Dawn of a new era for Ipswich Town

IT WILL be the dawn of a new era for Ipswich Town Football Club tonight when the proposed takeover by entrepreneur Marcus Evans is voted on.

An emergency general meeting is taking place at Ipswich Corn Exchange where it is expected that Evans will be confirmed as the new owner with 87.5% of the shares.

The businessman behind the successful Marcus Evans Group will take over the club's £32million debt and has also pledged to plough £12m into club funds for manager Jim Magilton to invest in new players when the transfer window opens next month.

The final match before the anticipated launch of a new chapter in the club's history saw Ipswich make it 14 wins out of 15 at 'Fortress Portman Road' as a Tommy Miller goal seven minutes from time saw Town defeat Scunthorpe 3-2 to move up one place to sixth in the Coca-Cola Championship.

Midfielder Owen Garvan, who scored Town's second goal, said he wanted to shoot from the free kick that saw Miller clinch the three points.

“I wanted Tommy (Miller) to lay the ball off to me for the free-kick (that led to the winner). But I'm glad he didn't.”

Manager Magilton felt his side showed plenty of character to come from a goal behind to take a 2-1 lead only to see Scunthorpe draw level and look like emulating Barnsley - the only side to deny Town three points since Southend won on Suffolk soil last March - by returning home with a point. “We needed a little bit of quality in the end and Tommy Miller provided it,” Magilton said.

“Scunthorpe deserve credit. They didn't just come here and want to be another statistic. The more successful we are at Portman Road the harder it is going to get.

“At times we were a bit gung-ho, but it is a nice way to finish for us and all in all I'm absolutely delighted.”