NORWICH CITY vs. Ipswich Town (CARROW ROAD)

Match: NORWICH CITY 1 - 1 Ipswich Town

League: EFL Championship

Stadium: Carrow Road

Date: February 26th, 2017

Preview

The mood was mixed between Norwich fans ahead of the biggest game of the season for both clubs. Until their last game, Norwich were on a good run and looking hopeful for the play offs. A win here would leave Norwich 4 points off Sheffield Wednesday in 6th. Having to play them next weekend, this game was even bigger! The loss at Burton Albion last time out left fans feeling a little less optimistic than they were a week ago. With 3/4 of the season gone, the feeling of 'now or never' is starting to take over the club! With promotion an expectation at the beginning of the season, there's a general sense of underachievement about the place. However, this game was more than just 3 points, or where you are in the table. Its about pride, bragging rights, and that unbeatable feeling of doing a number on your biggest rival.

Ipswich came into the weekend hopeful after a recent run of promising results, a win away at Aston Villa and 3 draws all against teams in the top 6. Mick McCarthy was, just like his counterpart, Alex Neil, on the verge of being dismissed not too long ago. But McCarthy has seemed to turn things around and has his team playing decent attacking football. He's also a manager renowned for digging in and grinding out results when it matters.

Norwich were slight favourites before the game, particularly playing at home. It has been 8 years since Ipswich last beat Norwich, back in 2009 when Norwich were relegated to the 3rd tier of English football. But since then it's been all about Norwich and their dominance in this fixture. Some do say, however, that form goes out of the window in fixtures such as these!

Tickets

Luckily I didn't have to find a ticket for this game as I'm a season ticket holder. I did however spend the morning with a friend who managed to purchase a ticket through the clubs website for £40, which he collected on the day before kick off. Not exactly cheap, but in terms of the occasion, it's the game every fan wants to attend, so you'd expect to pay a little over the odds. Ipswich fans were charged a similar amount and sold out they're allocation as always for this fixture.

http://www.canaries.co.uk/tickets/

Here is the view below:

Travel to Stadium

Method: Car

I travelled to the game by car, due to only living 30 minutes from Norwich, parking in a nearby multi-storey car-park, which was £6 for the whole day. The train is always a popular option, but with an early kick off, and the game being on a Sunday, the trains weren't as reliable as usual. The train station in Norwich is a 5 minute walk from the stadium with plenty of bars and restaurants right on the doorstep.

Stadium

Carrow road holds just over 27,000 people and is known well for selling out most weeks. It's situated on the bank of the River Wensum. Norwich have played at Carrow Road since 1935. The newest renovations to the stadium have been made over the last 12-13 years, a new south stand which houses around 9,000 fans, including the away supporters was built in 2004, then a new corner was added to connect it to the river end. A 'holiday inn' was built in the adjacent corner a few years ago.

Norwich have, this season, added a new state of the art screen in the corner where the hotel is situated. Rotating and turning to allow all fans a good view at different points throughout the game. The smallest stand is situated opposite the south stand, and is known as the city stand. This houses the directors boxes, changing rooms and dugouts.

The 2 ends behind the goal are identical 2-tiered stands, holding around 8,000 fans each. The family stand, at the river end, then The Barclay stand, which is known for the atmosphere it creates behind that goal!

Away fans

Atmosphere

The atmosphere began early doors around 9:30am in the local wetherspoons just along the river from the stadium, full to the brim and as loud as you'd expect on Derby day!

Inside the ground, however, it wasn't as hot headed as expected. Possibly the magnitude of the occasion overcame the supporters and left a few on edge. It was, by no means, a quiet atmosphere. Just not as hot as previous encounters! The Barclay though, were as usual in good voice, along with the 'Snake Pit', in the corner opposite the away fans.

The traditional aggressive chanting between supporters commenced early on. With Norwich fans taking to mocking Ipswich supporters who were claiming that they were 'still famous', despite being the current longest serving championship club at 15 years!

The more the game went on, the more tense it got and the more nervous fans became, with both teams desperate not to lose the fixture.

Norwich began the game the stronger side, having more possession and a much bigger share of the action, Ipswich only registering 1 shot in the first half. The away goalkeeper was on form in this fixture, cleverly preventing an own goal after around 10 minutes, with a defender almost turning the ball into his own net after a threatening cross from Van Dijks. Norwich had a few chances to break the deadlock but nothing too concrete.

The second half began with Ipswich clearly revitalized by the break. Pressing higher and looking to catch Norwich on the break when they could. Again a few chances from Norwich but nothing to get too excited about. Ipswich then took the lead just after the hour mark, from a header after a decent cross from the right hand side, much to the anger of home fans after dominating possession on the whole. It wasn't long before Norwich were back in the game, 6 minutes in fact, with home boy Jacob Murphy taking the ball down the right hand side before a low direct shot to the goalkeepers near post and into the back of the net, sending the stadium wild with hope and expectation that with 20 minutes left on the clock, there was plenty of opportunity to get the win we were all desperate for! It wasn't to be though, after many more chances for Norwich, including Alex Tettey and Alex Pritchard really troubling the Ipswich goalkeeper, this game, like the reverse fixture in August, finished 1-1.

Injury Time (Overall Review)

On the whole it was a disappointing day for Norwich, who failed to close the gap significantly on the play off places, with time seemingly running out to do so. A few huge games coming up would have felt a lot less so if Norwich would've picked up the win here. It did however mark yet another season in which Ipswich have failed to beat Norwich, an ongoing claim for Norwich fans against their 'extremely famous' rivals.

Ipswich fans, players and staff celebrated the draw as if they'd won the league. Most Norwich fans unsure as to why a draw from a winning position is such an amazing result, especially being former UEFA cup winners, which Ipswich fans of all ages will continue to remind everyone! They are expecting to finish mid table which they'll be disappointed with after finishing 6th and 7th the last 2 seasons.

Most Norwich fans are now coming to terms with the fact that the club will probably fail to gain promotion and will spend a second season in the championship. Some fans still calling for a change of manager, Alex Neil must surely be feeling like he needs to rally his players for the remainder of the season, after failing to win in the last 2 games, despite being expected to do so.

So, few positives on Norwich's behalf after missing the chance to make up for last weeks loss, and close the gap on Sheffield Wednesday, who they travel to next weekend.

Thanks for reading! Although I wasn't technically a 'travelling supporter', a Derby game is surely an exception! I look forward to writing more reviews in the future.

TTS (The Traveling Supporter) Rating: 7.5/10