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Frustrating doesn't do it justice – agonising would be a better word for it…

20th January 2008 By theexpert Leave a Comment

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Credit where it's due – City were excellent against Leicester at Carrow Road yesterday.

There'd been a metaphorical holding up of hands after their awful display had seen them unceremoniously dumped out of the FA Cup at Bury in mid-week, and no-one had tried to hide from the fact that they'd got exactly what they deserved at Gigg Lane.

Glenn Roeder said he was hurting, hoped that his players were too, and resolved to apologise to the supporters in the best way possible by ensuring that his side gave it their best shot against Ian Holloway's team.

Now had they literally done just that and rewarded any one or more of the plentiful passes or crosses that were supplied into the penalty area with a finish that their quality merited, City might have comfortably won this game by some distance.

The fact that their best shots were unfortunately of the standard more in keeping with recent matches though was the sole reason they didn't.

Frustrating wasn't the word ? 'agonising' probably being a better description.

Because just like against Bury in the original third round tie here at Carrow Road in the last home game, Norwich started brightly, they opened the visitor's up at the back quickly enough and they could and should have taken an early lead.

Had the excellent Lee Croft simply looked across the visitor's defensive line and kept himself onside instead of needlessly straying a yard offside he would have opened the scoring after just five minutes.

Likewise had Dion Dublin's header been a couple of inches lower, so he would have done so instead of seeing the ball cannon back off the crossbar.

Had the referee given a penalty kick for a clear handball?etc. etc

And on it went for virtually all of the 90 minutes, culminating in similar fashion to that Bury game and another big finish that also saw several more chances being squandered ? oh, and the referee missing yet another stonewall penalty; this time when the Foxes 'keeper Ben Alnwick completely pole-axed Darel Russell inside the box…

In general play Norwich were completely the dominant side, and Leicester boss Ian Holloway would have been absolutely delighted come the final whistle with the game ending all square seeing as his side really had been second best in every department of the pitch.

In complete contrast to Tuesday night, City were creative and inventive.

The players took far fewer touches in possession than had been the case four days earlier, and it lead to a high tempo being maintained to such an extent that you didn't really want the first-half to come to an end.

The Canaries had a healthy balance to their side, and they went about their business with such belief, confidence, quality and passion that even the mysterious absence of a certain Darren Huckerby didn't become the major concern that many might have thought it would when the line-ups were announced.

And there was no real let up at the re-start either.

Granted, Leicester were now making it more of contest and managed to cross the halfway line into City's half of the pitch with greater frequency than had been the case in the opening period, but you only ever had the feeling that their moments in possession would be brief and that City would soon reclaim the ball and begin mounting further forays forward of their own.

Now as pleased as everyone surely has to be with the overall display from Norwich yesterday, their shortcomings in front of goal is undoubtedly becoming an increasing concern.

After all, we can't continue to be pleased with performances if those same performances invariably don't produce results. Sooner or later Norwich have got to start sticking the ball in the back of the net and killing teams off when they have the chance to do so.

But ? and I'd suggest that we're still at a stage to say this ? we have to be pleased with the overall contribution that we witnessed from Norwich yesterday and, indeed, those of the past dozen games or so?

Look at it this way. It's another point further away from the bottom three, another hugely gratifying display and another game unbeaten in the league.


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