East Anglia Derby Preview & Matchday Thread
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 7:56 am
Ipswich Town v Norwich
Sunday 2nd September 2018 – 12:00
Portman Road
Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike
Bigger Than Normal ?
I seem to say the same thing every season in the build up to this game, this is the one that really matters to us fans, a "Local Derby" is always about as important as it gets, bragging rights for a few months, the claim that we are East Anglia's finest, you name it, this is of course the first Derby under Paul Hurst's leadership and thankfully he has already made it clear that it has not gone unnoticed just what this means to Town fans and how much a win would mean to every single one of us.
Given our start to the season I believe this game takes on even more importance for a number of reasons, first and foremost we need that elusive first win, Paul Hurst needs it too, Three points would see us leapfrog the "Auld Enemy" going into the International break and would also see us escape the drop zone while possibly dumping them right in it, it would create a completely different feel to the season. Add to that the fact that is what Ten games now without a win against them, Six defeats and Four draws does not make pleasant reading, you have to go back to April 2009 for the last time we tasted victory, our only crumb of comfort is that last season we finally hauled ourselves above them in the football pyramid, dress it up how you want but to me that makes us East Anglia's current number One club.
I think this is the first Derby game for some time where both sides are clearly struggling and in desperate need of a win, while we can point to the "New Experiment" only just beginning it has to be said that Daniel Farke is under far more pressure as his new revolution and direction has had a lot longer to bear fruit and it just isn't happening, without it sounding like sour grapes they have looked very very poor when I have seen them, against Preston it was woeful, I wished we had played them that night, both sides look very vulnerable defensively and this could lend itself to being quite a high scoring game, but of course we need to firing up top for that to happen and so far that has been a bit of an issue too. It is a game that never needs any build up but with the return to Portman Road of a certain Jordan Rhodes there is bound to be an added edge to things, he seems unable to keep his mouth shut and we need to make sure his football does not do the talking. At the end of the day I care not how we perform, the result on this occasion is the be all and end all.
Daylight Robbery
Much has already been said about the trip to Hillsborough but the sense of injustice at the outcome just won't leave me, to read all the negative comments from Town fans all over social media etc really isn't fair and while we all have a right to an opinion it does irk me that the loudest and most cutting comments come from those who never see the damn team play, they always know best based on the score and the score alone, surely they can see there is far more to it ? Yes the result is the most important thing but when building something new it won't just fall into place, I wish some of them had actually seen the Boys put in a very good 95 minutes only to be robbed of at the very least a point by yet another iffy Referee. Sheff Wed players & fans alike have admitted it was a very harsh Red card, there you have it.
Weaknesses
It is pretty clear to almost every Town fan right now as to where our weaknesses lie, defending set pieces has become a bit of a nightmare, this is a fundamental basic requirement of any defence in Football and if you can't defend delivery into your box you are stuffed, it is proving our undoing every time and individual errors are costing us goals, points and games time after time. Whilst I take no pleasure from placing blame on individuals you just cannot get away from the fact that Bart is having a torrid time this season, he flapped at one against Blackburn which gifted them a goal, I put the Rotherham goal down to him as he was rooted to his usual spot, at Exeter his attempt to clear resulted in their goal, the second one at Derby he got his whole hand behind it but is still crept in and while it took a deflection I felt he could have done much better, now we have the Two goals at Sheff Wed where again he can take much of the blame, especially the second goal, flapping around in no mans land, then of course what most don't see on highlights programmes is he dreadful attempts at kicking and clearing the ball, all too often it is misplaced, kicked out of play or just hit into no mans's land. of course it isn't just Bart, Chalobah was pathetic for the First on Saturday, while the Villa goal at home was down to a series of events with Knudsen, Chambo and Nsiala maybe feeling they should all have done better. Until we cut this out of our game we will struggle to win any match.
Make It A Cauldron
The atmosphere at the first Two home games has been fantastic, it gets the hairs standing up on the back of your neck again and it really does make such a difference to the lads knowing we are behind them and willing them, they have remarked on it so we have to give it large on Sunday, of course it will be electric anyway purely because of who the opposition is but let's take this to another level, make it loud, hostile and intimidating, noise for the entire 90+ minutes and show the Budgies just what an atmosphere is cus their place is normally like a morgue. We can do this, we have played Two at home already and despite adversity are unbeaten, this can be a fortress again as I said before, this game is massive for all the reasons stated above, somewhere, sometime it will be our time again, it may just be Sunday. COYB'S.
The Opposition – Norwich City
Norwich City F.C. was formed on 17 June 1902.
Following a FA Commission, the club was ousted from the amateur game in 1905, as it was deemed to be a professional organisation. Later that year Norwich were elected to play in the Southern League and with increasing crowds, they were forced to leave Newmarket Road in 1908, moving to The Nest, a disused chalk pit. The club's original nickname was the Citizens, although this was superseded by 1907 by the more familiar 'Canaries' after the club's chairman (who was a keen breeder of canaries) dubbed his boys 'The Canaries' and changing their strip to yellow and green. During the First World War, with football suspended and facing spiralling debts, City went into voluntary liquidation on 10 December 1917.
The club was officially reformed on 15 February 1919. When, in May 1920, the Football League formed a third Division, Norwich joined the Third Division for the following season. The club went on to endure a mediocre decade, finishing no higher than eighth but no lower than 18th. The following decade proved more successful for the club with promotion as champions to the Second Division in the 1933–34 season. With crowds continuing to rise, and with the Football Association raising concerns over the suitability of The Nest, the club considered renovation of the ground, but ultimately decided on a move to Carrow Road. The club was relegated to the 3rd Division just before the outbreak of Second World War. The league was suspended the following season and did not resume until the 1946–47 season. City finished this and the following season in 21st place, the poor results forcing the club to apply for re-election to the league.
In the 1959–60 season, Norwich were promoted to the Second Division after finishing in second place. In 1962 Ron Ashman guided Norwich to their first trophy, in a two-legged final to win the League Cup.
Sixth place in the league was the closest the club came to promotion to the First Division during the 1960s, but after winning the division in the 1971–72 season under manager Ron Saunders, Norwich City reached the highest level of English football for the first time. Relegation to the Second Division in 1974 resulted in the resignation of Saunders and the appointment of John Bond. A highly successful first season saw promotion back to the First Division. Bond resigned during the 1980–81 season and the club were relegated, but bounced back the following season after finishing third.
The 1984–85 season was of mixed fortunes for the club; under Ken Brown's guidance, they reached the final of the Football League Cup at Wembley Stadium, having defeated Ipswich Town in the semi-final. In the final, they beat Sunderland , but in the league both Norwich and Sunderland were relegated to the second tier of English football. This made Norwich the first English club to win a major trophy and suffer relegation in the same season.
City bounced back to the top flight by winning the Second Division championship in the 1985–86 season. This was the start of what remains in 2012 a club-record nine consecutive seasons in the top division of English football until they were relegated to the First Division at the end of the 1994/95 season.
English television cook Delia Smith and husband Michael Wynn-Jones took over the majority of Norwich City's shares in 1996.
Nigel Worthington took over as Norwich City manager in December 2000 following an unsuccessful two years for the club under Bruce Rioch and then Bryan Hamilton.
The 2003–04 campaign saw the club win the First Division title, and returned to the top flight for the first time since 1995, but were relegated after one season.
Following this relegation, the club entered a 'dark' period with Worthington, Peter Grant, Glenn Roeder and Bryan Gunn all taking on the Managers role and achieving mediocre results, culminating in the relegation to League 1 at the end of the 2008/9 season.
Following their relegation, their first game of the season resulted in a shock 7–1 home defeat against East Anglian rivals Colchester United. This was the club's heaviest ever home defeat, succeeding a record that had stood since 1946 and Gunn was sacked six days later.
On 18 August 2009, Paul Lambert was announced as the new manager, leaving his post at Colchester, and nine months later led Norwich to promotion back to the Championship as League One Champions, after a single season in League One. The following season saw Norwich promoted to the Premier League, finishing second in the table, completing the first back-to-back promotions from the 3rd tier to the 1st.
A generally successful season saw the club finish in 12th place in their first season back in the Premier League. Manager Paul Lambert resigned within a month of the season's close to take up the vacant managerial spot at Aston Villa, and was replaced by Chris Hughton.
The 2012–13 season started poorly and a bad run of form that was followed by a club record unbeaten run in the Premier League. A 1–0 home defeat to Luton Town on 26 January 2013 resulted in Norwich becoming the first English top flight team to lose a FA Cup tie to a non-league side in 24 years.
Norwich secured their third year in the Premier League with consecutive victories in the last two games of the season, to finish 11th in the league, however they were relegated back to the Championship after finishing 18th in the 2013–14 season.
After a mediocre first half of the 2014–15 season, Neil Adams resigned which paved the way for the appointment of then Hamilton Academical manager Alex Neil in January 2015. The appointment reinvigorated Norwich's season and after narrowly missing out on automatic promotion back to the Premier League, victory in the 2015 Championship playoff final secured an immediate return to the top division of English football.
This was only temporary relief, however, they were relegated straight back to the Championship for the 2016/17 season.
The following season started successfully, with the club sitting top of the Championship in mid October. However, a poor run of form and results followed, which included five consecutive defeats, and saw the team slide to as low as twelfth in the table. On 10 March 2017, Alex Neil was sacked by the club , with first team coach Alan Irvine placed in caretaker charge for the remainder of the season, which saw the club finish eighth in the Championship.
On 25 May 2017, the club appointed German coach Daniel Farke as head coach, becoming the first foreign head coach of the club in its 114-year history for the 2017/18 campaign.
Last season the budgies finished in 14th place with 60 points.
The Manager – Daniel Farke
Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev
Media Watch - K L Blue
Northstander's view...…………………
http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/north-stand ... -1-5667987
Stuart Watson's View...………...
http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/verdict-it- ... -1-5668034
Tweet enrages Town fans...……
http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/town-fans-f ... -1-5668586
Fuller on the red card...………….
http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/fuller-flav ... -1-5667995
Is it a gamble? Do you agree?
https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/its-c ... e-verdict/
Town Ladies beaten on Opening Day........................
http://www.ipswichtownladiesfc.co.uk/si ... pening-Day
Form Guide
Ipswich Last 5 Matches – Currently in 24th place with 2 points
4 Aug Ipswich Town 2 - 2 Blackburn
11 Aug Rotherham 1 - 0 Ipswich Town
18 Aug Ipswich Town 1 - 1 Aston Villa
21 Aug Derby County 2 – 0 Ipswich Town
25 Aug Sheffield Wednesday 2 – 1 Ipswich Town
Norwich Last 5 Matches – Currently in 18th place with 4 points
4 Aug Birmingham City 2 – 2 Norwich City
11 Aug Norwich City 3 – 4 West Bromwich Albion
18 Aug Sheffield United 2 – 1 Norwich City
22 Aug Norwich City 2 – 0 Preston North End
25 Aug Norwich City 0 - 3 Leeds United
Marko's Caption Contest- THE DON CUP
Pleased to present the first DON CUP table of the season. There have been some excellent efforts so far --- > the Aston Villa week was hard (no pun intended) to score for the panel of judges! Looking forward to more efforts, hopefully they continue. Scores as follows:
BLACKBURN
Nicscreamer 5pts
Frosty 4pts
ITNO1 3pts
Number9 2pts
ROTHERHAM
DerickIpsw 5pts
Nicscreamer 4pts
Bluemike 3pts
Blueblood 2pts
ASTON VILLA
Number9 & Patthegimp 5pts
Tangfastic & Frosty 4pts
Shed on Tour, DerickIpsw, Bluemike (Derick response) & ITNO1 (6 inches taller) 3pts
ITNO1 (both hands) 2pts
SHEFF WED
Frosty 5pts
Aylesburyblue & ITNO1 (had his back to me) 4pts
Tangfastic (flapping) & ITNO1 (owl & pussy fans) 3pts
Bluemike (bird sanctuary) & Number9 (hoot who wins) 2pts
LEAGUE TABLE
IPSWICHTOWNNO1 16
FROSTY 14
NICSCREAMER 11
DERICKIPSW 10
BLUEMIKE 9
NUMBER9 9
TANGFASTIC 7
PATTHEGIMP 6
BLUEBLOOD 5
AYLESBURYBLUE 4
ANDO 3
SHED ON TOUR 3
WATERSHIP DOWN 2
NORWICH CITY PIC
Match Referee – Robert Jones
IPSWICH TOWN 1 NORWICH CITY 0