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City got exactly what they deserved yesterday – a Tuesday night out at Gigg Lane…

6th January 2008 By theexpert Leave a Comment

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I probably wasn't alone in not being completely surprised when Andy Bishop was gifted the freedom of the six-yard box to head Bury into the lead with just 20 minutes remaining on Saturday.

Because it merely typified what can only be best described as a very poor performance from the Canaries, and one that after a positive and bright enough start quickly deteriorated into a long, hard slog.

To paraphrase a recent quote from Sir Alex Ferguson; Carrow Road resembled the atmosphere of a funeral at times; deathly quiet, and with those present probably wishing that they were somewhere else.

Of course, it could have been a completely different story had someone managed to stand out from the crowd and put the ball in the back of the net when the opportunity to do so seemed a whole lot easier than to guide the ball wide of the target.

But when your two strikers miss couple of sitters apiece in the manner that Jamie Cureton and Chris Martin unfortunately did early on, there's always the nagging fear at the back of your mind that it might come back to haunt you.

And, boy, wasn't that oh so nearly the case?

Only ten minutes separated Norwich from an FA Cup embarrassment, as while the statistics may indeed point to Norwich having accumulated the lion's share of possession and an 'efforts on goal' ratio favourable to 90 minutes of action, let's not be fooled into thinking that this was anything other than unsatisfactory display.

Aside from that bright and breezy start from and a big push near the death, City struggled to generate any real momentum to their game, and accordingly they were never in a position to sustain adequate pressure in order to put their League Two opponents on the back foot for any significant length of time.

Certainly Bury manager Chris Casper will have left for the long journey back to the North-West afterwards feeling decidedly pleased with the manner in which his side went about their business.

Granted, he deployed his team in a 5-4-1 formation with an obvious emphasis on getting ten men behind the ball when possession was surrendered.

But there's no denying that they also showed enough as an attacking force to not allow the City supporters to sit easy in their seats at times, by regularly pushing men forward in support of lone striker Bishop when they entered City's half of the pitch.

In a complete contrast to the previous game at Crystal Palace on New Year's Day, City were visibly found wanting in most departments of the pitch.

Certainly the scintillating Lee Croft that we witnessed give Neil Warnock's high-flying Eagles the runaround on Tuesday didn't turn up for duty, nor did the usually energetic, positive, proactive trio of Darel Russell, Matty Pattison and Mark Fotheringham.

Russell could argue his case by saying that he was being played out of position at right-back, but even so he, like his two buddies, still came up well short of what we know he is capable of and what he has produced on more occasions than not.

It was just all so sluggish and predictable. No moments of magic, no creativity and no oomph, for the want of a better word.

Only when Darren Huckerby was presented with the ball at his feet did you feel that something might happen for the Canaries, but sadly that wasn't anywhere near with enough regularity.

 
And Huckerby becoming visibly more and more frustrated with his lack of involvement and his team's failure to impose their dominance was no doubt synonymous to that of the watching masses.

Maybe after the opening exchanges had seen City blow their opportunity to put the game to bed the players might have been guilty of assuming that plenty more chances would inevitably follow, and consequently they didn't feel that they had to force the issue in the manner the might against one of their Championship opponents
But that's probably not the case.

What is indisputable though, is the fact that they just didn't do anywhere near enough to get the job done. It's as simple as that.


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