April 11th • 42/46 • 0-2 (L)
Well, this was the big one.
We'd already lost the 16 years unbeaten run in October, but this was a very different Norwich City side. The atmosphere was tense as expected, but I think everyone went into the game with optimism that we could get something out of it.
Sadly, that wasn't to be. Now, I don't like to make excuses over the performance of the officials, but this was one of the most bizarre refereeing performances I've seen all season, and that's saying something. We conceded the softest penalty I've ever seen after 12 minutes, with an Ipswich player running up behind Slimane as he went to clear the ball, kicked the player, and somehow that's a penalty. Maybe he's supposed to have eyes in the back of his head, I'm not sure. It was a late call too, with Kvistgaarden on the break over the half way line when the whistle finally went. Of course, none of the times our players got pulled down never resulted in anything. The ref was also dishing out yellows like he had a quota to meet, but was also giving a foul every time an Ipswich player got blown over by the wind for the entire game.
Their second came on the stoke of half time after some sloppy defending, and I think the feeling at that point was that the game had gone.
The rat came on at 62 minutes to a rapturous chorus of boos, promptly got booked, and then after several other challenges that should have resulted in a second yellow, got hooked off again at 84 minutes.
It was a weird one as despite Vlad not having a whole lot to do for a lot of the game, we huffed and puffed and seemed to have a lot of corners, but no real clear cut chances. Ipswich seemed first to every ball and we just couldn't break them down.
I think the most exciting part of the day was the ruckus caused by two elderly Ipswich fans who for some reason were sat at the end of our row, much to the disdain of everyone around them, and they refused to move after several requests from the stewards before they eventually vacated the area. The most enjoyable part of the day was Kenny throwing Nunez to the ground after being held, and giving it some to the ref to let him know his thoughts on his performance.
The result makes it the first time Ipswich have won at Carrow Road in over 20 years, and the first time they've done the double since the 1992/93 season. The only crumb of comfort I can find is that it slightly softens the blow of losing the streak in October - if we'd got at least a point out of today then it would have made the previous loss all the more sickening as it would have been 17 years otherwise, but we can't blame Manning for this one. They were just better today. I've seen some criticism over the starting lineup and I do think we should have had Schwartau, Toure and Maghoma on for longer, but I think we were lacking quality even when they were on. Given we were more worried about relegation a few months ago, and they're a first year parachute team that look set to go straight back up, it's clear that they're a better team than us at the moment. The hope is that from this summer, we can start working to change that.