Oh Happy Day

We're back in it!

Town are back up into the top six again following a dramatic injury time winning goal from on loan Richard Chaplow. He took his goal with such aplomb after he was put through with a neat pass from Freddie Sears. After carrying the ball towards the menacing looking Watford keeper Heurelho Gomes and with seemingly all the time in the world, he just coolly side footed the ball into the net, signally mass celebrations from everyone connected with the Tractor Boys and a mass exodus from the Hornets fans.

My day had started in Christchurch Park, where I did the Jaffa secession, before taking part in my first Ipswich Park Run. The Park Run is in Chantry Park for most of the year but moves to Christchurch Park for the winter, it was the penultimate week there, before relocating and as I'm away next week, I decided to give it a go.

It was a quick dash home for a shower and bacon rolls following the run, before picking up Max's mates Simon and Darren (he stayed with Leanne in London and was meeting us in Watford!)

We were parked up near to the ground just before 1pm and tagged along with the boys to The Moon Over Water in the town centre which was very lively and full of Ipswich fans.

Max turned up in time to hear the new Delia song, adopted from the Derby County fans who had protested about the high cost of tickets charged to away fans during their recent visit to Carrow Road.

"Arsehole, arsehole, arsehole.

Delia's a f**kin arsehole.

Twenty is plenty, forty is naughty.

Delia's a f**kin arsehole."

The song caught on very quick and reverberated around the pub for several minutes, the Town fans obviously enjoyed it and it caught on inside the ground later that afternoon too!
Sharon & I left the lads in the pub and walked to the ground - complete with the newly finished 'Sir Elton John Stand', which has part of the lyrics of 'Your Song' written along the complete length of it, how bizarre, I thought that type of thing only ever happened in Norwich.

"You can tell everybody"

Harry the Hornet - we wiped the smile off his face!

I guess as a spectacle the match would have been a dull affair to the neutral. Watford were denied a clear scoring opportunity by a resolute Ipswich side and other than the injury time drama the only real talking point was the first half injury picked up by Joel Ekstrand, who had to leave the pitch on a stretcher and is out for the rest of 2015 with a cruciate knee ligament injury. Karma for his nasty tackle on Johnny Williams in the reverse fixture at Portman Road?

Chris Kamara doing his bit for Sky Sports

When we got back to the car Max got a call from Simon telling him that Darren had been arrested for going onto the pitch. He was celebrating with Jay Tabb after the goal and had failed to dodge the Police!

We drove to the ground and whilst I was looking for somebody to ask what they do with arrestees spotted Mick McCarthy & Terry Connor,  so I decided to get a photo with the Town boss, Darren could wait!

I found out that Darren would have been transferred to Watford Police Station so we headed over there. While we driving along Vicarage Road we spotted Terry Connor walking along and as we joined the queuing traffic Max jumped out of the car and got a 'selfie' with the Town assistant manager. 'Timing is everything' he told him as the lights changed and we pulled away!

Once at Watford Police Station we learnt that Darren would be kept for two or three hours whilst they decided whether to charge him or not, so we headed home, after all we had Rudie to attend to!

As it turned out Darren was released without charge at about 9pm and got home at 1.30am on Sunday, all's well that ends well! I don't think he'll be on the pitch for a little while - unless there's a mass invasion.

As far as away days goes this one was well up there with the best, a really enjoyable, fun filled day with a dramatic (in more ways than one) finish!

We now go into another international break and when we resume on Good Friday against top of the table Bournemouth at Portman Road it becomes a ten game season for promotion (assuming we don't now manage to get there automatically).