Ipswich Town will go into tonight’s FA Cup 3rd round replay against Southampton with the backing of BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans.

The Breakfast Show host told listeners this morning he would be supporting the club despite split loyalties.

The slot on the programme called On This Day, where someone famous reads out a list of things which happened on the day’s date in history, was today read by ITFC manager Mick McCarthy.

And after plugging the BBCs coverage of the game at Portman Road with presenter Gary Lineker and pundits Alan Shearer, Jermaine Jenas and Terry Butcher, Evans revealed the problem.

“We have a bit of an in house dilemma here this morning,” he said. “Producer Paul is a genuine, season ticket holding Ipswich Town fan and Jumping Jimmy Flash is a lifelong Southampton fan. They’re both going to watch the game at Paul’s house.

“I support Liverpool, always have done, however my other two favourite teams are Ipswich and Southampton.”

When asked why he replied: “Ipswich because Mick McCarthy manages them and he’s been a massive supporter of Children in Need, he’s a lovely fella. Fiona his wife, same thing, first on the text when I became a grandad, they’re just lovely people.

“I’ve always taken an interest in Mick’s managerial career which has been very interesting anyhow and he’s ended up there and is doing extraordinarily well.

“Then Southampton I go there a lot nowadays, Lymington and the New Forest, a lot of my pals from there support Southampton, so I don’t really know what I’m going to do.”

Evans rejected the idea of watching the match as a neutral, adding: “You’ve got to set your stall out. You can’t be a neutral because you like both, you can be a neutral if you don’t like either.

“I don’t really known anybody at Southampton so I’m going to have to support Ipswich because I know Mick and Fiona really well.

“Since MM has taken over Ipswich the average gate has gone up by 30%. If they’d won on Saturday they could have gone top.”