Norwich City 0-0 Ipswich Town - Half-Time Sunday, 26th Feb 2017 12:58 Town and Norwich City remain locked at 0-0 at half-time in the East Anglian derby at Carrow Road. The Blues were unchanged from last week’s 1-1 home draw with Leeds with skipper Luke Chambers OK to take his place on the right of the defensive three having been ill earlier in the week. Cole Skuse continued in central midfield with Toumani Diagouraga, who had also been unwell earlier in the week, back on the bench having been ineligible against his parent club last week. With Tom Lawrence still suspended, Freddie Sears kept his place alongside David McGoldrick up front despite suffering a groin strain in the draw with the Whites in which he scored his first goal since October. Norwich made three changes with Steven Whittaker, Yanic Wildschut and Alex Pritchard dropping to the bench and Ivo Pinto and Steven Naismith, both back from injury, and Wes Hoolahan all starting. The home side were first to threaten in the fifth minute when a corner from the left reached the unmarked Jonny Howson, who smashed a volley against a defender. Town failed to clear and the ball again fell to the former Leeds man, who hit another effort, which deflected wide. Norwich kept up the early pressure and two minutes later Mitchell Dijks crossed from the left and Cameron Jerome shot wide on the turn when he will feel he ought to have done better. The Blues threatened for the first time in the ninth minute, Jordan Spence finding Sears on the left of the area but the ball was stabbed behind and Town were unable to make anything of the corner. There was a scare for the Blues in the 15th minute when Jerome escaped behind the Town defence - with more than a hint of offside - but Christophe Berra did superbly to get back to slide the ball behind. From the corner, the former Cardiff and Stoke man headed over. The Canaries continued to look much the more dangerous side and in the 18th minute only a brilliant Bartosz Bialkowski save stopped them from going in front. Dijks beat Spence and crossed low from the left. The ball struck Berra and then Knudsen, who inadvertently diverted it goalwards only for Bialkowski to pull off a remarkable reaction save to tip it over the bar. On 20 the Blues’ Polish keeper came out quickly to claim the ball ahead of Jerome from Pinto’s through ball. Town started to have more of the ball as the game moved towards the half-hour mark with McGoldrick beginning to get more involved. However, the Blues were still to create a chance and in the 29th minute Bialkowski was again quickly off his line to clear ahead of Jerome, whose battle with Berra was one of the main features of the first half. Four minutes later, following a corner, the ball was laid back to Hoolahan on the edge of the box but the Irish international’s shot flew well over. The Norwich pressure continued and in the 37th minute the home fans appealed for a penalty after Knudsen blocked a shot from a corner but the ball hadn’t appeared to strike the Danish international anywhere near his hand and referee Oliver Langford waved away the protests. Soon after, Myles Kenlock did well to get across to block yet another Norwich shot from just outside the box. Two minutes before the break McGoldrick hit Town’s first serious strike of the half high and wide into the stand from a tight angle on the left. The scoreline remained 0-0 after one minute of additional time. The Blues’ backline had withstood a great deal of pressure during the first 45 minutes with Norwich only really coming close to breaking the deadlock on two occasions, Jerome’s early effort on the turn and Knudsen’s almost-own goal when Bialkowski made an outstanding save. At the other end, Canaries keeper John Ruddy was yet to be tested with McGoldrick and Sears only involved fleetingly, while in midfield, Emyr Huws had had an uncharacteristically quiet half. Norwich City: Ruddy, Pinto, Martin, Klose, Dijks, Tettey, Howson, Jacob Murphy, Hoolahan, Naismith, Jerome. Subs: McGovern, Whittaker, Wildschut, Lafferty, Pritchard, Bennett, Josh Murphy. Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers (c), Berra, Knudsen, Kenlock, Skuse, Ward, Huws, Sears, McGoldrick. Subs: Gerken, Emmanuel, T Smith, Bru, Diagouraga, Moore, Pitman. Referee: Oliver Langford (West Midlands).
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