A new survey reveals Ipswich Town fans are not hitting the right notes.With performances on the pitch slightly off key, the Portman Road faithful have been left singing the blues and are right down in the bottom half of this particular league table.

A new survey reveals Ipswich Town fans are not hitting the right notes.

With performances on the pitch slightly off key, the Portman Road faithful have been left singing the blues and are right down in the bottom half of this particular league table.

Scientific research shows that Ipswich fans are rated the 15th best singers in the league, or the sixth worse depending how you look at things.

The Barclaycard Premiership Top of the Kops League reveals the definitive rundown of fans singing skills, taking into account factors such as volume and pitch.

It makes poor reading for the Blue Army, but then chances to chant things such as "1-0 to the Tractor Boys" have been few and far between in recent weeks.

The report's author, professor David Howard, analysed recordings of all Premiership fans' singing at home games.

Using the latest scientific sound equipment he examined the collective voice of the fans to uncover their relative tuning accuracy and their tendency to go sharp or flat – the key elements of good singing.

Ipswich fans were left languishing in the relegation zone alongside fellow strugglers such as Middlesbrough and Bolton. Tottenham, Aston Villa, Fulham and Leeds are also at the wrong end of the table.

Mr Howard said: "All the fans sing with real passion and belief but in some cases the vocal skills of the fans don't come close to matching the ball skills of the players that they support.

"Ipswich fans kick-off with a consistently good starting pitch and lyric mix, but as the chants went on, the fans tended to yell and lost any musical pitch."

Barclaycard sponsorship director, Nic Gault said: "It's fascinating to find out which fans are really the best singers but the quality of the singing is not necessarily reflected by the results on the pitch.

"However everybody knows that strong vocal support can often be worth a goal start. If they get it in tune that has to be music to everybody's ears."