On This Day – 25th September
Ipswich Town played their first home game in the European Cup on this day, hammering Floriana of Malta 10-0 in the Preliminary Round Second Leg.
The tie was effectively over in the first leg, with Ipswich winning 4-1 in Malta. A crowd of 25,287 came to Portman Road for the second leg to witness their club’s highest ever victory. This record still stands to this day.
Ray Crawford and Ted Phillips both scored twice in the first leg and also scored in the second leg.
It was Scottish forward Doug Moran started the rout after only eight minutes before Ted Phillips added a second on 14 minutes.
Ray Crawford added Ipswich’s third on 28 minutes before Phillips added his second of the game from the penalty spot six minutes later.
Crawford added two more before half time to complete his hat-trick and made it 6-0 at the interval.
Town showed no sign of letting up in the second half as Moran added to his first half effort on 52 minutes. Midfielder John Elsworthy then weighted in and scored the home side’s eighth goal of the evening two minutes later.
Ray Crawford added two further goals to take his tally up to five for the evening and to put the score into double figures. Crawford would make national news in 1971 when he scored twice for Colchester United in a famous 3-2 victory over the mighty Leeds United. The victory was a huge giantkilling when the Fourth Division side beat the Yorkshire side in the FA Cup Fifth Round.
Ipswich had gone through a meteoric rise in the early 1960’s under future England manager Alf Ramsey. They won the Second Division title in 1960/61 before lifting the First Division championship the following year, thereby qualifying for the European Cup.
Their European Cup run came to an end in the following round, losing 4-2 on aggregate to the mighty AC Milan who would go on to win the tournament. Alf Ramsey had agreed at this point to take over as England manager, but didn’t take the biggest job in English football until the 1st May 1963.
The damage was done in the first leg, conceding two goals in the first thirteen minutes before conceding a third midway through the second half.
They fared better in the second leg, recording a famous over the Italian giants at Portman Road. They came back from a goal down to win the match 2-1.
Ipswich struggled in the First Division and ended the season in 17th position, two points off relegation. Newcastle United legend Jackie Milburn took over from Ramsey for the final four games of the season, winning four points and ultimately saving the club from the drop. Alf Ramsey went on and did quite well for England apparently!
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