It’s been six months since a column I wrote for these pages ruffled so many feathers on the blue side of East Anglia.

After Ipswich Town’s flying start to the Championship season, I suggested it was merely nothing more than that at such an early stage, while reminding the seemingly touchy Tractor Boys about our decade of derby day dominance.

And fair play to Kieran McKenna’s highly impressive side - they’ve proved me, and I think many other early doubters, wrong in sustaining such a red-hot streak and putting themselves on the brink of a stunning pair of back-to-back promotions.

Let’s be honest, and given their propensity for battling to the bitter end and grabbing dramatic last-gasp goals, there’s now a serious chance our arch-rivals gatecrash the automatic places and emulate the exploits of that storied Paul Lambert side 13 years ago.

But even if they do, there can remain one final piece of the jigsaw missing that will continue to tarnish their thrilling Championship season - an inability to beat Norwich City.

Despite McKenna’s side enjoying an unquestionably superior campaign, the Canaries have a golden opportunity to inflict yet another psychological hammer-blow on their rivals in front of an electric Carrow Road atmosphere.

Yes, they’ll continue to pretend they don’t care and that sealing automatic promotion is all that really matters.

But if City are able to channel the spirit of previous derby day heroes, coupled with the defiant December display they delivered at Portman Road earlier this season, we can ensure their one big chance to finally beat us goes begging.

Cue Town fans’ comments like ‘this really is their cup final’ and that ‘it’s just another game’ for them in their quest for Premier League nirvana.

But as we saw in Suffolk four months ago, that mentality could not be further from the truth and really, they remain rattled by their now 15-year derby day hoodoo.

Me and 2,000-plus other Canaries there that day saw it first hand.

Firstly, and extremely amusingly, I was recognised and called out at the station for being that ‘journo who wrote that article’, referring to what was published back in September that seemed to trigger so many tetchy Town supporters on social media.

And then came a series of ludicrous pre-match antics that saw them try to replicate the behaviour of big league football hooligans, launch missiles at an elderly woman’s car and then flank either side of Prince’s Street to give us travelling fans such a bizarrely unnecessary - and entirely unintimidating - derby day welcome.

All that followed by their latest failure to topple the Canaries, being so visibly angered by our extended post-match rendition of ‘14 years’ and then congregating outside the station in a totally tinpot manner culminated in what can only be described as yet another successful Portman Road outing.

‘Just another game’, was it lads?

We all know it means so much more than that.

Of course, that goes for City fans too and the prospect of our hegemony eventually coming to an end is too grim to bear.

But from an Ipswich perspective, and while things have gone so fabulously for them over the last 18 months, the truth remains that if this elite-level manager and probably Premier League-bound squad cannot beat City now, when will they ever have a better chance?

They blew it at Portman Road and will be petrified of fluffing their lines once again come 12.30pm on Saturday lunchtime.

And while tension will be rife among both camps, there’s no doubt more of the pressure is on them.

McKenna’s men know they can drop out of the automatic promotion places if they - once again - are unable to leave Norfolk with a win, yet another derby failure that would surely strike a significant mental blow with just five games to go.

But for sixth-placed City, we are going in as - admittedly marginal - underdogs and with an unbeaten run stretching back to 2009, our experienced players hold all the trump cards when it comes to knowing how to win on derby day.

Credit where it’s due, Ipswich have been brilliant this season and may well end up sealing a remarkable return to the top flight.

But even if they do, we know a win on Saturday can fuel our pursuit of doing exactly the same via the play-offs, extending Town’s wait for that increasingly elusive triumph and heaping yet more misery on our rivals. 

On The Ball, City.