AT 6.30am on Sunday morning, a coach of football supporters will depart from Portman Road making the trip north for the first FA Cup fourth-round tie involving Ipswich Town FC in a decade. 

It is another indication of the burgeoning popularity of women’s football that a group of mainly male supporters are making the 450-mile round trip not to follow Paul Lambert’s League One side, but their FA Women’s National South-East Division league leaders.

Men’s season-ticket holder Thomas Whitby had never been to a women’s match before he attended Ipswich Town’s home match against Norwich City in September.