Cole Skuse knows the pain being felt by Ipswich Town fans over Norwich’s East Anglian derby domination and will be doing everything he can to help end nine years of hurt.
The Blues have not beaten their biggest rivals since 2009, in what proved to be Jim Magilton’s final game as manager, while their winless run at Carrow Road stretches all the way back to 2006.
Growing up a Bristol City fan before playing for the Robins, Skuse knows just how painful derby defeat can be and is hoping he and his team-mates can put things right on Sunday.
“Of course I can,” he said when asked if he understands the fans’ frustrations.
“I was saying that to a fan I bumped into in Tesco the other day, and he was saying that we needed to beat Norwich because it’s been nine years.
“I said to him ‘I completely understand and if I was in your position I would be very frustrated’ so we will be doing out utmost to get the right result on Sunday.
“I used to go along and watch every City v Rovers game, and played in some too, although we didn’t play all that many of them because we were always in a higher league than them.
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“They are brilliant, they are games you always want to play in. You know if you getting booed by their fans you are doing something right and getting on top of them.”
Skuse admits he and his team-mates must take responsibility for the performance in last weekend’s dire 0-0 draw with Burton, and insisted the players will be using the below-par display as motivation heading into Sunday’s televised encounter.
“We have to take a huge chunk of responsibility for it because we weren’t good enough as players,” he said.
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“Going into what is arguably the biggest game of the season, going off the back of that performance into Sunday could be a bit alarming. But we’re using it as a bit of an incentive really because you don’t want to be that bad on TV against your biggest rivals.
“This is not just a huge game as a rivalry, but also for us to keep the distance to the top six as close as we can for as long as we can.
“It’s a huge game for us and a huge result we’re looking to get.
“We’re level on points, bang on in the middle of the table, so if someone is going to make a push for the play-offs this could be the spark that does that.”
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