'Re-Launch' on the East Coast.

Peter Gilbert 8.1.01

It's like old times.......Leicester City playing Ipswich for the right to remain in the top 6 in the top flight. This hasn't occurred since the 1970's when Bobby Robson was their manager and Jimmy Bloomfield was ours. Sadly Jimmy is no longer with us; Bobby has just about conquered the world of football and one of his young players from the team that won the FA Cup for him in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981 a certain George Burley is now the manager.

Ipswich Town are to be applauded for standing by the quietly spoken Scot who so nearly but not quite gained promotion for them for several successive seasons. Many clubs would have sacked him but obviously the set up at Portman Road believed in him, could understand what he was trying to achieve and realised they could do no better. It's paying off now and Ipswich Town are a force to be reckoned with in their first season back in the top flight.

Other Clubs who flirted with success have fallen by the way side and been through a succession of 'high profile' appointments but not Ipswich Town they kept the faith. It's so easy to simply sack people........it's often done to appease the fans to show them 'look at us we've flopped again but we're doing something about it.'

Year after year they came back from play off heartbreak and with a defiance and resilience they started all over again. It finally payed off last season even after they lost their star player Kieron Dyer to ex Ipswich boss Bobby Robson now at the helm at Newcastle. It's a funny old world innit!

Burley used the money to carefully rebuild and strengthen his team and made several astute purchases: Jermaine Wright from Crewe (and as we know you can't go wrong signing from Crewe) Gary Croft from Blackburn was another signing and a most interesting one too. The ex Grimsby man had the dubious honour of being the first professional player to play in a match wearing an electronic tag on his ankle following a conviction for a motoring offence, coming on as substitute against Swindon 15th January 2000.

A fine string of results last season saw them go into the final game in third place knowing that if Manchester City lost to Blackburn Rovers automatic promotion would be theirs. News filtered back that Blackburn had taken the lead shortly before half time. Ipswich started their second half knowing that a win would take them up. David Johnson duly bagged the opener but up at Ewood Park the Man City nerves were beginning to settle and by the time Johnson n etted his second strike City were well on the way to victory.

As if 'deja vu' was not apparent enough with this being Ipswich's fourth attempt at play off success, the side they faced in the semi-final was the team that had beaten them at the same stage last season - Bolton Wanderers.

The first leg at The Reebok Stadium began in disastrous fashion; after 32 minutes Bolton had scored twice and both Johnson and Mowbray had gone off injured. But the team from Suffolk fought back and two strikes from Stewart set the second leg up nicely.

The 21,543 crowd at Portman Road saw one of the most incident packed matches in play off history. Ipswich came from behind three times thanks to a Jim Magilton hat trick to take the game into extra time. Magilton could have had a fourth but his second penalty was dramatically saved. In extra time a third penalty was awarded and this time Jamie Clapham took responsibility and made no mistake. Reuser got town's 5th and Ipswich made their first Wembley appearance for 22 years.

Their opponents Barnsley were equally ambitious but on the day their manager Dave Basset had to suffer the heartbreak of play off final defeat for a second time following our late late winner from Steve Claridge in 1996.

So if we think we have dramas in play offs then .........we're not alone.

So where does all this leave us?

We beat them quite smoothly 2-1 back in September bu tIpswich have made startling progress since then. Following their Wemblet victory questions were asked about them staying up but I'm pleased to see that George Burley has kept his squad together and such talented youngsters as Scowcroft, Clapham and Wright as well as current internationals Holland and Magilton. There could be a bright future for the club if they can survive this year and it would take an absolute disaster now for them not to do so, since they are only a couple of wins off guaranteed survival. Good luck to 'em I say.........and we will have to be at our very best to challenge them for any share of the points at all.

All is not well at Leicester. It seems with the departure of Lennon we lost more than a midfield footballer. We lost orgainisation, resilience, determination, inspiration, heart and soul. It has not been replaced by the purchasing of Matthew Jones. Maybe I'm being over critical here; after all he is only 20 years old and in the second half against York City there were signs that he was growing up instead of thinking that skilfull flicks were called for he knuckled down and set about winning the ball and distributing it with thought care and attention to detail. He is desperate to succeed......but don't try too hard Matthew, play it simple.

We need to win this sort of game if we are to explode the depressing Opta forecast of us coming 11th this season.

Muzzy Izzett looked classy on Saturday and Steve Guppy was back to his best which was pleasing. Richard Creswell was impressive, he roasted the York defenders and could have had a hat trick. Stefan Oakes too played with great intelligence and combined well down the left with Guppy.

Simon Royce too looked more composed and assured. I would also like to see more of young Delaney.

So it will be interesting to see who PT picks for this match, injuries apart it could be an interesting line up and this fixture is just perfect to re-launch our Premiership campaign.

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