To a backdrop of brilliantly bile-fuelled invective that rarely ceased from all quarters of Portman Road, the returning East Anglian derby delivered a brutal, pulsating encounter that epitomised English football at its finest: all heart and a smattering of class.
Loud, nasty, spiteful and enthralling – and that was just the hostile reception for the Norwich owner Delia Smith, whose car was struck by a flying beer can on arrival – it was perhaps fitting that it ended in a draw after a near five-year hiatus. Not that Ipswich will see things that way after spurning multiple chances in a game they really should have put to bed early on.
