Ipswich Town 0 Coventry City 1

Better than Tuesday, but still not good enough really.

Apathy replaced the midweek anger as Town traipsed in a goal down at half-time, taken well enough by Matt Godden.

There were some boos at the end but in the main there seemed a feeling of resignation among the Blues faithful. Yes, they could have, should have, had a penalty, and perhaps Jon Nolan might have done better with their only real opening, but otherwise there was little goal threat to concern Coventry.

Lacking any real bite, Ipswich offered little in the final third, although you could not fault the effort of Freddie Sears and Teddy Bishop, while Gwion Edwards excelled defending and attacking on the right.

There was a moment in the second half when Sears slipped a ball through for Bishop but he was thwarted by the swift reactions of City keeper. It kick-started the fans though and a chat of 'Come On Town' boomed through the stadium and the team responded with intent, if not effectiveness, in a spirited second half.

Manager Paul Lambert praised his players, the fans, in fact everyone inside Portman Road and vowed to carry on fighting for a top six place.

Not much else he could say really but the believers are dwindling. This Ipswich side is no Tyson Fury, there are no signs that they can come back from the adversity of four straight defeats, two in a row at home without scoring a goal, and an ever-growing injury list.

Luke Garbutt limped off, Will Keane missed out with a groin problem and even though Kayden Jackson returns from suspension for the trip to Bristol Rovers and Lambert insisted things will get better, once key players return.

"The lads gave me everything," said the Blues boss. "They gave me absolutely everything. They gave me everything in their body.

"We played a good game. They scored with their one real chance. We had a lot of the game, a lot of the game. I can't ask for any more. Today I was proud of them, I'm proud of everybody in the stadium.

"The fans were great, they saw what we've got out there and they saw the commitment. And that's all you can ask for. We lost the game, but the performance was a lot better."

Of course, mathematically being 10th with eight games to go, the worst league position in more than 60 years, doesn't mean all hope is lost but the half-hearted chants of 'Marcus Evans – get out of our club,' from Ipswich followers, and the passionate refrain from Coventry supporters of 'We are top of the league', pretty much summed it all up.