Pride of Anglia - Ipswich Town Football Club
since 1878
Do You Remember...
...The Soviet Invasion of Ipswich?
In late 1988 rumours circulated that Blues were attempting to break new ground - creating Football League history, in fact - by going deep behind the Iron Curtain for their next signing! Very few Western European Clubs had ever signed a Soviet player, and Second Division Blues were planning on becoming the first English side to make such a signing.
Negotiations were protracted, being carried out via an intermediary, Sovintersport. Faxes were flying between Ipswich and Moscow, and Blues even enlisted the help of the Foreign Office to sort out visa and work permit issues. The player in question was Dynamo Kiev's experienced sweeper, Sergei Baltacha, a thirty year old with over 40 caps to his name, including all five of the Soviet Union's games in the 1982 World Cup finals (he was also on the bench when England played the USSR in Euro 88).
In the late 1980s the Cold War was still in full swing and the Berlin Wall was still the most visible symbol of the division between Eastern and Western Europe. Mikhail Gorbachev was the head of the USSR and was beginning to introduce significant changes in the Soviet Union. In the spirit of glasnost (openness), footballers who had made a significant contribution to sport, and who were reaching the latter stages of their careers, were tentatively being marketed outside the Eastern Bloc.
By December the deal was nearing completion and manager John Duncan and then-director David Sheepshanks flew to snowbound Moscow to finalise the deal and sign the paperwork and although Tass, the Soviet news agency, were premature in their announcement, history had indeed been made and the Soviet star was on his way to Portman Road (the Ukrainian was often mistakenly referred to as Russian by the British press - imagine calling John Wark English and you'll understand the nature of the error!).
The one man Soviet invasion took place in the early days of 1989 and Sergei arrived with his wife Olga, a former Olympic pentathlete, and his two young children Sergei Jr and Elena, and was introduced to his teammates prior to their game at Walsall. The crowd of under five thousand was somewhat smaller than he was used to in Kiev. After a goal-less first half he witnessed four second half goals in a frenetic five minute spell, eventually seeing Town win 4-2, a result which lifted them to eighth place. Unfortunately, the game was also memorable for Mick Stockwell breaking his leg, an event which was to prove significant for the new Blues signing.
The following week Sergei made his debut for the reserves in a 0-0 draw against Southampton, and then took his history-making place in the first team the following Saturday, replacing the unfortunate Stockwell on the right side of midfield against a Stoke City side managed by former Town favourite Mick Mills. In a remarkable case of déjà vu, a goal-less first half was again followed by a six-goal second half bonanza as Blues chalked up their biggest home win of the season, 5-1, helped on their way by an opening goal scored by the history-maker himself, Sergei Baltacha, who fired home a ball from Chris Kiwomya to raise the roof. Kiwomya himself scored, and a brace by Jason Dozzell and a thunderous shot from Frank Yallop.
Baltacha's arrival in Suffolk generated much media interest, not just in the local area but nationally too. Articles were written describing the differences he would notice living in the UK, but one similarity was the car he drove - he was immediately sponsored by the local Lada dealership! Unable to speak much English on his arrival, the Club employed the services of George Scanlan who had also acted as interpreter for a certain Tofik Bakhramov, the Soviet linesman in the 1966 World Cup final (contrary to popular wisdom, he was Azerbaijani, not Russian).
Baltacha was a sweeper, much in the mould of Bobby Moore, but John Duncan played a more rigid four-across-the-back formation and the player had to fit into the system rather than the other way around. When asked, Baltacha replied diplomatically, "my best position is the one Ipswich Town want to play me in." During the course of the season Duncan played Baltacha in midfield, as a central defender and as a right-back. Despite his unspectacular start to English football, the Blues fans never faltered in their support, finding more fault in Duncan's inability to tap into the player's undoubted talent than in the player himself.
Sergei made 21 appearances in the 1988-89 season, playing in all bar one game following his arrival. The following season, however, he made only nine appearances in the First team, and spent much of his time in the reserves. His last game in the blue of Ipswich was on the last day of March 1990, at Home Park, Plymouth. At the end of that season he was transferred to St Johnstone.
One of the highest profile names to play for Ipswich, Town fans never saw the best of the talented Sergei but he remains a fans' favourite to this day, and his - and Blues - place in the record books is assured.
Ian Hunneybell
Also in 1989...
Football:
The Hillsborough disaster occurred on 15th April. 94 supporters lost their lives that day (the total later rose to 96). The resulting Taylor Report recommended that all top tier Club have all-seater stadia from Autumn 1994. Blues converted Portman Road in the summer of 1992, becoming the first all-seater stadium in England.
Arsenal won the league title by the closest possible margin with almost the last kick of the season, as they beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield.
Ian Rush returned to Liverpool from Juventus and Mark Hughes, voted PFA Player of the Year, returned to Old Trafford from Barcelona.
Paul Merson won the PFA Young Player of the Year award.
Third Division Wolves' star Steve Bull scored 53 goals including one on his debut for the England side.
Liverpool won the FA Cup, beating their Merseyside rivals Everton 3-2. In the Third Round, First Division Coventry City lost 2-1 at non-league Sutton United.
Nottingham Forest, left by Brian Clough, won the League Cup.
Portugal wins the FIFA U-20 World Cup defeating Nigeria in the final.
Births and deaths:
Former Blues manager Jackie Milburn died, aged only 64.
Don Revie, former England manager, also died. He was 61.
Salvador Dali also died as did film director Sergio Leone (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and The Ugly), actor Laurence Olivier and Monty Python star Graham Chapman.
Footballers Theo Walcott and Scott Sinclair were born. So too are American woman golfing sensation Michelle Wie, Peaches Geldof, and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.
Elsewhere:
The Marchioness pleasure boat collides with the Bowbelle dredger on the River Thames; Fifty-one people drown.
In September England draw 0-0 with Sweden to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. This was the game during which Terry Butcher famously sustained a deep cut and his shirt became covered in blood.
Democracy sweeps across Eastern Europe; The communist governments in East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania collapse. The Berlin Wall falls after keeping East and West Berliners apart for nearly three decades, and the Brandenburg gates are reopened.
Emperor Hitohito of Japan dies after reigning for over 60 years.
A British Midland jet crashes on its approach to East Midlands Airport, killing 47.
George HW Bush succeeds Ronald Regan as President of the United States.
The Soviet war in Afghanistan ends after nine years.
Sky Television is launched.
A fatwa- (religious edict) is passed on Salman Rushdie by Iranian leader Ayotallah Khomeini for his book The Satanic Verses, calling for his death.
The Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of oil after running aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
The Poll Tax is introduced in Scotland.
The Tiananmen Square protests - and subsequent massacre - takes place in Beijing.
Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World opens to the public for the first time.
The wreck of the German WWII battleship Bismarck, sunk in 1941, is discovered.
The Polish trade union, Solidarity, wins the Polish elections. Lech Wawensa is elected President of Poland.
The Dalai Lama wins the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Entertainment:
Rain Man wins the Oscar for Best Picture, its star Dustin Hoffman wins Best Actor.
In the pop world, Kylie and Jason were heading the charts both as a duet and individually with such classics as Especially For You, Too Many Broken Hearts, Hand On Your Heart and Sealed With A Kiss.
Sanity was restored with The Bangles' Eternal Flame, Madonna's Like a Prayer and Lisa Stansfield's All Around The World.
The year ended with Band Aid II's Do They Know It's Christmas.