Ipswich Round-Up, Wednesday 4th November: Town Quintet Named for International Duty as Daizen Earns Japan Call-Up
A big night for Town representation on the international stage, with a quintet of Ipswich players called up for November's upcoming fixtures (East Anglian Daily Times). Among them, Daizen Maeda has received a call-up to the Japan squad, a nice reward for his form (ITFC.co.uk).
Elsewhere in the first-team squad, Will Davis has been full of praise for team-mate Enciso, describing him as 'magic' while discussing his work rate, training habits and even his study of former star Hazard (Ipswich Star). Manager O'Shea has also been talking up his goalkeeping options, backing Town's 'great goalkeepers' even as the side has had defensive struggles to deal with (Ipswich Star). On the other side of the dugout conversation, O'Neil has been discussing when he'll start paying attention to the league table, stressing there are more pressing priorities for his side right now (Ipswich Star).
Town were handed a confidence boost off the pitch too, with the club ranked above several giants of the game in a list of the world's best clubs, prompting some understandable pride among supporters (Ipswich Star).
In youth football, the U21s were in ruthless form as they thrashed Aldershot 5-0, with Runham grabbing a brace and admitting afterwards that Town 'killed them in the second half' (East Anglian Daily Times) (ITFC.co.uk).
Away from Portman Road, there was also news from the world of racing with a Town connection. Billy Loughnane has been appointed as a retained rider for Godolphin, a significant move in his career which he says he's excited about (East Anglian Daily Times) (Ipswich Star). Prescott, meanwhile, spoke of his delight at Tiffany's swansong appearance in the States (Ipswich Star).
Elsewhere in the Championship, there was no shortage of drama. Norwich made it three wins in a row at the expense of struggling Derby, continuing to pile the pressure on Rams boss John Eustace, who has vowed to fight on despite the heavy defeat (Ipswich Star) (East Anglian Daily Times). Charlton's miserable run shows no sign of ending either, beaten away by Bolton thanks to a Sam Dalby goal, with Nathan Jones left to bemoan his side's lack of attacking edge (East Anglian Daily Times) (Ipswich Star).
There were also wins for Sheffield United, inspired by a Sydie Peck first-half hat-trick at Preston which earned praise from boss Chris Wilder (Ipswich Star), for Stoke through a Jack McGlynn free-kick lauded by manager Mark Robins (Ipswich Star), for Watford via a Stephy Mavididi goal that followed a pep-talk from Alessio Dionisi (Ipswich Star), for Birmingham in an impressive home win over Millwall that has Chris Davies feeling his side deserve their lofty position (Ipswich Star) (East Anglian Daily Times), for Oldham as Ollie Norburn struck late to delight Micky Mellon with his side's fighting spirit (Ipswich Star), and for Portsmouth, with Terry Devlin's brace helping deny Swansea top spot in a result boss John Mousinho called a 'massive win' (Ipswich Star) (East Anglian Daily Times).
Huddersfield and Luton shared the points in a midweek draw, with Terriers boss Martin Drury insisting there was 'real quality' on display (Ipswich Star) (East Anglian Daily Times), while Wigan and Mansfield played out a stalemate that left both Gary Caldwell and Nigel Clough frustrated (East Anglian Daily Times).
Finally, there was also discussion in the papers about whether Diop should have seen red for Nottingham Forest, with a Premier League panel delivering their verdict on the incident (Ipswich Star).
This round-up is written with the help of AI, using only the day's headlines from the publishers credited above. Each point links to the original report — tap the source name to read it in full.
