Lest we forget: he was booed before, during and after his first match by the North Stand - a home loss against Crystal Palace.

Getting our club back.

Sheff. Utd home, 2-0 down then down to 10 men, yet came back and won 3-2, fantastic game, the two Darrens were amazing!

Please come back Joe. Oh how we miss your entertaining style of football compared to the crap we witness these days.

When you consider everything that was going on off the field, he did an amazing job, that no manager since has really been able to emulate.

Crewe at home. 6-4. Bonkers.

With no money to spend and a hopeless defence his approach seemed to be "sod it, I guess we will just have to score more than them". It worked to a point - one season we were the leading scorers in the country with a goal difference of +7.

Wigan 2-1

And to think that we thought Joe was a bit old school. Little did we know. At least he took the view that football was an entertainment business.

None!

'Catch us if you can' he said when we went 3pts clear and they did the next week.

Selling Gaardsoe and bringing in Santos was another Classic.

Palace away. 2-0 down after 15-20 mins. Claw back to lead 3-2 to give away last min pen only then for Kuqi to net a winner almost from the kick off

In the match before he got the job he was in the stands with David Sheepshanks and I was in the crowd (and it felt like the whole ground was joining in) as we sang "You can stick your Joe Royle up your @rse" - I did not want him at all. Thought he'd ruin our passing game and blow our Euro home form record (fantastic trivia to share over the years).

But the man won me over. The football was more direct but more exciting. Kept us in contention for a quick return. He worked wonders under financial constraints - I feel he wasn't given the full picture about our perilous financial problems when he started.

Favourite moment was him squaring up to Pardew in one of the playoff 1st leg with West Ham when we dragged ourselves back into the tie 2-2 from being 2-0 down at Upton Park.

I'd rather have Royle's grand dad than MM

The style of play which was great being we will score 1 more than you many great memories with him in charge but obviously the biggest bug bearer with me was the fact we didnt get promoted with him because we did deserve it really. I believe if we did with him in charge we may well still be there now.

Bizarre scorelines that we came out of on the right side. Those are my best memories of Royle's era.

2004/05 was a cracking campaign, wasn't it. Don't think any of us would've believed that more than a decade on from coming that close, we'd still be stuck in this bloody division.

Entertaining, attacking, free-flowing football, which we are seeing very little of at present, sadly. Yes, our defence wasn't the best back then, but with the likes of Miller, Magilton, Reuser, Currie, Pabs, plus Benty and Kuqi all running the show it didn't really matter. Joe Royle did a great job for us considering the circumstances, shame we missed out to West Ham in the play offs.

The last man that made me genuninely believe that we could win the league.

Sheff Utd 3-2 and 5-1 matches, Wigan 2-1 before Christmas to send us top, 6-4 v Crewe (!) and wasn't he in charge when we smashed Forest 6-1.

Oh yes and the Palace away 4-3 game!

2-1 against Wigan at home to send us top at Christmas. Leighton Baines scored an absolute scorcher - but Benty scored in the last minutes. PR was shaking!

How good are the TWTD archives? I would love to read some of those who would, day in day out, lambaste Big Joe for his 'dinosaur' approach to football; for being too direct; and not playing the passing game that was the Ipswich style. Ring any bells?

Now we are on here saying how good he was. I wonder where we will be in another 13 years and whether we will be saying come back Mick.

For me the game against 'the Norwich of the North' was amazing. 2-0 down, Tarricco off and to win 3 - 2. The buzz around the ground that night was terrific.

I thought he was brilliant - attacking, free-flowing soccer and we pushed for promotion practically every year he was here and re-established the Ipswich way of playing soocer unlike the sterile, one - dimensional hoofball of today based on a strange philosophy of thinking we can win matches..without attempting shots on goal lol !

The Derby win away at Carrott Road. Danny Haynes playing basketball in the 6 yard box. Watching it on youtube gets better every time!

Have to admit I didn't want him as our manager but have to say he worked miracles with the players he bought in on a budget and the players he had to let go for millions,he did a great job. Remember Narwich away 0-2 was a good day out but we had lots of good days watching The Town home and away for a couple of seasons. I remember losing at home to Wet Spam at the start of one season and the crowd were having ago at Sheepy and the board, and within a few days he made a couple of loans and we went on a great run. He done an unbelievable job and I would just like to say Thank you Joe and Willie Donachie for a two or three brilliant entertaining seasons.

I remember not wanting him as manager - tbh I didn't want anyone replacing George - but Joe won me over in the press conference when he was officially unveiled.

Did a fantastic job on a zero budget - similar to Mick - but the football was so much more entertaining and generally just being a lovely bloke.

I wasn't impressed, I saw him as an old fashioned style of manager, playing defensive long ball football.
This couldn't have been further from the truth, he did brilliant in difficult times - having to sell all our established stars and play kids. He over-achieved year after year with us coming close to promotion. We seemed to out-pass everyone at home, but get bullied away from home, if only he could have had some of the money thrown away by Keane and Jewell.....