Ricardo's report v Ipswich.

[ricardo 7,385]

Dull and grey in Norwich today but no wind so ideal for football. It started tipping it down when i left for the match so I was rather damp on arrival. Someone asked me during the week if I was looking forward to the Derby and seemed surprised when I said no. Thats the problem with being brought up at a time of Ipswich superiority that despite a decade of dominance still rankles deep down.

The flag waving and pre match razzmatazz raised my spirits a bit but I was still nervous as a kitten as the visitors kicked off towards the Barclay. There was a bit of head tennis in our left back position but we soon came away down the right with Aarons who had made 50 yards before crossing low to Hernadez who had his shot blocked away to Vrancic who bravely nodded it back for the Cuban winger to hammer home with his second bite at the cherry.

A great start and for a while it was all one way traffic with Vrancic having another couple of efforts. Ipswich gradually grew into the game as we began to loose our usual assured passing touch. It got a bit physical and Mr Banks tended very much on the side of leniency as Buendia and Vrancic were both singled out for treatment.

Town were certainly giving it a good go although there was little to trouble Krul in truth. Judge thumped one into the side netting and a couple of corners were scrambled clear but they didnt look particularly dangerous.

It got a bit scrappy as we approached the half and both Sears and Vrancic had to be subbed due to knocks. As Tetty came on just before the break, Aarons was scythed down and there was a right old ruck on the sidelines. Lambert got himself involved and although it was only handbags and the best of three rounds it was no surprise when he got a red card. I couldnt help a wry smile😁. The image of him being ushered gesticulating furiously down the tunnel will live long in the memory. There were at least three minutes of added time left but Mr Banks probably did the right thing by whistling a bit early.

When things had cooled down a shade I stood looking down at the pitch and suddenly remembered a Derby game from over 60 years ago. In my minds eye I could see Peter Gordon scoring down there in the River End. I stood under the old Pinkun scoreboard that afternoon with a crowd of over 30k. We won 3 2, a rare event in those days.

The half time fracas must have had some effect because it was all Town for the opening quarter. Judge was only a yard wide with a low shot and we had to withstand a fair old ariel bombardment as a few corners and free kicks came in. They probably only have their pride to play for now but I give them credit for having a go. It was certainly a full blooded contest and I remained on edge until Pukki finally settled my nerves by latching onto Buendias defence splitting pass before rifling a low short across Bialkowski to put clear daylight between the teams.

There was a bit more huffing and puffing from Town but i never really felt that they made anything amounting to a clear cut chance. Pukki might have wrapped it up on 75 minutes but the flag was up as he turned Zimmermans flick on into the net but we didnt have to wasit long for the coup de grace. With ten minutes left it was Buendia again causing panic with a run forward and a pass that Pukki tucked under the advancing keeper to round off the victory.

Rhodes came on for the dying moments as a sea of yellow and green sang danced and sang their way to the top of the league and put a further nail in Towns coffin. There was another round of handbags at five paces just before  the end as Buendia was dumped but Mr Banks again resisted the red card and probably it was the right thing to do.

So thats ten full years of dominance and its something that will go a long way to soothe the pain so often felt in my youthful supporting days. Some may miss the Old Farm Derby but I am more than happy to give it a miss as long as we stay well above them for years to come.

MOM? Trybull, Zimmerman, Godfrey, take your pick.👍

Sorry for the delay, hardware failure👹😉

Edited February 10, 2019 by ricardo
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[Hairy Canary 699]

Thanks Ricardo. Enjoyable as always but especially so today. 😎

[daly 501]

Very fair report, we have seen worse teams down here (Derby First half come to mind)

The failure of the lights that day cost us a 8 point cushion and hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the backside

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

Excellent report as always.

 

so a full 10 years undefeated against them.

 

The fact that it was an average to poor performance but we have won comfortably with a clean sheet says it all. 

[ricardo 7,385]

5 minutes ago, It's Character Forming said:

Excellent report as always.

 

so a full 10 years undefeated against them.

 

The fact that it was an average to poor performance but we have won comfortably with a clean sheet says it all. 

Yes, you have to be capable of winning untidily at times if you want to win this league.

[Mark .Y. 352]

I expected to be nervous but there was such a gulf in class between the two sides that after we went one up, I could never see us losing. They gave it a proper "derby day" go but we were always better and never even got out of second gear.

   

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Usual good stuff Ricardo

 I remember a better fracas at their place in 1965 when our lot invaded the pitch after they sanded that end after Keelan has spent half the first half on his bottie.

Do you think we will get fined for this little fallout?

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

1 hour ago, ricardo said:

Sorry for the delay, hardware failure

I believe there’s a blue pill you can take that solves that problem 😉

[Canary Wundaboy 1,359]

Felt like a "proper" derby, but I was a bag of nerves until the 3rd goal. Great atmosphere. Not going to comment on the reffing until I've watched the game back on sky sports. 

[ricardo 7,385]

7 minutes ago, keelansgrandad said:

Usual good stuff Ricardo

 I remember a better fracas at their place in 1965 when our lot invaded the pitch after they sanded that end after Keelan has spent half the first half on his bottie.

Do you think we will get fined for this little fallout?

Yes, that was a cracker. It wasn't you who kicked over the bucket of sand was it😀

No, all part of a good full blooded Derby, I admire Town for giving it a right go, they just fell short on the quality side. I didn't think they would score had we played until midnight.

[ricardo 7,385]

5 minutes ago, FenwayFrank said:

I believe there’s a blue pill you can take that solves that problem 😉

Not good for the old ticker at my age😀

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,219]

Seasoned neutral observers might consider today more of a marker than even the Leeds game.

Ipswich played as well as they could,  biting hard and just about fairly into tackles and working hard. 

We played about as passively as we’re likely to with the current dominant possession methodology, we looked disrupted after scoring strangely.

It was a fairly old-school derby in those respects, plus we’d been praised to the hilt for a week and received national press recognition, and still we win pretty comfortably 3-0.

Hansen might well say it’s exactly the kind of performance that Championships are made of.

Parma 

 

[Bill 1,788]

1 hour ago, ricardo said:

Sorry for the delay, hardware failure👹😉

you can get something for that nowadays

............................or so I have been told 😉

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

11 minutes ago, Bill said:

you can get something for that nowadays

............................or so I have been told 😉

I’ve already done that one 

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

20 minutes ago, Parma Ham's gone mouldy said:

Seasoned neutral observers might consider today more of a marker than even the Leeds game.

Ipswich played as well as they could,  biting hard and just about fairly into tackles and working hard. 

We played about as passively as we’re likely to with the current dominant possession methodology, we looked disrupted after scoring strangely.

It was a fairly old-school derby in those respects, plus we’d been praised to the hilt for a week and received national press recognition, and still we win pretty comfortably 3-0.

Hansen might well say it’s exactly the kind of performance that Championships are made of.

Parma 

 

Agree 100% except at a higher level of reffing they’d have finished with 9 or 10 men.

 

But your key point is spot on. To win titles you have to grind out some results and today we comfortably did that despite being lacklustre for much of the game!

[wooster 134]

It did strike me as odd that the 'robust' Ipswich tackles meant we got more bookings than they did.

 

Thought the referee backed the underdog today and, whilst it didn't affect the overall result, I hope those 4 bookings (Ipswich only got 3) don't have an effect later in the season.

[BroadstairsR 2,163]

1 hour ago, keelansgrandad said:

Usual good stuff Ricardo

 I remember a better fracas at their place in 1965 when our lot invaded the pitch after they sanded that end after Keelan has spent half the first half on his bottie.

Do you think we will get fined for this little fallout?

That was my first ever away game as a young sprog (with my old man in attendance of course.)

It was a night game?

We went in a private coach organised by the old boy's works and there was heavy drinking en route. So my first ever away game coincided with my first ever taste of beer.

One end was so slippery because of snow(?)whilst the other end was less effected.We were defending the slippery end and at half-time the Ipswich ground staff attempted to sand the area.There were scuffles on the pitch I recall.

 

We lost I believe. Was it a cup or league game?

 

 

[PurpleCanary 5,557]

Must say I appreciate Krul's goalkicking tactics. Provided the time to recalculate pi to a few million places, file my tax returns, write yet another pro-Trump editorial for the Wall Street Journal, and carry on with translating the Saga of Gilgamesh from the original Akkadian into Serbo-Croat.

[wooster 134]

Very funny, but he does seem to invite a booking with the continual delays he produces.

[Bill 1,788]

25 minutes ago, FenwayFrank said:

I’ve already done that one 

How did it go....did it work ?

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

1 minute ago, Bill said:

How did it go....did it work ?

Very well, the woman sitting in front of me told me to stop poking her in the back

[Bill 1,788]

Typical Delia

 

she should have told her mum not to complain 😊

[C.I.D 302]

1 hour ago, wooster said:

It did strike me as odd that the 'robust' Ipswich tackles meant we got more bookings than they did.

 

Thought the referee backed the underdog today and, whilst it didn't affect the overall result, I hope those 4 bookings (Ipswich only got 3) don't have an effect later in the season.

Thought he was pretty fair tbh and tried not to dampen the passion of a derby game by flashing red cards too readily as some of the prima donna PL refs might have done.

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

Trying not to dampen the passion was perhaps too successful at a couple of points especially when Mr Lambert could have done with a bit of cooling down?

 

seriously there’s a reason Prem refs show cards for wild challenges, as we saw when Vrancic had to come off. They got away with a right kicking on him.

[westcoastcanary 173]

Thanks as always, ricardo. 

I take it the rain had stopped before the "Ariel bombardment" commenced. Otherwise I fear the game would have had to be called off 😉   

[Red Rufus 56]

Didn

[ROBFLECK 132]

12 hours ago, ricardo said:

Not good for the old ticker at my age😀

Thanks for that Ricardo , nice read... Keep hanging in there, I would say ... I really enjoy these match reports  👍 I thought Trybull was very good again , mu MoM

[Badger 2,405]

Thanks Ricardo - interesting as ever!