Get Ready For Goals In The East Anglian Derby!

It’s the first East Anglian derby for three seasons as Ipswich host Norwich at Portman Road in Saturday’s early kick-off.

Form

A win, a draw and a defeat sees Ipswich start the 2014/15 Championship campaign with four points from their opening three league games. The season began with a home win against Fulham thanks to goals from Daryl Murphy and David McGoldrick, but was followed by a defeat in the Capital One Cup at Crawley and then a loss at Reading and 2-2 draw at Birmingham.

Christophe Berra scored both goals in the game at St Andrews twice equalising for the Tractor Boys and securing a point in the 90th minute of the game. Mick McCarthy’s men are yet to keep a clean sheet in the league this season.

Norwich, by contrast, kicked off the campaign with an away defeat to Wolves, but have since followed that up with convincing wins against Watford and Blackburn. Summer signing Lewis Grabban has scored three goals in three games since joining the club, while Bradley Johnson also has two for the campaign so far.

In a run dating back to the beginning of December last year, the Canaries haven’t won in their last 13 away games.

Team News

Jonathan Parr could make his debut after recovering from a groin injury but sitting on the bench for the duration of the midweek game at Birmingham. Elliott Hewitt was also an unused sub in the game after recovering from a groin injury.

Leroy Fer left the club to join QPR in midweek, but his departure shouldn’t upset the Canaries too much as the Dutchman has only featured for 20 minutes in three games this season. Jonny Howson (medial knee ligament) and Gary Hooper (calf) are both still sidelined through injury, while Martin Olsson continues to serve a suspension after admitting to a charge of improper conduct.

Head-to-Head

This is the first East Anglia derby since the 2010/11 season when Norwich were promoted to the Premier League. The Canaries won 4-1 at Carrow Road and 5-1 at Portman Road that season with Grant Holt scoring a hat-trick in the former.

Ipswich did win the previous meeting at Portman Road back in 2009 and have in fact won three of the last four at their home ground.

Five of the last six meetings have ended with more than 2.5 goals and both teams have scored in eight of the last nine.

Recommended Bets

Local derbies are often tricky betting propositions, and this one is no different with Norwich made very slight favourites at odds of 13/8 and Ipswich at 8/5. Given Norwich’s dismal away record the value here looks to be in siding with the hosts, but it’s not a bet to get too excited about.

Instead I suggest a bet on the goals markets where Over 2.5 can be backed at odds of 10/11 and Over 3.5 is 9/4. This fixture has a habit of producing goals and with both teams finding the back of the net with some ease so far this campaign another high scoring thriller could be on the cards.