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