David Cuffley Norwich City striker David Mooney has played his last game at Carrow Road this season - so tomorrow's East Anglian derby battle with Ipswich Town takes on even more importance.

David Cuffley

Norwich City striker David Mooney has played his last game at Carrow Road this season - so tomorrow's East Anglian derby battle with Ipswich Town takes on even more importance.

The 24-year-old Irishman is ineligible for the final home match of the campaign on Monday week because the Canaries are facing Reading, the club from which he is on loan.

So the Championship game against Town at Portman Road (12.45pm) and the trip to Charlton on the last day of the season are all that's left for Mooney, and he's determined to make the most of them.

“Everyone's looking forward to tomorrow and I've got people coming over for the game,” said Mooney, who has scored twice for City but has yet to find the net away from home.

“I can't wait for it now. All the lads have been saying all week about how good it was when they beat Ipswich a few months ago, so if we can replicate that this week, hopefully results go our way and we will know where we stand come 4pm or whatever tomorrow evening.

“I don't really get nervous. I think everyone seems pretty calm. Of late we've been playing well. The defeat at Swansea was a bit hard to take but we knew we could beat Watford and that sets it up for this week.”

It will be Mooney's first taste of an English derby but he believes Ipswich will be in a relaxed frame of mind because they are neither in play-off contention nor the relegation danger facing City.

He said: “It's going to be a hot atmosphere. They've been doing OK of late, they're in mid-table and safe so they'll probably just let their hair down and go out and play.

“We know we are going to have to play like we did in our last three wins, against Cardiff, Plymouth and Watford on Monday.”

Today's results will have a big bearing on City's fate and Mooney was begging a favour from his own club ahead of their home game this afternoon.

“I've been on to the boys at Reading already. They play Barnsley so I need them to do us a favour this week,” he said.

“They've been on a bit of a bad run so I hope they can come out of that and get a win against Barnsley and hopefully other results go for us as well -if they do go for us it gives us that boost going into tomorrow. If we can get three points clear with two games to go it's all in our hands.”

Ipswich striker Kevin Lisbie, once on loan at Carrow Road, lit the blue touchpaper for tomorrow's game when he said he hoped Town would give City “a good spanking”, but Mooney was not paying too much attention.

He said: “I think sometimes footballers say stupid things at times. They don't really think about what they're saying and I think that was probably a spur of the moment thing he said after one of the games.

“It's just one of those things. It doesn't really affect how the game is going to go, it's just words at the end of the day.

“It will give us that bit of confidence, but unless we perform out on the pitch we won't win. You can do all the talking you want but it's performances on the pitch that count.”