187: Ian Marshall, Ipswich Town, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

Over to Richard Allinson again for today’s post. The text message with which he introduces today’s subject is 100% legitimate. However, he doesn’t mention my reply where I stated that I always thought that Ian Marshall looked like the hired muscle in a bad episode of The Bill. Not that there were any bad episodes of The Bill – it was flawless. Anyway, here’s Rich.

“Mate, put BBC One on. Ian Marshall has legit just kicked Jim Leighton in the nuts.” Not a phone call from 1990 but a text in 2020 thanks to the BBC’s Coronavirus inspired FA Cup reruns. Still, that famous day in semi-final history (not for the boot in the balls, I hasten to add) is the inspiration for another delve into our own sticker book archives in the form of Ian Marshall.

My own personal memories of Ian Marshall are ones of a man that was always 7/10 minimum, had great hair in his early days and sported the classic socks half rolled down the shin look. And I always, always got loads of ‘swaps’ of him in his Leicester days.

Marshall started out at Everton but was a Liverpool fan, kind of a reverse Steve McManaman. I must admit I don’t remember a huge amount about his Everton days but then again I was only 2 when he made his debut so I’ll let myself off. Marshall made 15 appearances for the Toffees notching up 1 goal. Whilst this may not seem a noteworthy record, having enough ability to impress the legendary Howard Kendall and break into a very strong Everton side speaks volumes about his ability.

It was Marshall’s next move that really brought him to my attention - a short journey down the road to the plastic pitch of Oldham Athletic’s Boundary Park. It was here that he properly established himself as that most glorious of things - a man equally adept at centre-half as he was at centre-forward. It is a divine lineage: Chris Sutton, Paul Warhurst, Homes Under the Hammer star Dion Dublin and, according to one man only, my Dad. This is why football is just not as interesting now. If Manchester City bunged John Stones up front alongside Sergio Aguero in a classic little and large partnership maybe they wouldn’t be so far behind in the league. You can have that one for free Pep.

Although Oldham eventually lost out to Manchester United in the aforementioned FA Cup semi-final, this was just one stop off on a long road of Marshall’s history with English Cup competitions. Wikipedia indicates that he won three Charity Shields whilst at Everton (including one that was apparently shared, very charitable). This is a weird conversion rate given that he had only played 15 games in total but Wikipedia is clearly never wrong so we’ll go with it. He didn’t play for Oldham in their 1990 League Cup final defeat against Nottingham Forest for some reason. This was news to me as I was at the match as a 7 year old and I could have sworn he turned out, but never mind. After a spell at Ipswich (no noteworthy cup incidents) Marshall was on the move to Leicester. Here he was cup tied for the Foxes’ 1997 League Cup final victory but three years later was back at Wembley claiming victory in the same competition, the last at the old iteration of the ground. As a side note, the (not very) new Wembley isn’t anywhere near as iconic as the old one and, in my humble and worthless opinion, was a missed opportunity. Stop it with the flamethrower things and fireworks and get the unnecessarily long walk out to the middle back.

Anyway, back to Ian Marshall’s cup exploits. The destruction of the old and, as we have established above, better Wembley stadium didn’t halt Marshall’s love affair with cup competitions. He rounded off his career by captaining Blackpool to victory in the LDV Vans Trophy at the Millennium Stadium, a day which he refers to as going out on a high and one he will never forget. Some may mock this competition but for lower league clubs it is pretty much the only realistic prospect of reaching Wembley and a victory in it is just as meaningful for the fans and judging by Marshall’s words it clearly carries some weight with players too. As a fan of a team from further down the football league pyramid this pleases me.

Marshall’s career then, started with silverware, ended with silverware and had some more chucked in the middle. Just one last thing though. According to an interview I found whilst researching this, Ian Marshall roomed with Gary Lineker on the future Barcelona man’s Everton debut. This surely deserves a punditry spot on Match of the Day when lockdown is over right Gary?