Norwich beat Ipswich to reclaim top spot in Championship

Norwich swept aside struggling neighbours Ipswich 3-0 on Sunday to move back above Leeds at the top of the Championship.

Teemu Pukki scored twice to take his tally for the season to 21 after a goal after just 80 seconds from Onel Hernandez had put the Canaries in the driving seat at Carrow Road.

The win took Norwich two points above Leeds, who drew at Middlesbrough on Saturday, and left Town rooted to the foot of the table, nine points from safety.

"I'm very proud," said Norwich manager Daniel Farke. "Ipswich tried to get under our skin and disrupt our rhythm but we stuck to our plan.

"The clean sheet is very pleasing. It's great for the lads' confidence. Teemu was brilliant. I'm glad I could rest him in the last couple of minutes because he worked very hard."

To cap a miserable day for the visitors, manager Paul Lambert was sent off just before the interval after an angry altercation with one of the home coaches and had to watch the rest of a feisty encounter, with seven yellow cards in total, from the directors' box.

Norwich took the lead from their very first attack.

Max Aarons set things up with a speedy dash down the right wing, sending in a cross that was fired towards goal by Hernandez. The effort was blocked but rebounded to Mario Vrancic, who headed the ball back into the danger area and Hernandez was there to apply the finishing touch from close range.

A poor tackle on Aarons by Jon Nolan right in front of the dug-outs prompted an ugly pushing and shoving match between both sets of the players and then the staff got involved, with Norwich's head of performance Chris Domogalla and Town boss Lambert squaring up to each other.

It took a mixture of stewards and police to restore order, with referee Peter Bankes eventually showing a yellow card to Nolan, and reds to Domogalla and Lambert.

Norwich scored their second in the 65th minute with a beautifully worked goal from top scorer Pukki. He was picked out by a perfectly weighted ball from Emi Buendia and produced an ice-cool finish into the far corner.

And the Buendia-Pukki combination worked beautifully again with 10 minutes to go to put the hosts out of sight.

The Argentine midfielder again had the vision to spot a run into the box by the City striker and once more the Finn produced a nerveless finish to slide the ball past Bartosz Bialkowski.