Before management fame: It is easy to forget Tony Mowbray’s final Ipswich Town acts | OneFootball

It is perhaps forgotten and overlooked the impact that Tony Mowbray had at Ipswich Town at the end of his playing career.

In a long and storied managerial career, Tony Mowbray has become a cult hero at many clubs, such as Celtic, Blackburn Rovers, Middlesbrough, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion among others, but it all began at Ipswich Town – where he had also shone as a player.

61-year-old Saltburn-born Mowbray has achieved many impressive feats during his managerial career, with a reputation for developing younger players and allowing them to play with freedom and attacking intensity.

His first managerial gig came in Scotland and was an impressive one with Hibernian, before again shining at The Hawthorns with West Bromwich Albion, thus leading to him getting the Celtic job.

His time back at the Bhoys, where he had been during his playing career, didn’t last too long, and he returned to ‘Boro for a few years, where he had begun his playing days.

Stints with Coventry City, Blackburn, Sunderland, Birmingham City and then a return to West Brom have since followed, and he has gained an excellent reputation or himself within the EFL – but his 21-year career in management has perhaps overshadowed an excellent playing career that ended with a memorable spell at Ipswich Town, where he is also remembered fondly.

Tony Mowbray enjoyed a memorable spell at Ipswich Town

A defender, Mowbray had played well over 350 times for Middlesbrough between 1982 and 1991, before then spending four seasons playing for the green and white half of the Old Firm in Glasgow with Celtic.

He helped ‘Boro gain promotion from both the Third Division and the Second Division, winning the Smoggies’ Player of the Year award in the 1984/85 and 1985/86 seasons, earning himself a spot in the PFA Team of the Year a season after that, too.

Mowbray returned to England from Celtic to join Ipswich Town, and he went on to make close to 150 appearances for the Tractor Boys in a five-year stint at Portman Road that showed him to be a manager in the making.

Mowbray had arrived at Ipswich after a relatively disappointing stint at Parkhead, and he quickly established himself as a key man for the Suffolk-based outfit.

Having been a real force in English football in previous decades, Ipswich had found themselves at a low ebb in the mid-1990s, with Mowbray joining a Town side that had just been relegated from the top-flight.

He provided a key level of experience and, over time, grew into being a fulcrum of Ipswich’s side, to the extent of becoming captain as the Tractor Boys’ overall performances improved.

Ipswich Town improved with Tony Mowbray, who had perfect parting gift as a player

Having finished seventh in his first season at the club, Ipswich steadily improved as Mowbray’s experience began to tell in the Tractor Boys’ back-line.

They finished fourth in ’97, and conceded just 50 goals. They finished third in ’98 and conceded just 43 goals. They finished third in ’99 and conceded just 32 goals. However, those seasons all ended in play-off semi-final defeats to Sheffield United, Charlton Athletic and Bolton Wanderers.

The 1999/00 season was to be Mowbray’s final campaign as a professional footballer, and it finally did result in glory as Ipswich winning the play-offs after another third-place finish.

Mowbray, as captain, was again instrumental and helped Ipswich gain revenge on Bolton for their two-legged loss the previous campaign, defeating the Trotters in a controversial play-off semi-final before Mowbray’s final game, which was the 2000 play-off final at Wembley Stadium against Barnsley; a match that results in a 4-2 victory with Mowbray scoring the goal that made things 1-1 mid-way through the first-half.

That was his final professional football match, and highlighted his immense leadership qualities, inspiring Town to promotion back to the Premier League.

He left his playing career behind him and immediately went into the coaching setup at Town, beginning as the first-team coach for a couple of years and then even becoming caretaker boss for a short spell in the 2002/03 campaign.

Having been relegated the previous season, Ipswich began their return to the second-tier with three victories, three draws and four defeats; and so George Burley was relieved of his duties.

Mowbray took charge of the first of what is now an 883-game managerial career on 12th October 2002, and it ended with a 2-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday, courtesy of a Pablo Counago brace.

It was the start of what was to come, and it came off the back of a memorable and successful stint as a Town player at the end of his very impressive playing days – something perhaps forgotten or overlooked given his exploits as a coach.