Town legend Ray Crawford admitted that he had a tear in his eye when the current Blues side came over to applaud him and his fellow 1961/62 First Division champions moments before the start of Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Barnsley. Crawford, Andy Nelson, Larry Carberry, John Compton, Doug Moran and Ted Phillips were in the directors’ box having renamed the South Stand the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand in honour of their mentor.
Crawford said: "I thought that was tremendous, I’ve never seen that done at any other club anywhere.
"The way they came over and applauded us six players that turned up was heart-warming and I had a little tear in my eye.”
The 77-year-old was also delighted by the reception he and his team-mates received from fans during their weekend back in Suffolk: "As an ex-player it's brilliant.
"When you meet people as we did at the wreath laying and signed some autographs for them, it brings it all back to you how much they appreciate us.
"And I think they do, the Ipswich Town supporters generally appreciate the older players coming back.”
Winning goalscorer Daryl Murphy revealed that the ovation was skipper Carlos Edwards’s idea: "Carlos told us at the start when we had the huddle that we were going to do that. It was a nice touch and they seemed to appreciate it.”
Manager Paul Jewell added: "It showed that we respect the history of this club. It was really nice and I thought it was commendable that the Barnsley bench clapped as well. I thought it was terrific.
"The players always have their little huddle and they said that after that they would go and show their appreciation of the 1961/62 team.
"I spoke to Ray Crawford before the game, I had a long chat with him. I think it’s great that the club is a really traditional club and always honours the people who have done well for it in the past.
"It’s a nice to gesture to rename the South Stand the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand, which is great, and at least we got a victory. It may not have been the best game, but at least we’ve got a victory.”
Crawford felt the Blues should have won more the match more easily: "I thought Ipswich made it hard work for themselves by not taking the chances that were there and by playing the wrong pass.
"When the opportunity was on to go one way they’d go the other. They were sloppy, so sloppy with their passing.
"But, apart from that, they got the goal and were looking to score again and push on and wrap the game up.”
Having seen the Tykes in action recently the twice-capped England international had expected a comfortable Town victory: "I saw Barnsley a few weeks ago and I thought they were poor.
"I said to Paul Jewell before the game that you’ll win this one about 3-0 and he laughed. It was there for the taking for today, but they just made hard work of it.”
Blues wideman Jay Emmanuel-Thomas impressed the Portsmouth-born frontman: "I thought he was probably one of the best players on the park because his control and use of the ball was really good.
"He was probably our best forward. Michael Chopra wasn’t in the game, then Jason Scotland came on and he and Daryl Murphy looked useful up front, they looked like they could sort Barnsley out.”
Crawford said certain aspects of Emmanuel-Thomas’s game brought to mind one of his 1961/62 team-mates: "That shot he hit which hit the crossbar reminded me of Ted Phillips in my day.
"Ted used to do it regularly. Ted was a regular at hitting it that hard and I was there following in, saying ‘Thanks Ted, that’s another goal for me!’”