Town go into Sunday’s East Anglian derby against Norwich City at Carrow Road looking to continue their February revival which has seen them take points from a number of the division’s higher flyers and to end their near-eight-year wait for victory over their greatest rivals (Sky Sports Two from 11.30am, KO midday).
February has seen the Blues, who last beat the Canaries 3-2 at Portman Road back in April 2009, draw at home with play-off contenders Reading, 2-2, and Leeds, 1-1, and at second-placed Brighton, also 1-1, and beat Aston Villa 1-0 at Villa Park, their first home defeat of the season.
Boss Mick McCarthy says that as a result Town will go into Sunday’s match in a more confident mood than they would have done only a month ago during a disappointing January.
"We’ve picked up in terms of performances,” McCarthy reflected on February’s progress. "Strange, isn’t it, prior to playing against Reading, Aston Villa, Brighton and Leeds, we would probably have taken the points that we’ve taken out of them, and the performances that we got out of them.
"So, I’d still take the performances, but actually I’m disappointed that we didn’t get more points because we certainly had really good chances at Brighton, I thought against Reading we were the better team and certainly against Leeds we were the team that were going to win it. But we just didn’t manage to score another goal and gave a bit of a soft one away.
"So overall it’s been a good few games. We could have had more points, but the performances have been good.”
He says his January transfer window additions, most notably loan midfielders Emyr Huws and Toumani Diagouraga and defenders Steven Taylor and Jordan Spence, both signed on short-term deals, have made a big impression which has given the other members of his squad a boost.
"They’ve had a positive impact with the way they’ve played, and that transmits itself into the dressing room,” he said.
"I know as a player myself, if you’ve got some other good players in there it gives you a bit of confidence, even just looking at them in the dressing room, you know they’re there, they’re good players, they’ll be playing on Sunday, they’ve helped make us better, stronger, a better football team.
"That’s how it transmits itself, with what they do on the pitch. I don’t know what they go around saying.
"Steven Taylor’s been a really positive influence in the dressing room, you can hear his voice and his experience, he gives out a good vibe, good information to the younger kids.”
Even with 13 matches left Town seem unlikely to either get embroiled in the relegation battle or involved in a play-off challeng, while Norwich are chasing a place in the top six, which is currently two places and seven points away.
Does McCarthy therefore believe Sunday’s match is a bigger game for the Canaries? "I keep getting asked that question. It’s a big game for all of us because of the nature of the game.
"The same points are at stake but, of course, the bragging rights and the feeling of the club, the fans, everybody that’s associated with it, from both sides, all want to win because it’s a derby.
"If they’re going to have any chance of getting in the play-offs, I think they’re seven points behind, Fulham won [on Wednesday] night, they are pretty much going to have to win a whole load of games and, I would have thought, it’s going to have to be starting with us on Sunday to give them a chance to get in there. And we’re going to do our damnedest to stop them, of course.”
Is he surprised the Norfolk side, relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season, aren’t nearer the top of the division?
"I’m not really bothered about them, to be quite honest,” he insisted. "I don’t overly consume myself with what’s going on 50 miles up the road, I can assure you.
"This is a great local derby event with healthy rivalry" - Police plans in place for #NCFC #ITFC derby - https://t.co/qb6Xb4VuMD– Norfolk Police (@NorfolkPolice) February 20, 2017
"I wasn’t born in Suffolk, I might be having a look to see what Barnsley are doing or how Sheffield Wednesday are doing because that used to be my derby, or Doncaster or Chesterfield or Rotherham or Leeds.
"Am I surprised? The way they started I thought they would have been in the play-offs, would at least have been in the play-offs and that’s looking tough for them now.”
McCarthy says his Norwich counterpart Alex Neil has some talented players in his squad: "Cameron Jerome’s always a real threat with his power and pace, there’s no doubt about that.
"Wes Hoolahan is the one for me, if he plays and he turns it on, he’s the one. And, of course, they’ve got Alex Pritchard as well, whether they play the both of them, I don’t know.
"They’ve got really good players, both the Murphy kids have come in and done very, very well.
"Jonny Howson plays well, he’s a bit more unsung than the others, he goes around and does a really efficient job.
"But if one player is allowed to play and stands out, it would Wes Hoolahan, he’s a very clever footballer.”
McCarthy says he’s not sure how the Canaries will line-up following last week’s 2-1 defeat away against strugglers Burton Albion.
"I think they’ll be looking at us and our system and we’ll be doing exactly the same,” he added.
"They’ve had a couple of different formations, they’ve got a lot of players who they can pick, they’ve had different teams.
"Whether it’ll be the same one that lost at Burton last week, I was looking at it and thinking that would be the team, but I’m not so sure now.
"They played against Forest and they certainly set up to win and the beat them 5-1 and then Newcastle the following week, a home game, it looked to be set up differently, they weren’t as gung-ho [as they drew 2-2]. But I think they’ll be setting up to beat us because that’ll be what they want to do.”
McCarthy says he’ll pick his team on Saturday with the players being given today off, however, he is unlikely to make too many changes from the side which impressed as they drew with Leeds last week.
Bartosz Bialkowski will be in goal with Jordan Spence likely to get the nod at right wing-back with Myles Kenlock at left wing-back.
Christophe Berra will be at the heart of the three-man central defence with skipper Luke Chambers to his right and Jonas Knudsen to his left.
McCarthy’s main dilemma is in midfield where Diagouraga is available having been ineligible against his parent club last week.
Emyr Huws is a certain starter but the Town boss will have to choose which two of Diagouraga, Cole Skuse and Grant Ward join him in the central three.
Up front, with Tom Lawrence suspended for his second and final game, Freddie Sears is likely to partner David McGoldrick. The former West Ham man has a groin problem, which McCarthy is confident he’ll be over by Sunday, but if not Brett Pitman or Kieffer Moore will replace him with the Channel Islander most likely to come into the team.
Norwich are hopeful on right-back Ivo Pinto and midfielder Steven Naismith, who have trained this week after knocks.
But Youssouf Mulumbu (thigh) is a bigger doubt and Nelson Oliveira (foot), Graham Dorrans (knee) and Louis Thompson (achilles) remain unavailable.
Canaries boss Neil says winning Sunday’s game is significant not just from the point of view of putting one over their local rivals but also in terms of their play-off challenge.
"It's going to be vitally important. The fans will want to continue with the bragging rights," he told Norwich City TV.
"We don't take that lightly. We want to make sure that we go and perform well, hopefully the fans can get in full voice and we can win the match. "It's one of the fixtures the lads look for right away because they know everybody will be up for it.
"We've got a good record in it and we want to maintain that, and because of the league situation as well we need to maintain that."
Neil says his side have a good record at home against teams playing a three-man central defence.
"We've beaten every back three or five that have come to Carrow Road," he added. "We're well equipped to do that, we know how to break that down, but equally it starts from winning your own battles.
"You need to win headers and dominate the ball, and then you can do the rest from there."
Historically, Town just have the better record in East Anglian derbies, winning 40 (38 in the league), losing 39 (33) and drawing 19 (16). The 5-1 at Portman Road in 2011 is Norwich’s biggest derby victory, while Town have recorded 5-0 wins on three occasions, in 1946, 1977 and 1998.
In August at Portman Road, Knudsen netted a first-half injury time equaliser as the season’s first East Anglian derby ended 1-1.
After Jonathan Douglas had had an early goal wrongly ruled out for offside, Jerome gave the Canaries the lead against the run of play on 26 but Knudsen equalised. In the second half, Steven Whittaker came closest to winning it when he hit the post.
Prior to that the teams had most recently met in the play-off semi-finals at the end of the 2014/15 season with Norwich, who went on to beat Middlesbrough at Wembley to make a swift, if brief, return to the Premier League.
The first leg at Portman Road ended 1-1 with Howson putting the visitors ahead in the 41st minute but sub Paul Anderson hit back in first-half injury time.
In the second leg at Carrow Road, Town were defeated 3-1 having been reduced to 10 men when Berra was red-carded just after half-time.
The tie was turned in the 48th minute when Berra handled Nathan Redmond’s goalbound shot and was dismissed. Hoolahan scored from the spot, Tommy Smith equalised for the Blues soon after but goals from Nathan Redmond and Jerome sealed the place at Wembley for the Canaries.
In the last regular Championship game between the sides at Carrow Road that March, a goal in either half from Bradley Johnson and Lewis Grabban gave a 2-0 victory over the Blues.
Johnson opened the scoring on 24 with a strike off the underside of the bar with Grabban bundling in the second in the 62nd minute.
Town’s last derby victory was at Portman Road towards the end of Norwich’s 2008/09 Championship relegation season with the Blues winning 3-2 in what proved to be Jim Magilton’s final game as boss.
David Mooney put the Canaries in front before Town struck three times via Alan Quinn, Giovani Dos Santos (penalty) and Jon Stead with Sammy Clingan adding a consolation for the visitors towards the end, also from the spot. Current keeper Bialkowski was on the bench for the Blues during his earlier loan spell at the club.
Town last won at Carrow Road in February 2006 when an 88th-minute goal forced in by a combination of Danny Haynes's hand and Norwich defender Gary Doherty gave the Blues win.
The home side had gone ahead in the first half through Jonatan Johansson but the ex-Addick deflected in a Jimmy Juan freekick soon afterwards.
Norwich centre-half Ryan Bennett was an academy schoolboy with Town before being released at 16, while Blues U18s coach Alan Lee had a brief spell on loan at Carrow Road and played for the Canaries in the 2009 Portman Road derby.
His Playford Road colleague Steve Foley was first-team coach at Norwich before he joined the Blues. Town keeper-coach Malcolm Webster worked with Norwich’s glovesmen earlier in his career.
Former Town full-back David Wright is now the U18s coach at Norwich, where he had a spell on loan as a player before his time at Portman Road.
With the game being shown live on TV in the UK and around the world, Blues fans are meeting up at venues across the globe to watch.
Sunday’s referee is Oliver Langford from the West Midlands, who has shown 106 yellow cards and five red in 32 games so far this season.
Langford’s most recent Town match was the 2-0 home defeat to Fulham on Boxing Day in which he booked Tom Lawrence, David McGoldrick and one Cottager.
He also took control of the 2-0 home victory over Burton Albion last October in which he booked Cole Skuse and two Brewers.
Prior to that he was in charge of the 0-0 home draw with Charlton in April last year, in which he yellow-carded Jonas Knudsen and two Addicks, and the 2-1 home defeat to Leicester in November 2013, in which he booked only Luke Chambers.
The only other Town game he has refereed was the 2-0 defeat at Leeds in April of the same year when David Norris, by then with the Whites, was the only player cautioned.
Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Kenlock, Emmanuel, Spence, Berra, T Smith, Digby, Skuse, Huws, Diagouraga, Douglas, Bru, Bishop, Ward, Hyam, Rowe, McGoldrick, Sears, Pitman, Moore.