A Fine Tribute to Town\'s Greatest Year - Ipswich Town News

Roger Hermiston reviews 1980-81 — The Greatest Season in Ipswich Town’s History, which he says is a superb tribute to the club’s finest year.

A Tory chancellor slashes departmental budgets, raises taxes, reduces benefits for the families of strikers, and sparks fury among economists — 364 of whom write to The Times pleading for a Keynesian style approach where spending would be increased to boost the economy. Britain is buckling under a severe recession, and social unrest is simmering….

Sounds familiar? But that was 1980/81, not 2010/2011. Those were bleak, uncertain days for the ordinary man and woman — and especially dangerous if you happened to be a world leader. In 1981 Anwar Sadat of Egypt was gunned down by his own soldiers at a military parade, John Hinckley Junior fired a few rounds into Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II was nearly fatally wounded by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca. Someone even took a pop at our Queen — although that’s what it literally was, because Marcus Sargeant’s six shots at Her Majesty (while she was Trooping the Colour) were, thankfully, blanks from an old starting pistol.

In the sporting arena, however, there were happier stories to report. Who can forget that astonishing morning at Headingley in July when Bob Willis ripped through the Australian batting line-up to take 8-43 and put England on course to retain the Ashes — and also put a few pounds in the pockets of Denis Lillee and Rod Marsh, who had bet on their own side losing at odds of 500-1. Now what would the authorities who are about to punish Salman Butt and Mohammed Amir have made of that?

The other great sporting story that was being written in the months between 16 August 1980 and 20 May 1981 was, of course, at Portman Road. For this was Ipswich Town’s ‘Annus Mirabilis’, eight months when a small squad of players challenged for trophies on three fronts and played football of a breathtaking quality that had rarely been seen before in Suffolk — and certainly never since (despite the glories of the Burley era).

The full account of that magnificent adventure — perhaps, in the end, it was really a glorious failure — has now been told in a beautifully fashioned and written book, 1980-81 — The Greatest Season in Ipswich Town’s History. The exceptional production work has come from White Space Design, with the compelling interviews and typically astute analysis from Mel Henderson; but many other people, from Ipswich Town FC, East Anglian Daily Times and elsewhere have helped to make this a superb memento of a truly memorable year in the club’s history.

Steve McCall, Mr Solidity, summed it up perfectly; ‘We had the runners, the fighters, the chasers, the dribblers, the passers…everybody was different and all the parts just fitted together so well.’

Paul Cooper, Mr Reliable in goal, would watch on in awe most of the time. ‘I would throw it out and it went from there. Pass, pass, pass, cross, shot, goal. We were terrific at going from one end of the pitch to the other.’

The great Leeds side of the early 1970s were one of the best balanced outfits of all time, including natural right and left backs (Reaney and Cooper), midfield dynamos/schemers in Bremner and Giles, wingers in Lorimer and Gray, and perfectly matched strikers in Clarke and Jones.

Perhaps all the Ipswich side of 1980/81 lacked was a genuine out-and-out winger, but it never really seemed to matter. The guile of Muhren and Thijssen, the creativity of little Eric Gates playing ‘in the hole’, and the willingness of full-backs Burley and Mills to bomb forward and help in attacks made for fluent, fluid football that was more than a match for most sides at home and in Europe.

Then there was the remarkable John Wark. Here was a midfield player of few frills, unlike the two Dutchmen alongside him. But he had a flair for goalscoring, an ability to find precious time and space in the penalty box that netted him no fewer than 36 goals in 64 appearances.

In the book Wark recounts chatting to Steven Gerrard in 2006 after the Liverpool captain had been named the PFA Player of the Year (a title Wark won in 1981; Frans Thijssen also captured the Football Writers’ Player of the Year Award in the same season).

‘You must have had a good season,’ Gerrard remarked to Wark. ‘When I told him I’d scored 36 goals from midfield he said ‘Oh My God’, and ordered a bottle of champagne that he handed straight to me!’

Some facts and figures from that historic year. Town finished second in Division One, four points behind the champions Aston Villa; they played 42, won 23, drew 10, lost 9 — goals for 73, goals against 43. In the FA Cup, Aston Villa, Shrewsbury Town (after a replay), Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forest (after a replay) were all despatched before a 1-0 semi-final defeat (after extra-time) by Manchester City at Villa Park.

But Town reserved their finest performances for the UEFA Cup, those pulsating midweek matches under lights at Portman Road when the likes of Aris Salonika (5-1), Widzew Lodz (5-1), St Etienne (3-1) and AZ Alkmaar (3-0) were buried under an avalanche of goals.

But the overwhelming consensus of the players was that the 4-1 away win at St Etienne was the pinnacle of their achievement. The French champions had an outstanding team in those days, none better than the great Michel Platini, and on March 4 in the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard Ipswich faced a hostile crowd on a gluepot of a pitch.

Johnny Rep put the home side ahead early on, but Paul Mariner levelled before the interval and then Muhren (with a 30-yard screamer), Mariner and Wark completed the scoring. Sir Bobby was in no doubt; ‘Our greatest performance in Europe, and I was ecstatic. We went behind but didn’t panic. You know it has been special when you beat a team in front of 42,000 of their fans and they applaud you off at the end.’

Michel Platini, now UEFA President, contributes a characteristically generous foreword to the book. ‘Football has changed in many ways over the last 30 years,’ he notes, ‘ but nothing can change the fact that Ipswich had an exceptionally good team that season.’

Despite lifting the cup in Holland on May 20 after a nervy second leg in Alkmaar, there was something of a flat feeling amongst the players. Sheer exhaustion at the end of a very long season was one explanation for that, and the fact that the trophy lifted was No 3 in the list of priorities another.

‘It would have been normal to have a few beers in the hotel and then head out somewhere for a good few more, but in the end we stayed where we were and most of us just went off to bed,’ recalls Alan Brazil. ‘Honestly, I’ve never had so little to offer, either physically or mentally, as I did that night.’

If you read these players’ accounts, you might think that Portman Road was awash with booze in those days, from the champagne-filled boardroom downwards. Most of them — Arnold Muhren excepted — seemed to enjoy a beer, or two, or three…

Certainly there was a drinking ‘culture’ of sorts that wouldn’t be tolerated today, but this was a side who played hard on and off the field, who enjoyed each other’s company and who let off steam at the right time and in the right place. We now live in an age of the super fit player, so we’re constantly being told — but where’s the sort of skill that the side of 81 exhibited?

The final word should go to Sir Bobby. Before his death in July 2009 he spoke to Mel Henderson about those tumultuous months in 1980/81. In May as his side’s marathon season was drawing to a close, Manchester United and Sunderland came calling for his services. The Roker Park club were prepared to pay him twice what he earned at Portman Road.

‘But within seconds of the second leg in Amsterdam, I knew I was going nowhere. I simply couldn’t turn my back on Ipswich after what I had done there, building the club up to become one of the most respected in Europe.

‘I informed the chairman, Mr Patrick, of my decision and he later told the press; "The only way Bobby Robson will leave this club with our blessing is to become manager of England”.

And so it transpired, a year later. But whatever else Sir Bobby went on to achieve in his illustrious career, there’s a strong case for saying 1981 was "his finest hour”.

To buy a copy of 1980-81 The Greatest Season in Ipswich Town’s History, published by White Space Design, visit www.boysof81.co.uk.

*Roger Hermiston’s own book, Clough and Revie — The Rivals Who Changed The Face of English Football, will be published by Mainstream in April 2011.

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