NEIL CHASES A KNOCKOUT
Ipswich on ropes in derby duel
WHEN Alex Neil got on a flight to Glasgow on Saturday night, it said rather a lot about the 33-year- old who has forced a manager two decades his senior up against the ropes.
The journey, he explained, was to take him to Lesser Hampden, where he spent yesterday working on his UEFA pro licence.
This morning he will be back at Norwich’s large training ground, off Hethersett Lane, scouring footage of a 1-1 draw that means Ipswich must win at Carrow Road for the first time since 2006 if they are to stay in this play- off race. ‘Even when you’re at home on a day off, you’re on the phone. That is the job,’ Neil explained.
He is young enough to still be taking exams, yet wise enough to lead a side from seventh to third and then to Portman Road, where the away fans were outnumbered 15 to one.
In those surroundings, his side dominated possession in the Old Farm derby, or El Tractico. Jonny Howson put Norwich ahead, Paul Anderson sparked bedlam with an equaliser minutes later. Mick McCarthy clenched his fists and screamed at the sky. Neil had the stare of a man who last year, as player-manager of Hamilton Academical, headbutted an opponent and promptly fined himself.
His showdown with McCarthy, the 56-year-old sage of the Championship, is just one of the reasons this tie has been compelling. They have different styles and vastly different resources — McCarthy has spent only £110,000 in three years — but they are similar in their manner. They don’t suffer fools; they do like each other. ‘I am sure we would like to lunge over and kick each other but once the game is done we chat about it and go to battle again next week,’ Neil said.
Like everything else in these play-off fixtures, they are part of a context that triumphs over the content. This was a huge game but it was not a pretty one. As McCarthy put it: ‘ Two teams competing for a big prize, it will never be a wide-open game.’
Instead, it was about people like Howson, who has failed twice before in the play-offs, fighting to advance his career against a player like Anderson. He was at Liverpool, an England junior international as well, and was once wanted by Swansea, to the point personal terms and a fee were agreed in 2009.
But Roberto Martinez left Wales, Anderson signed for Nottingham Forest and he has yet to play a Premier League game. As it happens, he reached the playoffs before, with Forest in 2010, and lost to Blackpool. His contract is up soon and before Satur- day he had not started a game since March. Then Luke Varney ruptured his achilles. On such moments careers can turn and Anderson came off the bench to score. For McCarthy, the history is a little deeper. He has taken all four of his clubs to the play-offs and failed to win with the other three. For Tyrone Mings, the Ipswich defender who feeds the homeless and played non-League two years ago, this might be goodbye. He accounts for £10,000 of McCarthy’s spending and might be off to Arsenal.
All over the pitch are storylines. Above all else is the promise of £130million, enough loot to drive anyone mad with ambition.
McCarthy said: ‘My lads will be at home thinking about this every single day. We’d have to put them in the Big Brother house to avoid it, or maybe the jungle.’
Compared to a play-off semi-final against your biggest rivals, those options sound frightfully dull.