Spotlight on Ipswich

I have been a bit distressed this week to see my rolling news board on this page has been filled with stories of Steve Wright.

The trial of the man accused of killing five prostitutes began on Monday and every news department in the country appears to have moved into Ipswich.

For the next eight weeks our humble town will provide the leading story for the whole world - if only it were for something happier, eh?

I am lucky enough to be on month long placement at Town 102 Radio in Ipswich at the moment and it is fascinating watching them handle this major incident.

What is interesting is the difference between the small local stations (like Town) and bigger national organisations.

BBC Look East had three reporters at the court yesterday - they even went as far as presenting the evening news from outside.

Our station had a lovely reporter down there - and then rushing back to work through her lunch break on other local stories.

It just seems an injustice to me that the local journalists who have been there from the beginning, who have held campaigns to make women in Ipswich safer, are missing out on the big interviews to news producers that would not normally give two hoots about Ipswich.

In time people will start to forget what has happened but Ipswich will be forever stained with the events, just as Soham was.

I have no doubt reports of Ipswich Town games will all start with the line: The atmosphere in the ground was sombre because of what was going on down the road...


Anyway, back to the real world - The Blues have Blackpool on Saturday and they still haven't been able to get Norris...

...I'm sorry but it's what I've been thinking about this week!

Bright spark on the field

Danny Haynes showed the Portman Road crowd why he has made eight starts in the last nine games.

The youngster has previously impressed Ipswich Town fans, and indeed many others around the country but has found it hard to shake the 'Super - sub' label.

He told the website that he believes this is down to the tactics he has had to learn from his new playing position.

Along with Jonnie Walters and Billy Clarke, Danny has moved from up front to the wing - a job that entails much more defensive work.

I have always liked Danny - if for nothing else but his pure desire to score goals.

He has been increasingly impressive during recent games, and more notably for setting up chances on goal and doing his bit for the defence.

He is growing up and I have a feeling he will prove the doubters that he can make it as a first team regular.

(Sorry Daddy - I know you are one of them!)

His performance was rewarded with a special mention by the man who has held of giving him that place.

Jim Magilton called him our most dangerous player - and on a day when Alan Lee was in surprisingly good form that is a compliment!



When you draw 0:0 with an unglamorous team like Stoke its easy to feel a little hard done by - but I have to keep reminding myself Stoke are fourth.

Had the game lasted thirty minutes we would have secured a victory to be proud of.

We were fantastic - strong chances up front, solid defence and some good looking passes across the field.

But their goal from Ricardo Fuller (what is it with Ex-Ipswich players scoring against us) seemed to wash away our superiority and the rest of the game was much tougher.

Jim told the EADT the scoreline was'about right' for both teams.

But Stoke boss, Tony Pulis, felt the visitors deserved a penalty courtesy of Neil Alexander.

The popular keeper did appear to catch the boy but I think Pulis' accusation that Alexander 'took his legs away' was an exaggeration and a grab for an excuse for Fuller not converting more chances.

BBC Radio Suffolk again provided me with the best summary of the game saying that it was a hard fought point.

Well deserved, for both sides.

New Year, New Leaf?

I woke up on Wednesday morning worn out from working at a nightclub on New Years Eve, and ever so slightly hungover from the champagne.

The prospect of West Brom at home did not encourage me to get out of bed!

Since Charlton away we have drawn at home to Scunthorpe and Burnley, the latter being the most dismal game I have seen in long while, and lost away in two equally appalling performances at Leicester and Coventry.

Add to that the fact the Baggies are top of the league and one of the favourites to go up this year, I was not hopeful for a happy result.

But I love my boys so I dragged myself over to Suffolk and I am so glad I did.

Give them their dues, West Brom are the best team I have seen play this season – they possess far more Premiership class than the likes of the inconsistent Watford.

Had it ended 0:0 I would have been really proud.

As for our boys, the lacklustre team that I saw at Leicester last week was long gone.


My man of the match was Alex Bruce, he was solid and professional and barely made a mistake all game – although if he is going to continue clearing the ball with his head he would do well to practice a bit!

David Wright turned in another fine performance, and was deservedly rewarded with the goal that broke the deadlock.

That goal was set up by EADT Man of the Match, Liam Trotter. I felt the youngster did have a fantastic game – creating play and passing the ball well. But after 70 minutes he looked shattered and had to be substituted.

My man Jonnie Walters had another good game, although he was very quiet. I would prefer to see him play on the right with Wright (!); but he did his job as a striker and missed a number of good chances on goal.

One other person I wanted to mention was Danny Haynes. He had another superb game, looking energetic and confident. Many other young players would look out of depth with such quality opponents but he upped his game and I was impressed – a permanent first team position could soon be his perhaps?


Ipswich are one of those teams who always benefit from playing against ‘better’
clubs. Following some recent awful performances, Town gave 24,000 fans an enjoyable afternoon at last.

And so with the New Year we turn over a New Leaf and hopefully will be able to build on this result to start securing that Play-Off position.

As a Radio Suffolk listener reminded us:

‘Ipswich haven’t lost away this year…’!

BBC Honours Our Bobby

Congratulations to Sir Bobby Robson who was given the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, 'Life-Time Achievement' Award.

Sir Bobby made a moving 10 minute speech tonight after receiving the award - with specific mention to his old club Ipswich Town.

David Sheepshanks and Jim Magilton were there to support the ex-manager and the EADT have released their report on the event.

Congratulations to Sir Bobby, who I have grown up admiring as a figure well loved and respected not only at Portman Road but throughout the world of football.

There's only one Mattie Holland...

I have wanted to go to the Valley for years... four years to be precise... because that was when my favourite ever player moved there - Matt Holland

As one of the Chamionship to Premiership 'yo-yo teams' I have always respected Charlton Athletic and had been looking forward to travelling to South London for a long time.

Not just to see my Mattie!

An appalling first half was partly made up for by a passionate second half performance, as this report from the Website describes, with a contender for the goal of the season from Counago!




But yesterday my high opinion of our hosts was severely damaged by the dirty tactics used by their players. I'm sure it sounds like sour grapes but the red card awarded for an foul after the final whistle proves my point.

Jonathan Fortune was sent off for punching Alan Lee to the ground just seconds after the five minute injury time had come to an end.

The incident has been only vaguley described by reports today but if you ask me he should have been forced to take an early bath long before the fight broke out.

Fortune had conceded a free kick for pulling Lee down just outside the area, the result of a number of nasty fouls on our striker - which continued until the end.

There was time wasting from every Charlton player, frustrating when Ipswich were trying to maintain the momentum they had build up following the Pablo goal.

And then there's Danny Mills....

Foul after unsportsmanly foul on Jonathan Walters who spend most of the second half with a bandage round his head, fighting off the bullying of Mills.

After a particularly bad foul on Walters he refused for at least five minutes to answer the referee's request that he join him.

Even once he did listen to the official he refused to take his punishment - wasting more precious time.

I cant understand why football clubs employ such awful players - he is hardly a role model to young footballers, is he? And not someone that I would want associated with my family.




Lucky then that Charlton had Mattie Holland to make up for it.

As the teams entered the pitch my heart skipped a beat when i saw him for the first time since Richard Naylor's testimonial.

During the warm up he walked over to our half to shake hands with old colleague Jim Magilton, and when the squads were read out he recieved a huge appluase from the 3,000 Ipswich fans.

Best of all was the respect he showed the away fans at the end of the match.

My Dad and I have long considered Holland's lap of honour at Portman Road a beloved tradition... so to recieve that honour again yesterday, I dont mind admitting, brought tears to my eyes - just as it had the last time he did it at Derby County.

Matt has kept up his relationship with the Tractor Boys, often travelling to Suffolk to watch games and even picking us as his promotion favourites - along with Chalrton of course!

When he came out of the ground over an hour after full time he was so friendly and welcoming to the waiting Town fans.

He asked us if we'd had a nice day, said he was sorry the result wasn't better for us and chatted away about how pleased he was to be playing again after his knee injury.

What an asset to any club he goes to.

And I swear that as we were asking him if he'll ever come back to us... there was the tiniest hint of a twinkle in his eye!

Good Night Southampton

Attending evening matches has got to be my favourite past time, the atmosphere is something truly special.

Like going on a school trip or waking up on Christmas morning, you know its not something you get to do every day and so you treasure it.

Saturday's attract a much larger crowd and so on a Tuesday you get the feeling that those who have made it have made an extra special effort. Like at away matches you feel like you are an extra specially committed to the boys for attending.

Two years ago Ipswich faced Southampton in an evening game that ended 2:2, a result which just won't be enough tonight according to Alan Lee.

He told the EADT that the failure to pick up more points away means that we MUST continue to achieve maximum points when playing at home: 'By seeing of Southampton and then Barnsley on Saturday we will be right back up there again'.

Winning at home makes us real contenders for promotion, without that we might be closer to our friends in Naaaaaarwich. I fear that the pressure from this may have become as huge as the desire to start winning away.

Can we handle the pressure?

The return of Gavin Williams on Saturday was very welcome but he is unlikely to be playing tomorrow. He feels that two games in four days may be too much at the moment and Jim doesn't want to risk aggravating the injury.

My man Jonnie Walters looks set to miss the game aswell due to a groin injury.

Other than that the squad looks good, which is more than can be said for Southampton.

Former Town manager George Burley is without seven of his main players, meaning they will field a 'make-shift' defence.


Town have scored the most goals at home, Southampton have conceded the most away from home and with the added bonus of putting a few past ex-tractor boy Kelvin Davis, surely the players can't miss...

Need a bit of Magic

If you'd have been a fly-on-the-wall of my SU bar on Wednesday night you would have heard me declaring that the story would be entirely different if Jim Magilton were England manager.

Magic would not have kept De Vos out of the team, he would not have played Garvan if his previous performances had been bad and he would not have given Andrew Plummer a place if Supple was available...

Our Jim would not have settled for that first half performance, he'd have screamed and shouted and thrown some boots at their heads to get a result.

Turns out he and Steve McClaren have more in common than I would like to admit. Yesterday's performance in Cardiff was disappointing and though we improved in the second half we just couldn't pull out a goal.

Remind you of Wednesday night anyone??

Now I am in no way starting a man-hunt to get Magilton sacked - he's our greatest asset, I believe - but his interview following the match was as vague and full of cliches as McClaren had given on Thursday.

He may be becoming tired of answering questions about our away performance, but until there's an answer those questions won't stop: 'You sit here and I will ask you, because I have no idea.'(Derek Davis quotes Jim in the EADT)

Fair point Jim, no-one understands your frustration more than us - but it is not our job to sort this little problem out.


20 second highlights

Having been featured on the Championship two weekends ago it was sad to see us reduced this morning to just 20 seconds. Sadly that may have been all that was necessary.

Alan Lee hit the bar and the post in one shot twenty seconds after kick-off and Tommy Miller had a shot cleared off the line.

As unlucky as these were, no other chances materialised.

It's hard to believe we put six past Bristol just two weeks ago.


One thing got to me - Jim told the website 'We did not have enough leaders on the park. We cannot rely on Jason De Vos for that'.

The best leader other than Jase, and Alexander whose rants from goal have made me giggle, is Sylvain Legwinski.

But Leggi remained on the bench and the team remained unorganised.

Even McClaren figured out he needed the passion of David Beckham, maybe Jim should have taken note.

Saying that it made little difference in the end on Wednesday!


So Jim I will not for one second criticise your puzzlement on this issue as I have no idea what you should do either.

But please think of something quick before the Naaarwich catch up with us.