By Aston
March 26 2005

April 3rd 2002 - Singing The Blue’s first article was published, walk with me down memory lane as I look back at the past three years.

Well Singing The Blues came on-line on Wednesday the 3rd April 2002, three days before Town lost 4-1 against Bolton Wanderers the game that virtually relegated Town leaving with us 2 points from safety and 6 behind Bolton with 4 games left against Middlesbrough, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool a run of games which saw Town pick up just 3 points score just one goal and concede 8 sealing a fate which would of seemed impossible following a 5th place finish the year before.

Town had to lick their wounds before travelling to Highbury where Darren Ambrose made his debut for Town against Arsenal who were chasing the premier league title and despite a good first half showing the Gunners came though in the second half with Freddie Ljungberg scoring twice to send Town home points and send Arsenal top of the league.

Town’s next game was at home to Middlesbrough, a vital win for Town Darren Bent scored his first league goal after being on the pitch 20 seconds a win saw Town have some hope of staying up with two games to go and two points safety with an expected weakened Manchester United side to visit Portman Road in a weeks time.

It was an under strength Manchester United side to came to Portman Road and sadly left with a win one that some might say was unjust as it was a rather shady penalty that gave Rudd Van Nistlerooy and Manchester United a 1-0 win, if Town had won that day they would of swapped places with Sunderland who lost against Charlton earlier in the day.

Town still had a sniff of premiership football left, at Ainfield against Liverpool who were chasing 2nd spot in the table and automatic qualification for the champions league in 2002/2003. In 2001/2002 Town were one of just two sides to beat Liverpool at home winning 1-0 a goal for Town would have been nice this time round as Liverpool sent Town down beating them 5-0, it didn’t matter we needed to win and hope Sunderland lost against Derby the already relegated rams could only manage a draw with Sunderland so Town would of gone down either way.

So a summer clean out was in order to trim the wage bill which had exploded beyond recognition from the 1999/2000 season, first to leave was Gary Croft who went to Cardiff on a free transfer, Amir Karic also left after having his contract cancelled, Italian goalkeeper Matteo Sereni Brescia on a season long loan, Ulrich Le Pen also went out on-loan Strasbourg while Sixto Peralta returned to Inter Milan after completing his season long loan spell. Titus Bramble joined Newcastle for £5 Million and on transfer deadline day Marcus Stewart joined Sunderland for £1.25 million.

During the summer Matt Holland rejected moves away from Portman Road to join Premier league teams, Hermann Hreidarsson rejected a move to newly promoted West Brom while Marcus Bent had been rumoured to be a target of Everton, Spurs and Fulham but no club made a formal approach for the striker who remained adamant he was committed to helping Town win promotion, although Everton did have bids rejected for Town a player(s) it was not revealed who or for how much.

Town started the 2002/2003 season with hopes of a UEFA cup run for the second season running after being drawn out of the hat from the Fair Play teams all they had to do was over come Luxembourg outfit FC Avenir Beggen in a qualifying round first though they had to small matter of the new league season to start.

The 2002/2003 season started well enough with Town kicking of the new league season early against Walsall at the Bescot stadium Darren Ambrose and Marcus Bent getting the goals as Town topped the league for a few hours where many expected them to stay, but before Town could return to league action there was the small matter of the UEFA Cup Qualifying round in Luxembourg against Avenir Beggen, Marcus Stewart made sure Town returned to England with some credibility after he scored his last goal in Town colours before joining Sunderland netting in the 90th minute to seal a 1-0 win, many of the goals that many may feel should of come that night came against Leicester City the following Sunday when Town stuffed the foxes 6-1. Things started to go wrong after that a draw away at Millwall and defeat at home against Bradford left Town looking a lot less like genuine title contenders.

An 8-1 demolition of Beggen in the 2nd leg of the UEFA Cup game seemed to have things back on track Town could not follow that up with wins in any of their next 5 league games saw them slipped into the bottom four although they did make progress in both the league and UEFA cups beating Brighton 3-1 in the league cup and drawing with FC Sartid in the first leg of the UEFA cup first round of the UEFA cup and winning 1-0 in the 2nd leg.

After triumph in the UEFA cup Town managed their first league win beating Wimbledon with a 90th minute goal at Selhurst the revival was cut short as Town were well beaten 3-0 by Grimsby Town just 48 hours later, a game which ultimately cost George Burley his job as Town manager as he was sacked 3 days after that leaving Tony Mowbray in charge of first team affairs for Town’s game against struggling Sheffield Wednesday, Mowbray must of done something right as Town racked up league win number four of the 2002/2003 season again the revival was short lived as newly promoted Reading beat Town 3-1 a week later that was followed up by a draw at home against Burnley and defeat at home against Gillingham.

Joe Royle was in charge when Town next took to the field his reign as Town manager started with a win in the UEFA cup against Czech champions Slovan Liberec.

And that’s where I shall leave the first part of this 3 years in review, still to come this season; administration, derby delight and games against Sheffield United that would total 6 goals for both sides.

Talk about Town on our message board.