Rush Hour

It was all of a rush to get to football on Saturday, having spent the morning at Max's flat assembling his bed and putting up curtains (which I failed miserably at!) We were driving home to Kesgrave at 1.30pm, the time that I like to going to the match.

After we had a quick change of clothes and bolted some food down Sharon kindly dropped Max &me back into town. As she pulled away in civic drive I suddenly realised how cold it was and realised that I hadn't got a hat with me. Luckily I just about had time to visit Planet Blue to buy a new one!

I let Harry use my season ticket so he could stand with Max, whilst I got one in the Sir Bobby Robson upper as the lower was all but sold out, mainly due to the £10 tickets, that were available for season ticket holders to buy for their friends and family.

I finally got to my seat, coffee in hand, about three minutes before the teams came out.

To be honest the game wasn't that much of a spectacle, Preston, who are doing the best of the three sides that came up from division one, seemed content to go home with a draw, even though they took a seventh minute lead through Daniel Johnson!

Daryl Murphy levelled things up after thirty-eight minutes with a long range shot, which from my vantage point high in the upper-tier seemed to take ages to hit the net.

Apart from that the only other excitement during the afternoon was a Preston goal ruled out for off-side after sixty minutes and Towns appeal for a penalty just before full time, when Paul Huntington handled the ball in his own area, but the ref was having none of it.

Recently I've sat in The Sir Alf upper and The Sir Bobby upper where the views are quite good but there is a distinct lack of atmosphere in either, if it's taught me anything it's that I much prefer standing down in the Sir Bobby lower.

By the way that hat was a godsend

A Crazee Night

Leeds brought over two thousand fans with them to Portman Road, that's great away support for a midweek match and they were all in buoyant mood after Souleymane Doukara gave them the lead after just twelve seconds of the match!

Everybody associated with Ipswich were shell shocked, especially Jonathan Douglas, whose dillying on the ball had led to the goal, there was the fear of conceding another early one. However, we went on to dominate the match, once we had weathered the first fifteen minutes. The team was actually applauded off at half-time, even though we were still trailing by the odd goal.

Luke Chambers got us back on level terms within five minutes of the restart, heading in a cross from Ryan Fraser. It took until the ninety-second minute for our dominance to finally count  and take the lead, securing all three points in the process, (for the second match running the early leavers missed out on the drama). Substitute Brett Pitman headed in another cross from the lively Fraser, to send Leeds home empty handed. It was all that they deserved, having hardly mustered a single attack since taking that twelfth second lead.

After the game United boss Steve Evans slated Ipswich's style of play, accusing us of just playing long balls up to Daryl Murphy, whilst we may have been guilty of that in some games, I thought that our passing football tonight was as good as we've played all season.

Town boss Mick McCarthy gave a good retort to the little fat man “He can talk, can’t he? He certainly gives his jaw some exercise, I don’t know what else but his jaw certainly gets some exercise." - touché!

At half-time I asked Crazee to have a photo taken with Tracey, who was celebrating the last day in her forties! We had teased her about being mascot, so this was the next best thing!

Leeds Keeper Marco Silvestri had the worst kicking display I can remember in ages

The three points lifts us to fifth place in the league table and on a personal level I got up to seventh place in the TWTD's Prediction League table.

Boxing Day Ales

Festive beer

Cheeky portion of chips

The vinegar strokes

Salt 'n vinegar selfie

There was a crowd of 23,615 at Portman Road, the highest of the season so far, for the Boxing Day match against Queens Park Rangers. There were only 974 fans from London at the game, which when you consider that the cost of tickets for them was £35 each and that there were no trains running from the capital. It’s also quite understandable, given the fact that the relegated side have hardly set the Championship alive this season.

Sharon and I made our way to the match from The Nelson after a pint of Shingle Shells and a pint of Ghost Ship (for me, Sharon was driving so she stuck to Lime and Soda) We did stop for some chips on the way there though, opposite the Buttermarket - I can't wait to get back on the low carbs diet in the new year!

The same starting line up for the sixth consecutive match

We were sitting in the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand, having given up our season tickets to Max and Harry, due to there only being limited seats available in the Sir Bobby lower. The view we had from the upper tier was good, but there was no atmosphere at all, having said that the atmosphere inside the whole of the ground was so subdued, I think that everybody must have had a Christmas hangover!

Things were hardly inspirational on the pitch, it really was an awful first half, made even worse when somehow the visitors took a shock lead deep in to injury time, courtesy of headed goal from Junior Hoilett.

The place came to life shortly before Jonathan Douglas scored an equaliser with an overhead kick past a bemused Robert Green, the much loved (by Town fans), Rangers keeper, in the seventy-seventh minute, was it the flare in the North Stand that had gotten everyone excited?

In the ninety-third minute Luke Chambers did what all good captains do, he scored the winning goal with a great header - just when I was thinking that a one-one draw wasn't the end of the world! A perfect Christmas present and great reward for having to endure the first hour or so of the match.

I can't help but smile at times like these at all of the 'fans' who leave matches early, some of them having lost faith, others just want to beat the traffic, it takes all sorts I suppose.

2-1

An extra special fist pump today!

The mid point of the season

No Christmas Cheer

One of the pre-season favourites for promotion, Derby County, were the visitors to Portman Road and there was plenty to cheer about leading up to the last game before Christmas, following the two excellent away wins in the last seven days.

The match was similar to the previous home game versus Middlesbrough, in as much as Town were equal to their visitors until we went behind, this time it was Tom Ince who gave Derby a first half lead, that town were unable to respond to.

The result means that we have failed to beat any of the top four (Middlesbrough, Hull, Brighton and now Derby) so far this season, whilst at the other end of the table, we have a one hundred percent win rate against the bottom four (Bolton, Rotherham, Charlton and MK Dons)!

We are still sitting in the play-off positions at Christmas, but I feel a win at home versus QPR on Boxing Day is a must.

The Salvation Army Band playing some pre-match carols

A Pearler From Freddie

How do you celebrate thirty years of marriage to the perfect woman? How about a two day city break in London? Sounds like a plan. Oh and Ipswich just happen to be playing Fulham away!

We travelled First Class from Ipswich to London Liverpool Street on the 11.09am train and then got on the Underground to Embankment.

After checking in to The Strand Palace Hotel we took a short stroll to Covent Garden and after buying a couple of Christmas presents we got the Tube to Putney Bridge station, where we met up in The Rocket, with Darren, Henry, Mikey & his dad Ray (who kept us well entertained with his museum stories!) We had a couple of pints in there before getting a taxi to another pub nearer to Fulhams ground. I can’t remember what it was called, but they were having a barbecue in December, along with Mold Wine.

It was only a short walk from there to Craven Cottage, the weather was horrible, although perfect for a midweek, floodlit, game of football, in December. The fine misty rain which had started as we left Covent Garden was now set in for the night.

It's a good job we were in our seats in time for the kick-off, as Freddie Sears scored the fastest goal of the Championship season, (so far), after just sixteen seconds. There were loads of fans still filtering into the stand who missed it and what a cracker it was. Sears got the ball and raced through the heart of the Fulham defence before unleashing a great shot that flew past their keeper, Andy Lonergan!

The home team levelled things up after fourteen when Ross McCormack smashed a free-kick into the back of the net from just outside the box.

Ipswich were the only team throughout the match who looked liked they could go on and take all three points and so it proved. Brett Pitman scored the decisive goal, turning in 'Man of the Match' Sears's cross at the near post, in front of the travelling 'Blue Army' supporters, just short of the hour mark.

It was an enjoyable walk through Bishops Park back to Putney Bridge tube station in the drizzling rain, which was not planning to stop anytime soon!

We had mojitos when we got back to the Strand Palace, they probably cost more than the football tickets, but hey ho we had much to celebrate.