Yes Smithy!
That sheff utd game was unreal! TWTD

Yes TWTD and as the Jam would say "THATS ENTERTAINMENT" and it certainly was.

Had a chat with him after one of the shareholders meetings and I brought up something that had been written on TWTD and he told me not to read the website. Top man and even though he was a budgie he was quickly forgiven. Poor old MM always has to be brought up re the way we play. I say this if we won 1-0 every week with boring unattractive football the stadium would be full. Its results that count and I go to see my team win however we play. If its great football so much the better and more often than not it was with Joe.

At least we saw some exciting games with him in charge - used to enjoy going then. Not like the drab football we see nowadays. Feel sorry for the youngsters nowadays. If this is the best on offer I doubt many will come for long. Never forget shefki and his swallow. If the present players had half of his work rate maybe we would get somewhere.

I mean swallowdive

Well, he's the only manager of ours who worked out that to get promoted you need to average at least two goals a match and therefore away from home went out on the attack. He nearly did it for us! None of the following lot have got anywhere near (except maybe MM last year....we were still crap though and ultimately our defence first approach cost us )

4-2 away at QPR to send us top of the league, came back from 2-1 down at half time, slow winger scored on his debut!

Not a favourite memory obviously but perhaps the most significant incident of Joe's time with us was Dion Dublin's blatant studs up foul on Shefki Kuqi which carved Shefki's knee open in the home game against Leicester City on 12 February 2005. We were walking the league at that point and scoring goals for fun. Without him we then lost consecutive home games in four days against Watford and QPR, and lost the away match to Wigan on his return when not match fit. Meanwhile Sunderland ran away with the title and we were always playing catch up with Wigan for second. We've never looked like mounting a serious promotion challenge since, and still don't. Great man, great manager, great entertainment. Pity the board couldn't find him a few quid to spend to finish the job.

We haven't been the same since. Big fat joes barmy army. Loved him was great days

I don't buy into this results business statement. I remember we lost 4-3 to Gillingham and yes I was disappointed but by god were those days exciting. Its a lot better than now find it hard to get excited by ipswich these days. Even the derby games its all just another game. Its not mick its not

Two matches sum up my memories of his tactical awareness, New Year's Day we were at home to West Ham being over ran in midfield losing one nil, did he change the midfield no he changed the strikers who were ineffective receiving very little service; second game again against West Ham in play offs losing again at halftime he decided to bring on Alun Armstrong who Royle had not picked for a couple of months so was not match fit! Yes we played reasonable football mainly because the players were here when he arrived, we were up against it financially so he could not make massive changes, but a tactical naive manager

I will always remember the tussle in the tunnel incident between Kuqi and magilton when they were pushing each other after Kuqi missed a sitter near full time.
When asked about this in the pre match interview he said " All that was is team bonding" great bloke a legend and agree if he was given the money would i am sure have taken us up.

It's really good to read how loved Big Joe is now. I too was at the match before he was appointed, and I was about the only one in the ground not singing "You can stuff Joe Royle up your arse".

It got pretty heated on the message board too, I remember. Silly, really. All he did wrong was follow George Burley.

Loads of great memories. Shefki goal celebrations, Darren Bent's cool finishing, Danny Haynes' winner, Wigan at home, Palace away and a perfect 5-1 win over Sheff U.

More than anything, following Town was fun, and that was down to BFJ's personality. I know someone who worked with him at the club at the time, and she can't speak highly enough of him. He really brought the best out of his players too: Ian Westlake, Matt Richards, Shefki, Tommy Miller, Jimbo, Kelvin Davis, Darren Currie etc. all had purple patches under Royle, often the best of their careers.

Obviously, the fare since pales by comparison.

Attack. Attack. Attack. I remember a 6-3. A 7-4 win. Also lost many but entertaining. A 5-4 loss at home to Gillingham stands out. Joe loved a glass of red as well. Good man. Fantastic manager. If he had the backing of Magilton, Keane and Jewell in terms of finance we would have won the league at a canter. No doubt.

Everyone needs a Willie....

jas0999
Couldn't agree more about the finance. If he had access to half the money wasted by Magilton, Keane and Jewell we would have become an established Premier League side. Unfortunately ............!!!

Amazing score lines, and pure entertainment. Thanks Joe.

Ahh great days, I remember singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot to the cardiff fans beating them 3-2 at cardiff about a week after England winning the Rugby world cup 2003. George Santos, Tommy Miller & Chris Bart Williams I think scored for us.

Big fat joe!

Remember drawing 0-0 away somewhere and he said that his 2 strikers wouldn't of found each other even if they had a radar!

Good bloke was joe!

Fed bullsh#t by the club

Stood next to him once at the Alex in Felixstowe, told him I loved watching his team because I did not know if we would win 3-0 loose 3-0 or draw 3-3 who ever we played. By the look on his face he was not impressed

Please can we have him back again.If he had a fraction of the money that Keane and Jewell had to spend,we would have been in the premier league long ago.Under Joe it is the last time i really looked forward to my football,and enjoyed it.

Joe was and still is a fantastic person, we a great sense of humour. 'We will score more goals than yow' was his footballing philosophy & he very nearly pulled it off with a very decent side inherited from George Burley but with absolutely no money to spend. If he would have been given £1M to spend. We would have been promoted. Favourite game: Town 3, Sheffield Utd 2, (Counago Red card)

Favourite JR saying: (whilst looking at Shefki Kuqi ' Where did I put one of those strap-on brains?' -Classic Joe! And how lucky we were to have had him as manager. Shame he left but ai don't blame him.

Sorry Smith just seen you had voted the same match too! great memories ;-)

Joe's tenure was the last time I really enjoyed football at Portman Road (ie not just The Greyhound beforehand). The Wigan win was wonderful. But when we beat Crewe 6-4, credit where it's due - we watched from the west side of north stand lower, and Dean Ashton's jackknifed goal at our end arriving in the box at speed and meeting a right wing cross was sublime. Sadly too few of us applauded him. It was I think the best away goal at PR I had ever seen. A pity that his career ended early through injury.

Attacking,flowing soccer and we were protagonists practically every year he was here and established the Ipswich way of playing football which has sadly gone down the drain now.
Still get goosebumps thinking how we can came back from the dead at Upton Park 0-2 to square things up..so proud of the Blues that day and BFJ staring Pardew down... oh, those were indeed the days.