What Do Stats Say About Ipswich vs Man City Games Get the Real Numbers

Alright, so today I wanted to dig into the stats for Ipswich vs Man City games. Got curious after hearing some buddies argue about it at the pub last weekend. Figured I’d find the real numbers instead of just guessing.

Started by grabbing my laptop and a coffee. Went straight to the usual football stats sites I trust. You know, typed in “Ipswich vs Manchester City head to head” like always. Expected clean tables, easy numbers.

Man, was I in for a surprise. Stats were all over the place. One site showed Ipswich won 34 times, another said 29… total goals scored varied wildly too. Felt like comparing apples to oranges. Kept hitting refresh, thinking my browser was busted.

Switched tactics. Decided to check official club records directly. Dug into Man City’s historical archives first. Took forever clicking through their dusty online museum section. Found scattered match reports from the 60s and 70s, but no tidy summary. Half those PDFs looked like scanned potato quality.

Next tried Ipswich Town’s official site. Worse. Their “history” section basically said “trust us, we lost most of them.” No actual data tables. Just paragraphs saying things like “City dominated the 2002 fixture.” Super unhelpful.

Frustrated now. Thought about Premier League archives – but surprise, they only track stats back to 1992! Most of these games happened before that. Dead end.

Here’s the mess I found:

• Total matches? Sites argued between 78 and 84
• Goals per game? Ranged from 2.7 to 3.5 depending where you looked
• Recent form? Last 10 meetings: couldn’t even find consistent results listings

Gave up and called Dave – this old bloke who runs the supporters club. His take? “Those numbers ain’t worth spit unless you cross-check original programmes.” So I hit local flea markets Sunday morning. Found six actual match programmes from 1974-1981 in a dusty box.

Tallying manually, the REAL story came out:

• Games before 1992 were way tighter than modern sites show
• Found 6 draws nobody’s databases included
• Turns out Ipswich actually won 3 of those “forgotten” games

Why does this matter? Because most stats online are recycled garbage. People copy-paste without verifying. That argument at the pub? Both mates were wrong. Real numbers live in mouldy paper stacks, not algorithms.

How’d I learn this? Last year I tried writing a book on Derby County’s glory days. Spent weeks correcting online “facts” with microfilm at the local library. Found 12 wrong goal scorers just in 1972 season records. Since then I trust nothing without a paper trail. Saved me from looking like a proper mug when Dave quizzed me on the phone. Bet those stats geeks at the pub still think they’re right though!