26th October 2010 - League Cup 4th Round
Ipswich Town 3 vs 1 Northampton Town
Following on from the bore-draw at Colchester, it was now time for some cup football as we headed to Ipswich to watch the Tractor Boys take on Northampton Town in the League Cup.
Prior to this match, Rich and I had been down to Brighton's old Withdean Ground and I had been to Barnet for a couple of Johnstone Paint Trophy ties. But as both clubs have since moved to new grounds they're no longer included in the 92.
Anyway, on a miserable October evening the two of us ventured up to Suffolk for this Carling Cup tie.
Miserable definitely summed up the weather because it rained practically the entire night, but after parking up early and taking a few photos of the Sir Bobby Robson statue outside we made our way into Portman Road.
We were, other than the stewards, the first people in the entire ground which meant we were open to some mocking from a steward or two but they were nice enough to take a photo of Rich and I before the game.
As more and more people began to filter into the ground there was on kid in particular who I could only really described as 'bouncy.'
At Leyton Orient we'd been witness to some special characters. This was the same at Brighton as there was a kid there called Ben who had come along on his own and seemed to be a walking encyclopedia of all things Brighton & Hove Albion.
Well, Ipswich had this one kid who, before the two sides had come out for their warm up, was just bouncing up and and down, up and down whilst holding onto the wall in front of the advertising hoardings. God knows why, but bounce, bounce, bounce he went which created some hilarity for us two.
Ipswich had always held a special place in my heart - mainly because United beat them 9-0 many, many years ago, which is still a Premier League record - but they were also located fairly close to family of mine in Bury St Edmunds, so I'd always keep an eye out for them growing up.
So I was quite looking forward to this ground-hop, and, despite the awful weather, Portman Road was a tidy ground.
We found ourselves behind the goal to the left of the dugouts and as the game kicked off the stewards when jovial to jobsworths, telling us quite swiftly that we weren't allowed to take any photos during the game which was a bit of buzz kill.
It was the first time we'd located ourselves behind a goal. I always prefer the sidelines, but it proved a wise choice when Northampton took the lead through a cracker of a strike from Liam Davies in the goal we were behind.
The Cobblers had been struggling at the bottom of League Two at the time and the goal must have come as a bit of shock to the guy operating the scoreboard as he mistakenly put Ipswich 1-0 Northampton, before quickly changing it around.
In the previous round Northampton had beaten Liverpool at Anfield so they were riding the crest of wave and had arguably taken the lead against the run of play. But the lead wasn't to last long as Ipswich equalised ten minutes later through Carlos Edwards.
The Tractor Boys would go into the break with a lead thanks to Damien Delaney, with Tamas Priskin sealing it late on with a header for Roy Keane's side.
Off the back of the bore-fest in Colchester, we made our way back to the car soaked through after this game but having had our faith restored in the whole idea of doing the 92, thanks to the random bouncy kid and a decent cup tie.
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