Paul Lambert sent off in Norwich City return as Ipswich Town comfortably beaten

Ipswich Town’s poor form in the East Anglian Derby continued in a 3-0 defeat at Norwich City which saw former Canaries boss Paul Lambert sent off for the visitors.

The Scotsman, previously labelled as one of Norwich City’s greatest managers, was shown a red card following a melee on the touchline. The fracas occurred after Jon Nolan’s late tackle, leading to the Town manager to being held back by members of his own staff, stewards and police as tempers flared. Norwich City Head of Performance, Chris Domogalla, was also dismissed from the technical area by referee Peter Bankes.

Onel Hernandez fired the hosts ahead after two minutes but the Canaries lived on a knife-edge until Teemu Pukki’s double in the 65th and 80th minutes.

The Canaries returned to the top of the Sky Bet Championship with victory, leapfrogging Leeds United to move two points clear at the summit, while Town face the very real threat of relegation with a nine point gap from safety.

City boss Daniel Farke named an unchanged side to the one that beat Leeds United last weekend in comparison to Lambert whom made five changes to his team, most notably return appearances for Jonas Knudsen and Luke Chambers in Town’s defensive ranks.

In a cauldron of noise, any pre-match nerves had barely settled before Hernandez opened the scoring. Full-back Max Aarons cleverly beat Nolan on the right before sliding a low cross to Hernandez to strike. The forward’s initial effort was deflected but Town’s Cole Skuse could only clear it as far as Pukki who knocked the ball to Hernandez who fired home.

Hot from taking an early lead, the hosts seemed likely to score a second moments later through Mario Vranic’s looping shot, but Ipswich eventually gained a foothold as Luke Chambers headed over before Freddie Sears and Knudsen both had chances.

Town ‘keeper Bartosz Bialkowski did well to turn a Marco Stiepermann shot round the post before the tractor boys attacked themselves,  Trevoh Chalobah fired over and Alan Judge shot into the side netting.

The visitors had done well to creep back into the tie but suffered a blow as Lambert was sent off. The Town boss was sent to the stands after being restrained by stewards and police following a heated debate about Nolan’s firm tackle with the Norwich City coaching team.

Lambert occupied a seat among the Norwich faithful for the second half as tempers continued to flow, with tough challenges across the pitch.

Substitute Ellis Harrison’s effort was turned behind by Christoph Zimmermann, but the hosts were soon two goals to the good immediately after Judge stroked marginally wide when in an excellent position.

Emiliano Buendía found space in the middle of the Carrow Road pitch as Tim Krul initiated a counter-attack, the winger slotted Pukki through-on-goal who calmly poked beyond Bialkowski.

Pukki thought he had furthered Norwich’s lead in the 73rd minute when he touched home a Marco Stiepermann corner, only for an offside flag to rule out a third goal for the hosts.

But the celebrations returned in full flow seven minutes later as Pukki prodded home under pressure to notch his 20th league goal of the season; send Norwich City top of the league and, more importantly, maintain the Canaries’ claim to the title of ‘Pride of Anglia’.