Ipswich Town and Norwich City: Back on a Level Playing Field

As we came to the end of last season, there was a sense of huge relief for this Tractor Girl. 

It wasn't just that we had finally said goodbye to our pain-in-the-arse manager that was making me feel this way, the final position of our bitter rivals Norwich was also making me smile.

As another Town settled into their familiar spot in the middle of the table, our noisy neighbours over the border in Norfolk had finally returned to the realms of mediocrity. Back where they belong.

We all know the Blues are the bigger and better club. We've seen more success, we’ve held more trophies, we’ve produced the two greatest managers England has ever had. So, this recent feeling of being the underdogs has felt odd to me.

Nine long years since our last victory over Norwich, we've watched them promoted to the Premier League twice, continue to sell out their ground and have money to spend thanks to parachute payments, the ludicrous reward for teams who are relegated.

When we faced our rivals for the semi-finals of the play-offs in 2015, I was proud of the way we performed. City fielded a team of ex-Premier League players worth millions, while our manager had spent just £110k on our side, yet still the Canaries needed a second leg and a sending off to get past us and into the finals.

Even their short time in the Premier League was overshadowed by ours, they never did equal our superb achievement of finishing fifth in the top flight.

(*Edit: I've been, rightly, called out on this one as Norwich did finish 3rd in 1993 - my mistake for not explaining myself. For me, the achievement of finishing fifth when we did and competing against the teams that we did, far overshadows the Canary's achievement almost ten years earlier, it was a very different league then.)

Since then, the beautiful game has begun to show them you need more than money to make it in this league, something they should have learned from us three years ago.

After years of yo-yoing between the first and second tiers, they have joined us back in the Championship and slipped further and further away from the chances of promotion back to the big time. What that means, of course, is that they face this season without the boost of the parachute payment.

Don't get me wrong, I know many Norwich fans and they’re alright, I guess. Friends and family have enjoyed the Canaries’ recent brush with success and I have been happy for them to see what it was like to be a success, it must have made a nice change for them.

When you live in East Anglia you know you're going to bump into three types of football fans: Ipswich, Norwich or Manchester United, so it’s inevitable we’re going to associate with the Budgies and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

My 94-year-old Grandad is a Norwich fan and, until recently, was a season ticket holder who trekked from Stowmarket to Norfolk every other week. My Dad's first game was at Norwich, but because they lived in Suffolk, Grandad gave him the choice of going to Carrow Road or Portman Road.

It was the Alf Ramsey era: my Dad was already smitten. Ray Crawford or Bill Punton? There was no choice really, was there? I love hearing stories of my Dad taking a milk crate into the North Stand and I’ll always be so glad he made the right decision that day! 

Please don’t hate me for what I’m about to say: when it comes down to it, Ipswich fans and Norwich fans are cut from the same cloth. We've grown up in the same area, with very similar backgrounds. We’ve all chosen to support our local teams over the Premier League superstars, and that deserves a pat on the back.

But there will always be one huge difference - we have our history.

I've lost count of the number of times I've read Norwich fans teasing us for the 3 stars on our shirts. Do you know why they do that? Jealousy. They mock us because it’s something they don't have and, boy, do they wish they did.

There has even been speculation about a statue for the recently departed Wes Hoolahan. As I saw someone quip on Twitter: Statue? More like a doorstop! My Dad reckons they’ve probably even thought of erecting one for Grant Holt, but there is not enough plaster in the country to make it life size!

I know what they’re going to say… but, but, Norwich participated against Bayern Munich that time. Oh, and their programme was voted the second best in Britain for three years in a row. And all of Ipswich’s success is in the past.

It may be 40 years since we won the FA Cup and almost as long since we were champions of England and Europe - but at least we've done it. Our younger fans may not know what it's like to play in the country's top league, but they know what it's like to feel proud of their club. 

So, I say to the Budgies: you may have experienced more joy than us in recent years; but look what we've been through and we're still standing. We haven't had to go down to League One to enjoy promotion, we haven’t bought our way to the Premier League and we haven't stopped looking at our trophy cabinet with its proud history.

We will always be the Kings of Anglia: here’s to proving that this season, when we finally right the wrongs of recent years and win both our derby games.

This article originally appeared in the Kings of Anglia fanzine, you can purchase the current issue and all previous copies here: http://www.buyamag.co.uk/search.aspx?search=kings%20of%20anglia