Kick Off: 1200, 26/02/2017
Stadium: Carrow Road
TV: Sky Sports 2
Norwich have been impressive at home since the turn of the year and are firm favourites at 13/20 to make it five Championship wins out of six at Carrow Road when hosting arch-rivals Ipswich in Sunday’s East Anglian Derby.
The Canaries came out on top twice against the Tractor Boys at this venue when last in this division two years ago, prevailing 2-0 in the regular season and then 3-1 in the play-offs, and they are fancied to have the edge here again.
A Look At Norwich’s Betting Odds
Norwich have needed their home form to be good to stay in the hunt for a top-six place this term, as last week’s 2-1 loss at Burton was a disappointing ninth defeat on the road – and they have some tough away-days to come in the final third of the campaign.
However, at Carrow Road it has been a different story, with a 5-1 thrashing of Nottingham Forest earlier this month being their 11th home victory, while there was definitely no disgrace in then drawing 2-2 with title favourites Newcastle, especially after going behind inside a minute that night.
Canaries boss Alex Neil is aware of how significant this weekend’s clash is, stating: “We don’t take lightly what it means to the fans. We are certainly focused on making sure our supporters go home happy and that they have the bragging rights…no other game in this league has the same meaning.” Obviously, Ipswich will also be fired up, but we fancy City to shade it 2-1 at 15/2.
A Look At Ipswich’s Betting Odds
Ipswich have cast aside their January blues to put together a solid set of results in some difficult fixtures this month, beating Aston Villa away and drawing with three of the top five in Brighton, Reading and Leeds.
Scoring in all four of those fixtures should have boosted Town’s morale following a fairly mediocre campaign and 21/20 for both teams to hit the target on Sunday is a decent price, just as they did in a 1-1 draw at Portman Road back in August.
However, Mick McCarthy has yet to claim a victory in six derbies as Ipswich boss and admits he has been caught out by the depth of feeling associated with this game, so we’re also taking 17/10 for Norwich to prevail in a game featuring over 2.5 goals.
Additional stats
Last result:
Burton 2-1 NORWICH – Cameron Jerome
IPSWICH 1-1 Leeds – Freddie Sears
Head-to-head: Ipswich 1-1 Norwich, Norwich 3-1 Ipswich, Ipswich 1-1 Norwich, Norwich 2-0 Ipswich, Ipswich 0-1 Norwich
