Grant Hanley is only getting started – and that spells trouble for Championship strikers.

Norwich City's captain spilt blood for the cause in a commanding derby display at Portman Road to help extend City's unbeaten run over their rivals to 11 games.

Hanley superbly marshalled a young backline in the midst of Ipswich's second half onslaught during the 1-1 league draw.

The Scottish international suffered an injury-disrupted pre-season build up but head coach Daniel Farke insists there is plenty more to come from Hanley and his team mates after the current international break.

'For me, his best performance of the whole season. Great leadership,' said Farke. 'In the first half, world class for me.

'In the second half you could feel perhaps the lack of pre-season, because he still has to work on his fitness level, and for that it is quite important we can calm things down for him in the break. His leadership and attitude were crucial to lead a young defence.

'We forget Grant is there with the captain's armband and he is a proper lad but he is only 26 and capable of improvement.

'When we think about our last row I am not scared about our mid to long term future.

'In the cups, perfect, but for two or three games in the league we were much the better side and didn't get the results. We know against West Brom we missed a penalty and Tim Krul made an error.

'We conceded in the 93rd minute at Sheffield United, and we caught Leeds on a very good day for them. We should have at least five points more and that would put us pretty close to the play-offs.

'In general, it is more important for me that we are there in every game with chances. The Championship is so close together. If we keep going in this way we can achieve big things and I am pretty sure we win many points.'

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