Fuller Flavour: Is Lambo feeling under pressure? Anyhow, I’m off collecting stickers!

Jack Lankaster is congratulated by Alan Judge and Keanan Bennetts after scoring Towns late winner. Picture: Steve Waller www.stephenwaller.com

I can rarely think of a time when an injury-time winner was met with nothing more than a sigh of relief than on Saturday.

Maybe it’s because I wasn’t in the ground sharing raw emotion with those around me, or maybe it was just simply because it was in wonderment as to how exactly we won a game that we played so terribly in.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the win.

The basis of my grouses in recent weeks around fielding weakened sides in cup matches is centred on the fact that I want us to win every game. And the history books will ultimately show a positive result rather than yet another negative performance.

You can now cite any of the home wins over Gillingham, Crewe or Shrewsbury as games where we have played poorly and won. It is said that is normally a good recipe for success. But as we know, if we play like that against any of the better sides in league one, we just don’t get away with it.

Mark McGuinness and Stephen Ward look concerned as Teddy Bishop receives attention. Picture: Steve Waller www.stephenwaller.com

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With Hull and Charlton to visit by the time I next write this column, we will have an idea as to whether we’ve been able to progress on that front. I have my doubts but time will tell.

I thought that Paul Lambert was very prickly in his post-match interview. Is he a man that feels under pressure?

Those looking in from the outside will wonder what all the fuss is about with our third place position and a 100% home win record to date. But like when many of us had enough of Mick towards the end of his era, and looking out from within, we know that the picture is far from rosy.

Onto something far more positive and I was delighted to see an Ipswich Town sticker album launched last week and had no hesitation in ordering one for my daughter (ahem!!) And last week, she (I) took delivery of the first batch of stickers. I’m sure that there are many of you adults out there helping your kids with this, right?

Freddie Sears with a great opportunity late in the first half. Picture: Steve Waller www.stephenwaller.com

It all takes me back to when I was a young lad and when for me, there was only one thing to collect as far as hobbies went - Panini Football stickers. The first album I remember completing was in 1980.

In those days, completing an album was not so difficult with so many other kids collecting them too.

Once you were down to requiring your last 50 stickers, you could send off to Panini for missing stickers to complete a collection. Today with most regular Panini sticker albums, unless you are prepared to spend fortunes, you don’t get anywhere near down to the last 50 or so because of one sole reason – lack of people doing ‘swapsies’.

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James Norwood could come into Paul Lambert's side. Picture: Steve Waller www.stephenwaller.com

But with this Ipswich album containing just 250 stickers, I’m hopeful that it will not take too long to complete and a few of you also collecting will be able to help us out in due course.

When I was in the latter years of my primary school days, every boy it seemed (and the odd girl) collected stickers and would go to school armed with a huge pile of swaps which ensured that play times and lunch times flew by with the manic, business like operations of getting that much-needed ‘shiny’ (team badge) that somehow some other kid would have five swaps of.

You would think nothing too of a bit of bartering to get that vital sticker to complete your set. You would happily give another ten stickers for their one.

After all, you had about 200 stickers – usually – all in order in your hands that were all swaps and needed to be got rid of somehow.

Back in my day, it was 10p for six stickers.

Now, it’s £1 for five stickers and with 250 to collect in the Ipswich album. It is going to cost anywhere between £50 and £100 I would imagine to complete. But it will be worth it to see smile on the face when we completed the album. But that’s enough of my emotion – I’m hoping that my daughter will be happy enough too!