Johnny B. Goode

ITFC v Derby 25th March 2014

With Sharon away - in Derby of all places, I got the new look Park & Ride from the High School into town...

...where I met Max for pre-match drinks

Well, I should have kept my mouth shut regarding Ipswich keeping four clean sheets in my last blog. It only took third placed Derby thirty-three seconds to score at Portman Road on Tuesday night!
This was a really enjoyable game, under the floodlights. The Rams tried to bully their way through the game, particularly in the first half. We had a ref who should have sent ex budgie Chris Martin off within the first half an hour, for a couple of off the ball incidents. Johnny Williams (man of the match again) got kicked all over the place and got no protection at all from the officials. Mick McCarthy was so incensed that he had words with them at half time as they walked off the pitch.
Things were a little calmer in the second half, I guess lettuce (Steve McClaren, the Derby boss) had a  calming influence on his players during the interval!
After an hour of the match McCarthy made a double substitution, replacing Paul Anderson and Stephen Hunt with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Frank Nouble, a very attack minded strategy and it worked a treat. Town pressed the visitors and an equaliser came in the sixty-eighth minute. Aaron Creswell played a short free kick to Williams, who lashed the ball into the back of the net from thirty yards out.
The Rams almost got their lead back fifteen minutes from the end after Craig Forsyth's powerful shot hit the post, it looked to some (I'm not sure) like Dean Gerken got finger tips to it, but the ref awarded a goal kick. Soon after it was Ebanks-Blakes' turn to hit the post with a header.
The best drama was saved for the ninetieth minute when Cresswell sent a corner to the middle of the box, Christophe Berra buried it in the net with a powerful header to send the crowd wild.

'E I E I E I O..up The Football League We Go..'

With Luke Chambers off the pitch injured , it was over to Christophe Berra to take charge of the fist pump

I might have to start being a little more positive after this result, I thought by now that I'd be planning a trip to France in the early part of May. Ryanair are going to have to wait a little longer for that booking!
A win against Forest on Saturday and a loan extension for Williams and who knows?
Ipswich 2-1 Derby
Williams 68                   Bamford 1
Berra 90
Att: 17,399

The playlist
Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry - go Jonny go (but not back to Palace)