We make the long journey to Suffolk for a league game for only the 16th time since our first trip to Portman Road in 1964.
Four goals in front at half-time was improved even further when Brian Godfrey completed his hat-trick in the 58th minute and Joe Broadfoot’s late goal was mere consolation as we returned the victors by 5-1.
However, it was to be 41 years and seven matches before we next managed to score in Ipswich. Once again we got off to a flyer, through a David Nugent double and a David Jones strike in the first half, before Patrick Agyemang added the gloss to a 4-0 win.
In between, we had a suffered five defeats and a goalless draw, so it is fair to say we have found wins hard to come by in this fixture, with only four so far. A further three draws shows a return from almost half the matches, so our record is not that bad overall.
Of those players to have appeared for both clubs, strikers are well represented with David Healy, Jon Macken, Ricardo Fuller, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and David Johnson amongst their numbers. Others include Tommy Miller, Sean St. Ledger and Richard Chaplow, so plenty of connections there.
On This Date
This has not been an auspicious date as far as away league games are concerned, with only two previous wins in our 12 games to date. These came at Lincoln in 1981 and Bristol Rovers in 1987.
Neil Mellor celebrates his 35th birthday on Saturday, whilst former loanee David Jones is 33.
Full back John McMahon played the last of his 292 games for North End on 4th November in 1978, in a 3-1 defeat at West Ham United.
Mancunian John came through the youth ranks to make his debut on 6th October 1970 in a League Cup tie with West Bromwich Albion, during our third division championship winning campaign. Prior to that match, he had made four appearances on loan at Southend and after 11 games in 1970/71, he took over as our regular right back from stalwart George Ross during the following season. His consistency is marked by the fact that only one of his games for North End was from the bench. He later played for Crewe, Wigan and Tranmere, making just short of 500 career appearances.
Last Five Games At Portman Road
Ipswich Town 1 (Ward) Preston North End 0, 27th August 2016
Ipswich Town 1 (Murphy) Preston North End 1 (Johnson), 16th January 2016
Ipswich Town 1 (McGoldrick) Preston North End 1 (Davies), 4th January 2014
Ipswich Town 2 (Scotland, Norris) Preston North End 1 (Coutts), 30th April 2011
Ipswich Town 1 (Walters) Preston North End 1 (Wallace), 29th August 2009