JACOB RACES TO THE RESCUE FOR CANARIES
Winger strikes to earn derby draw
ALEX NEIL counted the cost of ‘wasteful’ Norwich City’s missed opportunities as the East Anglian derby ended even at Carrow Road.
Jacob Murphy struck to rescue a draw for the Canaries, a relief after Ipswich Town had threatened to end a run of almost eight years without a win against their local rivals.
Chance after chance went begging for the hosts before Jonas Knudsen struck with Ipswich’s only real opening of the game on 63 minutes. Neil, and his supporters, were grateful for the vital intervention of Murphy six minutes later.
‘We created a lot of good opportunities. We were wasteful at times,’ said the Norwich manager. ‘If you don’t take your opportunities and you are wasteful then the sucker punch can come your way.’
He remains confident of a playoff push, but on an occasion where Norwich fans mocked Ipswich’s 15 years in the second tier with a bizarre 15th-minute applauded ovation, Neil’s team did not look like prime promotion contenders.
They had Mick McCarthy’s side pinned back for long periods, particularly in the first half, but could not strike a clinical blow.
Cameron Jerome should have done better when a low cross from Mitchell Dijksks came to his feet in the box, swinging wide of Bartosz Bialkowski’s i’s post — and a freee header at a corner was later nodded over the bar.
Ipswich’s only real response was curtailed when, at a corner, Davidd McGoldrick wass wrestled to thehe ground. He shouldould have had a penalty. ty.
McCarthy, happypy with a point, chose not to pick the issue apart afterwards.
Knudsen had Bialkowski to thank for preventing him from finding his own net when, with his feet in a tangle, he tested his own goalkeeper’s reflexes at the end of another Dijks cross.
Norwich thought they had taken the lead when Dijks found the net after the break — there was even a green smoke bomb on the pitch at the opposite end.
But referee Oliver Langford spotted his use of an arm in soaring to convert from Wes Hoolahan’s corner and the goal was ruled out.
Shortly after, Bialkowski was stretched again — Naismith’s flicked header dropping towards the bottom- right corner of his net, but kept out.
McGoldrick started the move leading to Knudsen’s gogoal. The ball thethen landed with JordJordan Spence, who sentse a sumptuousous cross to the back post for Knudsen, arriving late, to head down and in.
Cue mayhem in one blue corner of the ground. They dreamed of ending a 2,871- day run without beating their East Anglian rivals.
But as the frustrations rose around Carrow Road, City fans were grateful that Murphy took his out on the ball. The wideman engineered himself a yard of space just inside the area and hammered, right-footed, into the corner from a tight angle — a shot too fast even for Bialkowski.
The keeper was angry with that error back in the dressing room, but McCarthy wouldn’t let that ruin his day.
‘I think we’ve had to be tough and resolute because they are a good side,’ he said. ‘We carried our luck a bit at times and his magnificent goalkeeping kept us in it.’