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Ipswich are the club our former Chief Executive always said we should be looking to emulate but thankfully so far we haven’t taken his advice and have not elected to go into administration as they did last season to wipe out much of their debt. It almost worked to as it did at Leicester but they just missed out on the play offs.
They are currently in fourth place in the table but just as most of football would like to see Leicester come down they would also wish Ipswich to miss out on any promotion after their antics of 2002/03 season.
When we visited Portman Road they had won their previous game away to the then named Bradford City and they have continued to remain unbeaten in nine away games since having won another three and drawn the other six.
Their last defeat away from Portman Road was at Sunderland back in September when the home side won 3-2. They have though lost five times at home during that period including another loss to Sunderland which saw them go out of the FA Cup in the 4th round. Gillingham, Norwich, Crystal Palace and Wigan have all picked up maximum points there.
It is very much the same Ipswich squad as they had in October. At that time they had three players on loan. Two of them Shefki Kuqi (Sheffield Wednesday) and Chris Bart-Williams (Charlton) have not made their moves permanent whilst Alan Mahon returned to Blackburn and has since joined promotion rivals Wigan.
Last week, whilst some of us were in cup action, Ipswich took on Division One strugglers BRBC at home and were more convincing winners than the 3-1 scoreline suggests with Bryan Robson’s poor outfit unable to compete with Long Ball Joe’s side.
Ipswich went in front midway through the first half with a volley from 25-yards from Kuqi who had already missed two good chances.
Dean Windass grabbed a surprise equaliser in first half stoppage time but Ipswich went straight back in front again through Ian Westlake before the half time whistle with a hotly disputed goal. The visitors were so incensed when referee Joe Ross missed a foul in the build up that they had three players all yellow carded for dissent.
Ipswich totally dominated the second half although there was to be just one further goal from Darren Bent. The result was enough to move them up into fourth place.
The Ipswich team which included the now fit again Driss Diallo was:
Kelvin Davis, John McGreal, Matt Richards, Driss Diallo, Jim Magilton, Ian Westlake, Jermaine Wright, Tommy Miller, Darren Bent, Shefki Kuqi, Richard Naylor. Subs not used: Lewis Price, Pablo Counago, Chris Bart-Williams, Martijn Reuser, George Santos.
Ipswich are due for an away defeat whilst the Clarets are definitely due a victory against the Tractor Men, we haven’t beaten them since 1974 when a Paul Fletcher goal gave us a 1-0 win at home.
It is time for both those sequences to be brought to an end.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) | ||
2003/04 | 1 | a | 1-6 | 22,048 | Facey |
Click HERE
to see more results against Ipswich.