You Can Do Magic

ITFC 1-0 Blackpool 16th February 2013

Paul Gascoigne has been in the news of late, he seems to be a lost cause as he continues his life style of binge drinking and drugs. His friends have rallied round and sponsored a trip for him to a rehab clinic in America but unfortunately I fear the worse for this once lovable, cheeky and exceptionally talented footballer.

Closer to home we have our own Geordie with an illness fueled by addiction, enough has already be said and written about Michael Chopra. I stand by my opinions about him and shall be pleased when he leaves the club that he has disgraced.

Yesterday he came on as substitute replacing Antony Wordsworth in the first half to a mixture of applause and boos, I for one hoped that he had played his last game for us and would have preferred to see Aaron McClean or Frank Nouble on the pitch. I just stood with my hands at my side unmoved by his introduction. I have never booed a player wearing an Ipswich shirt and I hope that I never will, once they leave Portman Road they're fair game! It can't be easy coming onto the pitch and having your own supporters on your back before you even touch a ball, hardly motivational.

There's not too much to say about the game itself, the first half was pretty boring we created more chances but Blackpool came closer to a scoring after hitting the post. The second half was a lot livelier and the pivotal moment came in the 49th minute when Guirane N’Daw played a pass over the top of the Tangerines defence to Chopra who ran with the ball up the left hand side of the pitch shrugged off Alex Baptiste and slid the ball across keeper Matt Gilks with his left foot and into the far corner of the net.

The celebrations in front of The Sir Bobby told their own story, the sheer look of relief and euphoria on Chopra's face was matched by his team mates enthusiasm and camaraderie for him, you'd have thought he'd just scored the winner at Wembley. This wasn't just a team celebrating what could be a massive goal in their fight to stay in the championship there was a story underneath about a man tormented by more problems than most of us could cope with finally showing his unquestioned talent. Watching from behind the goal I got a glimpse of the human being inside the footballer and guess what? I celebrated a goal that not many championship footballers have the ability to score. Hopefully this will kick fire his season and enable him to get a move to pastures new in the summer because I really don't see a future at ITFC for him given everything that has happened off the pitch in the last two seasons.

Back to the match, Tom Ince possibly the best player in the Championship came on and looked a real threat, we had to do some serious defending throughout the rest of the second half as Blackpool pushed for an equaliser, they nearly got it but for Noubles goal line clearance. We kept a clean sheet for the second consecutive game running and took all three points whilst Ince senior Paul, aka 'The Guvnor' watched from the directors box, he is soon to be named as the new Blackpool manager.

The playlist 

You Can Do Magic by America - Chopra gave us a glimpse of what he might have been and like Gascoigne it's quite sad to think how things may have been different for both of them.