Norwich City 4-1 Ipswich Town, November 2010: Ipswich – Your boys took one hell of a beating

Time for the start of a new series on Just Football – ‘Your boys took one hell of a beating’ – in which memorable derby beatings are revisited by fans who experienced it most passionately. Read here for more information and to learn how to get involved. Kicking us off, James McMath with a famous East Anglian derby thrashing:

Norwich City 4 Ipswich Town 1

Carrow Road, November 28, 2010

What’s the sweetest thing about winning a derby? Is it the joy of watching your team triumph in a crucial encounter or witnessing the pain inflicted on your arch rivals?

The happy dilemma will be fresh in the mind of Norwich City fans after their most recent victory over Ipswich Town.

It came at Carrow Road in November this season: The 4-1 win was their biggest-ever victory in the 64-year history of the East Anglian showdown.

Some 45 miles and a county border separate the two clubs but it is one of the fiercest rivalries in England and one in which Town have historically held the upper hand.

From 81 meetings in the league, Ipswich have won 38 to City’s 29, with 14 draws shared.

Ipswich have also enjoyed three 5-0 wins over the Canaries down the years (1946, 1977 and 1998).

But it was time for a little revenge as Paul Lambert’s resurgent Canaries, promoted from League One only last season, underlined their position as East Anglia’s dominant club in front of 26,532 on their own patch.

Striker Grant Holt was the hosts’ hero, helping himself to a hat-trick before Wes Hoolahan added the fourth. Ipswich defender Damien Delaney had briefly equalised in the 29^th minute but was sent off for denying Holt a goalscoring opportunity in the 37^th.

Holt’s first settled the nerves after 13 shaky minutes. He stole the ball from Darren O’Dea and fired the ball beyond Marton Fulop in the Ipswich goal.

Delaney dived to head home the leveller from close range after Tamas Priskin glanced down Grant Leadbitter’s free-kick, but Holt put Norwich 2-1 up six minutes later, latching on to Henri Lansbury’s through ball.

Delaney sending off meant it was damage limitation time for Ipswich, but the Canaries were merciless.

Holt completed his hat-trick in the 76^th minute after fine build-up play from Chris Martin and Hoolahan. And Hoolahan completed the scoring with a neat chip two minutes later.

Holt, 29, had scored 30 goals in the previous season in League One but there were questions over whether he could cut it in the Championship. But that haul took his tally to nine for the season, and he currently has 15 to his name. It ended a run of five matches without a win for the Canaries, who have gone on to forge a stake promotion claim.

And there’s nothing like kicking your opponents when they’re down.

It was a fourth-straight defeat for Town and piled pressure on their high-profile manager, Roy Keane.

Before the game, Keane had talked about the form book going out the window in derbies, but it wasn’t long before he went out the door.

Keane won only one more of his five remaining fixture before being sacked in early January after 20 months at the helm.

Paul Jewell, Keane’s successor, has guided Town away from danger but, for Ipswich, it looks like being a season with nothing to play for.

Nothing, that is, except the East Anglian derby at Portman Road on April 21.

English Championship, Ipswich Town, Norwich City, Your boys took one hell of a beating...