Saturday 31 January 2015

Bore draw

Saturday 31 January 2015, Ipswich Town 0 Wigan Athletic - Championship, Portman Road

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Crowd v manager

Tuesday 27 January 2015, St Ives Town 0 Hannwell Town 0, Southern League, Division One (Central) - Westwood Road


Tight game but some good football by both sides, but mainly entertained by the banter from the home crowd by the bar and the Hanwell manager- they did not see eye to eye!

Monday 26 January 2015

Some good football and is Kundai the next young player to break through?

Monday 26 January 2015, Ipswich Town Under 21 team 1 Cardiff City Under 21 team 1, U21 Development League South division- Playford Road Training Ground



Not a bad game in windy 9and cold conditions) - will Kundai Benyu be the next Academy player to break through into the 1st team?

Saturday 24 January 2015

Great stadium and not a bad cup game!

Saturday 24 January 2014, Dartford 2, FC Halifax 2, FA Trophy 3rd Round - Princes Park


Wanted to visit this ground for a while because of its eco credentials and I was not disappointed. The wooden statue holding the stand up may be main talking point for many fans but i was also impressed by the old gates.


Minus points? The pitch is very poor and does not help produce good football and i am not sure the stands will give you much protection from a strong wind - but they really are minor points. it is just a great stadium.


The game was also entertaining and Halifax paid the price for sitting back in the second half as the hosts grabbed a late goal to set up a replay.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Not a great way to treat supporters

Tuesday 20 January 2015, Redbridge v AFC Hornchurch, Essex Senior Cup at Oakside Stadium - postponed

Arrived with 20 minutes to spare just to find the game called off, looked playable to me and not dangerous. Poor decision by the match officials?

Sunday 18 January 2015

Some people do like you!

Saturday 17 January 2015, Millwall 1 Ipswich Town 3, Championship - New Den


'No one likes us, we don't care' the Millwall fans sing, but yesterday it was obvious people do like them. After a few bad weeks it could have been nasty yesterday, but the South London fans stuck with their team, supporting and cheering and for once their was also not the hostility you normally get towards the opposition. So I Ipswich fans also enjoyed their day out. We even spent before and after the game in the company of Millwall fans in a local boozer Bermondsey - so sorry Millwall, people do like you!

Half-and-half scarves?

Wednesday 14 January 2015, Ipswich Town 0 Southampton 1, FA Cup 3rd Round replay - Portman Road


It seemed to be a perfect day - almost a full house, cheap tickets and a game under floodlights but it went wrong before kick off. I saw someone selling half Ipswich, half Southampton scarves!

Then we lost what was a game of little excitement with few chances but it was the sight of those half scarves that upset me most.


I then heard a Manchester United fanzine had stopped producing fanzines after 26 years - reason? Not low sales but they just lost the desire to battle anymore, as they put it - " We can't stand the stench of modern football anymore" and "football now is happy-clappy families, half-and-half scarves, tourists and selfie sticks, there's no point in trying to fight that"

San Siro - when we played there, the first time

Many of us went to the San Siro in 2001 to see Ipswich play Inter in the UEFA Cup, but this is how the stadium would have looked when Alf took along the likes of Ray Crawford and Ted Phillips in the early 60's to play in the European Cup

Saturday 10 January 2015

We had to lose at some time

Saturday 10 January 2015,County Ipswich Town 0 Derby County 1 - Championship, Portman Road
Hadleigh United 6 FC Clacton 0, Thurlow Nunn Premier Division - Millfield

The good run had to come to an end but it was sad that it came in such a poor game, both teams were poor as was the ref - pity we did not win for the hundred or so Fortuna Dusseldorf fans who came over to watch the town, but I am sure they will come back.


But one good thing about an early kick of was being able to see a second game on the same bday and this one had plenty of goals -as Hadleigh got back to winning ways.

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Goal too good for this game

Tuesday 6 January 2015, Enfield (1893) FC 1 Southend Manor 0, Essex Senior League- Barrows Farm (Ground of Harlow Town)


good ground and with a G3 pitch unlike much of Esssex, no problem but getting the game on. But there are many problems with the Essex Senior League, low crowds, standard of football, too many clubs sharing grounds - hard to compare with the Thurlow Nunn, which is at the same leval in the pyramid. There are some thriving clubs but many of those are in a hurry to move to the Ryaman League.

On the standard of play, the G3 pitch did not seem to help either team as both struggled to control the ball then with not long left came a bit of magic with a goal that would have been at home much further up the pyramid.