Pride of Anglia

The various football clubs located in East Anglia vie for being the Pride of Anglia, an unofficial title celebrated by fans of the clubs involved.

Description

League positions for the five professional association football clubs in East Anglia

Professional association football teams from the ceremonial county of East Anglia (i.e. the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire in England) compete for this unofficial title (no actual official trophy or reward is awarded) which is celebrated by fans, pundits and the clubs themselves (among others) merely as regional prestige.

Winning the most recent East Anglian derby and/or finishing as the highest Anglian team in the league pyramid are the two main measures employed by fans/pundits etc. that decide who can claim this title. The main football clubs vying for the title are Ipswich Town from Suffolk and Norwich City from Norfolk. Both teams regularly compete in the top two tiers in the English football league in recent times and often find themselves in the same league, meaning at least two derby matches will be played during the season as league games, in addition to any cup/play-off games where the two teams may be drawn against each other. Potentially, the holder of the title using the derby game method can change many times during the season

Other league clubs from the region include Colchester United, Peterborough United and Cambridge United. These teams occasionally find themselves in the same league as the aforementioned two protagonists and thus have the opportunity to claim the title for finishing highest in the league. This last happened in 2007 to Colchester United, the club were (uniquely) awarded a special trophy by Anglia Television to mark the event.[1]

Methodology

The current methods to decide which team(s) can claim the Pride of Anglia title include (but not limited to):

East Anglian derby

When Norwich and Ipswich meet, the match is known as the 'East Anglian derby', first played in 1902. The most recent encounters in the EFL Championship ended in a 1–1 draw on 2 September 2018[2] and 18 February 2018. The next recent fixture ended in a 1–0 win for Norwich on the 22 October 2017. Prior to this there had been 1–1 draws in August 2016 and February 2017 and a 3–1 win for Norwich at Carrow Road in May 2015 in the second leg of the Playoff semi-final (Norwich won 4–2 on aggregate). As of September 2018, Norwich have not been beaten by Ipswich in a competitive derby match since April 2009. The fixture is sometimes referred to as the "Old Farm derby", a humorous reference to the "Glasgow Old Firm derby" and the stereotypical rural nature and farming tradition of East Anglia.

League position

Another commonly employed measure for "Pride of Anglia", and one that encompasses all of the East Anglian teams, is the side finishing as the highest placed East Anglian team in the English football league system.[3] Ipswich claim this position finishing 12th in the Sky Bet Championship, ahead of 14th placed Norwich. In the process, Ipswich have ended an 8 year streak for Norwich finishing as the top Anglian team, starting in the 2010–11 season.

Current status

Both Ipswich Town and Norwich City can currently claim to be The Pride of Anglia, using the two aforementioned methods.

Ipswich finished 12th in the 2017–18 EFL Championship (2nd tier of English football), while Norwich finished 14th. No other Anglian teams featured in the top two tiers of English football during the latest completed season. The upcoming 2018–2019 season will be contested only by Norwich and Ipswich, no other Anglian teams will be in the same league as these two teams. Colchester Utd finished "3rd" in Anglia, finishing 13th in 2017–18 EFL League Two, outside the promotion playoff places.

Norwich are the most recent derby match winners, winning the match played on the 22 October 2017 1–0.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ U's gain Anglia acclaim, Colchester United FC, 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  2. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45312061
  3. ↑ Chris Lakey (2007-04-01). "Cureton tells fans good times are coming". Norwich Evening News. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
  4. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41625727
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