Ipswich 2 Norwich 2

I have a few good friends who support Ipswich so I watched on Sky yesterday what is wittily known as “the Old Farm Derby”.

There must be some clever copywriters out there composing names for derbies as Brighton v Southampton is called the El Coastico.

Mind you, these derbies are serious stuff – especially as Norwich have held the East Anglian bragging rights for 13 seasons.

Ipswich Town were the team of the early 1960s when Alf Ramsey took them up two divisions to beat Spurs -and Burnley – to win the title.

Chairman ‘Mr John’ Cobbold made another brilliant appointment in Bobby Robson: his Ipswich team shadowed Liverpool in the 1970s but had only a FA Cup and one European Trophy to show for it.

Robson produced tremendous teams – including the likes of  Terry Butcher , Kevin Beattie, Johnny Wark , Arnold Muhren, Franz Thijsssen – and Portman Road was always a welcoming venue.

Under an enlightened board David Sheepshanks then was produced another attractive side managed by George Burley.

They suffered from second season syndrome in the Premiership, were relegated and it’s been downhill since then with another relegation.

They made yet another successful appointment in Manchester Utd coach Kieran McKenna, who showed you don’t have to have played the game at the highest level to manage successfully.

His team took the First Division by storm – no mean feat as big, well-supported, clubs like Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, Portsmouth and Bolton Wanderers were competitors.

The momentum carried on till the Championship which in the week the Town were temporarily leading. Norwich meanwhile have been a yo-yo team between the Championship and the Premier.

Now both back in the Championship, this game generated huge interest.

As so often is the case, it was a feisty match with not much football played.  The stakes were too high.

I enjoyed the encounter for the simple reason there were no VAR referrals to ruin it.

Ipswich dominated but only had one goal to show for it.

Norwich rallied in the second half and Rowe netted twice. At this point, Pargie texted me that he was going to back against Norwich who were now evens.

This seemed a sensible move and the home side did indeed equalise.

Although the money men at Ipswich would like the £100million+ of promotion, I’m not at all sure that this is in in Ipswich’s interests.

McKenna must be on the radar of Crystal Palace, possibly also that of West Ham, also Nottingham Forest, Everton, Brighton and Brentford.

If he stays – and promoted Ipswich have a poor run – then he could be sacked.

Like most promoted sides, the squad does not seem strong enough to survive and needs to be improved. Easier said than done.

With Chelsea’s new project built around the 22-25 age group, their conveyor belt of home-grown players ready to go out on loan might diminish and besides on-loan youngsters can be on big wages and there is the loyalty factor.

You can get in Carlos Kickerball but often these players break up the team spirit and are looking for an upwardly mobile move the minute they arrive.

A promoted side might only achieve 6 wins at most  all season and soon fans get fed up with seeing their team thrashed, whilst fixtures are rescheduled at short notice to accommodate Sky and TNT.

No, the Premier League is no Promised Land for the Ipswiches of this world.