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A Decade Apart: 2005 v 2015
Written by wadey on Sunday, 11th Jan 2015 22:33

On January 1st 2005 I was sitting (well standing) in what has been known as the North Stand or Sir Bobby Robson lower to you newbies. West Ham were the team coming to Portman Road. Being an East London boy, this was my biggest game of the season due to childhood abuse (banter) from school-mates. Sadly we lost 2-0. They ended getting promoted and we didn't.

Now the reason for writing this is to make a comparison to the last time we got within touching distance of the promised land 2004/05.

That day was our first league game of 2005. We went into the match top of the league on 52 points, five more than we had going into the Derby game on Saturday, but having played one more.

Attendance in 2005 - 30,003

Attendance in 2015 - 20,861

Now there's a few factors here. West Ham is a local match and they filled the away end whilst Derby only brought 800 fans. Saturday was on Sky and was a 12.15pm kick off compared to a 1pm and not on the telly back in 05.

All stats shown for 2015 are as of 1st January.

Our record so far that year stood at:

P26 W15 D7 L4 F50 A31 Pts 52

Compared to 2015's:

P25 W13 D8 L3 F41 A22 Pts 47

On both occasions our goal difference was +19. On both occasions we were 10 points clear of seventh place. Our W/D/L is very similar too.

There are so many similarities between the years so now let's compare the team that played against West Ham and the team that started at Derby.

GK - Kelvin Davis v Bartosz Bialkowski

Now Davis was a brilliant keeper and the best we have seen at Portman Road in the last 15 years. Bart has only recently come into our team and looks pretty solid but really hasn't had too much to do since the Blackpool game.

Winner - Kelvin Davis (1-0)

RB - Fabian Wilnis v Luke Chambers

Fabian Wilnis, one word springs to mind. Legend. One of my favourite players. Brilliant defender. Master of a step-over, and scorer of the odd goal.

Chambers has blue in his blood. He plays for the badge and I love the fist pump celebration.

Winner - Fabian Wilnis (2-0)

Not looking great for the current bunch so far.

LB - Matt Richards v Tyrone Mings

I was never a fan of Richards. Too small, too lightweight and not great at distribution. Mings has turned out to be an unbelievable find from non-league. I really didn't expect him to be better than Cresswell at this stage of the season.

Winner - Tyrone Mings pulls one back for 2015 (2-1)

CB - Jason DeVos v Tommy Smith

Now I like Tommy Smith and he could go on to be a club legend, but he is up against a brilliant defender here. Not the quickest but his awareness of the ball and positioning was second to none.

Winner - Jason DeVos (3-1)

CB - Richard Naylor v Christophe Berra

Now Bam Bam is a legend but he was never a defender. One minute he's a striker, gets played a CB and ends up staying there. Berra is the best defender we've had since DeVos and he takes the point here.

Winner - Berra (3-2)

RM - Darren Currie v Paul Anderson

Slow winger would have been worth millions...if he could have moved faster than my nan on her Zimmer frame. All the skill, vision and distribution attributes you could ask for but he just couldn't run. Ando hasn't really set the world alight. He works hard but there's not been a stand-out performance from him so far so he misses out here.

Winner Darren Currie (4-2)

LM - Ian Westlake v Jay Tabb

Now this is a close one for me. Last year I was a Tabb hater, this year I'm a Tabb lover. I think he is twice the player he was. He does not stop running, battles for every ball, is strong in the tackle and can out jump centre backs despite being 5ft nothing. Westlake was a good player scored a few goals but didn't have the nitty-grittiness of Tabb

Winner - Jay Tabb (4-3)

CM - Jim Magilton v Teddy Bishop

Jim was a character! Was Ipswich through and through. Wasn't afraid to holler and shout at anyone who was in front of him. Teddy is a rare talent. Has all the potential to get to the top of the game. His football brain and skill is way ahead of his age. This is another tough one but Jim takes it due to Bish only having played a handful of games.

Winner - Jim Magilton (5-3)

CM - Tommy Miller v Luke Hyam

15 goals in one season for a CM is top notch. Luke Hyam has scored only two goals in his ITFC career and that's how I've split these two.

Winner - Tommy Miller (6-3)

CF - Darren Bent v David McGoldrick

How to separate these two. Darren netted 19 league goals in 05 along with Shefki Kuqi. Lightning quick who could outpace ANY defender. David McGoldrick hasn't hit the heights of last season, but his off the ball work, dropping deep, making things happen, vision and awareness is second to none in our team. Has a few tricks up his sleeve and is still a major threat in front of goal. He takes the point. Just!

Winner - David McGoldrick (6-4)

CF - Shefki Kuqi v Darryl Murphy

The brawn of both strike forces. Shefki is my favourite player since being a season ticket holder (since 2002) big and strong. Not that technically gifted but always gave 100%. And who could forget THAT celebration. Daryl Murphy has been a revelation this season. Finally showing the potential he showed a decade ago when he signed for Sunderland. He's gonna take the point here just because of his form in the first half of this season. Sorry Shefki.

Winner - Daryl Murphy (6-5)

Manager - Joe Royle v Mick McCarthy

Both managers have had to work on a very tight budget. Joe made us play-off contenders as soon as he took over even though we were in administration. He then made us automatic promotion contenders. Mick has done a brilliant job. It's harder to do it on a tight budget nowadays with all the money in the game now. Will Mick take us up? Or will we be the nearly men again. Only time will tell but Mick gets the point.

Winner - Mick McCarthy (6-6)

So there you have it. 6-6. They cant be separated. Let's hope this is the year and we get back to where we should be!

I could have rambled on a bit more but you are probably bored already and didn't get this far before clicking 'back to previous screen'!




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WickhamsLeftBoot added 10:32 - Jan 12
This just made me YouTube Shefki Kuqi, some of his goals were fantastic, his work rate was second to none.
1

Kropotkin123 added 12:05 - Jan 12
Something's up with the maths.
(15x3)+7 = 52.
13+8+3=24

Interesting assessment though.

I think Bart is better than Davis, but think I'll be in a minority there
0

Kropotkin123 added 12:10 - Jan 12
It's also a shame to look at the difference in the crowd numbers. I'd be interested to know the difference between Burley's second full season and MM's. I think the context is more similar
0

MedwayTractor added 12:19 - Jan 12
For my money, Tommy Smith get the place in your team. He took a while to become a regular, starting as an Academy product, whereas JdV was bought in.

The difference between the two, for me, is Tommy's goal scoring record. Jason scored 11 in 179 games, Tommy has 20 in 180 games, which, for the anoraks, makes him the outstanding goalscoring centre-back in the history of the club. Only two centre-backs have scored more, Russell Osman and Terry Butcher, 21 each in 385 and 350 games respectively. [Two defenders, Bill Baxter and Kevin Beattie scored more, 22 and 32 respectively, but weren't always centre-backs].

Tommy should be in your team for his 6 to 7 goals a season, as well as for everything else
1

NoCanariesAllowed added 12:36 - Jan 12
On the subject of those attendances, also worth bearing in mind that this Derby game was more than a week into January, whereas the West Ham game was on New Years Day. I dare say a lot of folks were still on their Christmas holidays at that time when families and friends are getting together more, therefore perhaps more likely to go to the game in big groups. I suspect that's part of the reason why last month we managed a big attendance for what was a cold midweek evening match against mid-table Charlton.

Interesting read though. Every year I constantly keep comparing the current season to comparative markers. 2007/08 is still the clubhouse score to beat, but 2004/05 is of course the historic marker for success in our 13 years in the Championship. We've generally been keeping pretty good pace with it. Certainly we seem to be doing better than 2003/04 when we made the playoffs, and heaven knows our defence is a million times better than it was back then!
0

ITFCOYB added 12:47 - Jan 12
Mate - you're not getting enough credit for this blog - it's brilliant!

I'd maybe have scored it differently too - but that's what it's all about. :-)

Bent would get my nod over Dids (despite how classy Dids is) and i like the argument for Tommy despite his occasional clanger, but i'd be hard pressed to disagree the two sides are evenly matched.

Squad game, and i suspect our bench is a bit stronger now than it was - and, as you mention, it's hard to separate the fact that many of the 2005 team have the benefit of longer ITFC careers to be judged on. I wonder if we'd take Magic over Bish if we did this in 2020...

Super stuff though man, very enjoyable read.
4

JimmyJazz added 14:23 - Jan 12
I'm sure that season you're referring to is when everything unravelled in just one week in February, when we lost 2 home games that we would have expected to win. We dropped off the top 2 and never made up the difference.

In the play-offs we met West Ham who were so much better at the one-off big game. We played them twice in successive seasons in the play-offs, the first game we did well (a win at home and a draw away) but then fell apart in the second game losing 2-0 twice.

I think your assessment of Anderson and Currie is harsh. Currie was useless. Anderson's strength is his set pieces.

0

Kropotkin123 added 14:26 - Jan 12
@ MedwayTractor: Nice statting!

@ ITFCOYB: You're right, re-reading my comment, it doesn't come across as enthusiastic as it should have. I really enjoyed reading it!
0

wadey added 14:47 - Jan 12
It was 52 points. For some reason I've written 50. I don't know why. Thanks for spotting it, just shows that you're taking in what your reading :) 👍
0

DurhamTownFan added 17:42 - Jan 12
David McGoldrick beats Darren Bent?! Whaaaaa?

I'd also pick Smith over JdV, just because our playing style now requires that we win LOTS of headers, and Smith very rarely gets beaten in the air. Forget Saturday: we can all make mistakes like that (I certainly did playing CB Saturday morning in a similar wind)

Really interesting read otherwise!
0

hogster1970 added 17:59 - Jan 12
Good blog. How ever in 2005 you would have been sitting as we was all seater since 1992 in fact the first premiership all seater stadium.

Also like said I would say Smith was better than dvos. He scored more goals and good in the tackle aswell in the air. Devos tackling wasn't that great.

And Currie just overplayed the ball to much for me. So ando getting the nod.

In 2005 magic had lost his legs and passing ability so the bish it is for me.
0

wadey added 18:30 - Jan 12
@hogster1970 I'm guessing you don't buy your tickets for the lower North stand? There maybe a seat there but it's only used at half time because we always stand up during the game
0

PhilTWTD added 20:24 - Jan 12
I've amended the points total to 52.
0

hogster1970 added 23:07 - Jan 12
ol had nt thought of that bit, but take your point wadey, still a good blog mate,

0

westernblue added 19:05 - Jan 14
Nice article. I remember sitting with the family in the cobbold (middle) surrounded for some reason by West Ham nutters. What wadey has forgotten was the awful matter of the hammers' goals. As I recall, fab and kelvin's (admittedly unusual) confusion was awful - perhaps they had both been celebrating at a Dutch-style New Year's Eve party?
0

MVBlue added 12:37 - Jan 21
Tommy Smith all the way
0
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