A lack of passion, poor team selection, poor tactics and poor peformance along with some inadequate refereeing all added up to Town suffering the fully deserved defeat at the hands of their East Anglian rivals in what was the worst Town display since the revival from the bottom of the league begun.
Royle resisted the temptation of tinkering with his lineup that managed a draw away at Millwall, so Pablo Counago and Alan Mahon again were only on the bench alongside Richard Naylor, Tommy Miller and short term contracted goalkeeper Nathan Abbey.
Town dominated early affairs in the game, and Norwich goalkeeper Robert Green was very lucky to escape being booked in the opening minutes after Darren Bent challenged the Norwich goalkeeper for the ball, and was then forced to the ground after the Canaries number one gathered.
It wasn't until half an hour of play that had gone before the first real chance of the game had been carved out, youngster Ian Westlake sent a cross in for fellow Academy product Darren Bent, who could only send his header well wide of the target. Shefki Kuqi later was also presented with a chance, but as too often lately, blasted it miles away from the target.
At this point a number of times Georges Santos had many fouls given against him when the Norwich defenders simply seemed to run into him, however referee Alan Kaye seemed intent on rewarding the diving and unethical behaviour with free kicks to the Norfolk side, something which would later lead to Norwich's opening goal.
Svensson seeming to be going nowhere ran into the back of former Blade Santos, and to the astonishment of the 30,000 crowd, the referee awarded a free kick to the Canaries, which looped into the box and Kelvin Davis seemed to drop the ball from Mackay in flight under pressure from Paul McVeigh leaving debutant McKenzie free to fire the loose ball home.
Half time, and despite Norwich being infront, Town had most of the possesion, and despite not the best peformance from the Tractor Boys in the first half, they were probbably unfortunate to go into the interval being a goal down in what was a close match.
Town boss Joe Royle resisted to take the ineffective Kuqi off at half time, and made just the one substitution with Richard Naylor coming on for Georges Santos. It was very much a precautionary measure to avoid the chance of being reduced to ten men as Santos was arguably victimised by referee Kaye who seemed intent on giving as many fouls as he could against the Blues centre back.
Ipswich tried to hit back in the second half but for all their early pressure their shots posed little threat to the City goal in the opening minutes of the second half. However on 53 minutes Royle decided to withdraw Ian Westlake with Spanish Top Scorer Pablo Counago replacing the blues Number 33 to make a three pronged attack with Shefki Kuqi and Darren Bent.
Not long after Counago entered the fray at Portman Road Matt Svensson went in late on Richard Naylor with the ball having gone quite some while ago. A red card looked to be on the cards for the Norwich debutant, but Kaye again showed his ineptitude by bottling it, and by giving Svensson a yellow card for the foul that a more experienced referee surely would have dismissed the player for.
Whilst things did seem to improve a little with the introduction of Counago, Town were still far from their best, and a lack of effort and poor match tactics and team selection looked like they would cost Joe Royle's team dearly.
Good work from Counago set up Darren Bent for Town's best chance after threading a neat ball through but Bent could only aim his shot weakly at the grateful Robert Green in the Norwich Goal.
Norwich finished off any hope of an Ipswich comeback on 76 minutes with a breakaway attack by Gary Holt who ran down the right hand side touchline with Chris Bart-Williams seeming uninterested in stopping the Norwich player to cross in for McKenzie to loop a header over Davis for his second of the game.
With just minutes remaining, Pablo Counago ran onto a ball down the left hand side which was sheperded out by Malky Mackay despite Counago's best efforts to win the ball. However Mackay didn't appreciate the Spaniards tackle which was perfectly fair, and clearly kicked out at the blues star, which should have had no other outcome than a sending off.
However, referee Kaye, who frustrated Town's supporters for much of the game, yet again bottled a key decision, and much to the amazement of all the home fans in the ground, he failed to show any card at all to the Norwich defender, and simply gave Norwich a goal kick. Obviously, the rules must have changed, because I thought if you kicked out it's a red card, Kaye meanwhile, had other ideas.
As the clock ran down the few players that actually put some effort into the peformance tried in vein to get their side back into the game, however with little being created upfront, Town never really had any clear cut chances as Norwich made full amends for Town's 2-0 derby success at Carrow Road last season.
Royle's long ball tactics were ineffective for much of the first half, and his team selection which involved continually playing the horrendously out of form Kuqi and leaving Pablo Counago and Alan Mahon out surely played a part in Town's 2-0 defeat against their fiercest rivals
So, Town sacrificed their Pride of East Anglia Crown in this encounter at Portman Road, and although the match was dogged by some poor refereeing, it is not a valid excuse as the bottom line is, on the end of the day Town were second best, and got what they deserved.
Passion, Comittment, and determination were three qualities Norwich had, sadly, Ipswich did not and the display overall was nothing short of a disgrace. The fans have been well and truly let down in a game that means so much to them, but the players clearly did not seemed to be bothered by this, and on this evidance are very much the second best team in East Anglia.