Norwich City v Ipswich Town preview and matchday thread

[hallamblue]

an unbiased view


https://www.theguardian.com/football/fo ... -other-out

[Bluemike]

A good read but if you fail to take your chances that is your hard luck, nobody elses, however, if the officials f*ck up and disallow a perfectly good goal (Douglas at PR) or fail to give a blatent penalty (Didsy today) then you have been robbed through no fault of your own, for me we were hard done by on both counts.

[Andym]

I felt along with Bart that Skuse was superb today and I would have given him MOTM to be honest, Berra too stood firm against the difficult Jerome.

I'd agree with that. My only criticism of Skuse is that when he gets forward as he did today, he needs to bust a gut to get back when we lose possession. But he won lots of tackles, got forward well, moved the ball quickly and positively. I don't think he gave the ball away once. He too would have been my man of the match.

The wingbacks struggled at times, and although Chambers was fairly solid, his distribution was poor. Smith when he came on looked a little lost at times, and again he gave the ball away with nearly every pass (or hoof).

A good result, one which hopefully harms Norwich's push for the playoffs. If they miss out by up to 4 points we can be happy in the knowledge that it was because they only took 2 from the 2 games against us.

A well worked goal, a lovely cross to Knudsen who made a perfect run and a superb header having been allowed forward after the substitution, but praise also to McGoldrick for his work in winning and keeping the ball in the build up.

A shame we couldn't get forward more; without taking anything away from Sears it was a game where we could have done with Lawrence as he would have played a bit deeper to pick it up and carry it forward.

[Ando]

Great point! The inbred budgies will still be in the championship next season and the premier league money will running out. Then we will see.

Caption: stu pot from grange hill " you been picking your arse again cousin" ?
tw*t wearing a wind break off Brighton beach " yeh, you want to smell"

[Mach_Polish_Blue]

Effort wise and commitment wise spot on so have to be pleased with that. Wish we had been more threatening though.

Mediocre and boring first half. Of course that was a blatant pen but ref was looking at the corner. Where was the lino then?
Our back line kept their forwards under the control and apart from Knudsen close to score an own goal no big threat from them.

Second half much more eventful as we've seen. Whether we deserved going 1 up or not it's irrelevant. We scored from our first meaningful chance.

Stupid ref kept whistling while Knudsen went to celebrate with our fans. Why?

After that Bialkowski was busy and despite their equaliser which should have been saved we cannot criticise him as his saves were immense especially Tetteys shot.

I still expected far more from Norwich forwards. Thought they would be more threatening.

Real setback for their play-offs but I was laughing whilst seeing their fans' reaction on the social media. They have been underlining the fact that they remain unbeaten against us in the last 8 years. If I was a Norwich fan I would have been angry and upset with the result as this doesn't help them in the top 6 context. But it seems as if it's all about us and results against us for some of them. That seems to be their priority.

They should have blown us away given the disparity in resources but once again they failed. Moreover in the last 4 meetings their expensively assembled squad have beaten us only once and that was in the game where we were down to 10 men.

The gap between both clubs ought to be far bigger but they fail to take their opportunity and failure payments won't last forever. Take other rivalry for example, West Bromwich and Wolves, massive gap between both and this is how it should be between Norwich, their pile of money and ourselves.

Long gone are the days when they were embarrassing us and that was the case under Jewell and Keane. Infamous 9-2 agg. Results like that should occur these days given the financial gap but once again they struggle against us.

We've improved in the last month. New shape and a few new faces have helped. What I don't want from McCarthy is reverting back to defensive 4-4-2 with two defensive midfielders and Chambers as a right back. Painful to watch, so pointless and inept. McCarthy please don't come back to this.

I'm usually critical of Skuse but he did his DM duties absolutely fine today. McGoldrick kept their defence on their toes too.

Disappointed a bit with Sears and Ward particularly the latter as he could and should have offered much more going forward.

Bialkowski without a doubt our MOTM.

Pleased with the result in general context as we've improved in the last month and remained unbeaten against tough opponents.

We badly missed Lawrence ! Let's not forget that !

[Charnwood]

Just arrived home from a weekend away and watched the full 90 minutes of Sky's coverage.

Whilst I accept we weren't pretty we certainly made up for it with sheer grit and determination and we fans should be proud of that. Obviously Norwich have better players than us and we have to accept that given their significantly higher budget, however they didn't use it to their advantage and looked quite ragged in the final third.

I thought our penalty claim was solid and Bart could so easily have kept a clean sheet had he not surprisingly been caught out at the near post so soon after we'd taken the lead.

Overall I feel well satisfied and as someone else has said our February results have way exceeded our expectations.

Well done team.

[arana peligrosa]

Took in some action by way of "highlights" from today's game and while the match officials weren't at times at their most competent, the players showed more awareness than of late and as mentioned, if offered a point before game time you got to believe a good many would have accepted. Ok the fact remains we haven't beaten this opposition in some eight years in all competition, but by end of season, two draws against what many observers would have labeled promotion challengers last summer, it does at least represent something of a commendable achievement.

One thing that caused offense was some of the opposition reaction in light of what occurred today, using derogatory remarks regards the game such as "it was our cup final" (?) and "it was their (Ipswich's) best result of the season" Are they serious with this ?

They host a show called "Talk Norwich City" that caters for match day experiences and to be fair, the responses were both humorous and belligerent for today's game. (Someone needs to realize the best place for interview is in a quiet space, not where there's so much going on the background it almost deviates away from what is being discussed)

[marko69]

On "Talk Norwich City" at 1:40am? Jaysus H, Saint......, I'd imagine life can only get better, buddy!

[Tangfastic]

Decent result - more so as NCFC have lost points when they need them more than us.

Everyone sees things differently - but can't see how great Skuse was yesterday. He played well and got his foot in plenty of times, but not sure he got us moving forward. If we're under the cosh, then Skuse is a handy player to have and break up play - but if we can keep possession better then we wouldn't be under pressure so often and need a spoiler. Anyway, lately there's been a re-resurgence of the MMMM (Mick's McCarthy's Much-Maligned) few - Chambo, Knudsen, Skuse - so as long as the team is doing OK - who cares.

I kind of think Huws and Ward have to stay in the midfield as they give us some 'go forward' momentum, so I'm guessing Diarouraga is likely to be the fall guy. Skuse most likely deserves to stay in the team due to performance, but that's irrelevant - MM will put him in the team anyway.

I thought Didsy was our MOM - showed plenty of flashes of class in some tight spots.

[charlton837]

Took in some action by way of "highlights" from today's game and while the match officials weren't at times at their most competent, the players showed more awareness than of late and as mentioned, if offered a point before game time you got to believe a good many would have accepted. Ok the fact remains we haven't beaten this opposition in some eight years in all competition, but by end of season, two draws against what many observers would have labeled promotion challengers last summer, it does at least represent something of a commendable achievement.

One thing that caused offense was some of the opposition reaction in light of what occurred today, using derogatory remarks regards the game such as "it was our cup final" (?) and "it was their (Ipswich's) best result of the season" Are they serious with this ?

They host a show called "Talk Norwich City" that caters for match day experiences and to be fair, the responses were both humorous and belligerent for today's game. (Someone needs to realize the best place for interview is in a quiet space, not where there's so much going on the background it almost deviates away from what is being discussed)

Just watched these and where do they find these people!? The one guy who said he cant understand why their "first goal" was chalked off, the guy punched it in the net you moron! What about the penalty we should have had. Then he goes on to say he was verbally abused, well I could make the same accusation as I walked through the city in my town top, got heckled by a whole pub, I swear some of these Norwich fans think their lot sh*t roses!

Very weird folk up there, I have been to every single derby day since Malky Mackay and Huckerby scored in a 2-0 win at Carrow Road some time ago, in that time I have only seen us win once there, and not all that many times at home, well I am now going in the hope/knowledge that if and when those tables turn it will make all the misery of the past 15 years worthwhile. Football has a habit of turning through time...

[Domhide]

Congratulations are in order the broadcaster that found four Scum fans that could just about articulate in English, although there was more "you knows" than they had shots on goal. They need to concentrate on the possession stats you know what I mean!