Norwich City suffered a 2-0 loss at home to their rivals in the latest East Anglian Derby on Saturday, giving Ipswich Town a first “Derby Double” in 20 years as they climbed into the Championship top 2. Here are the main takeaways from a Norwich point of view.
Despite having the lion’s share of possession, 15 shots to their rival’s 9 and a mammoth 13 corners, Norwich lacked the clinical, ruthless nature of their neighbours. The Canaries failed to properly test Christian Walton in a shot-stopping capacity, and although he looked shaky at times when dealing with high crosses and long balls, Norwich failed to exert any real threat on their opposition’s goal.
Ipswich, led by George Hirst, were the complete opposite: forcing Vladan Kovacevic into a string of impressive saves to keep his side in the game before and after the Scottish striker converted Ipswich’s second goal from Darnell Furlong’s long throw. As Norwich searched for a way back into the game, Ipswich were happy to sit back and counter attack – a strategy that arguably created more effective chances than what the hosts managed to offer up.
Jacob Greaves and Dara O’Shea proved a formidable partnership in Ipswich’s backline, and were amply supported by Jack Taylor and Azor Matusiwa, who broke up a number of potential threatening attacks. The two centre backs encompassed Ipswich’s defensive prowess, and looked comfortable soaking up Norwich’s attacking efforts. Anis Ben Slimane and Mohammed Toure were notably quiet as a direct result of this.
Referee Anthony Backhouse pointed to the spot in the ninth minute, with Norwich on the break following an Ipswich corner. Slimane was alleged to have impeded Jack Taylor with a high boot, yet neither the referee or linesman signalled for a foul immediately and it was only in the aftermath that a penalty was awarded.
Whether it should have been a penalty or not has sparked plenty of debate, although the general consensus after the viewing of multiple replays seems to be that there was at most limited contact and the awarding of a penalty seemed unjust.
Ipswich did not care and Jadon Philogene slotted home from the spot to give Ipswich an early lead following Norwich’s bright start.
There were a number of players arguably lucky to escape without being sent off for a second bookable offence. Most notably, former Canary turned Tractor Boy Marcelino Nunez escaped, despite two cynical fouls whilst on a yellow card. Subbed on in the 61st minute to a chorus of boos, the Chilean was booked in the 69th minute before a further foul on Ben Chrisene, followed by tripping up Jose Cordoba in the 80th minute. Recognising that Nunez was extremely lucky to still be on the pitch he was duly substituted in the 84th minute, after an injury delay caused by Leif Davies.
Another incident involved the aforementioned Town left back Leif Davies. In the 76th minute, Jose Cordoba went down under very light pressure from substitute Ivan Azon, handling the ball on his way down and was booked as a result. However, just one minute later, Leif Davies went down under very little pressure before both handling the ball and kicking it away, yet escaped without a second yellow card.
Jack Stacey was also lucky to not see red, with the Canaries full back committing a high volume of fouls throughout his 74 minutes on the pitch. Although, there were no fouls as obvious as the above Ipswich duo, the sheer volume of offences he was responsible for may also have warranted a second yellow card for the 30 year-old.
Ultimately, any second yellow cards would likely have had little impact on the full time result and Ipswich deservedly walked away with a clean sheet and all three points.
