Ipswich Town skipper Luke Chambers issued a rallying call to his team-mates ahead of Sunday’s derby clash with Norwich City telling them “now is the time to stand-up and be counted.”

As the posturing gets into full swing on both sides of the Norfolk/Suffolk border, Chambers was in bullish mood, hoping to turn the derby day fortunes of recent years back in favour of Town, who haven’t won the fixture since 2009.

“I’ll say to the team, don’t be scared of anything to do with the derby,” he said.

“We must embrace games like is. Now is the time to stand up and be counted. If, as a player, you are not looking forward to it, you are probably in the wrong job.

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“Eight years since we beat them is a long time, but we are looking forward to it. These games are one-offs.

“Quite honestly I have taken no interest in what they are doing as a club, we have got to focus on what we have in our dressing room.”

Town started the season brightly and still sit in 10th place in the Championship table, with a game in hand on those above them. Their style of football has certainly been more pleasing on the eye this season, but a run of six defeats in the last eight games and a failure to beat any side above them in the table, has caused concern among fans.

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“Yes, we had great start to the season and we have tailed off a bit,” Chambers admitted.

“But we are still in a decent position in the table. Two wins on the trot in this division is massive and that’s what we have got to look to do next week, starting with the Norwich game.

“We are really looking forward to it and we’ve had a good full week of training.”

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Meanwhile, Norwich’s Portuguese striker Nelson Oliveira has already lit the blue touch paper this week with comments concerning Ipswich. “It’s a derby, and we go there to win because we are better than them, we have better players than them, we are a better club than them, so we go there for the win,” he said.

And Chambers responded to the comments yesterday afternoon.

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“He’s obviously new to playing over here and has not read the history books,” Chambers said.

“In the short term, yes they’ve been in the Premier League, but you only have to look at the badge on your shirt to see where you are at.”