“And the main thing for me is that we had really good team spirit, a great bunch of lads that really liked each other.”

After that 7-5 victory over the two legs there were 12 days to wait before the final which Stewart says he tried as hard as he could to treat like any other game.

“There are all sorts of feelings going through your body,” he said. “Anxiousness, are you going to play well, the fact it’s on TV, all sorts of things go through your mind and what you had to try and do is think about the most positive things you can think about instead of the negatives that might happen.

“From putting your suit on in the hotel to being on the coach on the way and seeing the fans to walking through the stadium, all these sorts of things aren’t part of a normal football game.

“You’ve got to try and treat it as a normal football game but there are moments when you’re on the coach or in the hotel or at the stadium where you know it’s not a normal game. But you’ve just got to suppress those moments as much as you can and try and treat it as a normal match even though it’s not.

“The day itself was a great day. We went a goal down again [Richard Wright own goal, six minutes]. I always remember when Darren Barnard had a penalty against Wrighty and they would have gone 2-1 up.

“Me and Wrighty used to practice penalties quite a lot. After training two or three times a week I used to take 10 penalties and then he’d say to me ‘Marcus, for the next 10 just tell me which side you’re going to go before you take it. I’m not going to cheat I’m just going to dive’.

“It was for him, so 10 for me and then 10 for himself. I would only score two out of 10 because he’d save them, and he wouldn’t cheat, he wouldn’t stand [over to one side], he’d stick to the rules, but he just wanted to know which side.

“And I knew when Darren Barnard was taking that penalty just before half-time that if he went the right way, because I’ve had that experience with him, that he had an eight in 10 chance of saving it, and he bloody saved it because he went the right way!

“I can remember watching back, looking to back to the goal thinking ‘Wrighty, just go the right way, if you go the right way I know you’ve got a chance of saving it’. And he did.

“These sorts of moments you think about, they stick in your mind and that moment especially sticks in mine. That was a game-changer that penalty save.”

Town won the match in a spell just after the break in which Richard Naylor, on as a sub for the injured David Johnson, made it 2-1 in the 52nd minute then Stewart himself added the third six minutes later.

He remembers the goal well: “I know what Jamie Clapham is going to do with the ball at his feet at any time, anywhere, any place. And I knew he was going to put that ball in that area at that moment in time, at that place. I knew it.

“It’s strange but we had a telepathy about us as a team. We kind of knew what we all wanted and I knew that he was going to put a decent ball into the box, middle of the goal and I knew I had to get across my man.

“I can’t tell you how I knew that, I just did. I just think that’s good recruitment and good play from the players. I think that’s what it is.

“Did we speak about it before the game? No, we didn’t. I just think that it’s a credit to George, the type of player he brought into the team and the team spirit we had that creates those moments and that feeling amongst the squad. I just knew what he was going to do.

“When every player thinks like that at the same time, not just one or two, then you get promotions.”

He added: “We had a fantastic resilience, a fantastic ethic and psychology that we could beat anyone and we’d come through being goals behind before, especially in the two semi-final legs.

“Everyone stuck to George’s game plan. Martijn came on for the last few minutes and got the winner when he broke through, a very similar type of goal to the one he scored in the semi-final.

“We had complete faith that we would get back in the game. There was that game-changing moment with the penalty and then us going on to win, me scoring and Richard Naylor scoring, Mogga having got the first. We just had goals in us from all over the pitch, we knew that.”

He admits it was a nervy last few minutes on the bench having been the man that made way for Reuser.

“They got a goal back and then Martijn Reuser got the one that relieved the pressure for the last two or three minutes,” he recalled.

“Those sorts of game, they’re always nervy, regardless of whether you’re two goals up or a goal ahead.

Photo: Action Images

WeWereZombies added 06:42 - May 15 Stewart talking about 'telepathy' and knowing what type of pass Jamie Clapham would make reminds me of Sir Bobby's 'Space created, ball delivered, man arrives' mantra from Terry Butcher's best eleven piece.
0

Ipswich Town Polls