Question.
When was the last time that the Canaries recorded three successive league victories?
I'll tell you when it was. It was back in December 2005 when City not only arguably saved then manager Nigel Worthington from the sack with an incredible turnaround in form, but they also won him the Manger of the Month award for that particular month.
Well, I'd suggest that City will not have as good a chance as they did yesterday of being poised to accumulate a string of three wins again for the rest of the season.
Despite having already made it perfectly clear that he doesn't favour chopping and changing his side in the manner we see so many times with club bosses in the Premier League, once again City boss Glenn Roeder tinkered with his starting line-up yesterday.
He made two changes to the team that beat Sheffield United last week, and both changes were apparently enforced.
Obviously Martin Taylor returning to Birmingham forced a decision as to who would have to play at the back, but the reason highlighted for Darren Huckerby being relegated to the bench was as a result of a back spasm.
Huckerby had been at his most devastating best at times against the Blades – especially in the first-half – and when he was introduced to the action after an hour at Layer Road there certainly wasn't any signs that he was operating at less than one hundred percent or feeling the effects of a dodgy back.
In Huckerby's absence Norwich didn't possess any pace to their attacking play, as aside from an occasional burst of speed from Ched Evans no-one else was really able to worry the Colchester rearguard on that particular front.
Indeed City were equally as guilty as Colchester of reducing the game to the standards more associated on the public playing fields on a Sunday morning in truth.
With a tight four-man midfield consisting Jimmy Smith, Mark Fotheringham, Darel Russell and Matty Pattison, City lacked natural width and often had nowhere to go other than aimlessly forward.
And with the hosts clearly lacking in quality when they were in possession, the contest degenerated into a game of crash, bang, wallop long-ball, launch-it-forward-and-chase-it nonsense, where crisp, incisive passing was passed over in favour of percentage football and hitting the ball into general areas as opposed to feet.
It really was a dire game to watch, and the monotony was only broken when Roeder decided to introduce Huckerby, Croft and Dublin to the action after an hour's play.
At least City then looked as though they might seriously trouble their opponents, but it looked as though they had thrown all three points away after Mo Camara failed to clear an under-hit near post corner to gift Colchester the lead.
As it transpired, Danny Granville scoring an own goal with just a couple of minutes remaining did at least reward the Carnies for their toil if not their actual quality, and a draw was definitely a fair result, purely for the fact that neither side really deserved to score a goal let alone actually win the game.
But considering that City were in a rich vein of form going into the game, and ? on this showing – Colchester are seemingly nailed-on certainties for relegation this season, it has to be viewed as being two points dropped for my money.
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