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Ipswich Town - Reserve Premier League South Champions
Today, on the 1st May 2002, Ipswich Town Reserves played the most crucial game of their 2001/2002 season. They only needed 1 point to secure the Premier League South Championship and I was to be there to witness this achievement. Being a season ticket holder at Portman Road I was glad to find out I could walk in free of charge, which always adds to the enjoyment of the evening. It wasn't just my first Reserve team game but also my first visit to the new south stand - the Greene King stand.  The Greene King Stand the game was quite a relaxing one, only two of the stands were open so the atmosphere didn't feel the whole ground during the game but it was a good turn out for a reserve team game. Town really won the game in the first half with Darren Bent scoring his 21st of the season, making him the leading scorer by far in the league - 11 goals ahead of his nearest rival. Along with Bent, Darren Ambrose was by far the best player on the pitch and it was he who would score the second after a great run dribbling past a number of poor Derby defenders. It's easy to see why these two have been in the England youth setup, and I fully expect both of them to be challenging for the Ipswich first team next year. In between the two town goals, Derby had equalised through a foreign-sounding foreign left back who hit a sweet long range effort from about 30 yards into the back of the net. Final Score: The Evening It started off well and continued that way, it was a nice warm.. almost Summer evening and a relaxed feeling was all around. They hadn't even closed off Portman Road to traffic but I suppose the chance of someone getting killed was probably only about 70%. The programmes were free but a bit on the thin side, just a front and back cover and the two inside pages but I wasn't going to complain. At half-time we ventured into the stand for refreshments and after being put-off by the large ques in the lower-class food retrieval zones we made our way to the Legends Bar. This area is very nice indeed, carpeted with pictures on the wall, large widescreen tvs all around, and comfy chairs, bars and "posh" toilet facilities according to Dave. Those behind the bars were smartly dressed and it was like being in a good quality hotel although if i was to mention one bad thing it would have to be the rather limited selection of chocolate snacks on offer - only a Mars bar or a Kit-Kat. We got good seats, and the seats were good, and we were there. But I did come across two minor drawbacks to sitting in the South Stand - 1. someone thiefed me programme that was FREE - cheap gits and also 2. I like to kick my rubbish down to the row below so they look bad but the seats in this stand are too close to the structure so it got stuck, which was very unsatisfactory. All in all it was a good evening out, the lads collected a trophy and recieved many cheers to the classics; 'Singing the Blues', 'Rocking all over the world' etc. Another good achievement for the boys in blue. Feature written by Jay j666.16814.k00@ntlworld.com |