This article is part of Football League World's 'The Verdict' series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Ipswich Town suffered a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland last night in League One, leaving the pressure firmly on Paul Lambert.

Losses to Peterborough and Sunderland have dented Ipswich’s promotion hopes, with Lambert’s side 10^th and five points adrift of the play-off places.

Fans are losing patience, with results not improving to help the cause of the Scot.

Is now the time to part company?

Our writers discuss…

Sam Rourke

I think the time has come.

Lambert has been afforded plenty of time to work with that Ipswich Town squad and ultimately he has failed to instil any form of consistency.

Just when you feel there are some green shoots of progress for the League One side, they suffer another setback and fail to back up wins.

Granted, Lambert has had to contend with several key injuries this season but on paper, that Ipswich Town team should be performing a lot better than it currently is, and a fair amount of the slack has to sit with Lambert.

Marcus Evans is seemingly not keen on ousting Lambert anytime soon, but he surely has to be considering it now after the two recent home defeats to two promotion rivals.

The Tractor Boys fans are very clear in what they want with regards to Lambert and there really does seem to be a stale, toxic feel about the club at the moment.

Failing to achieve promotion this season would be disastrous for Ipswich, especially given the salary caps that are being put into place that will make it even harder for them to get out of the third tier.

Phil Spencer

I certainly think it's time for a change at Ipswich Town.

Since being relegated to League One the Tractor Boys have been expected to be among the frontrunners to secure promotion back to the second tier.

At no point has that looked likely.

Paul Lambert kept his job by the skin of his teeth last term as they finished in a mid-table position, and with Ipswich in a similar position this time around I think it's time to freshen things up.

Sometimes players just stop responding and the injection of some new ideas is all it takes to get a club firing.

That might well be the case for Ipswich and now is the time to make that change.

Can you name each of these 17 ex-Ipswich Town players just by looking at these 3 clues?

 

Ned Holmes

Yes, it's time for him to go.

You can't say that Ipswich haven't given him time to turn things around. The Tractor Boys have been flirting with the top six and sometimes the top two throughout Lambert's tenure but this season they have been far from convincing.

He's lost the fans and if a change isn't made soon then it might be too late to salvage their promotion hopes for this season.

Sack him now and bring in someone new. It might be a bit of a stretch but the likes of Paul Cook or Danny Cowley would be an excellent appointment.

Action is needed at Portman Road.