What Dara O’Shea said to his Ipswich Town team-mates ahead of Norwich City clash - it worked wonders | OneFootball

The Ipswich Town captain's pre-match speech inspired his side to a famous win in the East Anglian derby

Ipswich Town recorded a memorable win over their bitter rivals, Norwich City, for the first time in 16 years on Sunday.

The Tractor Boys hadn't beaten the Canaries in their last 14 matchups until their 3-1 win at Portman Road, with Norwich winning eight of those.

It was a long period of hurt for Ipswich fans, as even when Kieran McKenna's side were dominant in their last Championship season, Norwich still managed to take four points from them.

Clearly, the Canaries up their game for the East Anglian derby, so even though Liam Manning's side were 19th going into the game and on a run of four games without a win, there were still plenty of nerves among the majority of the home fans inside Portman Road.

Ipswich needed a good performance, not only to boost them up into the top ten of the Championship table, but also to get one over on Norwich, and their captain, Dara O'Shea's, battle cry really helped rally the troops ahead of a famous win.

Dara O'Shea's inspiring pre-match huddle talk

Before kick-off, the Ipswich starting eleven got into a short huddle, where their captain issued a short but passionate talk ahead of what would be a very intense 90 minutes.

Ipswich has since released the footage on their Instagram, where the Republic of Ireland international said, "Boys, today is about us and our people.

"Every one of these fans, it means the world to them, and it does to us too, so do yourself proud today, but do them proud too.

"Intensity, running, everything, when we play, we're at it."

O'Shea wanted to make his fellow teammates empathise with those in the stands who had been waiting so long to pick up that win against Norwich, outlining the importance of going and doing the city proud on the pitch.

Clearly, that final talk ignited any previously unlit fires in the bellies of the Ipswich players, as they were convincing in the derby, dominating across the board and coming out of the game with a deserved 3-1 victory.

Ipswich Town can use derby win to bounce up the Championship table

Ipswich's 16-year wait for a derby win is over, and now that the hatchet is buried, they can finally start to focus once more on the primary goal, promotion back to the Premier League.

The win against Norwich sees Kieran McKenna's side up into 9th as the second international window of the season looms, having won all three of their home games in this mini-window, and scoring 10 goals in the process.

Their form away from home may need some patching up, as the performances aren't as convincing as they may have been two years ago in their initial promotion season, but this past month has shown plenty of improvement across the board, and Ipswich fans can be excited once more about the direction of their club.

With three wins and a draw between international windows, Kieran McKenna's side are starting to hit their form ahead of what will be a bumper clash with Middlesbrough at The Riverside when the current break ends.