Simply- a bad day at the office.
With the mood darkening amongst Ipswich fans, a derby with their biggest enemy provided the perfect opportunity to right the wrongs of previous weeks and return the club to an upward curve.
However, Norwichs biggest ever derby day victory was certainly not what was envisaged, even amongst the most optimistic of yellow and green clad fans at a buoyant Carrow Road.
Yet it was a day that started so positively. Allaying any fears that Town would go into the game with the same “defence first” approach which was adopted at Hull , Roy Keane went with a more positive front two. He was also able to give the more purposeful Gianni Zuiverloon his debut in the right-back role, another problem area for Keane in recent weeks.
The game started brightly for the blues, getting the first shots on target and holding decent possession in the opening minutes.
However, in the twelfth minute, a long clearance following a Town corner was completely misjudged by Darren O’Dea, with the Irishman continuing to misread the balls bounce a second time for good measure, with the result that Grant Holt was able to break away and slot past the exposed Fulop. O’Dea suggested that the Norwich man had handled when intercepting the ball, but it appeared a futile appeal after the initial error.
It was a poor error, ensuring that the Blues had once again conceded the first goal of the game, something which Keane himself had warned against, having watched his side struggle to regain a foothold in the previous three matches having fallen behind.
Yet, Town recovered and enjoyed their strongest period of the match, particularly after Damien Delaney had stooped to head home from Tamas Priskins excellent knock-on to bring his side level. As Town threatened to find a lead for the first time in the match, with Priskin and Scotland linking up perhaps with more success than in any previous time in their partnership, so the circumstances quickly turned against them.
Firstly, the excellent Henri Lansbury threaded a perfect through ball for Holt, who beat Fulop with ease. Whilst the pass was outstanding, question marks were placed over both Town full backs who played Holt onside, particularly Zuiverloon who allowed his man to run on behind the defence.
Within a minute, the situation became irretrievable for Keanes men.
With little apparent danger, goalscorer Delaney turned into trouble, losing the ball to a challenge from Holt, then pulling the Norwich frontman down as he went clear on goal. Whilst the decision was perhaps harsh on Delaney, the Irishman could have little complaints after making such a clear error of judgement leading up to the offence.
Manager Roy Keane refused to question the referees decisions, instead focussing on the costly mistakes by his defenders. Speaking to the BBC, Keane said “In any game of football, whether you’re a professional or an amateur, you’ve got to do the basics right and we didn’t do that today, whether that’s for the first couple of goals or the sending off. You make it very hard for yourself.”
“Let’s not waste our time and energy talking about whether there was cover, whether he actually pulled him back, the ball should have been cleared, simple as that. Same for the first goal.”
The second half was something of a predictable exercise as Town looked to adapt to the man disadvantage. Whilst Norwich inevitably created chances, Town were happy to let them retain the majority of possession without a huge amount of threat. With the home crowd imploring their side to kill off their rivals, Keane threw caution to the wind and threw Rory Fallon into the game for his first appearance in an Ipswich shirt, giving Town a front pairing again, having previously sacrificed Jason Scotland immediately following Delaneys sending off.
It proved to be the last rites for Towns hopes of a comeback. With Carlos Edwards dropping to right-back and effectively being asked to cover two roles for his side, failure to clear on the left-side eventually resulted in Chris Martin, after some clever footwork, presenting Holt with his hattrick.
Moments later, Norwich sub Wes Hoolihan was played in on the same left flank, chipping Fulop for a fourth goal which was perhaps unfair on a Town side who had maintained closer contact with their opposition than the scoreline suggested.
Keane felt his side were in with a chance until the late interventions: “even though we’d gifted two goals away, I think we were very much in the game. It was pretty open, they were causing us problems, but I thought we’d be OK.
“With 10 it wasn’t impossible because at 2-1 we were keeping it tight and trying to nick something on the break or from a set piece, but it wasn’t to be.”
Strangely, for such a heavy defeat at the hands of the most inappropriate of opposition, the performance was more positive than either of the previous two defeats. Without the calamitous errors which defined the match, there were indications that Town were able to trouble the Norwich backline. However, having found themselves down to 10 men, there was little further opportunity to demonstrate this.
Against different opposition, Ipswich fans might look at the match objectively and conclude that there were reasons to be positive, whilst also taking into account the mitigating circumstances which distorted the match. However, against their bitterest of rivals, there is no room for objectivity and the scoreline is fundamentally the only thing that will remain in the memory for most- and probably will remain so until at least April, the earliest opportunity for revenge.
Against the backdrop of four successive league defeats, Roy Keane finds himself in the most difficult position of his Ipswich Town managerial tenure. A League Cup quarter final on Tuesday might ordinarily provide welcome relief, but without Damien Delaney, and up against a premier league West Brom side who also found the net four times at the weekend, it may only prolong the agony for Keane.
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