Fornham Circular Seven Mile Run

I got in a seven mile run this morning around Fornham. It was a fairly standard run at an easy pace before setting off for the football at Portman Road. Ipswich Town v Scunthorpe Utd in the Championship. Both sides struggling at the wrong end of the league fought out a dour game spoilt by the tactics of the away who constantly wasted time.

However they got what they deserved in the end as Ipswich won 1-0 scoring in the 2nd minute of injury time. The goal coming from Conner Wickham who is just 16 years old.

You'll Never Walk Alone

Day 6 of my Runners World SMART Coach schedule was a repeat of yesterday another easy 5 mile run at 9.20 mile pace. I found today harder than yesterday  though partly as I was feeling a little tired but also because overnight we have had another 5 cm of snow.

  Running this morning required a higher lift of the legs to go forward because of the depth of the new snow.This morning as I ran it again snowed heavily for a while and visability became quite poor for a time.  Sledges which for many years have really been "white elephants" only coming out for the odd day in Suffolk are actually getting a proper use this year.

On the ipod this morning I listened to the 'A Mile with Me' podcast episode 35 which had a focus on Antarctica which was very apt. What was great to hear and was inspiring when I most needed it most was the Celtic fans singing You'll Never Walk Alone.

If you are not familar with it you can find out more about the history and tradition here , these are the words  - When you walk,through a storm hold your head, up high and don't be afraid, of the dark At the end,of the storm,is a golden sky and the sweet silver song,of lark. Walk on, through the wind walk on, ... Video below

My time today for the 5 miles was 45.44. Mile splits were 9.05,8.52,8.55,9.16 and 9.32.

Fitted in my 100 push ups programme where I have reached day 2 of week 4. Today I did 25,29,25,25 and 41. My 41 was enough for me to take the lead in the push up championship at home until my son Tom has a go when I am sure he will regain the title.

Also went to see Avatar today and wore the 3D glasses over my own glasses which was ok . Verdict good film well worth watching. It has already taken 1.2 billion dollars world wide and is set to overcome Titanic. Rather than being a very alien film the storey line is very much an every day occurence of nature versus profit. You don't need to go to Pandora as the storey is happening some where in the world all the time where tropical rainforests and native people are ousted by giant corporations or desperate locals wanting the land for farming. Although a lengthy film the time passed quickly and I would be happy to watch again  I give it an 8 out of 10

Sir Bobby Robson Statue

Ipswich Town 2 Norwich City 1 April 13th 2008, originally uploaded by Running in Suffolk.

A legend in his time. A familar site for any visitor to Portman Road are the statues of both Sir Bobby Robson and Sir Alf Ramsey two of England's finest ever mangers.

Sir Bobby Robson

Sir Bobby Robson, originally uploaded by Running in Suffolk.

Sir Bobby at the final match of the 2007-8 season at Portman Road

Ipswich Town visit Feyenoord

Ipswich Town visit Feyenoord, originally uploaded by Running in Suffolk.

Here is Sir Bobby and the Ipswich Town team visting Feyenoord. Sir Bobby is in the front row wearing the captains hat.

Sir Bobby Robson

Ipswich Town 1981-2 EUFA Champions Autographed Memorablia, originally uploaded by Running in Suffolk.

It is a very sad day for all football fans with the passing of one of our greatest ever managers and gentleman of football.

Obviously at Ipswich we were fortunate to have the benefit of Robson as manager throughout the 1970's taking us to sucess in winning the FA Cup and the Eufa Cup. The league alluded us but I thank Sir Bobby for the fantastic memories which are unlikely to ever be repeated at our club.

He was a regular visitor to Portman Road even in recent years and I will load up one or two photos.

Ipswich Town V Norwich City

Ipswich Town 3 Norwich City 1

At long last Ipswich finally managed to beat our rivals from over the border in Norfolk and things are looking a bit brighter on the football front.

Norwich took the lead through a schoolboy error from Richards in defense allowing new signing Chadwick an easy tap in. Before this Ipswich had started brightly forcing a number of corners and coming close so it was against the run of play that the Norwich goal came.

However Ipswich continued to play the passing football and just before half time a deservedly equalizer came from a flowing passing move with good ball control by Legwinski who slotted home. The crowing canaries were silenced and half time came with home fans in a much brighter mood.

The start of the second half was some what subdued and it was fairly even with Ipswich creating chances but it seemed poor finishing would come to Delia's rescue.One or two decisions from the ref when he didn't give a penalty though every one else in the ground could see he was being held down for a Norwich centre half didn't help and when Billy Clarke limped off I feared the worse.

Enter Danny Haynes the destroyer of all things green and yellow. It only took 2 minutes before he headed in a cross to give Town a deserved lead. This was followed by a lovely curling shot to make it 3-1 to Town. Danny Haynes scored the winner last year at Carrow Road and has scored against Norwich at all levels of football, to think he once had a trial at City and was rejected.

The 3pts were sorely needed by Town we are inconsistent and I would predict a mid table finish.

Jim Magilton is beginning to mold a side but it will take 2 years and if we retain our new crops of Academy youngsters we could be a force in the Championship. It has to be said that there is little difference in quality between top and bottom sides in this league.

As for Norwich the new manager was honest enough to admit that his side were well beaten on the day and that his side have been winning games despite not playing well. If they do start to play then of course there is still the play offs to aim for but if they don't succeed their parachute payment dries up at the end of the season and they will be 7 million worse off.

I don't think either side will be good enough to make the play offs this season.

Ipswich Town v Sunderland

A comfortable win against Sunderland by 3-1. The victory represented the first managerial defeat for Roy Keane as manager so will always be remembered by him.

Two goals for Alan Lee changed the game around in the second half after Darren Currie had scored an equaliser after Sunderland had taken the lead from an own goal.

Ipswich Town v Southampton

A win for Ipswich Town by 2 goals to win. Was it a fair reflection of the game well no but in our situation we will take the points. What came out of the game was another goal for the super sub Billy Clarke. Harding was my man of the match though Williams and Walton were also in top form.

Southampton should have scored 5 and you can see them going close this year under George Burley.

Bury Town FC v Maldon Town FC

Bury Town 1 Maldon Town 1

Bank Holiday Monday action from the Ryman League Division 1 North saw a game played in difficult conditions with heavy rain, thunderstorms and lightning.

From what I saw Maldon looked a more organised team and it showed that they have competed at a higher level than Bury for a few years. However I felt Bury had some better individual players particulalry Ian Miller who at centre half was often a class above the rest. Bury really lacked a cutting edge up front and this is an area I think they will need to strengthen if they wish to make any in roads on this league, otherwise I can only see a mid table finish.

A draw was probably a fair result as both sides had numerous chances to win this game. Maldon took the lead in the first half from Perry who seemed to score pretty much unchalllenged from a header a goal that had been coming.

Bury deservedly equalised from Wood who came on as sub with the goalkeeper unable to hold a godd cross from Cunningham giving Wood the simple chance to convert.

A decent crowd for Bury of 255 people attended Ram Meadow.

Ipswich Town v Crystal Palace

Town 1 Palace 2

A disappointing result as Ipswich slipped to defeat in the opening game of the 2006-7 Championship Season. This was Jim Magiltons first competitive match as a manager and for him and Ipswich this is going to be a tough season when I am expecting nothing more than a mid table finishing position.

The Championship is the most competitive league in English football with anyone of about 10 clubs who can potentially win promotion. You cannot say this about the Premier league.

After a first half in which Palace failed to pose any threat and Ipswich had scored an opening goal through Forster who outpaced a slow centre half to convert in the corner the old Town habits of sitting back on a lead emerged.

Palace made a telling substitute bringing on Freedman for Morrison and he seemed to immeadiately link up well with Scowcroft and suddenly Palace looked a threat. Two quick goals from sily defensive mistakes left Town chasing the game. However the attack didn't pose much of a threat apart from at the end of the game when Lee and Haynes arrived as subs and a little more luck would have resulted in a draw which on balance would have been a fair result.

Ipswich Town Demo Video

Click here to view a video from Portman Road before the recent Ipswich Town v Sheffield Utd match. This is a very short film and is just me playing around to see how to load videos on to blogger.

Ipswich Town v Southampton

This season is definitely going to be transitional one following the mass departure of our best players to the Premier League.

Tuesday nights game saw us draw 2-2 with Southampton. For me the highlight was seeing Owen Garvan score his first goal for the club. Many people say he looks the spitting image of Stephen Gerrard and at just 17 he is the next bright prospect to come out of the Ipswich Town Academy.

To be fair Southampton should have won comfortably but for bad finishing , good goalkeeping from the young Lewis Price and bad luck.

The game will be remembered by many for the floodlight failure which occurred after about 5 minutes and left the Portman Road stadium in the dark for about 40 minutes.

Fabian Wilnis was the latest Town player to pick up an injury and he joins a mounting injury list. The injury occurred at the only point in the game when we had begun to get on top and put some pressure on the away defense.

Jay McEveley who is on loan from Blackburn made his debut and we also saw the return of the old warhorse Dennis Wise who unfortunately scored a good equaliser for the Saints.

The programme front cover shows Sam Parkin our signing from Swindon. I think he will score 15-20 goals a season but it is hard for him as fans naturally compare him to the departed Darren Bent whose start in the Premier League has made him top scorer.