pass.

Can we please, please stop doing it now.

It is about two years out of date, and, well, it sucks.

On a separate note, interesting to see Ipswich got their sparse crowd going pre-match with the song Zombie Nation. Very apt.

WASTE MEANS WE'RE IN FOR LEAN YEARS

There may be trouble ahead…

Doomcaster has sounded the first alarm bells ahead of the publication of the club's accounts next month

He told the EDP: “With the club's accounts due to be published within the next fortnight, the club's financial situation will become clearer as we approach the January transfer window.

“With the third round FA Cup draw due to be made in early December, a lucrative cup run can only be helpful.”

Good old Doomy, in sparkling form as ever.

The inference being that we have to pull Man U (or King's Lynn) out of the hat in order to have any decent money to spend.

It's dimestore psychology, but The Man loves Doomy for it.

He plays his games, we play ours.

But The Man is under no illusions - the cash has been wasted and we are in for some lean years now; PTP is going to have to work miracles on a decimated budget.

It's going to be up to us to stay loyal and ride this one out.

OTBC.