| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love 11:02 - Nov 5 with 2521 views | StuartSlater |
What a bloody team and era -
often not talked about but that first season in prem we were good and very competitive...
The promotion team was great.
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:12 - Nov 5 | Steve_M |
That team probably comes third in my time of watching Ipswich (I was alive for the second half of the Robson-era but too young to pay proper attention to it).
It's third though because it lacks the build up over successive seasons that Burley had in the late-90s or the 2.5 years to double promotion that McKenna managed.
1991-92 was a superb season, and the one that cemented my support of the club, but a bit behind those other two spells. |  |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:17 - Nov 5 | mellowblue |
Really good blend of experience and youth, talent and journeymen. The team really were one of those that are greater than the sum of it's parts. Really hard-working but entertaining too. Lyall did a superb job. Second half of the promotion season, we were pretty unbeatable. | | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:23 - Nov 5 | BlueandTruesince82 |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:12 - Nov 5 by Steve_M |
That team probably comes third in my time of watching Ipswich (I was alive for the second half of the Robson-era but too young to pay proper attention to it).
It's third though because it lacks the build up over successive seasons that Burley had in the late-90s or the 2.5 years to double promotion that McKenna managed.
1991-92 was a superb season, and the one that cemented my support of the club, but a bit behind those other two spells. |
Same, a young boy becoming aware of the beautiful game and I remember seeing that year in the paper all the talk of the premier league. The sun did a spread, the teams that could be founding members of the premier league. A big 2 pager 1st page in from the back. They had all the badges of the apparent founding teams, one of which was a horrifically offensive yellow budgerigar and none of which were a hadsome horse. I was remember being really annoyed about that. Then we won promotion at that was it.
As young lad growing up amongst sister botherers that felt particularly important. I certainly think that team and that promotion cemented me as a town fan. The reaction from all the scum supporting kids at school after just made me reveal in it even more. |  |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:44 - Nov 5 | ITFC_Essex |
John Lyall is (much like Joe Royle) an underrated Town manager when we talk about the best we have had. He turned a club firmly on its ars- post Robson, in a short amount of time, from passengers in the 2nd tier, to a good footballing side on a shoestring budget. Even then there were big spenders at this level, and we out competed them in 1991/92 and of course he was the last Town manager to achieve 3 seasons in the top flight, as well as actually win a league.
His biggest mistake was moving upstairs into what was a semi-director of football role, allowing a very functional, but dull McGiven to run the team. We actually had footballers at the club who could play neat football at the time in the likes of Stockwell, Williams, Milton, Johnson and co. but we didn't really utilize that under McGiven. Selling Dozzell was a blow, and it's a shame we didn't have he, and Marshall, in the same side.
I'd argue that he's ahead of McKenna in the Town manager table, purely on the fact he won a league and kept us up three seasons with a budget comparable to that of Swindon's at the time. [Post edited 5 Nov 11:46]
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:48 - Nov 5 | mellowblue |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:44 - Nov 5 by ITFC_Essex |
John Lyall is (much like Joe Royle) an underrated Town manager when we talk about the best we have had. He turned a club firmly on its ars- post Robson, in a short amount of time, from passengers in the 2nd tier, to a good footballing side on a shoestring budget. Even then there were big spenders at this level, and we out competed them in 1991/92 and of course he was the last Town manager to achieve 3 seasons in the top flight, as well as actually win a league.
His biggest mistake was moving upstairs into what was a semi-director of football role, allowing a very functional, but dull McGiven to run the team. We actually had footballers at the club who could play neat football at the time in the likes of Stockwell, Williams, Milton, Johnson and co. but we didn't really utilize that under McGiven. Selling Dozzell was a blow, and it's a shame we didn't have he, and Marshall, in the same side.
I'd argue that he's ahead of McKenna in the Town manager table, purely on the fact he won a league and kept us up three seasons with a budget comparable to that of Swindon's at the time. [Post edited 5 Nov 11:46]
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To this day, I do not recognize Mick McGiven as a Town manager. I tend to regard it all as the Lyall era. | | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:50 - Nov 5 | algy |
I hugely enjoyed our 4 promotions under Burley and McKenna but what for me stands out from Lyall's brief success is that we didn't just get promoted, we did so winning the division. First place. Top of the division. We are the Champions! Simply the best! | | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 12:00 - Nov 5 | ITFC_Essex |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:48 - Nov 5 by mellowblue |
To this day, I do not recognize Mick McGiven as a Town manager. I tend to regard it all as the Lyall era. |
The tragically bad football we played in 1993/94 was more related to the McGiven brand, than the Lyall brand. They argued it kept us up, which it did, but the season before we were a lot more aspirational in our game and we, on our day, did alright. I don't understand why we started to move backwards. We didn't have the thugs to play like Wimbledon. | |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 12:07 - Nov 5 | ITFC_Forever |
It comes up on here for time-to-time… for those of us of a certain age, it’s our favourite season, me included.
I was at sixth form and meeting like-minded Town fans, going to away games, getting served in pubs and trying (and largely failing) to impress the opposite sex.
We went into that season with hope than optimism/ expectation and we got promoted Lyall Style. TWTFD. [Post edited 5 Nov 14:20]
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 12:43 - Nov 5 | Pinewoodblue |
We finished 14th, or was it 15th, the season before. John Lyall pleaded with fans to renew season tickets to give him a chance to buy. Season ticket renewals were way down probably between 2-3,000. We had at least one game with an attendance of under 9,000. Only one match with over 20,000 (Cambridge United) before the year ended. Seasons average was under 15,000.
The final game of the season over 26,000 attended. Even the Brighton didn’t want to leave at the final whistle with a reminder being given that train was leaving soon.
A special season. |  |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 12:56 - Nov 5 | ITFC_Forever |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 12:43 - Nov 5 by Pinewoodblue |
We finished 14th, or was it 15th, the season before. John Lyall pleaded with fans to renew season tickets to give him a chance to buy. Season ticket renewals were way down probably between 2-3,000. We had at least one game with an attendance of under 9,000. Only one match with over 20,000 (Cambridge United) before the year ended. Seasons average was under 15,000.
The final game of the season over 26,000 attended. Even the Brighton didn’t want to leave at the final whistle with a reminder being given that train was leaving soon.
A special season. |
Cambridge game was 17k, the biggest crowd for a few years and the away end was allegedly boosted by budgies as Norwich didn’t have a game that day.
Final game was a 28k sell out. | |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 13:10 - Nov 5 | BelsteadCav |
1992 is still my favourite year of football
Just left school, got a car and went to every away game that season. Bloody loved it
I’m on the official video 2/3 times as well lol |  |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 15:59 - Nov 5 | algy |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 12:43 - Nov 5 by Pinewoodblue |
We finished 14th, or was it 15th, the season before. John Lyall pleaded with fans to renew season tickets to give him a chance to buy. Season ticket renewals were way down probably between 2-3,000. We had at least one game with an attendance of under 9,000. Only one match with over 20,000 (Cambridge United) before the year ended. Seasons average was under 15,000.
The final game of the season over 26,000 attended. Even the Brighton didn’t want to leave at the final whistle with a reminder being given that train was leaving soon.
A special season. |
We were already promoted when we played Brighton but we sent them down that last day. Perhaps their fans were just making the most of what could have been their last visit to what was a second tier club. | | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 17:36 - Nov 5 | Radlett_blue |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:44 - Nov 5 by ITFC_Essex |
John Lyall is (much like Joe Royle) an underrated Town manager when we talk about the best we have had. He turned a club firmly on its ars- post Robson, in a short amount of time, from passengers in the 2nd tier, to a good footballing side on a shoestring budget. Even then there were big spenders at this level, and we out competed them in 1991/92 and of course he was the last Town manager to achieve 3 seasons in the top flight, as well as actually win a league.
His biggest mistake was moving upstairs into what was a semi-director of football role, allowing a very functional, but dull McGiven to run the team. We actually had footballers at the club who could play neat football at the time in the likes of Stockwell, Williams, Milton, Johnson and co. but we didn't really utilize that under McGiven. Selling Dozzell was a blow, and it's a shame we didn't have he, and Marshall, in the same side.
I'd argue that he's ahead of McKenna in the Town manager table, purely on the fact he won a league and kept us up three seasons with a budget comparable to that of Swindon's at the time. [Post edited 5 Nov 11:46]
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Lyall assembled a promotion team with shrewd signings like West Ham old boys Goddard & Whitton. However, he was hugely helped by the emergence of Dozzell & Kiwomya as top players at 2nd tier level.
We didn't really have the money to sign the players we needed to establish ourselves in the Premier League. Geraint Williams did well in our first season, but Dozzell had to be sold & we squandered what money we had on misfits like Slater & Paz, while Sedgley was also a disappointment. |  |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 18:13 - Nov 5 | Dubtractor |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:12 - Nov 5 by Steve_M |
That team probably comes third in my time of watching Ipswich (I was alive for the second half of the Robson-era but too young to pay proper attention to it).
It's third though because it lacks the build up over successive seasons that Burley had in the late-90s or the 2.5 years to double promotion that McKenna managed.
1991-92 was a superb season, and the one that cemented my support of the club, but a bit behind those other two spells. |
My position also, pretty much word for word.
I was also playing Saturday football at the time, so didn't get to as many games.
It was still a properly memorable season though. |  |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 18:23 - Nov 5 | Bluespeed225 |
Terracing, a full North Stand by the end of the season, pubs full, The Black Adder. We started slow, Swindon at home with Hoddle a bit of a lesson, losing to Cambridge! Then pre Christmas it started to happen, beating big spending Blackburn set the tone. Then in the new year you started to notice the subs. Whitton/Goddard off at 60/65 minutes, Palmer/Johnson on, pace picks up. Newcastle at home! Southend away! Oxford, then back home to a Town Center we wouldn’t see again until 23’( in 2000 the pubs were shutting by the time we got back from Wembley!) The last season of (almost) innocence (Walker and Blackburn has set a precedent), Lyall with a point to prove after his sacking? The Shammers went down, we went up, perfect! it was as happy as it was unexpected! Loved it! | | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 11:37 - Nov 6 | urbanblue |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 17:36 - Nov 5 by Radlett_blue |
Lyall assembled a promotion team with shrewd signings like West Ham old boys Goddard & Whitton. However, he was hugely helped by the emergence of Dozzell & Kiwomya as top players at 2nd tier level.
We didn't really have the money to sign the players we needed to establish ourselves in the Premier League. Geraint Williams did well in our first season, but Dozzell had to be sold & we squandered what money we had on misfits like Slater & Paz, while Sedgley was also a disappointment. |
But we signed Boncho ... he wasn't really that great but we all loved him didn't we. Wonderful days. |  | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 18:33 - Nov 6 | Pique |
It's funny, because a lot of this depends on your personal experiences and, most importantly, when you came in to the whole thing.
My first season as a Town fan was 1992/93. So while I was aware of the heroics of the previous season, I didn't personally experience them.
As a result it's hard for me to remember the Lyall era with much fondness, even though objectively I can recognise he was one of the better Town managers.
First half of 92/93 was wonderful - we were fourth in January, and although we fell away badly in the second half, a 16th place finish was still respectable (22 teams in the Prem then don't forget, so equivalent of 14th place now).
1993/94 was the Mick McGiven season and was largely awful - Lyall effectively disappeared for a year, ten men behind the ball in most games, and we were lucky not to be relegated (but for Mark Stein we would have been and could have had few complaints).
1994/95 was just dreadful and the less said the better. Lyall thoroughly deserved his sacking.
So it's interesting - my having missed the promotion year skews my view to a certain extent, and I also find it hard to forgive Lyall for having effectively abandoned the job in 1993/94 and seemingly doing it halfheartedly in 1994/95.
For me the really exciting times began with Burley, but I guess that's the point - it all depends when you come in. |  | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 19:35 - Nov 6 | runaround |
I was 20 years old that season and loved the terraces both home and away as the season built and we hit our straps
That run of 5 wins from Derby home to Newcastle home is one of my favourite periods of all time watching ITFC. Didn’t move to Ipswich until after 78 and was very unwell in 81 so 92 was the first successful season when I really felt part of it.
I have vague memories of getting back to Ipswich after the Oxford away game and spending the night in Blackadder Pub singing We are the Champions for what seemed forever |  | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 19:57 - Nov 6 | Swansea_Blue |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 18:33 - Nov 6 by Pique |
It's funny, because a lot of this depends on your personal experiences and, most importantly, when you came in to the whole thing.
My first season as a Town fan was 1992/93. So while I was aware of the heroics of the previous season, I didn't personally experience them.
As a result it's hard for me to remember the Lyall era with much fondness, even though objectively I can recognise he was one of the better Town managers.
First half of 92/93 was wonderful - we were fourth in January, and although we fell away badly in the second half, a 16th place finish was still respectable (22 teams in the Prem then don't forget, so equivalent of 14th place now).
1993/94 was the Mick McGiven season and was largely awful - Lyall effectively disappeared for a year, ten men behind the ball in most games, and we were lucky not to be relegated (but for Mark Stein we would have been and could have had few complaints).
1994/95 was just dreadful and the less said the better. Lyall thoroughly deserved his sacking.
So it's interesting - my having missed the promotion year skews my view to a certain extent, and I also find it hard to forgive Lyall for having effectively abandoned the job in 1993/94 and seemingly doing it halfheartedly in 1994/95.
For me the really exciting times began with Burley, but I guess that's the point - it all depends when you come in. |
I caught the promotion year and didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have for the opposite reason that I’d grown up under Burley’s team when things were much better. Naive younger me was probably thinking we were only getting back to where we belonged and would end up as a domestic powerhouse and back in Europe pretty soon, so all this success in L2 was just a step to something bigger  .
I did enjoy seeing Warky back though. He was still a cut above at the tail end of his career and playing in a different position. He carried that defence in the promotion season and was often the best player on the pitch by a mile.
It was a good side. We all loved Kiwomya of course, but there was something likeable about pretty much all of them. I was away at uni, so saw very little at PR (but was there to see us lift the trophy). I saw Bristol away in the run-in (lost lol) and saw us at Watford that year. I possibly saw the Wolves home game too, if that was over Easter. That was my third season where I’d seen far less of us than previously after moving away. Little did I know then that trend would continue for the next 35 years 😒 |  |
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 20:23 - Nov 6 | mellowblue |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 19:57 - Nov 6 by Swansea_Blue |
I caught the promotion year and didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have for the opposite reason that I’d grown up under Burley’s team when things were much better. Naive younger me was probably thinking we were only getting back to where we belonged and would end up as a domestic powerhouse and back in Europe pretty soon, so all this success in L2 was just a step to something bigger .
I did enjoy seeing Warky back though. He was still a cut above at the tail end of his career and playing in a different position. He carried that defence in the promotion season and was often the best player on the pitch by a mile.
It was a good side. We all loved Kiwomya of course, but there was something likeable about pretty much all of them. I was away at uni, so saw very little at PR (but was there to see us lift the trophy). I saw Bristol away in the run-in (lost lol) and saw us at Watford that year. I possibly saw the Wolves home game too, if that was over Easter. That was my third season where I’d seen far less of us than previously after moving away. Little did I know then that trend would continue for the next 35 years 😒 |
Wark knew the role from the early parts of his career, he was losing a bit of whatever pace he had, but his positional play, timing and organisational ability was so spot on. Just brought confidence and a calm head to proceedings. I agree that they were all likeable. An honest bunch who would work so hard for eachother and the boss. | | | |
| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 21:26 - Nov 6 | patrickswell |
The best thing about 1991/92, and I was following it from afar in Cornwall while working through my GCSEs, was the wonderful surprise element about it. The majority of that team had spent the late 1980s butting its head against 8th and 9th place, usually due to terrible form between January and March. Lyall’s first year introduced death by draw for a 14th place finish.
I’d long reconciled myself to the fact that I supported a mid table Second tier team, capable of good results on their day, but incapable of putting together the kind of remorseless winning consistency that would result in promotion. That was for other teams and other supporters to enjoy.
The first couple of months of 91/92 continued the pattern. By the time we played Wolves at Molineux on 23 November 1991, we were sitting in 9th place, winless in 8 and had lost the last 3. Half time at Molineux, Wolves were winning 1-0. The relief when we came back to win 2-1 was huge, but we were still 9th and llikely would be for the rest of the season, as I’d seen the story before. The inconsistency would dog us as it always did.
But suddenly, we started winning in the middle of the season. The 3 wins over the festive season vs Charlton, Blackburn and at Port Vale two years to the day that they had tonked us 5-0 had me wondering whether this might genuinely be different. As the wins racked up over February and March, I felt something I hadn’t felt since I’d started supporting Town in the 85/86 season - genuine belief that we would win any game that we would play. It felt like we had the answers to any test thrown in front of us. It was, despite the late stumble in April, a bit of a procession in the end. Far less knife edge than the play offs in 2000 or either of the McKenna promotions. And of course the good vibes and achievement lasted all the way up the final whistle of Ipswich 2 Manchester United 1 on 30 January 1993.
To pick up on Pique’s point, the decline over the next 2 and a bit seasons is probably why that team/era can sometimes be overlooked,though it’s worth remembering that the 1991/92 squad plus the various additions over the remainder of the Lyall/McGiven era gave us 2 wins over Man Utd, 3 over Norwich, the last Town team to make the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup. Under George Burley, many of the faces of that squad delivered a first Ipswich win at Anfield, while 12 of the 14 man squad that knocked Premier League champions Blackburn out of the FA Cup at Ewood Park had played for Town during the 94/95 season (including 5 from the 9-0 at Old Trafford).
Yeah, we’ve had better teams and managers since, but they remain our last set of Champions and after a long period of drought, they gave Town fans a long overdue chance to enjoy football again. They are iconic. [Post edited 6 Nov 21:28]
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| The Lyall Era - I loved that bloody team - and does not get the love on 21:36 - Nov 6 | GlasgowBlue |
The Lyall era was very important. Got us to the top table just as the Premier League was starting.which got the crowds back
Laid the foundations for most of what we have done since. Criminally overlooked imo. [Post edited 6 Nov 21:40]
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