"At my time of life, opportunities to manage at the highest level are few and far between. When I took on this job my mandate was to keep this club in the Championship and nothing more.
It is not as crazy as it sounds. Instead of ticket manager John Ford offering season ticket holders the chance to claim up to four tickets for friends at 10 quid per person or £3 for juniors, why not go the whole hog? Business enterprise is all about common sense but common sense is sadly lacking in the world of football, as we all know.
I was vilified by many in my last blog for having the audacity to suggest that Town would need at least 51 points to avoid the drop. I was perhaps a bit too optimistic and I think in this extraordinary season, Town might a little bit more. It is all so tight down there that literally anything could happen and we must avoid the drop at all costs!
May 4th is the date in question. Ipswich Town will be away to Burnley, who may still be desperate for points to claim a last ditch play-off place. We may be desperate for points for entirely different reasons!
I don't wish to sound like the harbinger of doom and gloom but I didn't get the tag The Pessimist for nothing! Tonight's game at Portman Road could make or break our season for a number of very good reasons.
"Every man has a wild beast within him," according to Frederick the Great; who is perhaps best known for his excellence in military campaigning and the the organisation of Prussian armies.
My love affair with Ipswich Town developed in a strange sort of way. I began my life near Liverpool and like the rest of the family, supported the Blues. The Merseyside Blues that is! I can recall quite vividly, jumping up and down with joy when Derek Temple scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final of 1966 - which saw Everton claw back a seemingly impossible two-goal deficit against Sheffield Wednesday to lift the trophy! I was just eleven then but the memories linger on.
We waited with anxious anticipation to see if our man got the job? My man didn't, but probably your man did! if you can believe the TWTD stats about 80 percent of us wanted got what we wanted and the rest of us were left disappointed.
Like all football clubs both near and far, Ipswich Town houses a very broad church of opinions; from those of us who loathed Paul Jewell almost from the start, to people like myself who loved the socks off him!
After devastatingly disappointing away day trips to Blackpool and more recently Middlesbrough, it is good to see the boys are back at Portman Road. Boys this days is the operative word and this young and youthful batch of new kids on the block are in need of a rapid learning curve.
