Anyone else still got the FCR version of Yellow Submarine stuck in their heads? I have. Apart from the original being classic earworm material, City fans’ choreographed rendition rolls so delightfully off the tongue and is so easy to sing.
It’s the best feeling but in spite of this, I will be glad to see the back of the derby.
It’s looking increasingly likely that the two teams won’t be in the same division next season and may well be two apart. Even if City choke in the final third of this epic season, surely Sunday’s visitors have been sucked too far into that black hole to escape now.
I for one won’t be sorry. I don’t enjoy derby day and never have done. Although we have had the best times over recent years, the trouble is (stating the bloody obvious here) you don’t know the result until afterwards.
The gnawing fear of losing lasts right up until the game. Despite the lucky underwear, the same breakfast cereal as the last derby game and the knowledge that your team is better than theirs, you don’t know.
For me, the pleasure of winning is not as intense as the pain of losing. At the start of the season, I’d always settle for two draws. The tension for me is unbearable. I work in border territory and the veterinary practice I’m at suffers regular incursions from those from the dark side.
The build-up to kick off starts weeks earlier and intensifies with the approaching game. If I’m honest I’ve certainly dished it out over the years, so when it finally happens, and they beat us (which they inevitably will one day) I’ve got it coming.
I don’t actually mind the banter, it’s the nastiness I hate. I enjoyed my trips to places like Hartlepool and Yeovil in League One. I loved putting the football world to rights with their fans in the pub beforehand. That’s what being a football supporter is all about.
But I find the whole tribal hatred thing horrible. I know we have our fair share of idiots too but I can’t forget being spat on and having stones thrown at me at Portman Road. It’s completely unacceptable.
On a couple of times I had young children with me and really feared for their safety. The advent of social media has made it doubly bad.
And if the whole thing wasn’t volatile enough, we now have Paul Lambert in the mix. His behaviour during the match and his post-match comments were quite frankly embarrassing. I’m assuming his Hall of Fame picture will remain. If we took it down, he’d dine out on it for years.
But tell me, when you walk past it, will it rekindle memories of stirring 1-5 victories, of Chris Martin’s winner against Leeds or of that magical night at Fratton Park?
No. It will immediately bring to mind a bloke behaving like a street brawler.
Goodbye Ipswich.
So right, me too. My wife said that I was stating “Derby Games are different” was away of protecting myself in case I was right and we’d suffer a defeat probably by battering them for 89 minutes only to concede a soft goal from a corner or dodgy penalty.
She texted me to ask if I was OK after the game … but I was hyped
You’re right about Lambert .. his comment about a ‘nothing tackle’ was wrong to start off with… he was just trying it on, I reckon, to get the fans in blue on his side and create more trouble
Agree with you totally. Memories of being abused, bottles thrown at us on the way back to the coach (and that was after the 1-5!).
I’m not interested in a local derby against a club who are completely irrelevant, who mindlessly cling on to their past glories because its present and future are so utterly hopeless. If we never played them again I’d be a very happy person!
That sounds like Liverpool supporters as well living on past glories
Must admit, I detest Liverpool as much as Ipswich. We earned the right to play in Europe. The behaviour of their moronic fans denied us the opportunity.
Great read, Kathy, and very much agree – I’m tired of the vitriol and the ‘scum’ language that gets bandied about by both sides, and across football as a whole. It’s football, healthy rivalries are at the heart of why we love the game IMO, but it shouldn’t go beyond that – good-natured ribbing, yes; nasty abuse, absolutely not.
As for Lambert, it’s just leaving a bitter taste in the mouth – as have said before, will always be grateful for what he did, but it feels like he’s embracing the blinkered view that he accuses us of apparently having. Actions speak louder than words – but time moves on, and so do we.
OTBC
Just had to watch Paul Lambert’s 1.00pm podcast today via EADT.
In a nutshell: “Ipswich have incredible young players. I’ve never known so many injuries. The game could have gone either way. Take the goals out of it and there was nothing in the game. We are losing because the lads are anxious. Freddie Sears is great .Alan Judge is brilliant/excellent. Our fans are brilliant. The atmosphere is great. The steward – I’ve never seen anything like that. Let’s take the goalkeeping coach outside – not in front of 25,000 people. We’ll see what happens.”
What a gracious predictable & humble manager.
Cheer up Paul Lambert… You watched a different game to me, mate!
Take the goals out of any game, and it’s all level. If Man City hadn’t scored six against Chelsea, it would have been a draw. What a stupid comment!
Picking on a steward for doing his job is about as low as Lambert can go, and as for “offering the goal-keeping coach outside”, does he think he’s still in a Glasgow pub? At least the fact he recognises it was the goal-keeping coach rather than the sports scientist should help the FA to rescind that red card.
Judge was their best player by miles but isn’t he on loan from Brentford?
Good Read Kathy
Been to a few Norwich/Ipshite derbies and all have been a tense atmosphere also been to a few Spurs/Arsenal ones in the 70’s and again tense with more violence than our the worst of the lot was the Glasgow ones that I got too in 1970 while at RAF Macky on the Mull of Kyntire the scariest football games I have ever been too.
Lambert is a conundrum and dragging both Stoke and Wolves into the debate I haven’t read anywhere that any of the supporters of clubs he has at would take him back, the only thing I will say he has a built in radar that tells him when he should get out of town.
The 3 successful years at city will be his epitaph and his 3 relegations with Blackburn, Stoke and Aston Villa a foot note to a career that promised much but came to nothing, he takes all the plaudits but never takes the blame when things go wrong.
If he us at Ipshite after September I will amazed he will have to go on hands and knees to loan players as I don’t thing the owner will put up money to buy them, loaning players can also work out expensive.
I for one will not miss the derby.Hate those games As you said Kathy the fear of losing not winning is horrendous Glad to see the back of that lot down the road As for Lambert What a prize fool I don’t like to say what I really think of him don’t want to use language that would shock my grandchildren..He soured his relationship with us when he walked out No class at all As for his latest rant it’s just covering up his inadequacies as a manager without Culverhouse and Karsa #city going up scum going down etc etc
I’ll always be grateful for those 3 years he was here, some stunning football and results. Will we ever get to hear the real reason he left…?
If you look at his record on departing clubs not clear on any of them
Livingston 1 season he felt the club wasn’t ambitious enough only 2 wins in his tenure
Wycombe 2 season said he took them as far as he could took Karsa and Culverhouse with him.
Colchester left after a year for City after besting them 7 – 1
Norwich 3 great years had Culverhouse and Karsa doing all the coaching all left for Villa
Villa 3 years doing ok Culverhouse and Karsa sacked for bulling result dropped an 8 nil loss to Chelsea
Blackburn used his release clause to leave
Wolves left after the club gad an internal football review
Stoke 6 months left by mutual consent after relegation
Ipshite will he be there next season after relegation
He had success with Culverhouse and Karsa doing all the coaching he poached Matt Gill hoping he could kick start his career again sorry to say I think it will need more than Gill to do that but I hope it doesn’t kill off Gill’s career as a promising coach
Personally, I love derbies. People going to the football want to get worked up about something, and when it’s a game against the local rivals, that’s all the reason you need. But, it’s like life in general: you can’t have pleasure without pain, order without chaos.
What I don’t like is when people on either side take it too far. This was seemingly encouraged by the Police at the weekend when they let the away fans out at the same time as the home fans. Why they did that is beyond me.