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Fair play, City. You stopped a 40-tonne truck in its tracks last night…

5th March 2008 By theexpert Leave a Comment

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In a catchweight contest there's usually only one outcome.

The big guy usually bullies the small guy into submission.

Sometimes though, the little guy decides that enough is enough and fights back.

The Canaries went into the game last night with both a distinct height and weight disadvantage to their title-chasing hosts, and there was nothing new in terms of the onslaught they were subjected to for the majority of the first half.

Everyone knows Watford's preferred method of trying to attain victories and it isn't by playing out from the back and through their midfield with incisive, crisp, one-touch pass-and-move football.

No, the Hornets subscribe to a completely different version of the beautiful game by getting the ball forward at the earliest opportunity and trying to put their opponents under as much pressure as possible until they eventually crack.

And that's nearly what happened last night.

With 15 minutes on the clock City found themselves a goal down, were fortunate that it wasn't two or three and were basically at a loss as to what to do to combat the aerial assault they were being subjected to.

They weren't able to nullify their physical shortcomings with the quality of their own football, and in a poor first-half of football as low on entertainment that you're likely to see at this level had spent the vast majority of the opening period in their own half of the pitch having to defend.

Then half-time came, and the Canaries suddenly decided to fight back. And they did so by credibly trying to play football the way it was intended.

Now while City's improved passing approach in the second-half didn't lead to a complete turnaround in the balance of play, what it did do was prevent Watford from enjoying so much possession of their own to continually launch bombs into the Canaries' goalmouth, and accordingly City were finally able to push further up field as a team and compete in areas of the field that had largely remained redundant beforehand.

And it subsequently lead, of course, to Jamie Cureton hitting a peach of an equaliser into the corner of Richard Lee's net from a position that Norwich hadn't enjoyed the luxury of occupying earlier in the night.

Now there was valid argument in suggesting that had Matty Pattison being included from the start against Blackpool last Saturday that City would have had a better chance of taking control of proceedings in the middle of the park.

Glenn Roeder had tended to prefer three more recognised central or defensive-minded midfielders in his side with just one winger providing width as a rule, and that policy served him extremely well during the 13-game unbeaten run.

Yet he deployed two wide men in Huckerby and Croft at the weekend and then also surprisingly sacrificed the defensive and physical attributes of Pattison in favour of the more attacking inclined Kieran Gibbs.

It left City a touch lightweight in midfield, but while it would be remiss to infer that that one decision came at a cost of City never really managing to get a foothold in the game on Saturday, considering the manner in which Blackpool carved City apart at will at times it certainly provided food for thought.

Lat night though Roeder went for a more cautious approach in midfield with Fotheringham, Bertrand and Pattison in from the start which made sense given what he knew his side would be up against, and when Norwich began to make it more of an even contest after the break, so it was Pattison once again acting as provider-in-chief at dishing out a bit of the hosts' own medicine.

Come the final whistle you had to admire the Canaries' achievement at securing a 1-1 draw, because after conceding a goal so early in the contest they could have easily folded like so many others that have been unfortunate to run into this articulated truck that masquerades as Watford

Not pleasing on the eye at all this direct stuff, but I doubt that Aidy Boothroyd ? (like his counterpart at Stoke, Tony Pulis who shares a similar footballing philosophy on what's best for his side) – will be bothered one little bit if it means his team will be playing Premier League football next season.

As for the Canaries, well, if nothing else they've demonstrated to themselves that if and when they next come up against this type of football, they've got the strength and capabilities to prevent the 'bigger guys' from having it all their own way.


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saund65 Canaries Caption It @saund65 ·
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See Webber getting the blame after a #NCFC defeat again - never gets credit with the wins.
The majority of the squad today (8/10 outfield players who started) were good enough to win the Champ title 2 seasons ago.
Buendia & Skipp have proven to be very hard to replace.

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zaburglartrac ZarinskBurglarTrachonitus @zaburglartrac ·
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That’s a bad a #NCFC side as I have visited in 4 away days. They were toothless, passive and my god given the fan numbers, they’ve lost all connection! Hard, horrible watch. Fans were so quiet to and normally that home end behind the goal sings a couple of songs!

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jstewart_15 Josh Stewart @jstewart_15 ·
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Turn @talkSPORT on on the way home and a Liverpool fan saying they need max Aarons and Daniel Farke in 🤣🤣🤣 good luck #ncfc

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norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
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🗣 "We know we've got to be better. It's as simple as that really."

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sam_stork Sam @sam_stork ·
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Loved the passion I saw from Andy Hughes at the end with the Ref/fourth officials... Definitely reminded me of the old days 😊 #ncfc

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