Ipswich v Scunthorpe United

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Football League Championship

Ipswich :
Alexander, Wright, De Vos, Wilnis, Sito, Haynes (Clarke 78), Garvan, Williams (Miller 59), Walters, Lee, Counago
Subs not used:
Supple, Bruce, Trotter

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Cork, Crosby, Butler (Taylor 71), Williams, Hurst, Baraclough, Goodwin, Morris, Hayes (Ameobi 84), Paterson (Forte 84)
Subs not used:
Lillis, Mulligan

SULSESC REPORT

by Phil Loy at Portman Road

FOR the first time since August, 1960, when Steve Sumner was a slip of a lad, The Blues, now known as the Tractor Boys, took on The Iron, now known as The Iron, in an official match with league points at stake.

When Scunny achieved promotion and, more surprisingly, Town avoided relegation last season, the seeds were sown for a possible double involving football in the afternoon and darts in the evening with the London-based branches of the two Supporters’ Clubs playing their ‘annual’ darts challenge, the world famous Humber-Orwell Trophy, in their home towns.

Typically, the fixture computer made life difficult, throwing up the Glanford Park fixture on Easter Saturday but a pre-Christmas jaunt on One Rail made the Suffolk double a distinct possibility.

At 8.30 am therefore, the SULSESC boys assembled in force for a breakfast of muesli, honey and herbal tea at the Hamilton Hall, Liverpool Street, before adjourning to The Constable Country Tea Rooms in Ipswich for afternoon Earl Grey and scones.

OR a fry up and several Wetherspoons guest ales before more beers, football, more beers, darts and a knackering journey back to the smoke.

With a late change of plan, the pre-match venue in Ipswich became The Dove where members of both clubs and beer aficionados topped up their alcohol levels from the early Hamilton Hall start.

Unfortunately we were two weeks too late for the biannual beer festival, for which this hostelry is renowned, but a ‘restricted’ list of over a dozen ales still provided plenty of pre-match choice for the masses.

Unfortunately, attempts to play the evening darts at this excellent venue were thwarted when the Ipswich-based contacts reported there wasn’t a dartboard there. SULSESC were later joined in the rear bar by some of the Ipswich boys, who sat alongside, just beneath…the dartboard.

Pessimism about the afternoon’s match reached unprecedented levels with a 7-1 defeat being one of the predictions in the pre-match ‘Guess the Score’ competition. With the hosts enjoying a winning home record and Scunny a not too brilliant current form, there was only one possible result. Massacre. After all, Bristol City, who were in second place at the time, were fortunate to only concede six goals in the recent past.

Scunny had, however, done their homework and, like Barnsley - the only side to take a point from Portman Road to date - decided the best way to stifle Ipswich was by playing football and not just getting 11 players behind the ball at all times.

As a result, the shock was on. Following a claim for a corner by Ipswich, supported by gestures of relief from Joe Murphy when it was not given, a lack of concentration by Town saw Scunny spread the defence wide to allow Martin Paterson to round the back pedalling hosts and blast the visitors ahead to send the travelling hoards into a frenzy.

From a Suffolk perspective, this put Ipswich very much on the back foot with their earlier flowing moves replaced by an inability to string a pass together as Scunny went for the jugular. As often happens though, a scramble in the area and a back heel from Pablo Counago saw parity again and a much-changed attitude by Ipswich as control switched to them. The expected floodgates did not, however, open although a low blast by Owen Garvan, his only constructive moment of the game, shortly afterwards put the hosts 2-1 ahead and the holder of the 7-1 prediction again looked to be heading for the cash.

With an attitude that you cannot come from behind in a game by not scoring, a further blast from Paterson, as we headed towards half- time, showed Neil Alexander is not at his best in a one-to-one situation and gave Scunny some hope of more than just the point they currently held.

A half-time read of the award-winning Ipswich programme showed how quickly time has passed us by with a report on their visit to Glanford Park on August 24, 1958, showing the importance of accurate research in order to win these awards. Still at least the burgers were good!

Sadly the second-half did not match the first, although Nigel Adkins’ use of Cleveland Taylor, Toni Ameobi and Jonathan Forte as substitutes showed an intention of going for all three points and not settling for the one on the table. Meanwhile Joe Murphy continued to annoy the home support with an inability to take a goal kick from the side the ball went out, showing maybe he hadn’t read the script.

With around five minutes to go and a honourable draw seeming inevitable, an unnecessary challenge saw Ipswich sub Tommy Miller brought down just outside the box but in free kick range. In true basketball style, the offended Miller took the kick to put Town ahead for a second time and ensure a frantic few minutes as they ran down the clock. Opinion on the home terraces (seats) was that Scunny were the second best visitors of the season, bettered only by Barnsley.

Such plaudits, in the words of John Major however, butter no parsnips and only a victory by the hosts’ betes noir from the other Anglian county, in the evening, stopped United from dropping into the bottom three.

Two-goal Martin Paterson grabbed the player of the match award whilst for Ipswich the Spanish duo of Counago and Sito were a class above and probably justified (just) a home victory.

With Ray of the Ipswich darts team reduced to watching Premiership games in London as the norm, his contention that it was the best game he had seen all season probably sums up the day. Whilst never reaching classic highs, it was certainly not an unenjoyable afternoon football wise.

At 4.50 pm, the route march reconvened with members of both branches heading for The Milestone public house where they had installed a dart board for the first time in 20 years to allow the Humber-Orwell Trophy to go ahead there. With three hand pulled beers from the Caledonian Brewery and a further two on gravity, the whistles were again whetted as the 2007/8 Trophy went ahead.

Scunny started the darts with the bigger scores. It was therefore something of a surprise that after a series of four pairs games, the visitors trailed by 3-1. Again into the singles and some pretty impressive darts were seen by both teams, albeit winning doubles again eluded the Scunny boys.

Skipper Vaughan was the only one to bring home the bacon in beating his opposite number to see Ipswich lead 8-2 with just the beer leg to go.

A relieved Ipswich finally took this final leg with huge numbers of oohs and aahs heard as both sides narrowly missed their winning double keeping the tension and entertainment going to the bitter end.

With military-like precision as the victory beers were supplied to the hosts, the band were just about to start meaning that the darts would have had to have ended in any case. With the arrival of cabs to take the rapidly flagging teams back to the station, a particularly disgusting case of wind (we know it was you, ***, and will reveal your identity unless 59p in unused notes is supplied by the next match) hastened our departure, allowing us to catch a 12 minutes earlier train back to the smoke.

With two trains in such close proximity we found out at Chelmsford why we had originally booked on the later one when the announcement, “calling at Shenfield and Liverpool Street only” led to Chris doing a world record breaking sprint to get off seconds before departure and wait for the original train which also stopped at his required Stratford.

Two defeats for Scunny in one day is not what the doctor ordered but all in all a very enjoyable time was had and a successful bonding of two sets of supporters showed what it is all about.

Special thanks go the Phil of The Milestone in Ipswich for providing a board and venue for the darts and being the perfect host.

Here’s to the next one.

Phil Loy (trying to be impartial Director of Darts and One, Double One Coach Ipswich Town London Branch).

For ***, read Mal.