The West Stand Senior on Coventry vs Ipswich Town

Pre-match thoughts

I was excited to be going as I haven't been to an away match for a while.

I was feeling fairly confident about this one, too, thinking maybe a 2-1 scoreline in Town’s favour. It would be good to see how the new signings were bedding into the team, and I was also looking forward to seeing our new keeper, Alex Palmer, in action. Reading up about him and his time with the ‘Baggies’ had helped engender my confidence levels for today.

Coventry City's nickname is ‘The Sky Blues’, allegedly coined by manager Jimmy Hill in the sixties for the colour of their shirts.

Originally known as Singers FC, the club was founded in 1883 by a group of cycle workers at one of George Singer’s factories. Will they sing, I wonder?

An old saying, about being ‘sent to Coventry’, is said to have stemmed from large numbers of Cavaliers being imprisoned within the city by the Roundheads of the Civil War in the seventeenth century. Because of their known social status, the townsfolk proceeded to roundly ignore these ‘prisoners’.

The stats

Head-to-head and key numbers:

The two teams have a long-standing rivalry and have met 90 times in all competitions.

• Ipswich have the upper hand in these meetings with 40 wins

• Coventry have 25 wins

• 25 games have ended in draws

They last met in the Championship last season, when Town scooped a league double with a 2-1 home win and a 1-2 away win.

Coventry, currently 11th in the Championship, have won four of their last five games, with three clean sheets. Town have won just one of their six games in 2025 – the win against Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup third round last month.

So, this will not be an easy match. 

On the way

The supporters were in great voice, which started with the young guys singing on the train out of Euston. I had no team identification on, (sweatshirt has not resurfaced from its loss last week sadly), so they laughed out loud, when politely making space for me to pass them, I whispered “He’s an Egyptian, Portman Road is his kingdom…”

At our destination, I really liked that they cleared their train table of all detritus and filled a carrier bag to be binned. Good job guys!

Coventry station to Coventry Arena station had a largely defunct bus/train service (one coach and a train with only two carriages), so a taxi to the ground made the most sense, and I managed to bag a share with two nice guys - Ross and Dominic.

It took ages, as the decision to come off half the road to ‘calm the traffic’ had resulted in a none-too-calming deadlock. However, we arrived in a timely fashion, only to be told the start would be delayed by 10-15 minutes to allow everyone to get there 

I was up high in a ‘safe standing’ area in the ground, which I discovered means you have a seat, but you don’t sit in it – especially when the chap standing in front of you is around 6ft 2in.

First half

In an explosive start, a penalty was awarded for bringing down Szmodics in the box within 20 seconds. Hirst coolly took the shot for a perfect pinpoint goal, despite the keeper diving the right way. Great name for a keeper – I’m sure ‘Dovin diving’ often provokes a smile.

Eight minutes later, Coventry responded with a brilliant glancing header from a corner, netted by Latibeaudiere, to level the score at 1-1. This didn’t stand for long however, when with a twisting run, Clarke created a chance for himself, followed by a stunning shot to take Town back into the lead.

Sadly, straight after this, Szmodics left the pitch with an injury again. I felt for him, having just returned. I’m sure we all wish him well and hope it’s not a serious one. 

Nine minutes later, Jack Clarke scored again when Coventry made a mess of playing out from the back – ultimately gifting the ball straight back to Ipswich for Clarke to neatly tuck away.

Coventry 1-3 Ipswich 

Half time

I managed to add an extra pair of woolly socks to my cotton ones and some fetching ‘Fame’ type hand-knitted leg warmers to my armoury as it was perishingly cold, with a drizzling mist prevailing.

Second half

The game was perhaps a little more even, with the Sky Blues still pressing, and Rudoni had a goal ruled out for offside. But Jack Clarke struck again, creating a fourth goal in this half. He could have tried himself for a hat trick but chose to be unselfish with a neat pass to Philogene, who scored an insane goal from an acute angle past a seemingly well-positioned keeper. He had not featured much before in the game, apart from a rather tame lifted shot straight at the keeper, but this strike was inspired.

With fifteen minutes to go, the heat went out of the game from Coventry, and the stadium started emptying – the home fans were exiting in a steady stream. We were still all happily there, though, and still singing, whilst Ipswich saw out the match.

Men of the match

Alex Palmer showed good communication skills and controlled his area. He has a good eye for a pass and didn’t hang on to the ball.

Woolfenden hasn’t really put a foot wrong all season, in my opinion.

Broadhead, and particularly Hirst, were excellent.

In fact, I think the whole team pretty much played well because, as Frank Lampard pointed out - Coventry did not play badly.

MOTM: Jack Taylor

Without a doubt Jack showed all the skills for which he was recruited. Really tricksy stuff.

Round up

Strangely, for a whole new starting eleven, I thought Town looked more like a cohesive team than other combinations have in the past few weeks.

This may, of course, be due to recent training, tactics, or the different level of the opposition – having just faced a run of top premiership opponents. But, though not totally faultless, our line-up today looked pretty good to me.

Both sides had chances and hats off to Coventry, who were incidently credited with more shots than Town, they didn’t give up the fight, they battled all the way.

The difference was that Ipswich managed to convert their chances, and Palmer made some excellent saves. A stating of the completely obvious winning formula that has been missing for Town recently, but one they can hopefully carry forward and reproduce in future games.

In the second half, the scoreline and Town’s stronger defensive showing this time out made watching the game feel fairly relaxed. The supporters were great, singing loud and proud all the way through.

It was about this time of year in the two previous seasons that our form picked up, and we got back to winning ways. Let us earnestly hope this trend continues now for 2025.

View from the train

Wondering how to get back to the station, I decided a cab was the best option. While lurking on the pavement hoping to flag one down, four lovely guys from Milton Keynes with Ipswich affiliation kindly invited me to climb in with them. One of them was off to the airport for an extensive trip round South America – I wish him a bon voyage.

Two trains had been cancelled, so a large cup of Earl Grey at the station was very welcome amidst a crowd of supporters all happily reprising the result today. The train was understandably a little rammed.

A very enjoyable adventure despite the rather nightmarish travel (add rail replacement train/bus/tube from London to Colchester to the mix), plus the dismal weather – in this instance, it was most definitely not ‘better to journey than to arrive’ (Robert Louis Stevenson).

Would I do it again? Hell yes! Whenever I can get a ticket. Arrived home 11.30pm-ish. 

The journey for Town goes on.