This whole Fulham vs Ipswich thing kicked off last Thursday. Stuck in traffic on the M25, honestly just bored out of my mind, radio talking about playoffs. And bam! The thought hit me: those two have had some proper battles, haven’t they? Got home, dumped my bag, fired up the laptop right there at the kitchen table. Time to dig.
Getting Stuck In
First stop? My old programmes. Dug through this massive plastic box I keep in the spare room closet, the one that smells faintly of damp paper. Took ages. Found the one from April ’03. Just looking at it, the memories flooded back – that mental 4-4 draw. Proper scrap. Then it was down the rabbit hole online, checking old reports, stats sites. Takes patience, this stuff. Sifting through it all.
You wanna know the main clashes? Right, etched in my brain now:
- That Playoff Final, May ’97. Wembley under that baking sun. Remember Chris Coleman clearing off the line? Gut-wrenching. Ipswich celebrating like mad when it went to pens. Felt sick watching it.
- The ’03 4-4. Bloody hell. 2-0 down, clawed back, thought we had it when Louis Saha netted late… then Marcus Bent pops up. Nightmare. Still gets me wound up thinking about how Carlos Bocanegra got elbowed right before their equaliser. Shouldn’t have stood!
- October ’04 at the Cottage. This one’s special. Late winner! Steed Malbranque, cool as you like. Craven Cottage just erupted. Pure limbs everywhere. Found an old photo I took – blurry as anything, but the noise in that picture? You can almost hear it.
Putting the Pieces Together
Decided to try a timeline layout. Opened up a blank document – stared at it for about ten minutes. Where the heck do you even start with this saga? Went chronologically. Just typed out the key dates first, rough as anything. Filled in the bits later.
Getting the details right? Tricky. Like, was Dowie involved in ’97? Spent ages cross-checking that, looking at line-ups. Found a few contradictions online, typical. Went with what felt right based on memory and the more reliable sources. You just have to make a call sometimes.
Hardest part? The photos. Spent Sunday afternoon scrolling through folders labelled “Old Stuff – Backup?” on an external hard drive. Dreadful organisation. Found some gems though! That shot of Murphy celebrating in ’04? Worth the hours of looking.
The End… For Now
Finally, after days of typing, deleting, finding pictures, checking facts, I slapped it all together. Read it back late last night. Yeah, that’s it. That weird mix of frustration and joy. That’s what following these lot does to you.
Honestly knackered now. But worth it? Absolutely. Bringing those classic Ipswich scraps back to life felt good. What a ride these two teams have taken us on.