The Date : 28th October 2000 The Score : Ipswich Town 2 Boro 1 Starring : Reggie, Dickie, Sav & Ray
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The car spluttered and lost power as we cruised to a halt in a lay-by, it sounded like it was miss-firing, the car was only three months old and still under warranty so fortunately we could call for roadside assistance.
Finally after one and a half hours wait our recovery man arrived, he had been given the wrong location. Then he only went and sorted the problem within five minutes, or so we thought.
Back on the road we waved goodbye to our recovery man, we still had nearly three hours to make the final 130 miles. Within minutes the problem was back, that's if it had gone in the first place. Another major problem was the dwindling supplies of juice, a two hour wait on the hard shoulder was not planned for.
We managed to struggle on at about 55mph, even less on the inclines. It didn't take a brain box to work out that we would just about make it in time for kick-off. After another un-scheduled stop for relief we were cutting it fine.
For those of you who know Ipswich the best way to Portman Road is to follow the A14 past Ipswich and come in form the south. We decided against this route and took the first Ipswich exit from the A14 where we dumped the motor and phoned for a taxi. We finally arrived and took our seats at 3.17pm.
Within ten minutes we were 2-0 down and we still had to sort our return journey. This was turning into our worst nightmare. Boro were missing the spine of their team, with Pallister, Ehiogu, Ince and Boksic all missing. Added to that Ricard was having an off day and didn't seem bothered. He was replaced by Whelan after half an hour.
The first goal was a gift, Crossley left his area to clear the ball but only managed to slice his kick to Naylor who, with time on his hands, simply side-footed the ball into the net from thirty yards.
Three minutes later Boro made another defensive error. When a free-kick was passed sideways the wall broke up and allowed Venus to fire a low shot through into the bottom corner.
The second half saw Boro rally as they made their best efforts to get back into the game. They were rewarded when Whelan deflected a Gordon free-kick past the keeper, on purpose or not the goal goes down to him, his first Premiership goal for Boro.
With over twenty minutes left Boro went in search of an equaliser but never really threatened the Ipswich goal again even though they had the majority of the play. Another disappointing result after Boro had failed to get out of the blocks and gifted Ipswich a two goal lead.
Sav had made an early exit to get the motor sorted while we stayed until the death and then retired to the Suffolk Punch for our first pint of the day. The car was not going anywhere under it's own steam, the back of a low loader was the only way we would get the car home tonight, a knackered catalytic converter was the suspected problem.
We had a number of options, leave the car until tomorrow and stay the night, travel with the recovery vehicle to Peterborough and bail out onto the train or stay with the recovery vehicle for the long journey home.
Our minds were made up when the recovery vehicle arrived at 7.45pm, our own private compartment, plush seats, a fold down bed and TV with video. Add to this a fully stocked shelf of beers and lagers hand-picked by ourselves from the local Victoria Wines, we were set up for the night, just the popcorn missing. Crocodile Dundee II was the main feature for the first half of our journey.
Our driver Peter was a top man, no problem with piss stops and an extended break near Newark, in the Roman Way for the last half hour of licensed hours. Back on the road by 11.15pm we still had two and a half hours to get home.
Arrived in Boro at 1.45am and crashed straight into bed, you can forget the extra hour in bed because the kids were up at 7.00am, needless to say I was not in the best of states on Sunday.
Not a trip to remember for the football but the journey will be remembered for a few years to come.
Reggie.
Don't forget if you have any tales you would like to share with the world send them in to awaydays@mfc1986.co.uk
