Next Game – Ipswich Town (away)

Last updated : 20 February 2004 By Tony Scholes

Jermaine Wright
Whoever comes up with the idea of sending teams on such long journeys in midweek should be looking for a new job but for the second successive season we have to travel to Portman Road during the week.

Ipswich are now in their second season back in the Nationwide League after suffering relegation from the Premiership and with it financial crisis. It is well documented that they took the cheating route last season by electing to go into administration and wiping out much of their debts.

It is fair to say that they did lose some of their players and since relegation they have collected transfer fees for no fewer than seven players. Titus Bramble was first to go joining former Ipswich boss Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle and Darren Ambrose, scorer of that superb goal against the Clarets last season, has since followed the same route. Marcus Stewart also headed north east joining Sunderland.

Since the start of 2003 Jamie Clapham has gone to Birmingham, Hermann Hreidarsson and Matt Holland to Charlton and more recently Thomas Gaardsoe moved to West Brom.

Joe Royle added to his squad in the summer and his first move was to snatch Driss Diallo from the Clarets and he was followed by George Santos from Grimsby and Franchise goalkeeper Kelvin Davies.

Like most clubs they have players on loan, three of them, and two of the three having been Burnley targets. Blackburn’s Alan Mahon, Chris Bart-Williams from Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday’s Finish international striker Shefki Kuqi are all currently with them on temporary moves.

The season hardly got off to the best of starts and after six games they found themselves well and truly at the bottom with just two points from a couple of draws. But things have changed since then and five wins in the last six has seen them move up to ninth place. They have the same number of points as the Clarets with the same zero goal difference but are currently behind us due to the fact that they have scored and conceded two goals less than us.

The last of those wins was just last Saturday when they totally outplayed Bradford City away from home and should have won by more than the one goal, scored by Mahon. They did though miss a penalty when Marlon Beresford saved from Pablo Counago.

It was their first clean sheet of the season and manager Long Ball Joe said after the game, "We made life hard for ourselves by not taking some of the chances that came our way.

"It was a 1-0 hammering for most of the game but we just need to find that cutting edge. We missed five or six open goals."

Ipswich lined up at Bradford:

Kelvin Davis, Fabian Wilnis, Richard Naylor, George Santos, Matthew Richards, Jermaine Wright, Chris Bart-Williams, Jim Magilton, Alan Mahon, Pablo Counago (Ian Westlake 83), Shefki Kuqi. Subs not used: Alun Armstrong, Dean Bowditch, Gerard Nash, Lewis Price.

Click HERE to see all Ipswich Town’s results this season.

Past Results in the last 20 years

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

a

2002/03

1

a

2-2

22,736

Gnohere Papadopoulos

h

1-1

15,501

Blake(pen)

Click HERE to see more results against Ipswich.

One from the past

Kindon the star

Ipswich Town 0 Burnley 1 (Casper)
Football League Division 1 – Saturday 17th January 1970

Man of the Match Steve Kindon
We had just moved into the 1970s and Burnley had been under snow for a few days as we prepared for a First Division game at Ipswich.

The bad weather didn’t deter some women in the town though and the main headline news at the time was the women workers at Prestige marching against the company’s offer to them. They marched all the way from work on Colne Road to the then Keighley Green Social Club on Bank Parade.

Just down the road at Turf Moor though there was some superb news for manager Harry Potts when right-back John Angus reported fit having been out injured for eight weeks. His early return to fitness was, according to the Burnley Express Sports Editor Keith McNee, down to the ultra-modern electronic medical equipment with a little bit of help from physio Jimmy Holland of course.

The Clarets were in 17th place in the First Division, one point and one place above Ipswich but still reeling from the previous week’s home defeat against Wolves that was dominated by the worst refereeing performance I have ever seen from George Hartley from Wakefield.

With Peter Mellor, Wilf Wrigley and Sammy Todd all reporting fit it was just Dave Merrington who missed out on the long trip to Suffolk which was carried out by rail from Manchester Piccadilly via London Euston.

Despite the weather and time of year the Portman Road pitch was as always similar to a snooker table and we started nervously against Bobby Robson’s Ipswich. But Burnley were the only side trying to play constructive football as Robson’s strugglers tried to put us off our stride with a long ball style game.

The Clarets got on top though with Martin Dobson and Sammy Todd dominant at the back, Arthur Bellamy and Brian O’Neil in charge in midfield but the real star of the show up front, speedy winger Steve Kindon.

Todd had replaced the injured Merrington and he and Frank Casper were both making their 100th First Division appearances for Burnley. Todd was having his best game ever and Casper it was who scored the only goal of the game.

Inevitably it came via Steve Kindon, the Ipswich defence just couldn’t cope with him. He was described after the game by one of the broadsheets as having the speed of a thoroughbred and the power of a hungry young lion.

The 1-0 win was fully deserved, and brought a bad league run to an end just in time for the big FA Cup tie at Chelsea the following week. And McNee concluded that it was a performance that perked up a following of fans that considering the distance of the trip was quite substantial.

It was Burnley’s first and to this day only ever win at Portman Road.

The teams were,

Ipswich: Dave Best, Tom Carroll, Colin Harper (Clive Woods 70), Peter Morris, William Baxter, Mick McNeil, Mick Mills, Ron Wigg, Mick Hill, Colin Viljoen, Mick Lambert.

Burnley (4-4-2): Peter Mellor, John Angus, Martin Dobson, Sammy Todd, Jim Thomson, Brian O’Neil, Arthur Bellamy, Ralph Coates, Steve Kindon, David Wilson, Frank Casper. Sub not used: Wilf Wrigley.

Referee: Ron Challis (Tonbridge).

Attendance: 17,789.