Championship Preview: Neil relishing East Anglian derby

Norwich City manager Alex Neil is eagerly awaiting “the biggest local derby in a while” as his side prepare to host Ipswich Town.

With both Norwich City and Ipswich Town chasing promotion from the Championship, Alex Neil believes Sunday’s East Anglian derby is the biggest for a long time.

Norwich are the hosts this weekend, and victory over their near neighbours would see them climb above Ipswich in the table.

Neil’s Norwich – who have won five on the bounce – sit fifth heading into the weekend’s action, a point behind third-placed Ipswich, who themselves are just three points off an automatic promotion spot.

“It’s the biggest local derby in quite a while because of the significance of the game and the fact that if we win, we can go above them,” Neil told Norwich City TV.

“We’re the home team and we’ll go and try to take the game to them. We’ll be aggressive, we’ll be up and in their faces and hopefully we’ll go and take the initiative and implement our style of play on the game. 

“For the fans it’s about bragging rights and local pride, but for me it’s another opportunity for us to go above another team and hopefully close that gap.”

Elsewhere in the promotion race, previous leaders AFC Bournemouth – who have gone four without a win – host Blackburn Rovers while Watford travel to Leeds United.

The top two of Derby County  and Middlesbrough take on Fulham and Sheffield Wednesday respectively, while two sides just outside the play-off picture – Brentford and Wolves – visit Birmingham City and Cardiff City.

At the wrong end of the table, the division’s bottom two of Blackpool and Wigan Athletic meet at Bloomfield Road, while third-from-bottom Millwall travel to Rotherham United.

Elsewhere, Bolton Wanderers play host to Brighton and Hove Albion, in-form Nottingham Forest go to Reading and Chris Powell will take on his former employers as his Huddersfield Town side visit The Valley to take on Charlton Athletic.