What is wrong with the Tractor Boys?

Okay nobody died, but what a dreadful Sunday it was last weekend.

We have not been accustomed to losing at Carrow Road in recent years, and this heightened the pain when the Canaries won 2-0 against the Tractor Boys in the Coca-Cola Championship.

It was not just the defeat but the manner of the defeat, although I will say that if Lee Croft had not swung his foot perfectly to achieve one-in-100 accuracy Jim Magilton and his chastised men could easily have left Norfolk with an acceptable point under their arm.

You will note in the second paragraph the two words Tractor Boys, and it led me to wonder where we stand these days with this ‘nickname’.

Ipswich Town are universally known as the Tractor Boys; the two words appear in every programme notes when the Blues are playing away. And every national match report.

But the phrase is never used in the match day magazine produced so professionally by Steve Pearce and his team at Portman Road.

The club might not like the tag – giving visions of a rustic, backwater image instead of a slick cosmopolitan approach – but at the end of the day it is not going to go away now.

It is so ingrained in the footballing world that Ipswich Town will universally be known as the Tractor Boys when referred to by the media outside of Ipswich.

In the Evening Star I only occasionally refer to the club as Tractor Boys – using Town or Blues.

But should I follow the example of my fellow national journalists?

I currently toe the Ipswich Town party line, but what is wrong with Tractor Boys?

It is a slight on the good people who live rewarding and uncomplicated lives in this part of the world to imply that there is something to hide in Ipswich and the immediate area.

Ipswich Town is a unique football club; one to be proud of having achieved much, much more than it’s geographical and population position suggests.

The club should be proud of its roots, which I suggest is one of the reasons we have seen level headed stewardship and management over the many glory years.

In fact, I am proud to have been involved in the creation of the Tractor Boys name for the Blues.

While covering Earl Soham Victoria in the Carlsberg Pub Cup in 2000 the chant came out of the Kop end at Anfield when the village pub team were winning their semi-final.

Debenham resident Claude Chapman was the man behind the idea and it continued to Wembley Stadium when Earl Soham Victory tasted cup glory just weeks before Town beat Barnsley at the magnificent venue in the First Division play-off final.

I likened Town to Tractor Boys and from a headline in the Evening Star the nickname was borne, leading to some wonderful moments at Portman Road and away from home with a rendition of ‘One (two, three etc) nil to the Tractor Boys’ from ecstatic Ipswich supporters.

Let’s face it, Ipswich Town will now always be known as the Tractor Boys. So why not within the corridors of Portman Road as well?