Touring Visitor

[tourist]

Hi Ipswich,
I'd thought I'd give my thoughts on my visit to Portman Road on Friday, I working my way through all league stadium, England, Wales and Scotland and did Ipswich and Cambridge this last weekend.

Firstly I adore the stadium. It is tidy and in good shape but has the authentic football feel unlike some of the shiny bowls I see. It felt great to see the long flat roof on the executive boxes on the Portman/Cobbold side. I've been looking at those on TV for many years and I think it's very unique to Portman Road and makes it instantly recognisable. Town centreish location too, which is also a bonus. It might come to a time in the future when ITFC need more seats, but I really hope they can do it and keep Portman Road, not redevelop completely. It would be a real loss.

I can still name players from the Robson glory years from memory, Mills, Osman, Cooper, Mariner, Thijssen, Muhren, Wark, Beattie, Brazil, Gates, Butcher, Burley. I thought about those great UEFA nights when I was exploring the place.

28,000 in for a league one Friday night is impressive and the noise right through the game too, fantastic atmosphere - great fans and passionate while still civilised. One dodgy stewarding incident. About 8 people from the row in front were told they were in the wrong section and led away. Five minutes later they were all back, the steward had cocked up. Except one of the fans had been ejected from the stadium because he tried to tell the steward he was wrong. Found that a bit strange.

Good to see the club doing well, quite impressed with the team, especially down the right Wes Burns. Derby had some possession but I don't think they got a shot on target so, solid defence. I felt the club seemed very out of place in L1, I hope they are back where they belong soon.

One special moment I picked out, entering through the turnstiles and onto the astro turf training pitch was good fun, but the best bit of all, you can look up from here at one of the windows in the back of the west stand and see the English Div 1 trophy, the UEFA cup and the top of the lid from the FA cup perched on the windowsill. Nowhere else have I seen such a thing. brilliant.

I'm about 3/4 of the way through the project to see a game in all the stadiums. Ipswich is one I would definitely like to visit again.

Tomorrow I'm at Coventry, Friday at Birmingham and Saturday is Carrow Road. Good luck, I hope to see ITFC in Championship next season.

[Bluemike]

Great to here your views and really pleased you enjoyed your visit to our wonderful club. I definitely agree we shouldn't be floundering in this division, hopefully not much longer!! Good luck with your journeys and make that return trip one day.

[hallamblue]

What lovely feedback, and priceless. Please make sure you feed that back to the Budgies too at some point lol!

Your'e welcome back on here any time and enjoy your other stadium visits in the country. Impressive!

[Tangfastic]

An obvious question to Tourist? Who has the best pies?
Please don't say Delia's.

[Bluemike]

Forfar Bridies of course Tang.

[number 9]

Thanks for the feedback! It was a nice read. I moved to the States when I was a teenager, so I don't get the chance to revisit PR very often. My last visit was in the 90s.

Just curious, are you video documenting your project? Seems like you'd have great content for a documentary?

Good luck!

[marko69]

Tourist…….. get yourself a bank loan and try an Easter Road pie. Pretty decent

[Bluemike]

Someone's eaten them all.....Marko.

[tourist]

Unfortunately I have to avoid the pies due to reckless lifestyle and diet in my younger years. We ate at Ipswich waterfront, near loads of posh boats and swarms of students.

I did Hibs vs Livingston last summer when this began, trying to get some of the longer trips done. Had a little holiday and took in Edinburgh FC, Tynecastle, East Fife, Raith, Dunfermline, Bonnyrigg. Felt like a trip through the bottom half of a pools coupon. Still a few to catch up with up there though.

There are already people doing 92 club challenge vlogs, I doubt I could compete with them, plus I really like to focus on experiencing the places rather than making videos.

[shabba]

Did you eat in the Waterfront restaurant itself? (Of said name).
I ate there before the game, was good.

Excellent feedback and thanks for such for taking the time to do that, so glad you enjoyed your experience.

What have been your top and bottom Three grounds so far?

[tourist]

Hi Shabba,

I was at a place called Isaacs, was recommended to me and enjoyed it very much.

Top three visits, well I'm a bit biased in my preference because I like to see places where a bit of history has happened, this is a major reason why I looked forward to my Portman Road visit. It's the same place where that amazing stuff happened when Bobby was there (and Alf 20 years before that). So I would honestly put Ipswich up there. I also liked City Ground, Nottingham. If I can see the same scenes that I remember seeing when I got excited watching MotD as a kid, then I really enjoy the visit. I also really enjoyed the trip to Dingwall, which is a place that barely qualifies as a town, it's practically a village, yet Ross County play in the highest league against big city clubs.

I don't like to be negative about any particular team by naming names, but there are some new stadiums that really don't have the spirit and don't add anything to the experience. They are just so flat-pack and dull, matches can seem very long and thoughts of getting away and beating the traffic become very strong. You might see something like that from the A12. I so wish it was Highfield Road tonight.