I write this, still in shock of a display by a side that were allegedly back to winning ways, back in form. A local derby, one of the biggest a player can ever start in, where confidence can rocket or shatter, possibly making or breaking a season.

As a devoted supporter, the ineptness of Norwich City at Sunday lunchtime brought me to a new low. Like most, I was happy when Nigel Worthington was acrimoniously booted out several weeks ago, and even happier when Peter Grant got the nod. A hard-line disciplinarian, an ex-Canary who knows what the club is about. Yet how can a team picked by the straight-talking Scot give such a toothless, passion-free display, hardly worthy of any match, let alone an East Anglian derby encounter?

Ipswich were the better team by light years, however much it pains me to say it. Gary Roberts ran rings around both full backs time after time, whereas Darren Huckerby, Robert Earnshaw and Luke Chadwick hardly had a sniff. A defence that hadn?t conceded in the victories against Sunderland and West Brom was changed, so why take out the impressive Dion Dublin and replace him with Gary Doherty, who was slaughtered by Alan Lee all match; Doherty was very fortunate not to concede several penalties.

A shot count of 21 to 7 in Ipswich?s favour says enough for me (the 7 going to the team playing 4-3-3).

In my mind, one of the main reasons why City capitulated so badly is because there was only one player on show (Jason Shackell) who had grown up through the ranks of Carrow Road, and knows how much these matches mean to the yellow half of East Anglia. Nearly half of the Town side were youngster?s that had made the step up from the Academy to the Championship, and the fighting nature of their play was all too evident as they dominated. Even teenager Danny Haynes looked better in his 15-minute run out than the seasoned Earnshaw did all game.

Both sides have always produced excellent players, with Chris Sutton, Kieron Dyer and Craig Bellamy coming to mind. Growing up with the rivalry in-built always puts you at a small advantage. But players such as Doherty and Jurgen Colin could just treat it as any other match, and hey, they get their weekly income however shocking the performance, so why shouldn?t they?

I have to applaud Peter Grant for coming out after the match and saying we were awful. After years of hearing the John Major-esque Nigel Worthington ?taking positives?, it was a breath of fresh air. But if a player cannot raise their game for a huge local derby, when can they?

I seriously fear that Earnshaw, Huckerby, Adam Drury and Dickson Etuhu will be on their way come July ? or even January ? as City will be nowhere near the top six on the back of said displays. If this prediction is proved correct, then Grant may well have bitten off more than he can chew.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Norwich City. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.