SING YOUR HEARTS OUT FOR THE LADS!

The East Anglian derby isn’t about nationwide appeal (although that's a nice bonus), it’s a private turf war to decide local pride and perhaps it’s better played out behind closed doors (well, for those with tickets anyhow).

After holding the upper-hand in derby clashes over the years (we shade it by a few wins), it may come as a surprise that on Sunday we will be looking for our first home derby success since 1998 and I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone of what happened in that ‘demolition derby’!

But dwelling on past glories won’t be tolerated by the old enemy’s followers and perhaps Parkin can truly endear himself to the Portman Road crowd with a Mathie-esq display and maybe Peters can produce wizardry on the wing in a similar ilk to Bobby Petta’s dazzling performance on that day, you never know…

What is certain, however, is that these titanic contests are always decided on a blend of passion, commitment and perhaps a slice of good luck (cheers again Mr Bryan Gunn).

This year the squad is largely made up of youth and the majority are home-grown, these two ingredients are perfect for derby-day clashes. With youth flows enthusiasm and energy and in the usual frantic pace of a derby these are key attributes. Maybe this year the ingredients are right to serve-up a Sunday roasting that Delia won’t appreciate!

Unfortunately a key ingredient will be missing with the loss of Westlake a massive blow. The guy who we joke about having three lungs would not have stopped running Sunday and the loss of Wilnis, another big blow, is like losing another local lad, as his taunting of Naarwich in the last derby occasion is what these games are all about; banter over local pride.

Having said that, the return of Magilton will be a huge boost for the team and add an extra flavour that is always sorely missed. His experience of these games will help others through and whilst he anchors the midfield it will release Garvan for more offensive duties, of which he showed to great effect what he was capable of on Tuesday, with a superb first goal for the club; his confidence will be sky-high so watch him go!

McEverly looked very promising Tuesday despite being touted as having a few injury problems and I think he’ll be vital in the absence of Wilnis.

One brief criticism of Tuesday however, was how isolated we left Parkin by moving Bowditch out to the wing. This deteriorated much of any goal threat we possessed, so please Joe, just play two up against Norwich on Sunday, the little and large combination often works a treat.

With our biggest weakness this season reverting from the back to the front-line and Norwich’s self-concessed Achilles heal being infront of their own goal, I predict goals come Sunday, although Davenport will come in to attempt to sort out the problems that arose at Vicarage Road.

Teams that come down a league are always stuck in a losing mentality and that is something which is hard to pull yourself out of. It happened to us when we came down and now Norwich are in the same rut. Their confidence is low and a goal early on in the match would really test their mettle. Luton have shown what happens on the flip-side, with the teams going up a league high on confidence with a winning mentality instilled within them.

As we look at the table at this early stage of the season, we lie in twelfth position and if you reverse that, hey presto, you get where our neighbours lie! If Millwall and Plymouth pick up a point or more each on Saturday and we were to win (providing we score more than millwall) then Naarwich would be bottom of the league at Portman Road (now how could we possibly coin a chant from that one….hmmm…I wonder!)

However, despite the Canaries surprisingly poor start to the season league positions will count for nothing come Sunday and with Huckerby back from suspension and loannees Davenport and Lisbie in the team, it won’t be an easy task.

Unfortunately work at this time of year brings me close to a few budgie fans and I have to listen to them drivel on (it's terrible). The word from the Naarwich camp though is an interesting one; the fans have turned on Worthington. It's rumoured that a defeat against us could seal his fate and apparently the chant "bottom of the league at Portman Road" would be sung loudest by their own supporters I'm told! You heard it here first...

There will be two derby battles taking place as usual on Sunday; one between the players on the pitch and the other for the loudest supporters.

If you’ve got a ticket for Sunday along with me, you’re one of the very lucky ones so like we’re asking the players to do, stand up and be counted (in the singing stakes, of course bums must be on seats at all times remember!). Sing your hearts out for the lads! We showed during the first season in the Premiership how we could turn Portman Road into a cauldron of noise and we nearly blew the roof off Wembley stadium (that’s why they really had to re-build it) so lets do it again and show the Canaries what real support is like!

Delia’s outburst on the pitch last season made her the subject of much ridicule in the media but secretly I applauded her for the passion she showed for her team. Perhaps we should make sheepshanks deliver an on-pitch call to arms before kick-off? I can’t see it happening but the irony of the situation would be good in stoking up a red-hot atmosphere!

Rob Chandler, the Portman Road pitch announcer was on great form Tuesday night and he seemed to get the crowd really up for the match, it may have been to do with the long wait due to the lights but there was definitely electricity in the air (sorry about the pun) which we need to re-create in the midday kick-off, as hard as that may be.

I won't get started on the whole lunchtime kick-off debate for this game, as I think it's totally wrong. Both sides supporters have an outstanding reputation in this country and I'm afraid those that want to drink and cause trouble will always find a way to do it...all I'll say is I remember a Portman Road derby not many years ago when it was played on a Friday night and what an atmosphere! Shame about the result...

All that’s left to say is to not get too nervous in the build-up to our cup final and maybe treat it like the old traditional Sunday…get up, don your Sunday best (blue and white shirts obviously), join the congregation (crowd) in plenty of time (gates open from 10.30am), maybe turn up early to get a book signed by a Saint (Sir Bobby) and then begin singing in unison off the same hymn sheet and hope the gods smile down on us…

P.S. There was a chant that gathered momentum towards the end of last season that hasn’t really materialised properly again this year. How about we give it a go Sunday, apologies if the words are slightly off but it went something like this….

“Follow follow follow, follow the boys of big Joe. When the sc*m are at crewe we’ll be away at man u..follow the boys of big Joe!”...(repeat)