Help The Aged

ITFC v Reading January 26th 2014

Back to winning ways after three defeats on the bounce, to QPR at home, Preston away in the FA Cup replay and then a dismal one-nil loss at Millwall (glad that I missed that one).

Paul was in town so he came along to the game with Max and me, whilst Sharon volunteered to gloss the cloakroom - surely Town haven't been that bad lately! 

I don't know why, but we were taken back by the "on the day" admission prices, it's no secret that Portman Road is overpriced. £35 to sit in the Sir Bobby upper, £30 in the lower and £20.50 for the over 60’s.

I've known Paul since 1971 when were first years (that’s year seven in modern money) at Copleston. Our year was the last intake into the boys school before it mixed with the girls school the following year.

As we grew up we would lie about being over sixteen to buy fags and in the case of pubs, lie about being over eighteen. Then as we got older we’d try to get away with being under sixteen, so we could get into football or speedway as a child. Today Paul may have reached a new milestone - I'm saying nothing!

Did he or didn't he?

During the second half the whole ground was lit up by people turning on the torch light of their mobiles and waving them around

Reading came to Ipswich on the back of a 7-1 home win over Bolton in their last match and so will have been full of confidence. In fairness they looked the better side in the first half, although without really creating any clear cut chances. Dean Gerken did have to make one save, a shot from Danny Williams which I'm not entirely sure was bound for the back of the net. We were the happier to go in all square at the interval.

I can only assume that Mick McCarthy stuck a f**k into his players at half-time as they looked a lot sharper and more determined in the second half! He also swopped Paul Anderson for Carlos Edwards.

Daryl Murphy broke the deadlock with a rasping shot from the right hand side of the box, which went in off the bar after sixty-two minutes. Reading then went all out for an equaliser but Towns defence stood strong.

The result was put beyond doubt in the last minute of the match thanks to a great individual goal from sub Anderson, he took on and beat Jordan Obita on the right, just inside the penalty area, then slotted the ball across Royals keeper Alex McCarthy and into the net.

Sharon predicted the result and first scorer correctly and had asked Max to put a bet on for her, guess what? He forgot to!

Ipswich 2-0 Reading

Murphy 62

Anderson 90

Att: 15,323

The playlist

Help The Aged by Pulp - I think that mine and Paul’s days of getting Id’d are well behind us, all we’ve got to look forward to pretending to be sixty plus. Hey you're never to old for a challenge!

Come Fly With Me

ITFC v QPR 11th January 2014

A sunny day at Portman Road for a change

A brick in the wall for Max one day?

35 year old Alan Lee named on the bench v QPR's multi million pound squad - fairplay league in action ?

Strange looking bunch!

This was a good game of football - especially the first forty-five minutes, but as we have seen a couple of times already this season, Ipswich aren't quite good enough to win against the top teams in the championship. Don't get me wrong, we competed well against QPR, the leagues big earners, who included Joey Barton, Niko Kranjcar, Yossi Benayoun, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Charlie Austin and of course the Town fan's "favourite" goalkeeper, Robert Green in their starting line up.

If we had of converted one of our first half chances then I might be taking a more positive view. The game had the feel of whoever scores first, wins and so it proved.

Kranjcar gave the visitors the lead seven minutes into the second half when he took on three Town defenders before tucking the ball into the corner of the net. Gary O'Neil scored a second goal, fourteen minutes later, he netted a loose ball after Gerken could only parry Austin's fierce shot.

Rangers sub Armand Traore scored the Hoops' third goal in the seventy-fourth minute, following a mistake by Tommy Smith to put the result beyond any doubt. Smith did however redeem himself in the ninetieth minute scoring a cracking goal from the edge of the box from Stephen Hunt's corner. If that have been the match winning goal we would all be talking about it for years to come.

Alan Lee, now aged Thirty five was included on the bench for Town, every time he came to stretch by the North Stand the fans started singing the Spandau Ballet song "Gold". It's not that long ago that he got booed equally as loud as Robert Green did today, when visiting Portman Road. He went to Norwich on loan, whilst a Crystal Palace player, how forgiving we are!

The 120 Fortuna Blues fans from Dusseldorf still singing, long after the final whistle

Ipswich 1-3 QPR
Smith 90                        Kranjcar 52
                                        O'Neil 66
                                        Traore 74
Att: 18,369

The playlist

Come Fly With Me by Frank Sinatra - QPR who are being bank rolled by Air Asia owner Tony Fernandes had that little bit of quality and class that should see them promoted back to the Premier League.
I resisted Gold by Spandau Ballet - I'm not a fan of them or Alan Lee!

Glory Days

ITFC v PNE 4th January 2014

The magic of the 3rd round of the FA Cup was not in evidence at Portman Road on Saturday afternoon. I was undecided whether to even go or not until about 12.30pm on the day. In the end I succumbed and got tickets in The East Of England Co-op Stand, AKA The West Stand - the lure of Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and £15 per ticket was too much!

A different view point

"Got a bit of grit in your eye?"

Mick McCarthy made seven changes, giving some of the fringe players an opportunity to impress, sadly they didn't, the game had more the feel of a friendly than a cup match. Ebanks-Blake wearing the number 27 shirt ironically went off injured after 27 minutes, he looked a bit like Jason Scotland but with a Jimmy Floyd Hasslebank bum!

Ebanks-Blake's replacement, David McGoldrick was called into action in the thirty-eighth minute when Town were awarded a penalty, following a handball by North End's Paul Huntington. Declan Rudd saved McGoldrick's spot kick but fortunately the Town man was fastest to the rebound and whacked the ball into the net.

Kevin Davies equalised for a lively Preston side four minutes later. Tyrone Mings lying injured deep inside his own half played the striker onside, allowing him a one on one opportunity with Scott Loach in the Town goal, which he duly took.

The second half was dull and it didn't come alive until just before the end, Frank Nouble put in a cross from the right and McGoldrick looked certain to pinch an undeserved winner for the home team, but he was denied by Rudd who produced a brilliant save, thus taking the game to a replay.

An away game to Nottingham Forest awaits the winners of the replay - if Town are successful I shan't be going!

Just so happens I got this for Christmas - all I need is a turntable to play it on!

Ipswich 1-1 Preston

McGoldrick 38              Davies 42

Att: 13,534

The playlist

Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen - It's hard to think that we'll ever replicate 1978, but having said that, what chance were Wigan, who ended up relegated, given of beating hot favourites Man City last season?

What A Waste

ITFC V Charlton 1st January 2014

Hangover cures sold here

Go on Boy!

After a boozy night seeing in the new year at Blacktiles I was suitably hungover and very tired, hardly prepared for going to a very wet and windy Portman Road with Max. I was that bad that I needed a pre-match cheeseburger with loads of onions and tomato sauce to aid my recovery.

I expected an easy home win to cap a successful Christmas period and the early signs were good - Charlton looked like a team destined for a relegation battle during the second half of the season.

Town took a deserved twenty-fourth minute lead when Addicks Richard Wood turned Daryl Murphy's low cross into his own net. "Here we go my 4-0 prediction is on" I thought. Honestly Charlton looked lost and lacking in confidence, but somehow they managed to get to halftime without conceding again.

The second half was a completely different story, the visitors came out and had a go at us and all of a sudden we had to do some defending. We were given a golden opportunity to put the game to bed in the seventy-seventh minute when Town's Paul Anderson was tripped in the box by Jordan Cousins. David McGoldrick stepped up to take the resultant penalty, only to see his effort pushed round the post by Charlton keeper Ben Alnwick.

The afternoon was completely spoilt in the ninetieth minute when Charlton sub Johnny Jackson saw his long range shot deflect off Christophe Berra and into the Ipswich net, I was gutted, that's definitely two points thrown away.

The results around us meant that we stay in sixth spot. I don't mean to sound negative, but I don't think that we have got quite enough to be in one of the playoff positions at the end of the season - I'll happily be proved wrong though.

Ipswich 1-1 Charlton

Wood (og) 24                 Jackson 90

Att: 18,731

The playlist

What A Waste by Ian Dury - Will we rue that 90th minute equaliser come the end of the season?