Town boss Paul Lambert says 10 years is too long for Blues supporters to have to wait for a derby victory over local rivals Norwich City. Table-propping Town travel to Carrow Road to face the league-leading Canaries at Carrow Road on Sunday.

Asked for his thoughts on Sunday’s game, his first return to his old club Norwich as Blues boss, Lambert said: “The same way as every week! Is it different this week? For other people maybe.

“I have my own feeling, I know the game, I’ve been involved in derbies, I know derbies like the back of my hand.

“I’ve played in some ferocious ones, some really big ones where it’s incredible what’s at stake. I know derby games, but it’s a game we have to go and try and win.

“It’s 10 years since this club beat them, so we have to go and try and win and we’ll do all we can to win.”

Lambert has stressed to his players that Town’s last win against the Canaries - the 3-2 win at Portman Road in April 2009 under Jim Magilton’s management - is too long ago.

“Somewhere, some time that’s got to change,” he insisted. “We’ll go there, we have a game plan to try and win.

“It’ll be a difficult game but any given game you can win. And a derby game, it doesn’t matter who’s on top, who’s at the bottom, anybody can win it.”

He added: “I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a difficult game for both sets of players. It’s a hard, hard game. We have to try and win, and that’s what we’ll go there to try and do.”

Lambert, who wouldn’t be drawn into talking about his spell as Norwich boss between August 2009 and June 2012 during which time he took the Canaries up two divisions, continued to try to play down the significance of the match.

“I’d be looking forward to any other game,” he added. “It’s [people] outside that put the animosity on it, it doesn’t faze me. I can’t wait to go.”

He says he’s tried not to involve himself in the pre-match derby chatter: “I shut myself off from it, I don’t get caught up in the emotion of it. I know, you don’t need to tell me. I know exactly what it entails.

“I’ve been involved in derbies before and I’ve never really changed my way of thinking about them or anything like that. I’m keeping my cards close to my chest, but I know what a derby means to people, so I’ll be ready for it.”

Town go into the game very much underdogs, although Lambert questions whether that’s ever quite the case in a derby match.

“Probably no such thing,” he reflected. “As I said before, I’ve been favourites and lost and been underdogs and won them, so let’s see what happens on the day.”

Would he take a point from Sunday’s match? “No, I want to win and I’ll go there and will try and win.”

Lambert says he has no intention of tempering his attacking approach, despite Norwich leading the table: “No, I’m going to go to try and win. Let’s see what happens.”

Told he’s sounding confident, he added: “I’m most confident. I’m going to try everything I can to try and win, my career’s been like that, I’m used to winning as a player, I had good spells at certain clubs. I’m going there to try and win.”

If Town do finally end their near-decade-long wait for a derby win - and a 13-year hiatus since their last victory at Carrow Road, the 2-1 win in February 2006 under Joe Royle - he said: “It’ll be brilliant for them. Ten years, as I said before, that’s far too long and we have to turn that somewhere, and that’s a good place to start.”

And the win would be worth more than just three points in terms of momentum and feel-good factor as Town try to make up the eight-point gap to safety.

“I get that, 100 per cent,” he continued. “For Ipswich fans, if we can get a result against them then I’m pretty sure they’ll be over the moon with it.”

Photo: TWTD

Pencilpete added 17:36 - Feb 7 Sadly there's more chance of me winning Miss World ....
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Bluearmy_81 added 17:39 - Feb 7 Coincidences completely with Evans awful, calamitous tenure
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MichaelRockyLavelle added 17:39 - Feb 7 Anyone else got a weirdly good feeling about this... ... one thing I've learnt supporting Town is we tend to surprise people against the high-flyers in the league Though on paper - we should get thrashed, what with a literal entire league between us What a way to kick start the great escape it would be to stick a few past the scum, seeing as it might be a few years before we play them again aha Don't stop believing, be stubborn like a horse (Suffolk Punch obviously)

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ChrisFelix added 17:47 - Feb 7 Would love to win this one. But I fear as soon as we see the team we will know the result. Only way to win this is to take the game to notwich & simply out score them
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Suffolkboy added 18:01 - Feb 7 Let's accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative in all we say and do at the match and in our following assessments . Mistakes will obviously occur in both teams ,so take these on board and look for the good ! COYB
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Gforce added 18:05 - Feb 7 Unfortunately there's more chance of me having a romantic meal for two in the Mermaid,with Nicole Kidman,than winning this one or staying up !!
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raycrawfordswig added 18:26 - Feb 7 Yawn.
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tags added 18:26 - Feb 7 He said the same about not getting through the FA cup 3 round - hope there's a lesson learned somewhere.
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Pecker added 18:37 - Feb 7 Tell us about it. Time for talk is over Mr Lambert. We need results.
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dukey44 added 19:31 - Feb 7 Has anyone else had enough of his chat before games as its always the same but this game is totally different.. Just win the game and hopefully play 2 up front so we have more chances of scoring please...
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Saxonblue74 added 20:05 - Feb 7 We're going to need goals to win this game as Norwich will, in my opinion, score at least 2 against us. It's imperative that we go into the game with an attacking line up and formation. Let's go hard at it right from the first whistle and, with a large dose of good fortune we just might get something out of it. I just hope we can at least make a fight of it!
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armchaircritic59 added 22:39 - Feb 7 One things for sure, it's easy to pinpoint Norwich's relative strength and weakness. Up front, more goals than anybody other than WBA. At the back, you have to go down to ninth in the table to find a side that have conceded more, and three more teams further down have conceded less. We've only shipped 12 more goals than Norwich, which is an unusually small gap between top and bottom at this time of the season! Of course, up front they have a Fin on fire in Teemu Pukki, whose 18 championship goals so far, is only 5 less than our entire team, and he's had 5 assists as well! Not entirely sure what this all ads up to, but i think there's a distinct possibility we might actually get a goal or two, but unfortunately they might get a goal or two more! (especially after the 90th minute!) I guess all we can ask is that every player gives 100 % (as they should) and leaves nothing on the pitch, then what will be, will be!

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