Feeling Called Love

Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 ITFC 20th April 2013

I always enjoy a trip up north for football and had been looking forward to visiting Hillsborough all season. Tracey came along with us for her first game of the season, the aim was to leave at eight o' clock, but as often happens we ran a little late but we still made it to the Meadowhall Exchange for eleven where we met up with Paul, who came in by train from Harrogate. We caught the Supertram into the city centre and had a coffee in Starbucks before heading towards the railway station where we met up with Max and his mates nearby in the Howard pub. 

Pacific Gem for me & paul

Peroni for the girls

After a couple of pints and some grub we walked back up to catch the tram to Hillsborough, making it to the ground with just fifteen minutes to spare. 

The match itself was a tale of two halves, we took control of the game from the start and it was no surprise when Jay Tabb gave us the lead after eighteen minutes, although it took a couple of seconds before his near post tap in registered with the Town fans sat high up in the West Stand at the opposite end of the ground.

Not often that we play in all white

It looked like it might be a comfortable afternoon in the sunshine for us, but as has happened a lot this season we failed to take full advantage of our possession and went in just the one nil up.

Wednesday came out for the second half like they needed to get a result, their route one physical stuff payed off with a fifty-eighth minute equaliser from Leroy Lita. With thirteen minutes remaining Lita thought that he had given the Owls the lead only to have his headed goal disallowed for offside. Five minutes later Frank Nouble had an effort from close range cleared off the line.

In the end a draw was a fair result and although we are sitting in fourteenth place, six points clear of the drop we are still not yet mathematically safe!

Morbid I know, but I had to see the tunnel at the Leppings Lane end, the lower tier doesn't get used much nowadays

Sam, Jack & Max 1996, one of my favourite photos

Move forward a few years

Student discount!

The day lived up to all expectations, the weather was sunny and warm, the trip up to Yorkshire and back home was free flowing and we didn’t lose. Paul was very excitable providing us with a few laughs throughout the day, none better than when playing dumb to Max’s mate John at the pub, telling him that Mick McCarthy was going to be in charge of Ireland next season, John responded “He won’t leave, Ipswich are a bigger club.”

The playlist

F.E.E.L.I.N.G. C.A.L.L.E.D. L.O.V.E by Pulp - you can't beat a bit of Pulp in Sheffield, also Jarvis Cocker is a Wednesday fan.  

Reasons To Be Cheerful

ITFC 3-0 Crystal Palace April 16th 2013

There was a knock on the door at around 6pm and when I answered it was Maty Scholar. “Oh no” I thought. “He’s coming to football with us again!” I had only just about recovered from Saturday’s session with him. I didn’t fancy a drink anyway and besides I had to get those Sheffield Wednesday tickets. Sharon very kindly gave her ticket to Max again but in doing so missed a cracking game, you can’t beat football under floodlights.

Crystal Palace have been on an indifferent run lately and with automatic promotion now out of the window came to Portman Road trying to cement their place in the playoff’s. Ex Blue Damien Delaney was captain on the night and won the toss, he chose to make us kick towards the SBR stand in the first half which pissed me off at the time, but turned out to be very noble of him as we got to see all of the goals and celebrations up close!

Palace started the match on the front foot, they came at us with pace and good movement off the ball. In truth we didn’t look up to it until Richard Stearman's superb tackle on Jonathan Parr which changed the complexion of the half. Whilst Parr (who later had to be substituted) was receiving treatment Mick McCarthy was able to reorganise his side. Things really looked up in the thirty-seventh minute when Eagle’s keeper Julian Speroni made a hash of clearing Guirane N’Daws ball over the top, dwelling on it rather clear it up the pitch. He had failed to take into account Frank Nouble’s blistering pace and was shocked to see the Ipswich forward nick the ball off him, Nouble took a touch, readjusted his posistion and neatly passed the ball into an empty net with his favoured right foot. We’ve become use to that type of goal being scored against us over the past few seasons which made the goal even sweeter. 

Nouble was swamped by his teammates as he celebrated his first Town goal, even sub Antony Wordsworth who had been stretching out by the corner flag sprinted over to join in.

The place was buzzing after that and as the game went into five minutes of stoppage time the noise levels and excitement were about to go up a further notch or two. Firstly Aaron Creswell scored what will surely be the goal of the season, an unstoppable half volley from twenty five yards into the top corner of Speroni's net. Then from the restart Nouble dispossessed Peter Ramage midway in his own half and calmly slotted the ball under Speroni to end an unbelievable few minutes.

Shell shocked, Palace brought on veteran Kevin Phillips for the second half and quickly got at the Blues. Scott Loach made an excellent save from André Moritz's free kick after fifty five minutes, he got across to punch the goal bound ball out wide for a throw-in. We had to dig in and really defend as a team, nobody illustrated this more than Daryl Murphy who really put in a good shift. Palace came close to scoring towards the end of the game when Phillips saw his shot hit the post after he had picked up a rebound from another excellent Loach block.

I had said at halftime as bizarre as it may sound that I thought that we might need a fourth goal to win the match, how wrong was I? It was obviously to be our night, somehow we kept yet another clean sheet, the tenth in fourteen games. Now incredibly we are up to thirteenth in the league with three games left to play and five points clear of the drop zone. Although we are not mathematically safe yet, we're not going down!

Let the banter begin, JET & Frank Nouble commiserate with Palace's Yannick Bolasie after winning the bragging rights. Is Richard Stearman about to put him in his pocket? If you don't understand watch their keeks! 

The Luke Chambers fist pump

The playlist 

Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part Three) by Ian Dury And The Blockheads -  how many more do you need?

Ships In The Night

ITFC 1-2 Hull April 13th 2013 

Sharon was traveling back home after working in Devon & Cornwall for the week so Max “won” her ticket. There was also a £10 per ticket promotion for the game so he used my customer number to get his mate Mat and dad Andy tickets. Max also arranged to meet them for prematch beers at the Thomas Wolsey which seemed like a good idea at the time, so we got the Park & Ride into town rather than drive. After three pints of Ghost Ship it was time to leave the pub and head to Portman Road. I was meant to get the tickets for Sheffield Wednesday away before the game but ran out of time so that didn't happen! "Oh well I can get them afterwards" I thought.

The first half was dull and quite poor from an Ipswich point of view, the only talking point for us at half time over another pint of Adnams was the penalty that Guirane N'Daw gave away midway through the half. My immediate instinct was that the ref had made the correct decision but Max was adamant that it was just a shoulder barge. Mat & Andy who were nearer the front agreed with me, but having now seen the incident on TV I'm not so sure - who'd be a referee?

I missed the first couple of minutes of the second half, something that I never do, blame the drink, or am I just easily lead? The rain which was forecast for the afternoon duly arrived, I didn't mind as I was undercover. 

David Stockdale one of four keepers used by ITFC last season 

Ipswich looked like a different team, whatever Big Mick had said at the interval seemed to be working.  We dominated the second half and leveled the scores after Anthony Wordsworth converted a decent Luke Chambers cross, heading it past former blues loanee keeper David Stockdale, to register his first goal for the Tractor Boys in the process.

Hull were ragged and all over the place, their manager Steve Bruce also looked like he was losing the plot, going apeshit on the sidelines. We couldn’t turn our pressure into goals and with time running they got a corner which we failed to clear, Robbie Brady, chipped the ball back into the box giving substitute Robert Koren an easy header for the winning goal.

That result almost gives Hull automatic promotion but based on that performances they'll need to improve or their stay in the Premier League will be short lived.

As we were walking out after the final whistle Max got a call inviting us back to the Thomas Wolsey which unfortunately we excepted. I still hadn’t got the tickets for Sheffield Wednesday! 

Back to the pub

The return visit to the pub seemed like a good idea at the time but I was to later regret it, perhaps not so much as my visit to the Kesgrave Bell later that evening for even more Ghost Ship. All of this beer certainly took its toll on me (no pun intended). Suffice to say I was sunk without trace on Sunday and certainly not a candidate for the Adnams “Man of the Match”!

Bad boys!

Ships In The Night by Be Bop Deluxe - Oh those Saturday night beers!

Scooby Snacks

Derby 0-1 ITFC April 6th 2013

The weather was so much warmer on Saturday at Pride Park than at the Den five days earlier, the icy cold wind having blown away. The sun was out and the sunglasses were on, which made driving up to Derby much more pleasurable.

Brian Clough and Peter Taylor

Unity Plaza

Before the kickoff there was a minutes silence in memory of the six Philpott children who died in a house fire in Derby last May. Earlier in the week their parents Mick and Mairead Philpott and friend Paul Mosley were all convicted of manslaughter for deliberately starting the fire. The plan was to frame Mick Philpott’s ex mistress Lisa Willis who had also shared the home with her children until three months earlier and claim custody of her children to get their benefits.

Minutes silence before kickoff

David McGoldrick playing the last game of his
93 day loan spell. Will we see him next season?

The Philpotts may not have got away with murder, but Ipswich certainly got away with daylight robbery at Pride Park! If there was a game that we didn't deserve to win this season this was the one. Derby started brighter, playing some good attacking football and we were under threat from the start, with keeper Scott Loach being called into action early on.

Derby had two great opportunities to take the lead, firstly Connor Salmon hit the post when one-on-one with Loach after thirty minutes and four minutes before halftime Loach saved a Jamie Ward penalty. So we managed to go in all square at half time, but my thoughts from a neutral perspective would have the home team going on to win the match 2-0!

The Rams started the second half strongly and we were on the back foot, Salmon's claims for another penalty after being tripped were waved away. Mick McCarthy then changed things around bringing on Guirane N’Daw and Frank Nouble for Andy Drury and Daryl Murphy just before the hour mark.

On loan budgie Chris Martin then thought he had put Derby in front after tapping in from close range only to have it ruled out for offside, how sweet!  Loach was definitely the busier keeper but the changes made enabled us to get back into the match.

With five minutes remaining Derby sub Michael Jacob's had a claim for yet another penalty waved away after being tripped by Aaron Cresswell, I thought the ref might give this one from where I was sitting at the other end of the ground!  At this point I started to believe this might be our day and so it turned out to be. With four minutes of injury time ticking away and the stadium beginning to thin out up popped Carlos Edwards with a run through the middle and a twenty-five yard shot smashed past Rams keeper Frank Fielding and into the net. Cue massive celebrations from everybody in blue and a mass exodus from the Derby fans who must have been absolutely gutted.

Daylight robbery

Lot's of pride at the park!

The Playlist

Scooby Snacks by Fun Lovin' Criminals - "Everybody be cool, this is a robbery" 

JET & Frank Nouble liking my Instagram!

What A Fool Believes

Millwall 0-0 ITFC April 1st 2013

On the back of that great win over Leeds we went to the ticket office after the final whistle and brought tickets for the game at Millwall on Easter Monday (along with the Derby ones that we had intended to buy). This year the bank holiday fell on April 1st, were we about to be made fools of for this hasty decision?

Before leaving for London I managed to "fool" Max and Sharon, telling them that I had read a tweet about Michael Chopra being arrested for drink, driving on Saturday night. Imagine the response! When I later fessed up to Max he ironically asked me to put a bet on Chopra to score last in a 2-1 Town win.

A friendly face 

Cold Blow Lane certainly lived up to its name as once again the weather was freezing and I was grateful for the Russian hat that Sam brought me back from his recent Trans Siberian Railway journey. I might look a bit of a dick wearing it, but it helped to keep me warm!

Sharon putting on a brave face, trying not to look cold.

Dockers day at the Den

Football wise the game will not live long in the memory, having said that it was far from a "scoreless bore". Millwall had a first half goal ruled out for offside and Shane Lowry hit the post from a free kick twenty minutes from time. 

Luke Hyam came closest to scoring for us in the first half with a speculative shot from the half way line. He intercepted a poor clearance from keeper David Forde only to see his goal bound shot held up in the strong head wind, defender Mark Beevers got back and cleared the ball before it crossed the line, thus saving his keepers blushes. Soon after Forde produced a fine save to deny Hyam again. 

Another clean sheet and an away point is never a bad thing, especially at the Den.

Before the Easter programme kicked off we were sitting four points above the drop zone, we've picked up a win and a draw and now find ourselves just three points clear! The league has gone crazy with all the bottom teams hitting form and bar Bristol City who are seven from safety it's hard to predict who will go down. We have now hit the "magic" fifty point survival target to stay in the Championship, although that isn't going to be enough this time around. 

I couldn't see the threat of relegation as a reality earlier in the season, however I now believe that had we not changed managers when we did we would have “been gone” by now. Under Paul Jewell we might have scraped through in a “normal season” but the increased points total now needed for survival would have proved too much, especially after that bad start that we made. We could still drop down a league, although I don't think we will - ever the optimist!

It might look warm!

The playlist

What A Fool Believes by Doobie Brothers - April 1st and all that!