When driver and big Widzew Lodz fan Mariusz Zawiasa visited the Anchor Freight warehouse in Ipswich recently, he was pleasantly surprised to see artwork paying homage to the glory days of Town and revealed that the Blues are still remembered in the Polish city.
Town faced Mariusz’s team in the third round of the UEFA Cup in 1980/81 on their way to carrying off the trophy at Amsterdam via a 504 aggregate victory over Dutch side AZ 67 Alkmaar (pictured above).
A 5-0 win at Portman Road was followed up by a 1-0 defeat in freezing conditions in Poland to see the Blues through 5-1 on aggregate.
Mariusz’s father, Krzysztof, attended the game in Poland and still talks about it to this day, and as a result of the match there are fans of Town in the city to this day and several his friends have travelled over for games.
Anchor Freight have invited Krzysztof over to watch Town at Portman Road.
"It’s great that your football club’s achievements have been honoured and remembered, I had to take a photo and share with all my family and friends,” Mariusz said.
He added that Town’s visit to Lodz is still remembered by his team: "There is even an entire wall dedicated to Ipswich Town in the club’s museum.”
As part of their drive for greater sustainability within their supply chain, Anchor Freight recently renovated the site of a former boiler factory in the Whitehouse area of Ipswich into a warehousing and rework facility, with a particular focus on making the site carbon efficient.
Most of the staff at the Ipswich site are Town supporters with some of the more senior members remembering the glory days.
Therefore, in order to recognise the achievements of the club, the four main buildings were renamed after the two greatest managers of the club, Sir Alf, Sir Bobby, Ramsey and Robson, with the largest building also showing artwork of the three major trophies won under the duo, the First Division title in 1961/62, the FA Cup in 1978 and that UEFA Cup victory in 1981.