Friday 29 May 2020

The Redemption of Bam Bam: Guest Post

This week marks the 20th Anniversary of Ipswich Town's Play-Off Final victory over Barnsley at Wembley.

I've been asking fellow Blues fans to share their favourite memories from the day, and I will be sharing those shortly.

However, amongst the submissions was this fantastic recollection from the ever-eloquent David Pascoe, an Ipswich fan since the mid-1980's, and I felt it deserved a post all on its own.

So, grab a cup of tea (or pint if you're celebrating already) and enjoy his thoughts on the arguably unexpected impact that striker Richard Naylor had on our special day:

F***KING USELESS T**T!  OF COURSE HE’D BLOW IT, WOULDN’T HE? STRIKER? DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH! HE’S ALWAYS BEEN S**T.  HE SHOULD NEVER PLAY FOR US AGAIN!


This was the rant I launched into as I watched a recording of the Play-Off Semi-Final First Leg, between Ipswich and Bolton at the Reebok Stadium on 16 May 1999.  

My rant was the bursting of a dam which had been waiting to flood out from the moment Town’s chances of getting automatic promotion had been taken out of their hands. 

They had suffered a late loss to Crewe, with two games left to play.  

I was worried but convinced that it would all be okay, I was sure that Bradford would falter and when they drew 0-0 with Oxford the following weekend, I thought I had been proven right. 

I continued to laugh in fate’s mocking face as Town went to Birmingham the following day and James Scowcroft twice had headers cleared off the line, before the home side scored the only goal of the game. 

"No, we’ve got this," I said, trying to remain upbeat. "There’s still a twist to come."
  

Bradford had to travel Wolves

A side whose late run saw them trying to break into the Play-Off positions. 

While we were at home to Sheffield United, a side with nothing to play for. 

We did our job, the game was over by half-time, but although Bradford won their game 3-2, with a little help from one of the Molineux goalposts.  

It would not be the first time that Paul Jewell would inflict a harmful blow on Ipswich Town.  

But I was still positive and wanted to say to the tearful Kieron Dyer and that Town fan whose footage gets used whenever Sky do a package about 'Ipswich wanting to avoid any more Play-off Pain': 

"It's still going to be OK.  No-one loses three times in the Play-Offs and neither will we." 

"Wembley, here we come," said George Burley on Ceefax, in the immediate aftermath of the Sheffield United match. 

Watching that first leg the following weekend, I felt my rictus grin of optimism start to buckle and strain as the ball repeatedly failed to fall for Town when they were in attacking positions.

When Mark Halsey turned down penalty appeals, when David Johnson was brought down by, was it Mark Fish?  

Anyway, with the score goalless and the 70-minute mark passed, suddenly Richard Naylor was through one-on-one. This was the moment, surely? 

But, no..! 

As he went into the box, he trod on the ball and by the time he had got it out of his feet, Steve Banks was able to dive on to it. 

That was when I lost it. 

To be fair, I think the rant was encompassing disgust at the whole squad for how they had bottled the last few weeks of the season. 

But nevertheless, it was Bam Bam who took the brunt of my stored up angst when history seemed to be repeating itself and he tripped over his own bootlaces.  

There was a further explosion of invective when Michael Johansen scored the only goal of the game, but with it came a certain serenity, as for the first time in weeks I accepted that we would fail.  

The second leg was titanic but I was in a state of neutrality throughout.  I couldn’t believe it would happen anymore; it either would or wouldn’t and thanks to away goal rules, it didn’t.  

What did the future hold?

I hadn’t a clue, but if I’d been George Burley then it’s probable that Richard Naylor would have been sold.

But he wasn’t sold and at the beginning of the following season, he was an automatic pick and was scoring goals. 

At least he was until injury inevitably sidelined him to the substitutes’ bench again.  

By the time he was fit, he was fourth choice in any line-up behind Johnson, Scowcroft and new signing Marcus Stewart.  

Yet on the day of the Play-Off Final in May 2000, after 20-minutes of the game, an outplayed Town were a goal down to Barnsley.

The man who I had excoriated so viciously a year before was getting ready to come on to replace the injured Johnson. 

On the bench behind him, dressed in a suit rather than his kit was Scowcroft, who had been ruled out before the game. 

For myself, I hoped that the Naylor who had played those early games of the 99-00 season would be coming on and that maybe Stewart could snaffle a chance, or perhaps we could work something from a set-piece. 

If we were to do this, Naylor would be crucial to it with his physicality and never-say-die spirit.  

What no-one counted on, least of all me, was that on this day Bam Bam would not only bring into the game all the things that we knew he could do, but a whole load of things that we never knew he had in him. 

Touch, control, passing, thought, finesse.

Through him, the Town performance improved by around 20% and every time he got the ball, something looked like it would happen.

Barnsley simply could not cope with him.

He looked lethal, he looked focussed. 

He looked like he knew...

Here, on the biggest stage in British football and in a fixture that had taunted us like a mirage for four years, our fourth-choice striker was having the fabled 'Game Of His Life'. 

His goal put us ahead, then a takedown from a long ball by Mark Venus led to the ball being crossed in for Stewart to make it 3-1.

When summarising that takedown on the ITV highlights, Ron Atkinson mentioned Richard Naylor in the same sentence as Stanley Matthews and Ferenc Puskas - never as great a player as either of them, but on this day, he played just like them, just when we needed him to.

And finally, the characteristic Bam-Bam fight to dig out the loose ball in a centre-circle scrimmage and set up:

“Reuser...PREMIERSHIP!”

He should have been awarded the Man of the Match title. 

He bent that game to his will and decisively stamped his authority on it in a way which galvanised his team-mates. 

It was also a decisive moment for him, 4 years after his debut, he had finally arrived as a footballer.

It would take a move to central defence before he truly established longevity at Ipswich, but his place in a line-up was now a symbol of a truly “good” player turning out for us.

With that, my 1999 rant turned to ashes in my memory.

As the injuries settled down, he had a career to look back on with some satisfaction. 

10 years later, he would be on the winning side against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the FA Cup with Leeds United, the photos of him running alongside Wayne Rooney still make me smile. 

In assessing Richard Naylor’s career, one is tempted to use that well-worn phrase, “He got the maximum out of his ability.”

But at the 2000 Play-Off Final, he went beyond the limits of his ability in a way he never had before or subsequently.

And, for that, he earned the undying gratitude of every Ipswich Town supporter.

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