Norwich City 1-0 Ipswich Town: Marcelino Nunez's free-kick wins East Anglian derby

Norwich now have a seven-point buffer to seventh-placed Coventry

Ipswich Town were overtaken by Leicester at the top of the Championship after they were defeated by Norwich City in a tense East Anglian derby.

Marcelino Nunez's first-half free-kick was the difference in a game that did not see the best of either side's usually potent attacks.

It is the first time in 15 Championship matches Ipswich have failed to score, and their wait for a first derby win since 2009 means Kieran McKenna's side drop to second in the table.

However, they remain one point above third-placed Leeds who lost at Coventry later on Saturday.

The Canaries stay in sixth place and maintained their chances of making the play-offs with an eighth straight home win.

Norwich started with purpose, but clear chances at either end were at a premium.

Just after the half-hour mark, Josh Sargent burst through on goal only to go down under a challenge by Axel Tuanzebe.

With the home fans baying for a red card but Tuanzebe protesting that he got the ball, the defender was booked and Nunez went close with the resulting free-kick. It was a warning shot.

With seven minutes remaining in the half, Nunez struck from 25 yards. His low, swerving effort found its way past a disappointed Vaclav Hladky.

There was more fury from the stands when Sam Morsy and Sargent clashed with the latter again bearing in on goal, but the referee was unmoved.

It took 63 minutes for Ipswich, the division's leading scorers, to muster an attempt on target, but Kieffer Moore's header was little more than catching practice for Angus Gunn.

Omari Hutchinson fired goalwards moments later, but again his effort was frustratingly tame.

Norwich's threat on the counter-attack was obvious through Sargent particularly. On 70 minutes, Hladky was forced to block the forward's shot, before he found Borja Sainz, but he could not keep his effort down.

Ipswich's day was summed up when Leif Davis finally found space to release Conor Chaplin inside the area, only for his strike to sail harmlessly into the stand.

Norwich boss David Wagner told BBC Radio Norfolk:

"If I said in the past that the atmosphere was great at home, I have not said the truth - today was special and great.

"Everybody has seen how such an atmosphere can bring a team forward. I think it was a deserved win - it took a while for Ipswich to have many chances.

"How the defenders worked hard and fought was just great. To keep a clean sheet at home again, eight wins in a row, against a league leader and the biggest rival, it makes it a fantastic afternoon.

"I'm very happy to be part of it, this atmosphere is what we needed. Both teams worked hard and were tactically on a very good level. The only thing I can criticise is we didn't kill the game."

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk:

"I don't think we had the levels that we wanted to be at in a game like this, but I don't think it was a very high level game. To be honest I don't think there was a lot in it.

"The game was pretty comfortable for us [in the] first 20 minutes. We started pretty well and then there was a 10-minute spell where we had some decisions against us and we didn't see that out. They scored the first goal and that changed the atmosphere in the ground.

"I don't think our intensity from a physical point of view was at the level we wanted, that is certainly not effort.

"Everyone comes here with the best of intentions. It's our third tough game in a week. It was a really emotional one with Southampton on Wednesday. We have physical issues in the group, but I'm not going to go into that. It was a big game, big atmosphere and there were a lot of different factors involved."