Town fan Karl Fuller looks back on a day when the Blues couldn’t break their derby duck.

East Anglian Daily Times: Ipswich Town's Jordan Spence (right) and Norwich City's Jordan Rhodes in action. Photo: PAIpswich Town's Jordan Spence (right) and Norwich City's Jordan Rhodes in action. Photo: PA (Image: PA Wire)

Leaving Portman Road after the ‘derby’ yesterday, I felt as frustrated as I had at any point in recent years.

Mostly because 20 years since I last saw us beat Norwich will now become 21, but mainly at how a poor Norwich side were there for the taking.

They scored from the only spell of pressure that they inflicted upon us in the whole game and when they did score you could not argue that it wasn’t coming.

On reflection however, maybe we didn’t create quite enough to win either and a draw was a fair result.

East Anglian Daily Times: Ipswich Town fans make their way into the ground for the East Anglian Derby v Norwich City at Portman Road Picture: ROSS HALLSIpswich Town fans make their way into the ground for the East Anglian Derby v Norwich City at Portman Road Picture: ROSS HALLS (Image: Archant)

If our new project was a little further down the line, then maybe we would have had a little more about us to have either held on or scored a second.

MORE: 5 things we learned about Town in the the derby draw

We’ll never know now I guess.

It was a massive surprise to see Bart dropped, but Dean Gerken did as much as he needed to do. And I thought Matthew Pennington was excellent on his debut. Gwion Edwards was also a stand-out performer on the day, as was the returning Jon Walters.

East Anglian Daily Times: Ipswich Town fans make their way into the ground for the East Anglian Derby v Norwich City at Portman Road Picture: ROSS HALLSIpswich Town fans make their way into the ground for the East Anglian Derby v Norwich City at Portman Road Picture: ROSS HALLS (Image: Archant)

His signing alone gives me more hope than ever that things will get better for us.

And what a cracking atmosphere. There was one chant, that cannot be printed here, where seemingly all four sides of the ground had fans joining in.

That was as loud a chant as I’ve heard in a good few years.

In respect of Ben Godfrey’s challenge on Jon Nolan five minutes into the second-half and after what we saw happen with Toto Nsiala’s challenge at Sheffield Wednesday, can someone please explain why Godfrey only saw yellow?

My final comment on the game is to wish Cole Skuse a speedy recovery after what looked like a very worrying situation at the time.

MORE: Town player ratings from the derby clash

Last week started with me feeling a bit prickly if I’m honest. I was still feeling annoyed on Monday morning at Nsiala’s dismissal and couldn’t get it out of my mind how that red card may have affected the overall result which ultimately put us at the foot of the table.

Because of my mood, I felt frustrated with how the world outside our circle are treating us.

Take the words of one Colchester fan that commented to me on how much he was enjoying our position. I would have taken this as the banter it was meant to have no doubt been, but I couldn’t take the comment seriously after just five games of the season.

Then on Tuesday, I came across a piece in a national newspaper about how Mick McCarthy was supposedly ‘hounded out’ of Portman Road and as we were bottom, who was laughing now. I’ll repeat myself, this was after just five games!

Another ex-professional had something to say about the supposed mess we are in on social media, another ex-pro who no doubt failed to pay to watch a single game of ours over the last two years.

MORE: Bart dropped.... Paul Hurst’s thoughts on why

Later in the week, I hoped for Nsiala’s red card to be rescinded but knew realistically that it wouldn’t be.

The only surprise here was that the FA did not impose an extra game ban for what they usually term as a ‘frivolous’ appeal.

Then, the week ended with the closure of the loan window.

The return of Walters cheered me up somewhat. His age has been questioned but I think his signing is perfect to help move Paul Hurst’s new project forward and I’m looking forward to watching Jon in a Town shirt again over the next few months.

MORE: Could ex-West Ham defender James Collins be coming to Town?

We finally landed a centre-back late on Friday as Matthew Pennington joined from Everton.

I had hoped that our centre-back problem might be eased with the return of Luke Woolfenden.

I’m not sure I’m entirely happy at some of our youngsters being allowed to go out on loan as when the season started, I was looking forward to seeing them develop with us.

But I trust Hurst and look forward to them returning later with more experience under their belts.

Safe to say, my mood on Sunday evening was a little more upbeat but was fuelled more with frustration than the prickly edge I had to my demeanour at the start to last week.