Ipswich Town’s title win in 1962 is a bigger underdog tale than Leicester City winning the Premier League
Who said that?
Ray Crawford, who scored thirty-three goals in Ipswich’s title win in 1962, did in this article in the East Anglian Daily Times. Crawford says this.
Town had been in Division Three South when England’s future World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey took charge in 1955. There was promotion in ‘57, they were Division Two title winners in ‘61 and top-flight champions the following year. Five players were there throughout the journey.
“Leicester’s is an unbelievable story because it’s come in an era which, sadly, is dominated by money,” said Crawford. “I still think ours was a bigger achievement then theirs though.
“We were a bunch of nobodies who had never been in the top division. Everyone wrote us off. They said we didn’t have enough experience, they said we were lucky to win the Second Division and they said we were favourites to go straight back down. We didn’t have a single international until I was capped (just twice) towards the end of that season.
Ipswich declined after Sir Alf left for England. Under him, Ipswich had played a unique system suited to the players, which is what Sir Alf did to win the World Cup with England. You could argue, that Ranieri has got Leicester to play in a style that suits his players strengths and no other club has really found the answer yet!
I do wonder if Ramsey and Ranieri, who were both defenders, learned their management skills watching from the back, as the forwards wasted chances galore.
As an aside, hoe much would Chelsea or Manchester City pay for a striker, who scored thirty-three goals in a season?
A Better Experience In Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes has never been my favourite place, since I used to take my late son; George, to his boarding school, which inevitably meant a trip round the endless roundabouts. I was then mugged in the city by the street furniture, that I wrote about in A Pedestrian-Unfriendly City.
So when Ipswich were playing MK Dons, I thought I’d give the city one more chance.
These are a few observations.
- The London Midland train was filthy and swimming in beer. I would assume it was supporters going to London.
- There is no information at Milton Keynes Central station, as to how you get to the ground.
- Bus 1 from Milton Keynes Central station, drops you just a rather cluttered short walk from Stadium MK.
- There are no signs or maps for Away supporters, as to what is the best route.
- Someone told me, that if you drive to the ground, parking costs £7 and you have to pay on-line.
- I’ve never been to a British stadium before, where burger vans and tea stalls outside the ground, were conspicuous by their absence.
- Several of the larger restaurants outside serve gluten-free food.
- The stadium has some of the best handrails I’ve seen in a ground.
- Coming back I just missed a bus and had to wait half-an-hour for the next small but full bus in a freezing cold shelter. I’d have taken a taxi, but there was no sign of a taxi rank.
I’ve never seen a ground, where it is assumed that everyone comes by car or supporters coach before.
I would have been distinctly miserable if Ipswich hadn’t won!
Milton Keynes is going to have to improve the buses. The number one bus, that I caught links Stadiujm MK and Milton Keynes Hospital to the stations at Milton Keynes Central and Bletchley.
This Google Map shows the area of Milton Keynes.
Milton Keynes Stations, Stadium MK And The Hospital
Milton Keynes Central station is in the North West corner, with Bletchley station st the bottom. The other station at the right is Fenny Stratford station on the Marston Vale Line, which will be incorporated into the East West Rail Link.
This map shows the route of the proposed line.
East West Rail Link
Wikipedia talks about extending the Marston Vale line to Milton Keynes Central, but although the track has been created, no trains have run.
Chiltern are also looking to extend their Aylesbury service to Milton Keynes Central via Bletchley, so hopefully this might prompt improvement in the bus services to Stdium MK and the Hospital.
I doubt it will, as Milton Keynes is one of those places where you’re a total loser, if you don’t have car and why should their taxes provide for better bus transport for the disabled, elderly and those that can’t drive.
I think we need a law in this country, that every hospital should have at least a four buses per hour direct service to the main railway and bus stations.
Ipswich Town’s Away Support
At Rotherham on Saturday, where I saw Ipswich win 5-2, the away end was pretty full.
It’s always the same, even if the match is a long way away!
Ipswich does seem to have a large diaspora, but a surprising number travelled up from Suffolk.
Compared to some of the pathetic away crowds we see at Portman Road, Ipswich Town’s away support always surprises me. I think the team appreciate it too!
Manchester United 3 – Ipswich 0
These pictures document the match.
It was all very disappointing, but then Mick has his priorities of getting out of the Championship.
Old Trafford is not the sort of stadium, I thought it would be. It had a rather tired air and compared to the Emirates or the Amex at Brighton, it was very second-rate.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
To put it mildly Ipswich have had some rubbish on loan from various Premier League clubs in the past.
But Ainsley Maitland-Niles is in a different class.
He has all the skills and he has that added factor that so many youngsters don’t seem to possess – Keenness to get on with the game. And not in a selfish way!
For Ipswich’s first goal yesterday against Burnley, he brought the ball forward to the edge of the penalty area. Most players would have shot from distance, but he saw that Brett Pitman was free on his right and he was able to put the ball across goal for Freddie Sears to slot in.
But don’t take my word for the quality of his performance! These two paragraphs from the report in the East Anglian Daily Times describe his part in the two goals.
After Maitland-Niles’ pass into the channel, Pitman steered a low cross towards the back post and Sears only had to provide the slightest of touches inside the six yard box to help the ball on its way into the bottom corner.
One-nil became 2-0 five minutes later in the most simple of fashions; McGoldrick barely having to jump to head home Maitland-Niles’ corner from around eight yards out.
And this is Mick McCarthy’s view in an article on the BBC web site.
Read it all!
We’ve not seen a youngster of this class, wearing the blue of Ipswich since Kieron Dyer.
It’s My Fault HaHa!
I just had to post this story from the BBC, about how an Ipswich fan punched a hole in his ceiling when Ipswich equalised against Norwich and the scorer; Paul Anderson offered to pay for it.
Can you imagine the fuss of a Liverpool or Chelsea player did this for a fan living in Leeds!
Match Forty-Seven – Ipswich 1 – Norwich 1
This was the first leg of the playoffs and it was a well-fought match.
A draw was probably a fair result and I think it could have have honesty gone either way.
Mick McCarthy said this about his team.
I would say it was a terrific, hard-fought football match. When two teams are competing for a big prize it will never be expansive football.
I thought it was a good game, for us we’d like to be in front but there’s no away goals that count.
I’ve always been proud of my team, and to go behind when we were on top and come back shows everything that my team’s about.
I do think that Mick’s method of motivating the team is a lesson to everybody.
I’ve just looked up the odds of the four teams left of winning the Championship on Betfair.
Middlesbrough – 11/8
Norwich – 9/4
Ipswich – 9/2
Brentford – 9/1
That is all pretty close to me without a warm favourite, although we’re probably get a Middlesbrough-Norwich final.
Match Forty-Four – Wolverhampton 1 – Ipswich 1
It was an early start to catch the 08:43 Virgin to get me to Wolverhampton for this match’s 12:15 kick-off I travelled in First and got water, a banana and tea to sustain me on the journey. At least the trains now seem to carry a lot of fruit, which is surely acceptable to all.
Molineux stadium is not that far to walk from Wolverhampton station, as the Google Earth image shows.
Molineux And Wolverhampton Station
I’m sure there must be a quicker way that is known to regular visitors, especially for Away supporters, who are in the top-right or north-east corner of the stadium.
When I went to the ground today, I felt it would be prudent to have an early lunchtime snack, so I walked up into the city centre to the Marks and Spencer, to see if they had any sandwiches. Just as at Middlesbrough, there were none available. I then walked down from the city centre to the ground.
Coming back, I asked the stewards and they said the best way was to walk through the buildings of the University and then climb up to the Inner Ring Road, which leads to the station.
It wasn’t that difficult a walk, but I do wonder if a better direct route could be signposted that possibly ran along the canal in the area. Wolverhampton does have signposts and liths, but like this one in the city centre, the football ground isn’t always indicated.
Where’s The Football Ground?
Hopefully next time, I go, the Midland Metro will be connected to Birmingham New Street station, so it may be easier to go to Molineux by Birmingham and the Metro, as this will mean only a downhill walk in Wolverhampton and I could et in the larger city first. Coming back, it would probably be easier to use today’s route, until they extend the Metro with a loop in Wolverhampton. The Wikipedia section contains this statement.
In July 2010, Centro Director General Geoff Inskip hinted that the scheme would be reworked by taking it to “places people need to go, such as the University”, and not taking passengers to the railway station and back “if they don’t actually need to go there”
Surely as the football ground is next to the University, Wolverhampton probably needs a full city centre loop, that serves the shops, railway and bus stations, the University and the football ground. This Google Earth image shows the Inner Ring Road, the northern part of the city centre, the football ground and the train station.
Wolverhampton Inner Ring Road
Note that the Inner Ring Road has a very wide central reservation, which must offer possibilities for running the Metro along the middle, serving the various stops by subway or footbridge. At the football ground there is already a subway and there is a bridge at the railway station, that could be upgraded to tram stops. This Google Earh image shows the bridges that connect the bus and railway stations.
Wolverhampton And Midland Metro
The big roundabout south of the bridges and the three limbs of the bus station is where the Metro enters Wolverhampton City Centre to terminate at Wolverhampton tram stop. Could not a branch turn north to serve the bus and train stations, Wolverhampton University and Molineux? In an ideal world, it would continue past the football ground to perhaps a Park and Ride site on the other side of the city. Or it could even go further round the Inner Ring Road and loop back into the City Centre to the existing terminus.
There is also talk as in this article in the Wolverhampton Express and Star, of using tram-trains to extend the Midland Metro from Wolverhampton to Walsall on an old rail line. But then the West Midlands has used and disused rail lines everywhere and if tram-trains work well connecting Sheffield and Rotherham, I would think it is likely that proposals could be put forward to extend the Metro.
The possibilities are endless and by 2020, engineers and civic planners will have come up with a scheme that is much better than any so far proposed.
The football today was a hard-fought draw and a that was probably a fair result.
The pictures show the ground, the match and the half-time entertainment.According to the report on the BBC web site, Mick McCarthy was forthright after the match.
We are always hard to beat and hard to play against. The first thing I said to the players in the dressing room after the game was what a belligerent, stubborn, hard working, tough, horrible bunch you have turned out to be and I love you and I am proud of you because you need all those qualities to be a good team. It is lovely to have.
I wouldn’t disagree with Mick’s superb motivational speech. You can imagine various military commanders saying something very similar.
Is There A Klug Effect?
Bryan Klug was the manager of Ipswich’s youth academy for some years and in 2002 and 2009 he was appointed caretaker manager.
The academy didn’t produce that many good players under his tenure, but he probably helped the likes of Darren Bent, Darren Ambrose, Luke Hyam and Jordan Rhodes amongst others. Since he left the club, when Roy Keane arrived, with the exception of Connor Wickham few home-grown players have been produced.
Klug went to Tottenham, who for the last few years, have had a dismal record of creating their own stars to be Assistant Academy Manager and Head of Player Development. And then a whole host of youngsters have come through including Andros Townsend, Ryan Mason and Harry Kane. At one time against Italy last week, England had four young Tottenham players on the pitch.
In June 2012, Klug came back to Ipswich and already Teddy Bishop and Matt Clarke are full members of the First Team Squad.
Match Thirty-Nine – Watford 0 – Ipswich 1
This was a thoroughly entertaining match, which I saw on my first visit to Vicarage Road since the opening of the new Sir Elton John stand.
The New Sir Elton John Stand
Watford were on a roll of winning six out of their previous seven home matches and were sitting on top of the Championship after scoring lots of goals, so I didn’t go to the match with any thoughts of not being beaten. And probably beaten substantially!
But the Ipswich Team were reading a different script and during the ninety minutes their defence held firm and didn’t allow Watford to get a single shot on target.
The midfield of Scuse, Varney, the diminutive Tab and Bru were key in that they seemed to snuffing out many Watford attacks before they started. Hopefully for the remaining matches some of Ipswich’s injured midfield will be able to return. At least Stephen Hunt was on the bench!
Kevin Bru is one of Mick McCarthy’s finds of the season, who was born in Paris and came to Suffolk by a roundabout route which included a lot of lesser French clubs and Levski Sofia in Bulgaria. He was on superb form and was the leader of the midfield pack. He could have scored with an audacious volley with the outside of his right foot from just outside the penalty area, but it just went the wrong side of the post. I suspect he learned that sort of skill playing street football in a Paris banlieue. It’s not something you see from an English player.
The match was drifting towards a goal-less draw and as Watford pressed harder to win the match, in the ninety-fourth minute, Tabb hooked the ball speculatively away, Freddie Sears dispossessed their centre back, who should have cleared it, and then put Richard Chaplow through to score the winning goal, which no-one thought would come for Ipswich.
Throughout the match, the Ipswich crowd were their usual superb best and they will be key in the remaining seven matches of the normal season.
I intend to be at every one!
If you look at the last seven years of the Championship, it would appear that to get promoted directly without going through the play-offs, a team needs to at least get more than eighty points. To do this Town need at least fourteen points from those seven matches. The away matches at Wolves, Huddersfield and Blackburn, are best described as tricky rather than difficult, so if we can get five points on the road from these matches, whether we get to eighty will be down to the home form, where the supreme test is Bournemouth on Good Friday. I will be surprised if the match is not a total sell-out!
A friend pointed out that after yesterday, Town has won every match they’ve played inside the M25.
And where is Wembley, should the team get to the play-off final?
The Anonymous Widower 