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On current form and fortune, I’ll see you all at Swindon next season…

28th October 2007 By theexpert Leave a Comment

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I've said it before, but when a team finds itself in a situation similar to that of the Canaries this season ? ie struggling beyond all recognition ? it takes big hearts and minds as much as anything else in order for the balance to begin tipping back in its favour.

Sure, quality passing football, positive attacking play, resolute defending and an ability for a side to effectively maintain its shape and discipline will certainly get the job done.

But without the capacity to basically go out and demonstrate that there's a genuine belief in the side to actually deliver these characteristics in the first place, there'll not be a cat in hell's chance of them being realised anyway.

So after having plummeted down to rock bottom in the table courtesy of QPR's early kick-off away win at Charlton, and without a league win in their previous seven attempts, how did the Canaries fare away at high-flying West Brom yesterday?

Did they, for instance, give themselves a chance of it being a fruitful afternoon as a result of their conviction, desire and dogged determination to upset the odds and grind out something from the game?

Or was the result never in doubt from the first whistle?

Well, sad to say that it was certainly a case of the latter of the above two scenarios, because basically this was very much a case of an hour and a half of one-way traffic.

It's certainly open to question as to whether the necessary levels of quality would indeed be present in this current City side even if they were able to conjure up a bit of spirit to give themselves a chance, because on the rare occasions when the Canaries were allowed a bit of possession by the Baggies on Saturday the players struggled to string together any meaningful sequences of passes.

On the one hand we were witnessing the West Brom team demonstrating exactly how the ball should be moved through the thirds of the pitch and how to create effective passing angles for the man in possession, and on the other the Canaries more or less playing it off it off the cuff and hoping that something would fall their way before quickly discovering that it wouldn't.

In attack, Jamie Cureton and Chris Martin hardly had a kick, in midfield Darel Russell, Jimmy Smith, Michael Spillane and Darren Huckerby regularly found themselves chasing shadows, while at the back the City rearguard must have felt like the home side were playing with fifteen men at times such was the alarming regularity with which they found players in blue and white shirts bearing down on them.

And what's more, never for one moment in any of the 90 minutes did it ever look like it would be any different.

There was only ever going to be one result.

Big hearts? Big minds?

Forget it.

It's not rocket science, but undoubtedly the biggest obstacle facing the new manager when he takes up the post next week will have nothing to do with clever tactics or innovative training methods in order to get the Canaries up and running, but more the task of making this current crop of players realise that they are in it up to their necks right now and fast heading for the third tier of English football unless they pull their fingers out and demonstrate to everyone that they're going to at least give it a real go.

Failing that, see you at Swindon, Bristol Rovers and Crewe next season…


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