PU PREVIEW 64: IPSWICH TOWN

Ipswich Town Football Club (also known as Ipswich, The Blues, Town, or The Tractor Boys) is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system, having been relegated from the Championship in the 2018/19 season.

The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professional until 1936, and was subsequently elected to join the Football League in 1938. They play their home games at Portman Road in Ipswich. The only fully professional football club in Suffolk, they have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with Norwich City in Norfolk, with whom they have contested the East Anglian derby 148 times since 1902. The club's traditional home colours are blue shirts with white shorts and blue socks.

Ipswich have won the English league title once, in their first season in the top flight in 1961–62, and have twice finished runners-up, in 1980–81 and 1981–82. They won the FA Cup in 1977–78, and the UEFA Cup in 1980–81. They have competed in all three major European club competitions, and have never lost at home in European competition, defeating Real Madrid, A.C. Milan, Inter Milan, Lazio and Barcelona, among others.

Ipswich finished 24th in the Championship in the 2018-19 season and were relegated. They are managed by Paul Lambert.

Pompey and Ipswich have met on 43 occasions, the first being in September 1959. Ipswich won the only League Cup meeting, whilst Pompey have won three of the four FA Cup games with the other drawn. The last League meeting was in February 2012 at Fratton Park and won 1-0 by Ipswich. The sides met in the FA Cup in January 2016 with Pompey winning after a replay. Of the 38 League meetings, Ipswich have won eighteen and Pompey nine, with the other eleven drawn.

(Information via Wikipedia and www.11v11.com)