The BWN Awards (Part One)

Last week, I just had to spend over 2000 words writing about Kieran McKenna. In amongst all the contributions made by different people at the club, from the CEO to the players, you know that he’s the real star that’s heading for the stratosphere, our real trump card for 2024-25. There is only really one plausible answer to the question, “which person currently involved in first team football at Ipswich Town might win a Champions League one day?”

After writing a paean to the boss, I did feel like I wanted to write more about this group of players. There’s a sort of indignity to football where as soon as a group of players achieves an incredible promotion, you immediately start talking about who you might need to replace, so I think it’s important to get some appreciation down in words before that happens. So, this blog is all about gassing up the boys who contributed this season, by giving out some “alternative” awards, which I think sum them up in more or less intangible ways. A 2-part ode to a squad we’ll be remembering fondly for a very long time.

Cross (of the season)

Kayden Jackson v Sheffield Wednesday (H)

I wanted to start with a lesser light who took a bit less praise this season and where else could I go but Kayden Jackson. No-one knows the high and lows of the past few years better than Jacko, for whom the feeling of promotion was “surreal”. From marquee signing for the worst circus in Ipswich Town history to reliable cog in a Premier League promotion squad, making 7 goal contributions in 955 minutes. Huddersfield was his 199th appearance for the club.

Danny Röhl’s Sheffield Wednesday was an easier game in hindsight than it was on paper, especially when Wes Burns went off early. As the game wound its way into stoppage time in the first half Cameron Burgess hoiked the ball skyward with his right foot. Kieffer Moore fought off the attentions of Barry Bannan, then slipped the ball wide to the Bradfordian, who hit a superb curling, driven cross low between defence and goalkeeper, precisely timed to meet Nathan Broadhead’s run. A lovely bit of geometry to make the game safe, one of many contributions that most teams simply didn’t get from their 3rd choice right winger.   

Tackle

Sam Morsy v Cardiff City (H)

Because he’s equally delightful on the ball, sometimes you take for granted Sam Morsy’s bread and butter – the destruction of other team’s attacks. Yet, Sam Morsy made a lot of tackles for Ipswich this season. Eighty tackles, to be precise, more than any other Championship midfielder. Between the tackles, the interceptions and the successful duels, Sam Morsy recovered the ball for Ipswich 316 times this season (again the most of any midfielder). I’ve written before about Morsy the force of nature with his “intangible aura” that drives the team forward, so I’ll not labour that point. He was my vote for Player of the Season and probably yours too.   

There’s a shout here for Brandon Williams’ entirely unnecessary (but brutally entertaining) decision to put Preston’s Liam Millar in the stands, but I’m giving our Sam the gong for sending Manolis Siopis to the shadow realm in the dying embers of our home game with Cardiff. The Bluebirds gave us the run around for most of the first hour of the game, before Ipswich went into attacking hurricane mode and swept them away, going from 2-0 down to 3-2 up in 19 minutes. Approaching the end of the 90, Cardiff sent a long straight ball forward, Aaron Ramsey took it effortlessly on to his instep, then passed the ball into the penalty area. Cameron Burgess narrowed enough angles that Ruben Colwill had to send the ball backwards towards the top of the D, cruelly equidistant between Siopis and Morsy. Morsy executed an exquisitely timed, studs down tackle that send the spiky Greek midfielder into orbit. Don’t think Cardiff dared go near our penalty area after that.

Soul reaping

Omari Hutchinson v Sheffield Wednesday (H)

I suppose technically this award is just for “dribble of the season”, but sometimes you see a defender beaten so comprehensively you can practically see their soul leave their body. Omari Hutchinson claimed a fair few opponents’ eternal spirits this season. By the end of our game with Hull poor Matty Jacobs didn’t look he could tell you what a football was, let alone what to do with it.

Our sixth goal against Sheffield Wednesday featured a Mortal Kombat style “finish him” kind of dribble that Akin Famewo may never recover from. Axel Tuanzebe’s short pass found Hutchinson in a little pocket of space inside right. Hutchinson turned sharply with two midfielders trailing in his wake. Famewo came across, Hutchinson slowed, looked inside just long enough for Famewo to twist to his right, before using his left foot to chop the other way and on towards the byline, leaving Famewo in a different postcode and Hutchinson with a simple pass to Al-Hamadi for an open goal. Hutchinson might be the best youngster we’ve ever borrowed.    

Assist

Jack Taylor v Southampton (H)

In terms of involvement Jack probably hasn’t had quite the season he was hoping for.  872 minutes across 7 starts and 26 substitute appearances wasn’t what he ideally had in mind when he became our most expensive centre midfield signing since, I dunno, Emyr Huws? Nevertheless, he can lay claim to a bunch of big moments this season. There was a thronking equaliser in the game with Swansea, there was that piledriver to win our EFL Cup tie with Wolves and there was a late winner away at Rotherham (which sadly mutated into just a point moments later).

Massimo Luongo is a force of nature, so there’s no shame in being his understudy. Taylor’s cameos usually had a positive effect on our momentum and never more so than against Southampton. 2-1 down and frankly getting schooled, Taylor, Broadhead and Clarke coming on in the 61st minute quickly turned things our way. Conor Chaplin chipped the ball out to Leif Davis on the left. Davis was forced to turn back and play a ball inside, finding Taylor about 30 yards out. Resisting the urge to shoot, Taylor played a simple first-time 12-yard pass, which rolled just perfectly into Nathan Broadhead’s stride, allowing the Welshman to sweep the ball past Gavin Bazunu. Simple, perfect.

Header

Nathan Broadhead v Millwall (A)

With his cherubic face and slight frame, Nathan Broadhead is not an obvious target for an aerial ball into a packed penalty area. Yet, the number of big headers are starting to rack up now. There’s the first goal on that famous night in Barnsley, a near post flick that no-one in the away end realised had gone in. This season he seemed to save his cranial contributions for Millwall. In the home game he powered in a Leif Davis cross like prime Daryl Murphy, but it was the away game header that was special.

Millwall was another one of those games that looked easy after the fact but challenging in advance. The Lions had suffered just 1 defeat in their previous 6 home games. It was still 0-0 when Leif Davis’ right-side corner came straight back to him. Davis slipped the ball to Hutchinson at the angle of the penalty area, Omari moved inside his marker and shaped a straight ball towards a crowd of players near the penalty spot. Broadhead eyebrowsed the ball a little higher and lefter, sending it well out of reach of Millwall keeper Matija Sarkic. Broadhead was so often the spark we needed in sticky situations.

Pre-Assist

Harry Clarke v Rotherham (H)

Harry’s drift from regular starter to Axel Tuanzebe’s deputy has been one of the more unfair developments in our season. Clarke started the season with a nagging achilles injury and more responsibility than was fair. Especially in home games we seemed to leave him isolated against the opposition’s best player week after week, giving Harry a brutal crash course in maintaining your distances and one-on-one ground defending. He got better over time and Tuanzebe coming in felt less a reflection on Clarke’s work and more a tactical shift where we moved ever so slightly back towards the original, three centre backs, version of McKennaism, with Axel in the Donacien role.

Clarke should be happy with his season though. He’s developed as a player and has the kind the of athleticism we’ll need in the division above. His standout moments going forward included a lovely dinked cross for my second favourite header of the season – Kieffer Moore at Millwall,as well as his first goal for the club during our sunny afternoon dance with Blackburn Rovers.

This award is for our second goal against Rotherham. Wes had Rotherham’s left centre back Lee Peltier on toast that night, so the smart move was just to get him the ball. Lewis Travis knocked a short free kick to Clarke in our half. Clarke moved past the pressing Tom Eaves, then drove a gorgeous ball with his laces inside Peltier, the ball skipping off the turf, slowing as it got level with the penalty area, allowing Burns to cross first time, low and hard, for Kieffer Moore to finish.

Best Goal

Wes Burns v Coventry (H)

Toughie, this one.

Glad he got the plaudits for this because otherwise people might have slept on how important he’s been for us. For me, slight deflections and disproportionately poor finishing off his crosses cheated him out of the big numbers he deserved (18th in the division for expected assists, 58th for actual assists) and we were just objectively better when he played, averaging just 1.81 points per game in the ones he missed. No-one epitomises the McKenna way better than Wes Burns, whose ceiling is still yet to be found.

Technique

Marcus Harness v Birmingham (A)

One of the things that’s so marvellous to look back on this season is how broad the contributions have been. I suspect our immediate rivals will feel like their squads feature as many hits as misses, as many negative contributions as positive. For me, everyone at the club chipped in for the 96 points, however little they played. Janoi Donacien’s three league appearances involved expertly marshalling one of the best wingers in the division for 103 minutes plus two more clean sheets, Brandon Williams scored one of the goals of the season, Freddie Ladapo turned 0 points into 3 against Cardiff, Ali Al Hamadi had a huge second half against Southampton and even Dane Scarlett had a big hand in turning the tide at two nil down against Birmingham.

George Edmundson and Marcus Harness mustered fewer than twenty starts between them, but both had some standout performances. They both peaked in the West Midlands, Edmundson stoutly defending our lead during our penultimate game at Coventry, Harness wresting a point from nowhere in Birmingham. This award is for the second goal of that afternoon. Dane Scarlett dinked the ball down the line for Omari Hutchinson, who ran to the byline and crossed to the back post. Cameron Humphreys (94 league minutes, 1 assist) could only just get enough of a toe on the ball to send it spinning upwards and backwards. Harness turned, back to goal, looked skywards, then executed a flawless swivelling left foot volley, arrowing the ball into the bottom corner.  

Save

Vaclav Hladky v Middlesbrough (H)

I know this is really a competition with himself, given he played near enough every minute in the league, but I need an opportunity to show the Czechian stopper some love. When he came on at the end of last year’s promotion game none of us could have imagined what was to come. When Christian Walton got injured, McKenna showed faith in his understudy, faith that a lot of other managers would not have shown. His reward was to find the standout footballing goalkeeper in the division.

For much of the season his shot stopping was immaculate too and our aerial defending was good enough to mask his lesser attributes (we’re good at maximising strengths like that). It was the two outstanding saves he produced during our April encounter with Middlesbrough that were my highlight. The left-handed save to deny Isaiah Jones what looked a certain goal was one thing, but tipping Matt Clarke’s firm header over the bar at full stretch, when it looked like it was already past him, was outrageous.

Funniest goal

Massimo Luongo v Plymouth (H)

It seems unfair to credit Mass with something so trivial, but perhaps being “here, there and every fucking where” ensures your presence at all sorts of big moments, even the funny ones. There were other gongs that could have gone to Mass, including the season’s most spectacular block away at Coventry, key goals against Blackburn and Middlesbrough, on top of some generally immense performances. He has been the absolute model for half our recruitment strategy – finding undervalued experience to go alongside our younger players.

Our season had weird rhymes with Plymouth 2022-23 all year long and the actual games with the Pilgrims continued the theme. In October’s home game, A scratchy performance had us adrift 1-0 down as we approached half time. Leif Davis’ corner pinged around the penalty area and Luongo attempted to improvise a back heel finish. The ball was rolling gently towards goalkeeper Mike Cooper, until ex-Norwich full back Bali Mumba stepped in. Mumba had celebrated his late deflected equaliser in the last edition of this game so heartily and it was his totally unnecessary block that diverted the ball ever so slowly into the Plymouth goal. After a season of (rather unfairly) complaining about Plymouth’s good fortune, it was a fun little inversion of our fates. Deflection FC meet Deflection FC.    

That’s end of Part One. You can find Part Two, with awards for the likes of Leif Davis, Cameron Burgess and Luke Woolfenden, here.