Former Town boss John Lyall died of a heart attack late last night at the age of 66. Lyall was manager at Town between 1990 and 1994, taking the Blues to the old Second Division title in 1991/92.
The Londoner's playing days as a defender with West Ham were cut short by a knee injury at the age of 23. He joined the coaching staff at Upton Park and in 1974 succeeded new England boss Ron Greenwood as Hammers manager.
Lyall, assisted by Mick McGiven, won the FA Cup in his first season as a manager, controversially defeating the Blues at the semi-final stage.
The Hammers spent three years out of the top division between 1978 and 1981, but despite this they won the FA Cup once more in 1980. In 1985/86 he took West Ham to their highest ever finish of third in the old Division One but was sacked in 1989 when they were relegated.
He joined Town in 1991, again assisted by Mick McGiven, after John Duncan had been sacked. His first season in charge at Portman Road saw the Blues finish a lowly 14th in the old Division Two, but the following season, with very few additions to the squad, Town won the division and were promoted to the inaugural Premier League, beating Kenny Dalglish's Blackburn, powered by Jack Walker's millions, to the title.
Lyall kept the Blues in the Premiership for three seasons, although Town failed to establish themselves in the top flight, each year a struggle against relegation.
Promotion to the Premiership season saw Lyall had 'go upstairs' to a director of football role with McGiven named team manager. The junior partner tended to get the brunt of the inevitable flak as relegation was avoided on the final day of 1993/94.
For the final season McGiven was moved sideways and became head of football development with veteran players John Wark and Paul Goddard given the joint role of team managers with Lyall overseeing them.
With Town staring into the abyss, Lyall resigned in November 1994. After leaving Portman Road, Lyall withdrew from football to spend much of his time tending his garden at his home in Tattingstone where he also enjoyed fishing for trout. He rarely even spoke about his days in football, notably refusing to contribute to a book on West Ham's greatest ever season.
Phil spoke to him for his book Ipswich Town: The Inside Story in 2001 but he would make little comment on his time with the Blues, particularly the lack of money which hampered Town's three-year Premier League stay, saying only: "I couldn't have thought of a better place to come to, I thoroughly enjoyed it
"The vast majority of fans were absolutely 100% loyal to Ipswich and its players. Mr Patrick [Cobbold] and John Kerr were certainly good to work with and the players, I always used to say, were as good as any group of lads who got the club promoted.
"They were what I'd call good standard players and marvellous in their application to the game. They couldn't have done enough for the club and had a marvellous spirit."
Mick McGiven told Phil that he was disappointed Lyall had chosen to withdraw from the game: "John unfortunately won't come to any matches, he won't get involved in any sporting activity at all. I think it's a dreadful waste of talent from the country's point of view because he's an outstanding man, an outstanding coach and a great loss to football."
Geraint Williams, signed by Lyall from Derby for £650,000 in the summer of 1992, said in the same book that he was highly rated by the players: "I thought he was excellent, his football knowledge really opened my eyes and his training sessions were always enjoyable.
"The other thing about him was the way he prepared for a match. The training throughout the week was geared to the performance in the next game and I thought that was brilliant.
"He concentrated on what we were going to do to their players, he would say their weakness was something and our strength would be to go and do that to them. He wouldn't talk about their strengths, it was all about how we were going to hurt them. It was a very positive way of preparing for a match."
Lyall leaves a wife Yvonne and a son.