HOPE.

The currency every football fan trades in each Saturday.

The oxygen which keeps us breathing and believing, whenever our side crosses that white line.

Blind faith, infinite positivity and optimism in the face of reality.

Whichever expression you prefer, all of the above will be bubbling away in the hearts and minds of Ipswich Town fans when they emerge from their slumber on Sunday morning.

The Blues head up the A140 for the latest chapter in East Anglian derby history, against arch rivals Norwich City.

Even the most one-eyed, blinkered fan must admit that everything is pointing at a home win.

It’s top versus bottom; one side very much in form, the other horribly out of it.

One playing with swagger on home turf, the other stuttering and stumbling every time they cross the Suffolk border.

One hogging the bragging rights in recent years, the other in desperate need of derby cheer.

But this is football and there are never any guarantees.

No-one has a divine right to pocket points and regardless of the odds or formbook, Town must play with confidence and belief, embracing the white-hot atmosphere of Carrow Road.

If they don’t back themselves, they haven’t got a prayer.

They must be brave and fearless, playing without trepidation or revealing chinks in their armour.

Otherwise they’ll be rabbits in headlights and might as well stay at home, sparing their fans an afternoon of agony.

Illogical, nonsensical things happen all the time in sport and that’s its great beauty.

Who in their right mind would have tipped Paul Lambert’s Colchester United to win 7-1 at Carrow Road on the opening day of the 2009/10 campaign?

It’s totally unrelated to Sunday, of course, but that headline-grabbing result was the standout, defining moment of the Scot’s time with the U’s.

Maybe, just maybe, an against-the-odds victory this weekend will prove a similarly seismic moment in his reign at Portman Road.

Stranger things have happened.