James Maddison was the hero in his first ever East Anglian derby as he conjured up another piece of magic to score the only goal of the game, sending the Canary nation back to Norfolk with all three points.
Daniel Farke made two changes to the side that drew with Hull City as Wes Hoolahan replaced Vrancic and Stiepermann came in at left back for Husband.
Wes Hoolahan, who is in his testimonial year at Carrow Road has never tasted defeat in the East Anglian derby, which was a good omen.
If I`m honest, it wasn`t a great spectacle. City`s play in the first half was measured but rarely very threatening and it was Ipswich that used their physicality to create the game`s first chance.
Ivo Pinto had the ball in the right back area and there seemed little danger, Knudsen closed him down and inexplicably, Pinto tried a “Ronaldo chop”. Knudsen barged into him and Pinto went down but referee Mr Robinson gave nothing, which wasn`t the last time of the afternoon he did that, and Knudsen struck the outside of the far post from a tight angle.
A real let off.
On 16 minutes, the away support burst into a round of applause, celebrating Ipswich Town`s 16 years in the Championship, accompanied by a rather abusive song.
Norwich did have chances, not that you`d know if you only watched the Sky Sports highlights. Stiepermann, Wildschut and Klose all had shots on goal, although none of them connected properly and they were all easily gathered by Bialkowski.
James Maddison then fired just wide from outside the area.
Ipswich had the best chances and McGoldrick headed over (twice) and Waghorn volleyed wide with the best of the efforts. For all that though, Angus Gunn didn`t have a really serious save to make.
HT 0-0
The second half saw no changes and a continuation of the pressure Ipswich had shown at the end of the first half, however, the defining moment of the game came just before the hour mark with another moment of Maddison magic.
Angus Gunn fired a goal kick out to Wes Hoolahan on the right, with Wes controlling it immediately and turning inside. He played a cross field ball to Yanic Wildschut and the Dutchman set off towards goal, just inside the Ipswich half.
Stiepermann was overlapping and Yanic went forward and left. His final ball seemed a little away from him and Stiepermann took over. He cut inside and played an inch perfect pass to Maddison across the area.
Maddison was just inside the box and central. He took a touch and fired a lovely curling effort past Bialkowski, that saw the Ipswich keeper rooted to the spot, and into the goal.
As the Canary faithful went into raptures of joy, Maddison ran behind the goal with his finger to his lips in a “Shhhh” gesture to the Ipswich fans. Nice work, son.
Having snatched the lead, City defender resolutely and even the substitution of Zimmermann (bang on knee) for Hanley didn`t upset things in the back line.
Hanley was good in the air and and showed a decent turn of pace too on a couple of occasions, as Norwich held out against everything thrown at them by Ipswich.
FT 0-1
Although James Maddison won the Sky Bet man of the match award, and his goal and all round performance make that a decent shout, Harrison Reed was excellent. He ran Maddison very close for that award in my eyes.
Tom Trybull was also a big part of the win, continually harrying and breaking up play, just like Reed.
I can`t say that Cameron Jerome did too much in the way of cutting edge work today but in fairness to him, he was up against two old fashioned centre halves. They don`t have a lot of finesse but the two against one numbers worked in their favour most of the time.
Everybody played their role and played it generally well. We were away from home in the bear pit atmosphere of Portman Road against a highly motivated opponent who had more than a point to prove.
Yet again though, Norwich City`s players proved they had the extra skill required to settle such games and James Maddison continues to prove his credentials as an absolute baller.
The win takes the Canaries into the top six and with a Carabao Cup game up next against Arsenal in just 48 hours time. Best get yourselves ready lads because we go again on Tuesday.
ON THE BALL CITY!!!
Share this article
