Ipswich Town vs Norwich City. Sky Bet Championship.
Portman RoadAttendance23,350.
Sunday 21 August 2016 22:38, UK
Norwich missed the chance to go top of the Sky Bet Championship after Jonas Knudsen earned Ipswich a 1-1 draw in the East Anglia derby.
Cameron Jerome put the visitors ahead in the 25th minute with his second goal of the season - just one shy of his tally for the whole of last season - after good work from Ivo Pinto on the right.
Ipswich then drew level on the stroke of half-time when Knudsen buried an effort from outside the box, after Daryl Murphy and Freddie Sears combined from a throw-in.
The hosts will feel aggrieved not to have secured all three points, after they had a goal chalked off with just two minutes on the clock when Jonathan Douglas was harshly deemed offside when he poked home a Murphy flick.
A point means the Canaries move into fourth while Ipswich climb to 13th.
Ipswich made a blistering start to the East Anglian derby and should have been rewarded in the second minute with a goal.
Kevin Bru angled a free-kick into the Norwich penalty area that the visitors failed to deal with. Murphy out-jumped Canaries defender Timm Klose to nod the ball to Douglas who with a flick of the boot nudged it past Michael McGovern. But the linesman was quick to raise his flag and deny the Tractor Boys the lead.
An animated Alex Neil gesticulated for his side to keep possession to relieve some of the pressure they were under and the instruction yielded a goal after 25 minutes.
Pinto did superbly to get beyond Knudsen on the right-hand side before cutting a pass back to Steven Naismith. The Scot dummied the ball to allow Wes Hoolahan possession, he passed to Jonny Howson who teed up Jerome on the edge of the penalty area to slide a first-time effort into the bottom right corner beyond a despairing Bialkowski.
Canaries fans were singing about going top of the league when Naismith had an effort of his own from inside the penalty area sail just over.
It looked like Norwich would hold onto their lead going into the interval but Ipswich drew level in injury time through Knudsen.
The ball was hurled to Murphy who used his strength well to hold off Chambers before nudging it to Sears. He then rolled the ball to Knudsen who took one touch to control it before lashing a shot low into the left hand corner.
Neither side carried their momentum into the second half and the longer the game looked likely to end in a draw.
Near the hour mark, Murphy appeared to get ahead of Klose but pulled up after landing awkwardly when it seemed he would gallop forward to go one-on-one with Bialkowski.
Steven Whittaker, who replaced the injured Pinto at half-time, smashed the Ipswich post with a left-footed drive after a horrendous attempted clearance by Adam Webster went straight to him. The former Rangers defender then volleyed into the ground when a similar chance fell his way.
Northern Ireland international McGovern did well to foil Ipswich sub Teddy Bishop and Jacob Murphy, who was introduced late on for Ipswich, could only steer his left-footed shot wide late on when Hoolahan played him in.
