IPSWICH: The nine-carat gold medal presented to John Compton after he helped Ipswich Town win the 1962 Football League title is now set to fetch up to �5,000 at an auction.

The medal, a precious memento of one of the greatest feats in Town’s history, is engraved “Football League Champions Division 1, 1961-1962, Ipswich Town F.C.J.Compton”.

Now, 50 years after Town’s title triumph, the medal is up for sale and is expected to sell for between �4,000 and �5,000 at Graham Budd Auctions at Sotheby’s in London on November 8.

Compton was 22 when Ipswich signed him from Chelsea in 1960.

In their book, The Men Who Made The Town, John Eastwood and Tony Moyse recall: “During the summer of 1960, Alf Ramsey made four important additions to his squad: goalkeeper Wilf Hall, from Stoke; wing halves Billy Baxter from Scottish junior club, Broxburn Athletic; and John Compton from Chelsea; and outside right Roy Stephenson, from Leicester. Hall, Baxter and Compton were intended mainly as cover for first-team regulars.”

Yet within a few months, Compton was a first team regular and he went on to make 111 league appearances in his four seasons at Ipswich, including 39 in the title-winning season.

He made his league debut for Ipswich in a 3-2 defeat at Luton Town on November 5, 1960, when he deputised for right half Reg Pickett.

He made just three league appearances for Town in 1960-1961, when they won the Second Division title. His breakthrough came in August 1961. Town got off to a poor start, losing two (and drawing the other) of their first three games. But when Compton replaced Ken Malcolm at left back in the fourth league match – a 6-2 win over Burnley at Portman Road on August 29,1961 – Town’s season finally got under way and Compton was ever-present for the rest of the season, appearing in 39 of Town’s 42 league matches.

n Tell us your memories of the glory days. Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk