Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town Football Club (also known as Ipswich, The Blues, Town, or The Tractor Boys) is an English professional association football team based in Portman Road, Ipswich, Suffolk. As of the 2014–15 season, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professional until 1936, and was subsequently elected to join the Football League in 1938. They play their home games at Portman Road in Ipswich. The only fully professional football club in Suffolk, they have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with Norwich City in Norfolk, with whom they have contested the East Anglian derby 139 times since 1902. Ipswich won the English league title once, in their first season in the top flight in 1961–62, and have twice finished runners-up, in 1980–81 and 1981–82. They won the FA Cup in 1977–78, and the UEFA Cup in 1980–81. They have competed in the top two tiers of English football uninterrupted since 1957–58, currently the longest streak among Championship clubs after Coventry were relegated in the 2011–12 season. They have competed in all three European club competitions, and have never lost at home in European competition, defeating Real Madrid, AC Milan, Internazionale, Lazio and Barcelona, amongst others.

Links To Peel
John Peel was a regular to Portman Road with his wife Sheila, although Peel's first club was Liverpool, with his wife's main club being Ipswich. Peel would often mention on his programmes his visit to Ipswich Town Football Club and football commentary from his wife on 30 October 1993.

After Peel's death in 2004, Town Chairman David Sheepshanks told the Official Club Website:


 * "It's utterly tragic to hear of the death of John Peel. I will always think of John as one of life's good guys and for me a kind of hero since his pirate radio days. A delightfully gentle and modest man, he was a dear friend to the Club and although his first allegiance was to the red of Liverpool, his wife Sheila and many other friends in Suffolk succeeded in nearly turning him blue and white! On behalf of everyone at Portman Road I send our deepest sympathy to Sheila and all of John's family."