Bristol City 0 – Ipswich Town 3
It was a good start to the season by Ipswich and well worth the trip.
My only problem with going to Bristol City and Ashton Gate us the rather dangerous seats without any backs.
Bristol City's Dangerous Seats
The danger is not when you sit on them. But as you walk in and out in a football ground, you always steady yourself on the seat row in front. Two fellow supporters nearly overbalanced on top of me, as the seat in front tipped forward.
How they pass Health and Safety, I do not know. But then the seating at QPR must have done last year.
The Fixtures For 2011-12 Are Now Out.
Now that the fixtures for next season have been published, what are going to be the difficult ones to get to from London or even Ipswich?
At present there is only one, that I probably couldn’t make.
That is on the 29th November 2011 at Burnley. It was a good trip last season and too far for a Tuesday in November.
Roy Keane’s Worst Judgment
Tony Cascarino in The Times says this under the heading of Worst Judgment.
When he was Ipswich Town manager, Roy Keane sounded as if he could not wait to sell Jonathan Walters. The Stoke City striker scored against Arsenal yesterday and has developed into an excellent buy. He causes so many problems with his sheer desire to score.
I would agree. Good luck to Jonathan.
Ipswich Town Supporters in London
I’ve just set up a web site for Ipswich Town supporters, who live and/or work in London.
I have used WordPress to set it up and it can be viewed at ipswichtownlondon.wordpress.com.
In some ways it is showing how you can use WordPress to create a Blog-Based Small Business. Although this isn’t a business, we’re trying to attract Ipswich Town supporters and create a source of useful information.
The Liberty Stadium
The Liberty Stadium is only a few years old and in my opinion it is one of the better smaller stadia I’ve visited.
Approaching the Liberty Stadium
It is just perhaps a pity that they didn’t build a station to serve the stadium. Especially, as the railway between London and Cardiff to Swansea passes close to the ground.
Outside the Liberty Stadium
You can just see the viaduct carrying the railway behind the stadium.
Inside the stadium looks very similar to the other new stadia like St. Mary’s in Southampton, Leicester City, Doncaster and Coventry.
Inside the Liberty Stadium
But in some ways, the design is better. I did like the fact that disabled supporters were placed on a balcony that extended all round the stadium, with level access to the outside.
Surely this arrangement gives a better view and would be much better in the case of any emergency.
Or is this all just a process of continual developent in our design of new stadia?
Signposting in Swansea
None of the signs in the City Centre pointed me towards the Liberty Stadium.
Comprehensive Signposting in Swansea
But at least they are comprehensive.
I did like this sign though.
Mixed Up Signage in Swansea
Wouldn’t it be so much simpler if all distances and heights were in metric units, rather than both metric and Imperial? I’m assuming that the abbreviation for metres in Welsh is the same as in English, French, German and Italian. As it’s an international standard, I would assume it is.
If ever a sign is going to lead to a truck getting stuck under a bridge it is this one!
High Speed Train to Swansea
I said that I was going to see Ipswich in Swansea yesterday. I had bought a Standard Class ticket out and a First Class back at a total cost of £45.20. I had actually booked six days in advance, so these good prices weren’t the result of very early booking.
The trip takes three hours and is probably one of the longest trips you can do from London easily in a day in a High Speed Train or IC125 both ways. I got six and three quarter hours in Swansea, which was enough time for a wander round the city, have some lunch and see the match.
As to the latter, I’ll not be talking about that!
According to the guy who served me coffee in the buffet, the train out had just been refurbished. It was certainly in very good condition and completely clean. I think it might have been the same train set on return, as it was in an equally pristine state.
So how did Standard and First Clases compare?
According to Ian Walmsley ‘s excellent article in Modern Railways a couple of months ago, he scored 82.1% for First Class and 76.2% for Standard for the IC125.
I’m not going to argue with those figures, although, I actually found the more upright Standard Class seat slightly more comfortable. But then my spine doesn’t curl under correctly and I’ve always found that too soft chairs are less uncomfortable than hard ones. When I used to drive, I found some cars particularly difficult.
My one complaint is that the tray in Standard Class is not big enough to lay the paper out, so I could do the Sudoku.
Small Seatback Tray on an IC125
However, I did get two seats to myself going out, so I could spread sideways a bit.
Perhaps I need a Working Class coach. This would be Standard Class but everybody would get a proper table, just like you originally got, when the trains were built.
I know the new layouts get more people on the trains, but have we really progressed?
As to progress, I did walk through several carriages to get to the buffet. The train was rather busy and there were several of those trolley cases, I hate so much, in the aisles. Despite this, I didn’t have any problems getting to the buffet and getting back carrying the coffee. Compare that with the problems I had on the Pendolino. But then I was running yesterday at 125 mph on a railway built for 60 mph in the Victorian era, in a forty year old train.
If I had the choice, I’d take a High Speed Train or failing that a Mark 3 Carriage anytime I could! When I travel to Ipswich, I always book one of the Norwich trains, as these are made up of Mark 3’s.
When booking on-line, you should be told the type of train you would normally be getting.
Getting to the Liberty Stadium in Swansea
I hope there’s better information, when I get off my train in Swansea, but everyone assumes you’re going by car to Swansea.
But what do you expect?
Very few places have had good information on how to get from the train station to the football ground. In some cases, you can use the method you do at Ipswich; the Mark 1 Eyeball. But in others, it’s impossible.
Is Josh Carson the New George Best?
I just typed Josh Carson George Best into Google and found a lot of results, like this one.
Here’s an extract.
Paul Jewell has dubbed Josh Carson as “the new George Best.”
That might sound a bit far-fetched, considering that only a month ago 17-year-old Carson had not even played a League match.
But Jewell was referring to Carson’s colourful personality, as much as any potential footballing prowess, especially as Town’s new find actually forgot to go to training on Sunday.
The Northern Ireland Under-21 international, perhaps still basking in the glory of his two goals in Town’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, was sitting at home when the phone rang – it was Jewell telling him to drop everything and get down to training.
In the end, Carson was only a few minutes late, but Jewell kept ducking the apologies from his new teenage sensation for the rest of the day.
And remember that was before he scored the only goal at Bristol City.
In my mind George Best was only a good footballer and not a great one. In the years I have been watching football, I have seen two great Northern Irish footballers; Danny Blanchflower and Pat Jennings. Both had long and illustrious careers. George Best’s could have been great, but he decided to blow it all!
So in some ways, I hope for his sake, that Josh Carson isn’t the new George Best! Carson has been playing much in the manner of that classic Northern Irish winger of the 1950s and 1960s; Billy Bingham.
Josh Carson Does It Again
The football wan’t the best although in the end the result was what I wanted. Lee Martin got himself sent off and then the ten men of Ipswich attempted to hold on for the rest of the match.
The deciding goal had a touch of good fortune about it, as Josh Carson intercepted a stray pass and then beat David James from over twenty metres. I felt at the time, that it might have been a goalkeeping calamity, but it appears it was just a well-placed shot, that James couldn’t reach.
Carson has now scored three times in three starts and when Ipswich have won in those three games, he’s scored all the goals.
How many world-class strikers have started their career with such a record? Not many I suspect!
The Anonymous Widower 