FA Cup - 4th Round: Coventry City 1 - 4 Ipswich Town

[dutchman]

Ipswich romp to comfortable FA Cup win at Coventry



Ipswich Town booked their place in the FA Cup fifth round with some ease as they comfortably beat Frank Lampard's Coventry City.

Town boss Kieran McKenna made 11 changes for the meeting with their Championship hosts. But the Tractor Boys' second string made light of all the adjustments to win by a margin.

After getting off to a flier from a penalty awarded after 22 seconds, and converted by George Hirst, home defender Joel Latibeaudiere quickly levelled.

But Jack Clarke netted twice before the break - and former Aston Villa striker Jaden Philogene then added another for the Premier League strugglers, his first goal since his January window move.

And that put the 1978 FA Cup winners into the fifth round for the first time since 2007.

After a 10-minute delay to the start caused by various traffic incidents in and around Coventry, the hosts then got caught cold.

Straight from kick-off, a penalty was awarded for Liam Kitching's challenge on Sammie Szmodics - and Hirst tucked away the penalty, sidefooting his spot-kick low and hard to Oliver Dovin's left.

Coventry were level by the eighth minute when Latibeaudiere glanced in a header at the near post from Jack Rudoni's right-wing corner.

Ipswich then wrested control with Clarke's quickfire double in the space of just nine minutes.

Fed by Hirst, Clarke initially looked to pass, but he took on the shot instead to neatly curl the ball into the far corner.

Then, two minutes after coming on for the injured Szmodics, Nathan Broadhead was the supply line for Clarke's 37th-minute second.

Coventry had their moments, more so after the break. But it was game over on 63 minutes when, straight from having a goal disallowed, Ipswich broke rapidly for Philogene to net the killer fourth from a tight angle.

And – 47 years on from their one FA Cup final victory - that had the Ipswich fans roaring "We're Going To Wembley".

Coventry City boss Frank Lampard told BBC CWR:

"I don't think the scoreline reflects the overall performance. The scoreline won't tell you that - but we played well in big parts of the game.

"And it was great to have 30,000 here watching it. We've been on a good run but this was always going to be a tough couple of games against Leeds, who are top of the Championship, and a Premier League side in Ipswich.

"Ipswich have strengthened since they went up. And they didn't have midweek games either side of this game like we have.

"But we showed character to come back from that early penalty to level and we had as many chances as them but they just took theirs. Sometimes things happen that can influence games. They took advantage and we didn't take advantage. And we have to eradicate our errors."