Living in Suffolk, there is only one serious football team locally, the Tractor Boys of Ipswich Town, newly promoted to the Premier League at the end of a season where, whilst they were consistent, they didn’t exactly blow anyone away.
£150 million spent on new players later, a somewhat unfamiliar side debuted with a home win, something that only happened once the last time they were in the top flight, two years ago. Tickets for league games are hard to come by, so when the second round draw for the Carabao Cup saw League One Leicester City scheduled to visit Portman Road, Ros and I thought that we ought to turn up if we could.
Tickets were on sale for just £15, but I took the opportunity to do something a little more “classy” as hospitality packages were surprisingly affordable. That meant a padded seat, au unlimited selection of small plates in a lounge, plus drinks, half-time dessert and a post-match cheese plate - and you know how I feel about cheese. It didn’t cost as much as you might think.
And so, yesterday evening, Ros and I were at the game two hours before kick-off for a beer and some reassuring decent food - sea bream, chicken supreme and some particularly excellent sausage and mash - whilst we chatted with other fans about the prospects for the season.
The first half was, to be honest, a bit of a let down, with a much changed side struggling to impose themselves on game visitors not at all overawed by a two division gap. Indeed, Leicester City shaded possession and it took a decent save from Christian Walton to keep the game scoreless.
Some tactical changes at half-time saw Ipswich come out more positively and whilst what looked like a decent goal was disallowed for offside, the young Norwegian, Sindre Walle Egeli, scored at the end of a move which owed a lot to the strength of Chuba Akpom. We all relaxed a bit, only to see Leicester equalise. Back came Ipswich, and the home fans encouraged Marcelino Núñez to shoot, so he did, beating the away goalkeeper from twenty yards out.
After that, the game petered out a bit, until, as the board went up to show six minutes of time added on, Núñez added a punctuation mark with a outrageous shot from just inside the centre circle which beat the Leicester goalkeeper and went in off the bottom of the crossbar.
20,000 Ipswich fans went home happy, whilst I had some unfinished business with a very good cheesecake indeed.
All in all, an excellent evening out, and with Arsenal due here for the third round tie next month, the ground should be pretty lively even if the prospect of further progress is somewhat limited.
