Just 90 Minutes Away From Wembley!

Ipswich Town are a very fit outfit. They leave nothing on the field week in week out and on Saturday at Carrow Road they may have to have a little in reserve should this tie go to extra time – or worst still penalties, which of course is a very real possibility now.

We are but 90 minutes away from another Wembley appearance and if this tie was not big enough with it being a local derby and a chance to take another step towards the promised land, then surely this is the ultimate icing on the cake!

Mick McCarthy will not have to get his players up for this one because they know only too well what is at stake. They go into the game as underdogs but with their impressive away performances against the promoted teams and away goals counting for nothing means the margins between success and failure are very thin.

In truth, it could go either way. Norwich will have a partisan crowd in front of them but they will also have added pressure on their shoulders of anticipated success and they have lost at home already to Brentford, Wigan and Middlesborough this year so home advantage will not count for a lot when the whistle blows.

We know too that McCarthy will set his stall up well and look to play a counter-attacking game, by weathering the early expected onslaught from the home side and then looking for gaps in the Canaries rearguard.

Freddie Sears and Daryl Murphy are well equipped to exploit any weaknesses there I believe.

At the moment there is no news of any new injury concerns for the blues and although it is very sad that Luke Varney will play no further part in proceedings, it is encouraging to know that we have both Noel Hunt and David McGoldrick waiting in the wings!

Our manager has not had a good record in play-off confrontations in the past but he will have grasped where he has gone wrong before and to try to remedy it on Saturday.

Privately I suspect he is comforted in the knowledge that we are unfancied because it takes a lot of pressure off us which is then transferred to the home team and their great expectations!

To spend so little and yet get so far is a remarkable achievement by our management team and both fans and players alike are united in their goal to defy the laws of football logic.

Then it may not only be the most significant East Anglian derby in football history but also the most significant result!

F.W.