Pride of Anglia - Ipswich Town Football Club
since 1878
Do You Remember ... May 2000
Tony Mowbray's Last Game for Ipswich Town?
Signed by George Burley from Celtic in late 1995, Tony Mowbray was to become a centrepiece of Burley's attempts to get Town back into the top flight, and he soon became a firm favourite in the middle of the Blues defence.
His debut for the Club came days after signing for Blues, at home to Wolves on 7th October 1995, a game which also saw the first start for the promising youngster James Scowcroft. Town were in mid-table at the time, still coming to terms with life in the Endsleigh League after the disastrous season which had resulted in relegation the previous May.
Blues lost that home game, but in the return at Molineux Mowbray, known affectionately as "Mogga", scored the first of his eight goals for the club, a powerful header in the final minute to secure a draw. His final goal was also a header, but more of that later.
An instant hit with the fans and with the manager too, Mogga was an ever-present until an injury at Sunderland in February 1996 brought his season to an abrupt end. The following season Blues fans saw even less of Mowbray when, at Oxford in early November, he scored an own goal before being withdrawn suffering from a recurring groin injury. Burley moved quickly and signed Jason Cundy to fill the gap left by Mogga and when both men were fit they formed a solid central defensive pairing, suffering defeat in only six of thirty-three games they played together.
In the summer of 1997 George burley signed Mark Venus from Wolves and Mogga began to form another formidable partnership. Town now had two thirtysomethings at the heart of their defence but they showed the youngsters how to play the game, conceding far fewer than a goal a game in their 73 games together, including setting a Club record for clean sheets during the 1998-99 season - 26 in all, with Mogga and Veno playing together in 24 of those.
It was in that 1998-99 season that Mogga was finally able to stay largely injury-free and Blues fans saw him arguably at his best. After play-off heartbreaks in the previous two seasons, Blues were firmly in a promotion spot as late as April before a nervous end to the season saw only two wins in the last six games to put Town into the play-offs for a third-successive season. A thrilling 4-3 victory over Bolton in the second leg wasn't enough to overturn a 1-0 defeat at the Reebok, and so Town had to be content with a fifth season in the First Division.
John Gorman had briefly been Burley's First Team coach and had made a good impression but when he decided to leave for personal reasons in the summer of 1999, George Burley turned to Mogga to be his new coach. Mogga recalled, "I was just getting ready to go away at the end of the season when I received a call from the gaffer. I was a little concerned at first. I had signed a year's extension to my contract and thought I had done reasonable well... so I wasn't sure why he wanted to see me." Mogga effectively hung up his boots but retained his player's registration in case of emergencies. He quickly impressed with his coaching and motivational abilities.
The new season started promisingly with Town on top by mid-September and the new coach making an immediate impression. As well as coaching, Mowbray played a few reserve games but considered himself to be in semi-retirement and said, "I can't see me playing first-team football unless it is an emergency." Days later, a third defeat in four games created that emergency and the manager turned to his coach to put things right. Mogga's return saw a reversal of fortunes with two wins in four days and showed that despite no first team action since the play-off five months earlier, he still had what it took.
Mogga's return was no short-term fix. Apart from missing one game in November (which Town lost 3-1), Mowbray's name was to be found on the teamsheet for the rest of the season. Some retirement!
Blues fell just short of automatic promotion once more, on the final day of the season, and again faced Bolton Wanderers in the play-offs. In the first leg, at the Reebok Stadium, Mowbray was substituted after receiving an "accidental" forearm in the face from Dean Houldsworth. Mogga was fit for the second leg and was unflappable in one of the finest games ever seen at Portman Road as Blues beat Bolton 5-3 to book their place at Wembley. Mogga even played as a striker in the final few minutes of normal time, nodding down for Jim Magilton to complete his hat-trick as Blues forced the tie into extra-time.
On 29th May 2000, at the age of 36, Tony Mowbray duly took his place in the first Blues team to play on the Wembley pitch since Bobby Robson's team in 1978.
Having conceded first in both play-off semi-finals Blues completed an unenviable hat-trick after only six minutes when a freak own goal put Barnsley ahead, the ball bouncing into the net off Richard Wright after hitting the crossbar. When David Johnson left the field after 22 minutes, to be replaced by Richard Naylor, things were looking worse. It needed something special to turn the day in Town's favour and it came from the oldest man on the pitch! A corner had been cleared and Jim Magilton put the ball back in to the box, where Tony Mowbray rose majestically above the Barnsley defence to head home a glorious equaliser.
With Richard Wright conceding and then saving a penalty on the stroke of half-time, fortune was beginning to favour the team in blue. The second half was only seven minutes old when Naylor latched onto a flick from Marcus Stewart to put Blues ahead, and the lead was extended when Stewart headed home a third.
Mogga's day became even more eventful when he blocked Barnsley's Geoff Thomas to concede a penalty which was converted to make the score 3-2. The scores could have been levelled when, with only seven minutes left on the clock, Georgi Hristov had a header magnificently saved by Wright. The one remaining goal came in the 90th minute when Naylor put Martijn Reuser through to blast the ball home and send Blues into the Premiership.
Mogga's day was completed when he was named Man Of The Match. His 18-year playing career had ended on the Wembley turf, with a winners medal around his neck, having helped his team to win the most valuable game in English football in the last competitive match ever to be played at the 77-year-old Wembley stadium.
Ian Hunneybell