Football: Ipswich Town fan Nick Wells believes he has the solution to the Blues' goals problem
There is a football fan's cliché which always grates with me.
If times are bad or a season is slipping away, a section of disgruntled supporters will declare it is time to 'throw in the kids'.
No, no no!
If I pay to see the Ipswich Town first team play that is what I expect to see, not a ramshackle team befitting a pre-season friendly.
Also it is no help to the youngsters because, unless your Fergie's Fledglings of the 1990s, the best way for them to develop is alongside
a senior pro who can guide them, rather than a raft of inexperienced peers, who will know no better than them.
But while I will always vehemently argue against throwing in the kids en masse, I think it could be time to throw in The Kid; Jordan Rhodes.
The hype has been growing around Rhodes for years and just when it looked like he would get a chance to see if he could transfer his free-scoring into the first team, in came Marcus Evans' millions and a host of new experienced players.
But despite the arrivals of Jon Stead and Kevin Lisbie, neither has managed to fill the void of the 20-goal-a-season fox in the box which every promotion-chasing team needs.
Both have been given ample opportunity but no sooner do the goals come, then they dry up again. Our other frontmen, Pablo Counago, Jon Walters and Danny Haynes, have many attributes but regularly finding the back of the net is not one of them.
On too many occasions this season, our lack of firepower has let us down and keeps us in the category of top-six pretenders rather than contenders.
From the glimpses we have seen of Rhodes in the first team, he may not have the refined all-round game of a Counago, Lisbie or Walters but what he does know is where the goal is.
As we were huffing and puffing to get a solitary goal against Plymouth on Saturday, Rhodes had banged in a hat-trick on loan to Brentford within 29 minutes.
With it appearing that Evans was not prepared to loosen the purse strings in the January transfer window for a goal-getter, the 19-year-old is the best option we've got.
Rather than use him as super sub as Magilton suggested after the Plymouth game, give him a run of three or four starts and see if the boy can do it when he returns from his month at Griffin Park.
Rhodes doesn't have to show that he can play with his back to goal or link-up effectively with the midfield, all we want is for him to set up camp in the penalty area and be ready to pounce.
It's a risk but with all other striking options exhausted, it's one worth taking.
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Weather for Diss
Thursday 02 September 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 18 C
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