Match Twenty-Three – Brentford 2 – Ipswich 4
I’d never been to Brentford for a match before and I suspect it’ll be unlikely again I’ll go to Griffin Park again, unless it’s for the play-offs this year, as Brentford are trying to build a new ground nearby.
A Pub At Each Corner
The picture shows the narrow streets around the ground which is unique in having a pub on each corner.
It’s not much bigger inside either and we had to stand.
Standing At Brentford
At least in a couple of weeks, we’ll be playing Millwall at the Den, which has one of the best Away areas in the country.
As we left the ground, Ipswich were top, but by the end of the day we’d been overtaken by Bournemouth.
I think that Mick McCarthy is going to have an interesting transfer window in January. At least by the end of month given another couple of wins, I would suspect that Ipswich will be safe from any relegation.
Match Twenty-Two – Ipswich 2 – Middlesbrough 0
At one point, I thought I might miss this match.
But as luck would have it, I was on the 13:00 rather than the 13:30 train out of London, so the delay induced by signalling problems in the Shenfield area only meant I missed the first ten minutes or so of the match.
I’ll put in this quote from the Middlesbrough manager; Aitor Karanka, as it sums up what happened well.
Ipswich wanted it more than us. Murphy was first to the rebound for their first goal, Teddy Bishop at 18 years old was the best player on the pitch and Jay Tabb, at 5ft 5ins, scored with his head.
With a bit of luck, we’d have had a third, but a two-nil victory keeps us near the top of the Championship.
Match Twenty-One – Bolton 0 – Ipswich 0
The Reebok stadium is one of the shortest walks to the ground from the nearest rail station of Horwich Parkway.
Walking To The Reebok Stadium From Horwich Parkway Station
It was a bitterly cold day and I don’t think we saw either team playing at their best, so we got a goalless draw.
Serious Faces And Hats In The Cold
I also think, Ipswich were missing Stephen Hunt’s left-footed delivery from free kicks and corners.
After the match the trains into Manchester gave a superb demonstration of why the line needs to be electrified and the Ordsall Chord built.
One totally inadquate two carriage trained turned up after twenty minutes in the cold. At least it was followed by an eight-carriage one going to Manchester Piccadilly.
Have The Ipswich Players Seen A Future They Might Like?
According to this article in the Daily Mail, the average salary in the Premier League is £43,717 a week.
Ipswich’s team cost just £10,000, which was what Mick McCarthy paid Chippenham Town for the raw talent of Tyrone Mings. But having met several of the players, they don’t seem to fit the stereotype of thick idiots, who can kick a ball a bit.
The players do contain, some players like Daryl Murphy, Jay Tabb, Stephen Hunt and Christophe Berra, who’ve had experience of the top level, but have never really established themselves there.
There are also quite a few players, who are best described as taking a second or even a last chance. Players like Tommy Smith, Paul Anderson, Alex Henshall, Kevin Bru and David McGoldrick could be in this category.
Add in a few competent players from a variety of sources and you get what Mick McCarthy repeatedly calls a great bunch of blokes.
So has someone like the eloquent Murphy, explained to the others that if they can keep this form together and get the team into the Premier League, they all might get at least one year of a good salary, that will set them up for life, if they don’t succumb to the temptations.
You might also credit Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor, who took Wolves into the Premier League and saw it all go wrong! They probably don’t want a thunderstorm to strike twice.
If Mick has a problem, it is what to do in the January transfer window. Does he do a bit of dealing to improve the team, but possibly disrupt the spirit? Or does he just pick up some more injury cover like Noel Hunt from high level discards and basically sit tight?
Whatever is happening, it’ll certainly be an exciting ride to the end of the season.
Match Twenty – Ipswich 4 – Leeds 1
On the 19th November 1966, when I was a student at Liverpool University, Liverpool beat Leeds United at Anfield by five goals to nil.
A friend of mine;Ian Brown, had gone and was euphoric when he came home. Not only Ian, but the whole red half of the city was on cloud nine. Even nearly fifty years ago, most fans relished their team beating Leeds.
Today, on the train up to Ipswich, several Leeds fans were optimistic of a win, especially if the team kept up their good form of late.
But after scoring a very early goal, Leeds faded and got well beaten 4-1.
The 1960s match at Liverpool and the one at Ipswich today, illustrate one of the big changes in football in that fifty years. Ian had wanted to go to the biggest match of the day and he just turned up and bought a ticket, something I did many times before the 1980s.
Match Nineteen – Charlton 0 – Ipswich 1
Unlike Bournemouth, Charlton was only a short trip across the Thames. I actually crossed on the Emirates Air Line.
On The Emirates Air Line
It was then a short ride on a 486 bus to Charlton station.
As I set out, I thought we might have had a chance of a win, but hopes were beginning to fade as a close fought match, which had produced 40 shots according to the BBC, was coming to the end.
But then substitute, Noel Hunt playing his first match for Ipswich, came on and a few minutes after suffering a blood injury, he managed to drill home his first goal for nearly two years.
We certainly all celebrated long after the match.
Getting home everything seemed to be locked solid, so I walked to Woolwich and got the ferry to my side of the River.
On The Woolwich Ferry
I wonder how many people have flown to a football match and then taking a ferry home.
At least, when I got home around five, I had the pleasure of knowing that Ipswich are now up to second in the Championship.
I also looked at the map after I got home.
The O2 To The Valley
Note the O2 in the top left, with North Greenwich station just below and The Valley in the bottom right, with Charlton station close by.
I would estimate that next time, I get stuck there, it will take about half-an-hour to walk to North Greenwich station for the Jubilee line.
Match Eighteen – Bournemouth 2 – Ipswich 2
Bournemouth would have been a long way to go and come back with nothing!
I wasn’t optimistic as I sat having brunch in Carluccio’s in Waterloo station and nothing on the way down did anything to convince me that we wouldn’t lose.
But lose we didn’t and I was one of a group of fellow Ipswich supporters, who took the train back to London.
I won’t talk about the two Bournemouth goals, but I will say that our first equaliser was surprising and the second was well-taken.
Teddy Bishop‘s first goal for Ipswich was surprising, in that instead of being from a long range effort, he appeared in the box to side foot a low Tyrone Mings cross past the keeper.
On the other hand, Daryl Murphy’s goal was typical of what he has been scoring in the last twelve months. It is best described as a well-taken looping header from a superbly taken free kick from Paul Anderson.
As to Bournemouth, they were the best team we’ve faced at season and I think that pundits underrate them at their peril. Make sure you get your ticket for the return match at Portman Road on Friday, April 3rd, early.
Walking To Dean Court
Dean Court is not too far away from Pokesdown station. But the route between the two does need to be better signposted and it isn’t all tarmac
The shortest route through the park was not easy in the dark for someone with dodgy eyesight. Luckily, I was guided by a group of Bournemouth fans. This map shows the area.
Pokesdown And AFC Bournemouth
Come out of the station, turn left and then left again into Clarence Park Road. When you get to the park and the cemetery, you should be able to see the ground. There are paths through the park to the ground.
The great advantage of this route is that it brings you to the corner of the ground, where the away fans enter to take their seats. It also avoids having to walk past the Ukip shop.
It took me about seventeen minutes to walk back to the station after the match. Ipswich station takes about ten minutes from the ground.
Match Seventeen – Ipswich 1 – Watford 0
This was a another cracking game, where Ipswich got their third win on the bounce.
The goal was a long range effort for Tommy Smith from just outside the six ysrd box, after Kevin Bru’s shot started to play pinball.
Kevin Bru is coming on and I think we could see a lot of him this season. He certainly is better than a free transfer.
Match Sixteen – Ipswich 2 – Wolves 1
This was a cracking game, where Ipswich got another well deserved win.
The star of the Ipswich side was Daryl Murphy, who at the age of thirty-one is playing better than ever before in an Ipswich shirt.
It is often said that strikers can’t tackle! But Murphy can tackle and he can defend too.
In fact, his tackling got him the first goal, as he dispossessed one of the Wolves defenders in the penalty area and then blasted the ball into the top corner.
For the second goal he ran from deep onto a superb pass from David McGoldrick and then when the goalkeeper came out and spread himself, he chipped the ball neatly into the net.
He wouldn’t have done that last season!
Match Fifteen – Blackpool 0 – Ipswich 2
Ipswich finally got their first win since they beat Rotherham in September.
Blackpool 0 – Ipswich 2
It wasn’t that easy a win, but according to some Blackpool fans I met on the way back to the station, it was typical match for that ground, when the wind blows.
There was certainly, a lot of booting the ball a long way or towards the stratosphere.
The Anonymous Widower 