Pride of Anglia - Ipswich Town Football Club

Friday, March 20

Football Cards

Football Cards first appeared in 1896 when cigarette manufacturer Marcus & Company of Manchester published a series entitled Footballers & Club Colours, each card placed inside the cigarette box, originally as stiffeners to prevent the pack being crushed. Many other companies followed suit firstly as a way of rewarding customer loyalty and secondly to encourage smokers of other brands to switch to theirs. Churchman cigarettes, whose factory once stood to the south of Portman Road, and from whom the Churchman Stand got it's name, launched various sets of football cards during the 1900's. Football Stickers and cards are now big business as the likes of Panini, FKS and Merlin target the pocket money of young fans. Many clubs, including Ipswich, started issuing their own player photo collections in the 1970's and it these, and those from many of the seasons that follow, that we feature in this recently 'enhanced' section of the site... More

Monday, February 16

"We shall not be satisfied until First Division football has been brought to Ipswich"

In this interview with the Topical Times in February, 1938, former Manchester United supremo, and now Ipswich Town's very first club manager A. Scott Duncan, talks about the club's ambition to ultimately bring top-flight football to Suffolk and with a first-class ground and big crowds the very real prospect of being elected to the Football League in the summer ahead. More

Tuesday, February 10

On The Map with Sir Bobby Robson

'On The Map - A Fan's View of Sir Bobby Robson & Ipswich Town' is a new book by Nick Fuller charting the thirteen years of Sir Bobby's reign at Portman Road. Sir Bobby is the most accomplished English Manager of all time. The foundation of his International and European club glory was based on his early managerial career in transforming a small unfashionable club into a major power in Britain and Europe. This book covers that historical period through the eyes of a fan who was there. The book is available to download from www.onthemap.tv free of charge but you are invited to make a donation to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation which focuses on the early detection and treatment of cancer and the clinical trials of new drugs that will eventually beat it.

Tuesday, January 27

Barnsley v Ipswich Town

A preview of tonight's Coca-Cola Championship match Barnsley and Ipswich Town at Oakwell can be found here.

Sunday, January 25

Chelsea 3 Ipswich Town 1

Michael Ballack hit two, either side of Alex Bruce's close range effort, and Frank Lampard struck home a thunderous 35-yard free-kick to end Town's hopes of an extended cup run - and a cup upset - as Chelsea ran out 3-1 victors in yesterday's 4th Round tie at Stamford Bridge. Ballack gave Chelsea the lead after just 16 minutes, but any fears the 6,000 travelling Ipswich fans may have had of a thrashing were quickly dispelled, as Bruce turned home Own Garvan's free-kick to equalise just after the half-hour mark. Although the home side stepped things up a notch after the break it took a superb free-kick from Ballack on 59 minutes to restore their advantage. Lampard's stunning goal five minutes from time wrapped things up for the home side but Jim Magilton side can take a great deal of credit from a tremendous performance that we can only hope they'll be able to carry forward into the final third of this seasons league programme. Match statistics here.