With Town in FA Cup action tomorrow, it might be nice to take another look at that cup winning side of 1978 and find out what they are up to these days? It was, of course, the only time the Blues made the final but we do have a 100% success rate when we get there!
Beating Arsenal in may that year lives long in the memory and having struck the post twice and the bar once, it really seemed as if it was not going to be Town’s day until Roger Osborne popped up with that decisive winner. I suppose our name was on the cup and whatever ever became of that magnificent team?
- Paul Cooper: When he retired from football he went into selling nuts and bolts before finally parking his goalkeeping gloves in Teneriffe, where he runs a golf business. he was inducted into the Ipswich Town Hall of Fame in 2014.
- George Burley: He still lives in the area and apart from his hugely successful spell as manager when he took Town to the promised land he still attends Portman road on a regular basis.
- Mick Mills: The Ipswich skipper was capped 42 times for England and these days can be found on Radio Suffolk with match day commentator Brenner Woolley as a regular summariser.
- Brian Talbot: he was a local lad made good, who played for the National side on 6 occasions. In 2011 he joined Fulham in a scouting capacity and he was promoted to chief scout and assistant director of football operations in February 2017.
- Allan Hunter: This Northern Irish stalwart made 53 appearances for Northern Ireland along with 280 appearances for Town. When he retired from Football he came to live in Suffolk along with a number of other former players.
- Kevin Beattie: Arguably the best player to ever don an Ipswich shirt and his sad passing last year came as a complete shock to everyone. The statue that will adorn Portman Road should be a fitting tribute to this remarkable defender, who played for England just 9 times.
- Roger Osborne: That goal at Wembley made him a star in his own right. He was born in Otley in Suffolk and once marked Johan Cruyff out of the game! These days Osborne is the manager of the Rushmere Sports Centre.
- John Wark: There are three players in that FA Cup side that rank among the best of the best and J.W. is one of them. Played for Town on three separate occasions in between spells with Liverpool and Middlesborough and he stills lived in the neighbourhood.
- Paul Mariner: The third of my all-time favourite players and he was a truly outstanding centre forward. Good in the air and good on the floor and exceptionally skilful, he was a manager’s dream. he now lives in Toronto where he once managed.
- David Geddis: He was drafted into the first-team picture when Trevor Whymark got injured and of course he provided the telling pass that led to Town’s winning FA Cup final goal! Like Beattie, he was born in Carlisle and after retiring from football spent some years in Leeds where he used to coach.
- Clive Woods: A tricky winger who played for both Ipswich and Norwich in his career and now resides back in Norfolk and works as a warehouse manager for a local electrical company in Norwich apparently.
F.W. – editor of Vital Ipswich
