 Tuesday, 31st May 2011 11:29 The UEFA Cup and many of the players who won it were back in Ipswich last night to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Blues’ carrying off the trophy in Amsterdam after beating Dutch side AZ 67 Alkmaar over two legs. Most of Sir Bobby Robson’s Boys of ’81 were at Monday’s gala dinner at the Corn Exchange, which was organised by Ipswich Borough Council, the Evening Star and the ITFC Charitable Trust. Of the team and subs which won the final only Arnold Muhren, Terry Butcher, Mich D’Avray, Tommy Parkin, Robin Turner and Laurie Sivell were missing. After the squad had been re-introduced to the fans who knew them so well and skipper Mick Mills had brought in one of football’s most cumbersome trophies, current chief executive Simon Clegg welcomed the ex-players back to Suffolk: “As a club we are incredibly proud of the rich history and heritage that we enjoy and I’m delighted to see so many of the players from that great 1981 team back with us tonight and over the next couple of days.” Clegg revealed that owner and chairman Marcus Evans was in attendance but “doesn’t want to be identified” but sent Paul Jewell’s apologies with the Blues boss “otherwise engaged in the business of the football club”. Jewell was planning to attend until that business — presumably related to adding to his squad — prevented him, although it’s understood no deals are imminent.
Robson’s assistant Bobby Ferguson spoke and talked about Eric Gates’s development through the club as a player who wasn’t quite a midfielder and yet not an out-and-out attacker, which eventually led to his innovative deployment just behind Paul Mariner and Alan Brazil in that great side. While Radio Suffolk’s Stephen Foster was the main MC, legendary former Anglia TV commentator Gerry Harrison interviewed the players, first Mills, then the rest of those present — Gates, Mariner, Brazil, Paul Cooper, George Burley, Frans Thijssen, Russell Osman, Kevin Beattie, Kevin O’Callaghan, Kevin Steggles and Steve McCall - in pairs or threes with banter flying backwards and forwards between those on stage and Gates and Beattie in particular down below.
Osman jokingly claimed that drugs were what kept him going throughout that gruelling campaign which saw him play all 66 matches and suggested that Beattie ought to have been shot, given the plethora of injuries which in the end prevented the former England international taking part in the final. Gates told of how he helped lead Frans Thijssen astray after the Dutchman joined the Blues and moaned that Wark got all the press attention for his trio of penalties against Aris Salonika despite it being the diminutive frontman who had been, by his description, pretty much assaulted for all three.
Later Wark, who said he was in no doubt that he would score those spotkicks, paid tribute to his team-mate’s ability to fall over in the penalty area. Gates also admitted to being terrified every time he boarded a plane during that run.
Winger O’Callaghan said he felt a bit of a fraud being at the event having played only a small part in the campaign but was privileged to have had the “best seat in the house” to watch that great team in action, a side which he believes will never be matched at Town. The Irish international was also disappointed to have to admit that his great friend Gates’s strike at Everton on his own debut was the best goal he has ever seen.
Skipper Mills said it was a shame the squad broke up only a year or so later with Robson moving on to manage England, a switch the full-back says was entirely understandable but which prevented the side from going on to win further honours. The evening was interspersed with films of Robson talking about the cup run and also an interview with the two Dutchman, Muhren missing the evening as he was away on holiday.
Seasoned broadcaster Brazil took charge of an auction, which at times was more like a stand-up routine, replete with heckling from his former team-mates. Afterwards Mariner, who had travelled from Canada where he is director of player development at Toronto FC, told TWTD that he was going to be at the event come what may: “When I knew it was on there was absolutely no way I was going to miss it. I asked my boss if I could come over but I was coming over, nothing would have stopped me.
“You can see what a special camaraderie we’ve got. We were a real team, we respect each other, we love each other and some of the anecdotes which came out tonight were just the way it was.” Mariner was delighted to be reunited with best mate John Wark and also the club’s unsung heroes, but with one tinge of sadness: “It’s been knockout, just to see all the people from the backroom staff from the old days, to see [former manager’s secretary] Pat Godbold, it’s always fantastic to see Pat.
“It’s just a shame that the gaffer’s not here. But we had him here three years ago [for the FA Cup reunion], we were lucky to have here then. "I’ll always remember those days. He gave me the opportunity, he bought me and I hope I repaid him at the club.”
Despite several of the squad revealing their continued frustration that they didn’t win the League title or the FA Cup in addition to the UEFA Cup that season, there was little doubt that 30 years on the fans present felt Mariner and all the rest more than repaid Robson’s faith during their time at Portman Road. Several of the squad as well as the trophy will be at the Suffolk Show on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
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