By Aston
April 13 2008
Town secured the title of "Pride Of Anglia" for another season after beating Norwich 2-1 at Portman Road earlier today. The budgies had been the better side for the opening few minutes and they took advantage and went into a 4th minute lead when Ched Evans' limp shot from 25-yards evaded Stephen Bywater and trickled into the bottom corner of the goal.
Town however soon started to take control of the game and had their first shoot moments after the restart, Alan Quinn's 25-yard effort was powerful enough but easily gathered by David Marshall in the Norwich goal.
Town did manage to get level in the 12th minute when Alex Pearce was in the right place to deflected Danny Haynes' low cross into his own net.
David Marshall was in fine form for the boys from Norfolk, keeping out Shefki Kuqi who had been set free following some good work from Pablo Counago, Marshall also denied Tommy Miller by pushing his well struck low free-kick round the post.
Shefki Kuqi, who was making his return from injury last just 36 minutes before he had to hobble down the tunnel with a possible recurrence of his hamstring injury, Jon Walters who is also coming back from injury come on to replace the Finn.
Danny Haynes continued his record of scoring against Norwich for Town when got on the end of a pass from Counago before calming slotting the ball past Marshall and into the net to give Town a 2-1 lead.
Counago had a chance to give Town a 2 goal cushion before half time but the Spaniard sent his header from Haynes' cross over the bar.
Town really should have been able to kill the game off in the second period but they wasted a number of chances.
Danny Haynes was in the right place to slot home Counago's pass but Haynes managed to send his effort 4-yards wide.
Walters shot just wide after using skill to find his way into the Norwich box, Pablo Counago was denied by the legs of Marshall after leaving the Norwich defence behind, Tommy Miller was unmarked 12-yards but Counago failed to find him, Haynes took too much time to shoot allowing the Norwich defence to recover.
Norwich claimed for a penalty after Darren Huckerby went down in the box under a challenge from Danny Simpson but their appeals were waved away by the referee.
The game finished after 4 minutes of stoppage time, Town have claimed up to 7th in the Championship 1 point and 2 goals behind Crystal Palace.
Ipswich: Bywater, Simpson, De Vos, Bruce (Sito 56), Wright, Haynes, Miller, Garvan, Quinn, Kuqi (Walters 36), Counago (Sumulikoski 90).
Subs Not Used: Colgan, Rhodes.
Booked: Bruce, Quinn.
Goals: Pearce 13 (OG), Haynes 40.
Norwich: Marshall, Otsemobor, Pearce, Doherty, Bertrand (Camara 72), Cureton, Russell, Pattison, Huckerby, Dublin (Croft 64), Evans, Croft (Gibbs 90).
Subs Not Used: Gilks, Shackell.
Booked: Huckerby, Evans.
Goals: Evans 4.
Attendance: 29,656.
Ref: Michael Jones (Cheshire).
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