Whether the song-sheet was handed out in the dressing room afterwards – or on the bus beforehand – but City striker Jamie Cureton and caretaker boss Jim Duffy were as one after Saturday's defeat at West Bromwich Albion: 'This needs sorting now…
“I think so,” said Cureton, barely given a sniff this weekend as the Baggies bossed the game from virtually the first minute to the last.
“We've had three games now without a manager and, yes, it has to be done soon,” added the 32-year-old, who now finds himself staring firmly down the barrel of a League One gun after Saturday's 2-0 defeat at The Hawthorns left the Canaries three points adrift at the bootom of the Championship.
With just one point from their last 24, it is the manner of Norwich's performances that set the real alarm bells ringing. They're being rolled over all too easily. Someone has to stiffen the team's resolve; give them a heart, a purpose and a belief.
“The club needs some stability now – we need someone that's a figure-head for the club; stands up and comes in and changes things around. And gets this team playing better than what it is,” said Cureton, with Norwich cutting an all-too miserable sight for long periods of Saturday's game.
Certainly for much of the first-half it was men against boys.
“We keep saying that we're better than what we're showing, but it would help if we did have someone that came in now and changed things. For at the moment, things aren't working.
“Maybe a different voice; someone who's got totally different ideas can shake the place up. And I think that's basically what it needs – the place needs to be shaken up and someone needs to come in and get the best out of the players that are here.”
There is, of course, a certain game looming this Sunday – one that Cureton, more than most, is very aware of. It has long loomed large in his thoughts; it is an occasion when any in-coming manager can get his reign off to the most perfect start.
If – and it remains an 'if' – if the right man can be found to fill that gaping void at the heart of the Norfolk club.
“When you looked at the fixtures when it happened, you needed someone in place before Ipswich,” said Cureton, whose green-haired antics all those years ago have long earned him a place in derby folk-lore.
“And I think it is a very good game for someone to have. Because if the manager comes in and wins then the fans are obviously going to be buzzing.
“Obviously, it's still not a great situation but that game – as we all know – can turn things around and lift a bit of the gloom.
“Because, obviously, the fans are getting depressed. They're travelling everywhere and it's not fair on them – they deserve better than that.”
Hence why opportunity knocks so loudly on Sunday; someone could become an instant hero – hit the ground well and truly running and allow the Canaries to face the prospect of entertaining league leaders Watford in mid-week with a tad more confidence.
“In theory it could be a good game,” said Cureton, urging the board to make a decision early. Give the man a decent run at it.
“They need to come in early – the early part of the week. Give the person a good few days to get a balance of the team and what they want to play. They're probably going to have some new ideas and I think we're going to have to go back to basics.
“But that person needs to be given that sort of time,” he added, as a huge ten days in the history of Norwich City Football Club loom.
“Ipswich and Watford are, as you say, two massive games. But if you come out of it with points, then you move on to Plymouth and then you've got a break.
“So those three games are vital and I think the quicker the decision is made, the better for everyone – including the fans, everyone around the place. Everyone wants to know who the manager is going to be and – hopefully – that might settle the ship down a bit.”
For much of Saturday's contest that same ship looked fatally holed beneath the waterline as Messrs Miller and Phillips run amok.
“It's depressing, really – we keep getting beat,” added Cureton, still City's top-scorer with those four August goals. Much has changed since then.
“I don't think it can get any worse. We're bottom at the moment and we have to start turning things round – or else it's going to be one hell of a long season and a very disappointing one. So things have to change – and they have to change very soon.”
The one thing that it would only be right to add is that even a fully-firing, all singing, all dancing Norwich side might have had trouble keeping the Baggies under wraps. They were, by some way, the best yet.
“They are a good side – I'd say the front two are the best front two you'll play against. And as an overall side, they are a very talented team – powerful. Keep the ball very well. Basically, at the moment opposite to what we're like.
“They're going to be in and around the top two, I'd say. Definitely. But we'd still like to say that we could copme here and put on a better show. I felt second-half we did OK, but it's still not good enough.”
He did also share Darren Huckerby's belief that somewhere in the centre of that side lay a gaping hole.
“We seem to be getting over-run a lot; we're not really creating a lot; we seem, basically, to be inviting pressure. Everyone seems to have 20 shots, ten corners – and you're going to lose games. No matter who you are.
“No matter how good you are, you cannot let teams do that. And we have to stop it at some point. Or we're going to keep getting beat.”
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