Norwich City: The Game We’ve Been Waiting For

Article by Colin Rowe

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After three years of anticipation the day we have all been waiting for is finally upon us. A derby game with Ipswich.

While this game always has special significance for both East Anglian teams, this encounter has the added benefit of a little extra spice.

Not only have both sets of supporters been eagerly awaiting this game for a few seasons, but if Norwich win City will go top of the table, if only for a couple of hours, and given the last couple of results many members of the Y’Army will be expecting just this.

The win over 10-man Watford was backed up by another good performance against Blackburn midweek.

After conceding a spectacular goal in the opening minute Norwich then levelled by half-time before two late goals sealed a well-deserved victory.

The nature of the performance (if I am allowed to be sentimental for a moment) brought back memories of how Norwich got promoted form this division the last time, with a never say die attitude which saw the boys in yellow score late on in many games to pick up important results.

However, this game has one other interesting bit of extra zing to it, the fact the last time Norwich and Ipswich were in the same division the aggregate scoreline was 9-2 in City’s favour, a 4-1 win at home before giving them the legendary 5-1 trouncing at Portman Road.

Neil Adams, who has played in a fair few East Anglian Derbies himself, will undoubtedly have the lads fired up for this match, not that they should need firing up for what is probably the most important game of the season so far.

Confidence at the club will certainly be riding high after two good wins, not to mention a couple of new additions to the squad and one departure.

Leroy Fer finally made his anticipated move to QPR. It is a shame we are losing a player of his quality, but sometimes you just have to accept the inevitable.

If you were being critical of the Dutchman you could argue he was inconsistent and tended to foul players and get booked too often, but this does not detract from his generally rock-solid performances during what was a tough season.

However, former Sunderland defender Carlos Cuellar and former Stoke striker Cameron Jerome have both been signed this week and have the potential to be strong additions to the team, although it is unclear if either will feature in this weekend’s game.

Tactically Adams will tell the media they are approaching this as they would any other match and while he is probably correct, it is hard to imagine the build-up is not more intense.

The only worry for City fans is the last time we played away, on the opening day of the season at Wolves, we were pretty dire and reminiscent of the side who struggled on the road all of last season.

Hopefully two strong home wins will have boosted the teams’ confidence allowing them to head down the A140 on Saturday morning with the belief they can win and win well.

Norwich need to keep up the system which has served the so well in the last two games, whereby they dominate the other team, keeping the opposition on the back foot, getting Redmond and Hoolahan into the game as much as possible and limiting opportunities at the other end.

For this reason it is hard to imagine there will be any changes to the squad, which means the two new boys might have to satisfy themselves with warming the bench for a little while.

The nerves are already building inside every Norwich fan up and down the country and around the world (as they are in Ipswich fans as well) and the anticipation for 12.15 on Saturday is almost unbearable.

A win for Norwich against the old enemy will really be the springboard towards great things this season.

Predicted Line-Up: Ruddy, Whittaker, Martin, Turner, Garrido, Johnson, Tettey, Hoolahan, Redmond, Lafferty, Grabben

On the Ball City!

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