Ipswich Town vs Norwich City. Sky Bet Championship.
Portman RoadAttendance24,928.
Sunday 22 October 2017 15:38, UK
James Maddison fired Norwich to a 1-0 victory in the East Anglian derby at Ipswich on Sunday.
The young midfielder, who has made such an impression this season, netted the only goal of the game just before the hour mark at Portman Road to send Norwich sixth in the Sky Bet Championship.
For Ipswich it was another failure to beat their big rivals, they haven't won against the Canaries since 2009, and it left manager Mick McCarthy winless in seven attempts.
A lively first half saw Ipswich go close to taking the lead twice. Jonas Knudsen, who scored in both games against Norwich last season, hit the post from a tight angle after five minutes, while David McGoldrick should have done far better than nod over from close range in the 40th minute after being picked out in a great position by Martyn Waghorn's free-kick.
Ipswich had defended resolutely for most of the first hour, but a slip in concentration allowed Maddison far too much time and space to score the opener after 59 minutes, picking out the bottom corner with a measured effort from just inside the area.
Ipswich tried in vain to get back into the game, but they couldn't find their way through the yellow wall of Norwich defenders as they saw out the victory in relative comfort - aside from a late Waghorn effort which sailed just over the bar.
Another superb performance from James Maddison, who was superb in attacking positions for Norwich all afternoon and showed great awareness and composure to find space and net the only goal of the game.
Mick McCarthy: "I'm pleased with the performance and I have no complaints about it. We had enough chances in the game to get something out of it, but we're the ones who have blinked and it's a bit of quality from Maddison and he scored the goal.
"We kept going right to the very end but they were able to sit in, and it's very hard to play against. They did it well once they scored. We just didn't have that bit of magic or luck, we've won six and lost six but now we need to get back to winning ways."
Daniel Farke: "I'm really happy for the lads. It's always great to have a big emotional game full of passion and it's better when you win with a big fight. I think because of the second half [performance] we deserved to win the game.
"You always need something special and it was a great goal [by Maddison], he was cool in the finish. I'm happy for James and the whole team. In the first half we were too nervous in our own possession and I told them I wanted them to be more brave with the ball in the second half, and they were."
Norwich travel to Arsenal for their fourth-round Carabao Cup clash on Tuesday night, while Ipswich aren't in action again until their Sky Bet Championship trip to Burton next Saturday.
