Ipswich gained their finest victory in Europe last night. In torrential rain they defeated Feyenoord, the 1970 European Cup champions in this UEFA Cup first round first leg match.

David Johnson headed the winning goal in the 77th minute after it seemed that Ipswich were to be denied victory. Whymark had opened the scoring after 32 minutes but de Jong equalised 24 minutes after half-time.

Ipswich, with Cooper and Osborne making their European debut, coolly matched the free-moving Feyenoord side in the first half and gradually made the Dutch team look almost inept.

For a short period during the second half Ipswich worried their band of well behaved supporters. That was when they massed in defence as deliberate policy instead of seizing their chances to attack. So young Cooper then was put under unnecessary pressure but he responded nobly with a series of fine saves.

Feyenoord did not help their cause by erratic shooting and they gambled heavily once they fell behind by having only two defenders. This allowed Ipswich to shake them constantly on the counterattack.

The only blots on a magnificent Ipswich performance were the bookings of Johnson, for retaliation on Ramljak, and Osborne for ignoring the whistle when pulled up for offside.

Ipswich quickly matched Feyenoord in the arts of the game in the 32nd minute when Mills sent a ball over the Dutch defence and Woods was there to touch the ball back to Whymark who scored from close range.

Woods, Whymark and Johnson continued to worry Feyenoord but the Dutchmen equalised when a shot rebounded to Christensen who sent de Jong clear to beat the advancing Cooper.

The climax for Ipswich came when Woods for the umpteenth time beat the hapless Everse and centred for Johnson to beat Treytel with a lovely looping header.

Thereafter Ipswich took off their two forward heroes, Whymark and Johnson, in the 80th minute introducing Lambert and Austin. But they maintained the pressure and at the end ran in glory to salute their fans.

Robert Oxby (Daily Telegraph)