Fuller Flavour: My Town-based phobia and praising Sore Feet for the Beat

Alan Judge gets a knee in the back from Ross Sykes against Accrimgton. Photo: STEVE WALLER

Not many people know this but I have two phobias in life.

One is clinically proven and the other is not – and that’s a fear of Ipswich Town not winning.

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That may sound a bit far-fetched and strong but I’m sure I’m not alone. I fear the worst all the time but I do not believe that I am a pessimist. I think it is just ingrained in me to expect the worst after the last 18 years of generally poor times of being a Town fan.

My sports editor was right last week when the intro for this column online stated that I was in a cheerful mood – for a change. I am generally a happy guy - honest! I just find it hard to trust that good times are ahead for Town.

Examples of what I struggle to deal with include not being able to listen to us on the radio, which is mostly when we are playing away. I fear having to listen to home fans celebrating when we concede.

At the moment, I don’t have that to worry about so my fears gravitate towards struggling to watch us on TV or the iFollow service without the old nerves starting to jangle. It is definitely something that has gotten worse the older I have got.

Another example is when moments like 2pm on Saturday come around. The moment I saw that we had yet two more absentees in the striker department, I was convinced we would struggle to score. In the event, I could not watch the first half anyway and it sounds like I missed the worst part of our performance.

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It was with some trepidation then that I started to watch the second-half and it was only when there was about five minutes left on the clock that I felt like I could relax. But, please tell me I’m not really being irrational about all of this am I? There must be more of you that feel like this, right?

I was told by a family member that the reason I feel like this is probably because we started last season in a similar fashion before imploding and I am subconsciously expecting it all to happen again.

However, I dismiss that notion for now as I do think we are winning games better now than we were at the start of last season and I don’t mean in terms of scorelines. I, along with many other fans wondered how we won games sometimes in the autumn of 2019/20!

Town manager Paul Lambert believes he will get the reaction he wants at Lincoln Picture: STEVE WALLER

Meanwhile, it was great to catch up with Town fan Malcolm Thompson who recently completed his charity ‘Sore Feet for The Beat’ walk.

He takes up the story as to what it was in aid of: “On September 27, my fellow walker and I left Brunton Park, home of Carlisle United, to walk all the way to Portman Road. We did this as part of our wish to set up a Kevin Beattie Foundation to celebrate the greatest player ever to play for Ipswich whilst helping various charities in his name.

“As Kevin came from Carlisle, it was a no brainer for the route that we took, although there were times I wished he was born in Stowmarket! After my fellow walker had to pull out due to injury, I was very lucky to meet Kevin’s first roommate Kenny Sharpe in Lincoln and he gave me the lift I needed to continue.

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“On Saturday October 10, I arrived at the Sir Bobby Robson statue and was met by About Anglia TV and Kevin’s daughter Emma and this was emotional as I finally realised what I had just achieved and the reason why.

“I am now selling Kevin Beattie Foundation Calendars to help raise further funds and to date we have raised £2500 and need another £500 to hit our target. The Foundation has the support of the PFA and the blessing of Kevin’s family. “I am now asking the ITFC Family to please go to the fundraising page www.sorefeet.live to get us over the line and help make Kevin’s wish come true.”