The East Anglian Derby took place earlier today between Ipswich Town and Norwich City and it certainly didn’t disappoint as the spoils were eventually shared despite both side’s taking the lead during the game.
Nathan Broadhead opened the scoring for Ipswich just after the hour mark to put Kieran McKenna’s side one goal to the good. However, a brace from Jonathan Rowe on either side of the half-time put Norwich in front.
The double from Rowe put the 20-year-old joint-third in the Championship goalscoring charts. Only Blackburn Rovers’ Sammie Szmodics and Southampton’s Adam Armstrong have bagged more goals this term.
Nevertheless, the Tractor Boys hit the Canaries with their own reply through Wes Burns, who equalised in the 60th minute. Ipswich had a lot more chances to walk away with all three points but couldn’t find the winning goal.
Ultimately, this was a missed opportunity from McKenna’s men to widen the distance even further between themselves and Leeds United, with the latter dropping points at home Coventry City later in the afternoon.
Speaking after the game, McKenna alluded to his side deserving all three points from the game, claiming that the visitors were happy to take a draw [quotes via club media]:
“We scored two goals and Norwich had very few chances in the game, so I didn’t think they were good value for their two goals in a game where we could have got a lot more.
“You could say, on the balance of play, it was maybe a two or three-nil performance in the first half, which would have had the game a long way to being done,” he continued.
“Conceding the second goal at the start of the second half made things tough, but credit to the lads because they stayed calm, made more chances and got the goal back.
“Norwich were sitting in and celebrating a point so that’s something I think we should take a lot of confidence from.
“We’d love to be here with a win but we take the positives and learn with big games coming up.”
Writer’s View
Ipswich Town certainly could have come away with all the spoils, having registered an xG of 2.08 throughout the match compared to the visitors’ 0.64. Furthermore, McKenna’s side had 18 shots on target to their rivals’ 11, according to FotMob.
Norwich will be the happier of the two teams to have taken a point from the game and Ipswich may feel it was an opportunity missed to move even closer to the dream of Premier League promotion.
Deputy Head of Writing
