Ipswich sink at Newcastle and pine for heady days of Bobby Robson

It was a spine-tingling moment and a fitting tribute to a marvellous man. Amid an atmosphere of rare, evocative harmony almost 52,000 people were singing “Walking in a Robson Wonderland”.

Most wore black and white but a significant minority were dressed in outfits accessorised by blue and white hats, scarves and replica shirts. Despite their position, perched high in the sky in the towering Leazes End stand, those visiting supporters chorused so loudly that their unfamiliar Suffolk accents were clearly audible in the damp Tyneside air.

Earlier Ipswich Town fans had gathered round the statue of Sir Bobby Robson on Gallowgate, variously taking photographs, selfies and, in some cases, patting his feet. He died in 2009 but, in the north-east, Robson’s legacy lives on in the form of a charity foundation which has raised more than £10m for cancer research and continues to help enhance Newcastle’s internationally renowned status as one of the UK’s leading cancer treatment centres.

Ipswich and their supporters have been staunch backers of his foundation and will donate more money on what has been designated Sir Bobby Robson day when Newcastle visit Portman Road in April’s return fixture.

If he would have been dismayed to see two clubs he managed with such distinction meeting in the second tier, the man who presided over Champions League nights at St James’ Park would surely have been consoled by Newcastle’s renaissance under Rafael Benítez.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said of Ipswich, with Mick McCarthy’s side outclassed during a 3-0 home win that extended Benítez’s grip on top spot but left the East Anglian club languishing in 17th position.

It all seems a depressing world away from Robson’s glory days in charge of Ipswich between 1969 and 1981. Not only did his team twice finish second in the top flight while also winning the Uefa Cup and the FA Cup but they played a silky, sophisticated passing game embellished by his then pioneering and utterly daring import of the Dutchmen Frans Thijssen and Arnold Muhren.

There have been some anti-McCarthy murmurings among Ipswich fans of late but here a combination of Robson’s memory and the home side’s superiority silenced the dissenters.

In any case, once placed in context, their argument seems a bit weak. This is Ipswich’s 15th consecutive season in the second tier and the resultant sense of stasis is a near inevitable consequence of the lack of ever more lucrative parachute payments to recently relegated clubs.

Considering that the owner, Marcus Evans, has furnished McCarthy with a modest budget the manager – who has spent around £500,000 on players in the past three years against the £45m Benítez invested this summer alone – has done a fairly impressive job, finishing 14th, ninth, sixth and seventh. As Robson was so fond of saying, football, like life, is full of “shades of grey”.

Appropriately enough for a former centre-half, McCarthy has built such relative success on a mean defence and, before Saturday’s ruthless deconstruction at the feet of Ayoze Pérez and Matt Ritchie, Ipswich had conceded only nine League goals.

The problem is that, although highly organised, they lack creativity, struggle to score and are badly missing Daryl Murphy – sold to Newcastle during the summer but currently injured. Although Leon Best hit the bar, Karl Darlow, Newcastle’s goalkeeper, was seriously underemployed as McCarthy changed formations and shuffled his substitutes to little avail.

The best Ipswich could do was drag Newcastle down to their level for a second-half spell.

“We never laid a glove on them really,” said McCarthy, with typical candour. “I’d set us up to press and not let Newcastle play but we couldn’t get near them. I haven’t seen a better side in this division. They’ll be champions – but they shouldn’t be in the Championship.”

Even so, those words cannot, and should not, fully camouflage the alarming lack of attacking threat from a team who, before last Tuesday’s 2-0 win against Burton Albion, had gone five league games without scoring.

Not that McCarthy fears the sack. “I don’t,” he said. “Marcus is very, very supportive of what I’ve done and what I do. I know he believes I make far more good decisions than bad ones.”

If only he could turn the clock back to Robson’s era and pluck the odd John Wark, Alan Brazil, Kevin Beattie and Eric Gates from Portman Road’s academy. It is approaching the first anniversary of the Cumbrian floods when Brunton Park, Carlisle United’s home and the residential area around it were devastated by water damage. While the ground is back to normal and the famously true pitch apparently as superb as ever, some locals are still not able to return to their ruined homes as the misery endures. The only consolation is that Keith Curle’s team – 2-1 winners at Stevenage on Saturday – are finally offering Cumbrians something to smile about courtesy of a club record breaking unbeaten 14 match start to the season. It has lifted Carlisle to second in League Two and, even better, they have got there thanks to some pleasing passing football stemming from Curle’s belief in building patiently from the back. The former Manchester City and England defender used to play elegantly and, highly articulate, he also talks one. As a manager Curle has had his critics but it is good to see his policy of sticking to his principles paying off. Not to mention the no nonsense brand of discipline which has inexorably raised once slapdash standards at Brunton Park. The manager’s latest ploy is to automatically fine players booked for dissent £500 – a lot of money at League Two level – as it means they’ve “lost discipline and haven’t listened to instructions.” Such potentially high risk tactics sometimes raise eyebrows among peers but, so far at least, they are working a treat. “It’s a phenomenal achievement,” says Curle. It’s also a first step towards his longer term aim of taking Carlisle into the Championship.

They may be a modest ninth, 11 points behind the leaders Newcastle United, but Simon Grayson’s fast improving Preston are only three points off a play-off place. Last week they undid David Wagner’s Huddersfield Town, the early season pace-setters, 3-1 and, then, on Saturday, they won 1-0 at Norwich City. Unbeaten in six games, Preston now face the litmus test of a double header against Rafael Benítez’s Newcastle – in the League Cup at St James’ Park on Tuesday and then on Saturday at Deepdale where the Tynesiders will be desperate to extend their run of five straight Championship wins. Something will have to give.

Dale Stephens scores some fine goals and his latest – a magnificent curling 25 yard shot into the top corner – not only gave Brighton a 1-0 win at Wigan but elevated Chris Hughton’s side to second place in the Championship. Despite his midfield talents Stephens, who seemed keen to move to a Premier League club in the summer, has not been a regular starter this season but that could now change. “Dale’s been unfortunate to not be in the side this year,” said Hughton who knows Stephens’s controversial sending off at Middlesbrough last April very possibly cost Brighton a Premier League place. “I’m really pleased for him.”

Brighton’s manager is claiming that “Newcastle have the strongest squad this division has ever seen”. Could he be endeavouring to apply some psychological pressure to Benítez’s squad as he strives for automatic promotion himself? Or is the former St James’ Park manager simply speaking the truth? After all, players with the pedigree of Cheik Tioté and Jesús Gamez cannot even make Benitez’s bench while Aleksandar Mitrovic can barely manage to get off it. Matt Ritchie, Jonjo Shelvey and Dwight Gayle would walk into many Premier League sides. And how many other second tier clubs would be able to regularly rotate Mohamed Diamé – a substitute on Saturday – and Ayoze Pérez? Answers on a postcard please.