Derby losing it's passion?

A timid East Anglian derby typified both club's season's on Sunday and justified Sky's choice to show the Wolves v Birmingham game at the same time. The West Midlands derby finished 3-2 to Birmingham at Molineux, after the home side had recovered from being 1-0 down, to lead 2-1, before Cameron Jerome won the game for Steve Bruce's side in the 88th minute.

An exciting and passionate derby game that had four yellow card's for each side, as opposed to the one each at Carrow Road. It all just reminded Norwich and Ipswich fans of how we had absolutely nothing to play for.

This was not to say the game at Carrow Road was awful, if it had continued like it had done for the first ten minutes it could have been a classic, but the motivation was ultimately, just not there.

I was rather surprised to hear about the arrests of the 10+ Ipswich fans in the week building up to the game as trouble rarely threatens the East Anglian Derby anymore, due to the ever-increasing 'traditional' local hatred between the two club's, instead of a genuine league rivalry.

I'm not suggesting that I or any other City fan doesn't loathe our Suffolk neighbours but more so that, we have no reason to loathe them. When was the last time a match between the two teams actually meant anything?

The 'battle' for 14th place on Sunday certainly had little relevance, earlier in the season the two East Anglian team's were fighting over 12th spot, in February '06 Ipswich leapfrogged Norwich into 12th spot, City's 1-0 victory over Town in the September of that season left them 17th and Town 13th and in 04/05 Norwich were in the Premiership so the two teams did not meet. Exciting stuff hey?

The last East Anglian Derby to hold any importance was the 3-1 City victory in March '04 that consolidated their position at the top of the Championship and kept Ipswich 7th and just outside of the play-off's.

Of course the infamous 2-0 win at Portman Road on the 21st of December 2003 left Norwich top of the tree and Ipswich 5th and in the season before, Ipswich's 2-0 win in March took them 8th to just a point behind City in 7th. Before that Ipswich were in the Premiership in the 2001/02 and 2000/01 season’s.

Even Ipswich's famous 5-0 win in Feb '98 only left them 9th and City 14th and earlier that season City won 2-1 to go 10th and leave Town 22nd. Town's late 1996/97 season 2-0 win virtually guaranteed their play-off spot that year to put them 5th and leave City's play-off hopes in tatters in 9th place.

City picked up six points against Town in the perilous 1994/95 Premiership season but both results were fairly irrelevant as both club's were relegated, with Town finishing bottom.

Again in the Premiership, in 1993/94, there were win's a piece in the first half of the season but they were fairly irrelevant as City finished 12th and Town staved off relegation in 19th.                            

In April '93 Town completed a Premiership double over City with a 3-1 win that finished off City's stuttering title aspiration’s to leave them 3rd and virtually guarantee safety for Town in 16th. Earlier that season in December '92 Town won 2-0 at Carrow Road to prevent City from lengthening their 4 point lead at the top of the Premiership and leave Town 6th.

Between the 1991/92 season and 1986/87 season Town were in the old Second Division and City in the first so it was in March 1985 that the last really important, competitive Derby took place. City recovered a 1-0 first-leg deficit to win the Milk Cup semi-final, courtesy of a Steve Bruce header, to go to Wembley, where they would eventually triumph over Sunderland to lift the trophy. 

A big game like that is needed in East Anglia again, and soon.

If you compare this to Wolves and Birmingham's recent clashes, it is a stark contrast.

The 3-2 win for Birmingham on Sunday put them top of the table again and got their promotion chase back on course while leaving Wolves' 6th placed play-off position looking vulnerable.

In 05/06  and 04/05 Birmingham were in the Premiership and Wolves the Championship but when they were both in the Premiership in the 2003/04 season they drew 2-2 in the April to leave Wolves rock bottom and Birmingham 9th. With three games to go, the result virtually consigned Wolves to their fate.

In April 2000 Birmingham beat Wolves 1-0 to go 5th and leave Wolves 7th, in December '99 Wolves won 2-1to go 10th and leave the Blue's 8th, in April '99 Wolves won 1-0 to leave Birmingham 4th and themselves 6th, when Wolves won 3-1 in November '98 they went 5th and left Birmingham 8th.

In short, they've caused each other plenty of problems in recent times and given their fans a reason to dislike each other; their teams were standing in each other's way. Sadly, Ipswich and Norwich have rarely stood in each other's way and we have lost this kind of relationship.

The West Midlands rivals may hardly have the tension of Rangers v Celtic, Man Utd v Liverpool, Southampton v Portsmouth or Tottenham v Arsenal but they at least have more reason than just their geographical positioning to dislike each other. Promotion scraps, play-off race's and even relegation dog-fight's, there's no doubt that if this were to happen in East Anglia, the torch would truly be lit.

In fact City fan's have more rivalry with Birmingham and Wolves than they do with Ipswich after the 2001 play-off's!

Danny Hayne's late winning, punched goal at Carrow Road last year is already as good as forgotten, because the game meant nothing, zilch, nada.

A Derby game does not need sending off's, booking's, brawl's and mindless hooliganism to be tense and exciting, and with midday kick-off's and massive police presence at derby game's eliminating the 'ugly' side of local derbies, this side of the game's has lessened hugely, but this does not mean that passion is not allowed.

Imagine next year, four game to go, both teams in the play-off mix, Chrissy Martin runs out with freshly dyed green hair, Danny Haynes scores an equalising goal, before Alex Bruce passes back to Lewis Price, who proceeds to do his best Gunny impression and hand City the game. That would more than light the torch!

That is the kind of drama that the East Anglian Derby is missing.