The Joe Royle Era

By James Cracknell
May 29 2006

Now that Joe Royle has parted ways with the club and moved back up north to start his own brewery, I wish to recall some of the highs and lows of the Joe Royle Era (although I shall carefully sidestep any of the highs which may have involved non-medicinal drug use).

The Joe Royle Era began in the dark days of October 2002.  George Burley had been sacked a few weeks previously after a mid-week fishing trip in Grimsby went spectacularly wrong.  Although to be fair the writing was on the wall before Burley had even packed his lunchbox of maggots.  Town had gone from fifth placed dreamland to relegation nightmare in the space of a season.  Tony Mowbray made a less than auspicious start to management after taking over briefly in the caretaker role.  So the Board decided that Merseysider Royle was the best man for the job.  The fans, blinded as we were at the time by delusions of grandeur, would have preferred Arsene Wenger.  Alas it was not to be.  

 

Bizarrely, Royle’s first game in charge was a Uefa Cup second round tie at Portman Road against Liberec.  Needless to say that ending Town’s unbeaten European home record in his first match in charge would not exactly have helped endear himself with the Ipswich faithful, Joe was fortunately able to mastermind a one-nil victory over the Czech giants.  But Royle never really seemed to have a honeymoon period, as the seriousness of Town’s precarious position just above the relegation zone was all too apparent.  It was a few weeks before Joe’s use of colourful language in the dressing room really began to have an impact on the team’s performances.

 

I remember a magical game on Boxing Day 2002 when Town were trailing by a goal to nil at Leicester going into the last five minutes.  Darren Ambrose came on and crossed for Gaardsoe to equalise before scoring the winner himself.  It was the game that reignited our season and was the first of many comebacks in the Joe Royle Era

 

In February 2003 Dale Roberts lost his battle with cancer, but there could have been no greater tribute to the Town legend than a 3-2 victory over Sheffield United at Portman Road after going two goals and one man down.  It was another comeback – this time of biblical proportions.  The mantra of Big Fat Joe’s Barmy Army was now firmly entrenched with the fans, whether the man liked it or not. 

 

I recall Joe’s first East Anglian Derby as a wrecking-ball of destruction that defied the two teams’ contrasting fortunes.  Norwich, having missed out on promotion a year prior on only a penalty shoot-out, were chasing the play-offs again.  Ipswich were headed into administration – a problem which BFJ had absolutely no control over.  But on the day a young man called Dean Bowditch (who?) setup the second goal in a two-goal victory which flattered the Canaries.  It was a fantastic victory and one which I think finally won over all the fans, but problems continued behind the scenes.  Administration inevitably followed.

 

Joe Royle was fully aware of the challenge that lay before him.  Failure to win promotion would mean an exodus in the summer of the team’s finest players, and even some of the rubbish ones.  Town won another remarkable match 4-2 victory at Coventry after going two-nil down (although I suspect it was only done for dramatic effect).  A tremendous 3-0 triumph over champions Portsmouth in the following fixture was surely one of the finest in Joe’s time at the club. Visions of Martijn Reuser terrorising the Pompey defence still keeps Harry Redknapp awake at night.  Unfortunately, these results weren’t enough.

 

The summer of 2003 was a painful one for Town fans.  Seeing such an outstanding talent as Darren Ambrose leave for peanuts was like a kick in the nuts.  The remaining members of Burley’s fifth placed team also left to ruin their careers save for Jimbo, Fabian and Bam Bam.  As it turned out, these three stalwarts became the cornerstones of Joe’s new line-up.  Probably the greatest masterstroke of Royle’s Era was the successful conversion of Richard Naylor from reserve striker to starting centre back. 

 

Joe’s signings weren’t exactly inspirational but he did pull a couple of gems out of the bag, most notably Kelvin Davis and Shefki Kuqi.  He also continued Ipswich Town’s proud tradition of successfully bringing through young talent, albeit forced somewhat by the financial situation.  Matt Richards and Ian Westlake were the first of many youngsters to be introduced during Joe’s time at the club. 

 

The 2003-04 season, Joe’s first full term, may not have seen the prettiest football ever produced by a Town team, but it damn sure was entertaining.  Town finished top scorers in the league, but also with the third worst defence.  It started slowly, and there were many calls for Royle to be sacked as Town slumped to bottom of the table in September, however, things soon picked up.  A run of results which propelled Town into the top half included a 6-1 destruction of Burnley.  With the score 5-0 at half time, it is reported that Burnley came close to quitting football and taking up Cricket instead. 

 

The game which I believe summed up the Joe Royle Era in ninety breathtaking minutes was the colossal 6-4 victory over Crewe in January 2004 (if anyone has ever seen a crazier game of football I’d like a copy of the video please).  Town continued to be inconsistent and only just scrapped into the play-offs on the last day of the season.  Now please brace yourself for I am about to recall a black spot in Town’s history and an event that I only wish to remind everyone of so as to ensure that it will NEVER happen again.  Norwich did the double on us on their way to winning the championship.  There I said it.  Given Joe’s favourable record in the play-offs, we all hoped that the days of disastrous semi-final defeats would not return.  But of course they did.  A challenge for our new manager, whoever he/she is, would be to turn around our record in the end of season spectacular (at least we’re not as bad as Preston).

 

I have fond memories of the 2004-05 season, despite its eventual outcome.  We finished top scorers for the second consecutive season and for some six months or so Town dominated the division, along with Wigan Athletic, and played some great football.  The addition of Jason DeVos, the prolific partnership of Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi, the inspiration of skipper Jim Magilton and the outstanding performances of Tommy Miller and keeper Kelvin Davis were keys to our success.  But in the dugout Joe Royle was at his best, using his experience and motivational skills to give us a fantastic shot at automatic promotion.  It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly went wrong, but unquestionably two successive home defeats in February 2005 to mediocre opposition did not help our cause. 

 

Another candidate for best performance during the Joe Royle Era must be the 2-1 victory over promotion rivals Wigan in December 2004 that resulted in us leapfrogging Athletic to top of the table.  It was another comeback, and featured a heart stopping last minute winner from Darren Bent.  You can’t buy moments like that with a MasterCard I assure you.  Another victory I especially enjoyed was the 5-1 mauling of Sheffield United, whose manager Neil Warnock claimed before the match that Town were ‘nothing special’.

 

I felt sure that Joe would come through for us that year and lead us into the Premiership like he had done before with Oldham and Manchester City but it wasn’t to be.  Another exodus followed in the summer of 2005, although not quite on the scale of two years previous.  In Joe’s last season, it was never quite right.  A fifteenth placed finish was harder to take because Ipswich barely managed to entertain as they had before, however well they were playing.  There were few bright spots and not even a traditional Town thrashing materialised, although one highlight was the football lesson we gave Norwich at Carrow Road in February 2006.  But this season brought a disappointing end to the Joe Royle Era that had promised much but yielded little. 

 

I believe the Joe Royle Era should be remembered less for the failings and more for the fantastic entertainment and incredible matches witnessed.  It was fast, it was furious, it was frightful defending but most of all it was fun.  We wanted to pull our hair out at times, but let’s not forget the contributions a northern lad called Joe Royle made to Ipswich Town during one of the most turbulent times in its history.  Thanks for the memories, Joe (mine’s a Boddingtons).

 

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