Expect Norwich City’s play-off clash with arch-rivals Ipswich Town to go down to the wire

Norwich City scorer Jonny Howson applauds the Canary faithful following the first-leg (Picture: Getty Images)

If there is one thing guaranteed to get the clichés rolling off the tongue it’s a local derby.
It’s ‘one for the fans'; it’s all about the ‘bragging rights'; in a derby ‘form counts for nothing’. The list is endless.

Except, when said local derby could result in a trip to Wembley that, in turn, could pave a path to the riches of the Premier League it isn’t just for the fans. Neither is it just about bragging rights. (I’ll concede the one about form…).
No, on this particular occasion it’s about a whole lot more. In fact, 150 million things more.
That Norwich and Ipswich stand tied at 1-1 after the first-leg at Portman Road makes Saturday’s game at Carrow Road about as big as it can possibly get.
For most rational observers it was a tie that was always going to be settled after 180 (or possibly 220) minutes rather than 90, and if the build-up to last week was tense and tetchy, the last few days have seen the banter-ometer go into overdrive – particularly from south of the border.
For their part, the Canaries have kept their counsel successfully – just as Alex Neil would have wanted it – even to the extent that City legends of yesteryear have been playing an almost straight bat to any media questioning.
For the Blues it has been a rather different story, with manager, players and ex-players lining up to further stoke the derby fires.

Ipswich Town’s Paul Anderson cancels out Jonny Howson’s 41st minute strike (Picture: Getty Images)

In particular, scorer of Town’s equaliser on Saturday, Paul Anderson, has been bullishly talking up the Blue’s second-leg prospects, in the process playing the little Ipswich card and declaring; ‘…we feel we can comfortably beat Norwich.’
Time as ever will be the decider and, who knows, Master Anderson’s confidence may ultimately prove well founded, but it’s difficult in the circumstances to see either side winning the tie ‘comfortably’.
And there was a certain irony in a ‘small Ipswich’ comment given ‘that small club to the north’ was a description used by a former Town chief executive when referring to City.
But, as an ex-colleague reminded me, the ongoing war of words is one of the phoney variety and all that matters is what occurs on the Carrow Road green stuff between 12:15 and 2:00 on Saturday.
It matters not one iota who has the most fans, who makes the most noise, who has the healthiest bank account, who has the most illustrious history or whose fans have snaffled tickets in the opposition’s part of the ground.
What does matter is if Ipswich can successfully bombard the City penalty box and give some decent ammunition to Daryl Murphy and Freddie Sears. Do that, and the Canaries will be in for a tough afternoon.
Equally, if City can succeed in getting the ball down and, in doing so, get in behind the Town back-four, this time round they should give Bartosz Bialkowski a rather busier afternoon.
Either way it will again be tight, tense, probably a bit frenetic and be decided by margins akin to a Rizla paper.

Tick tock…