• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

My Football Writer

My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis

Norwich City – news, comment and analysis

Find the best betting sites
  • Home
  • About us
  • The Team
  • Archives Index
  • Patreon
  • ADVERTISE
  • Contact us

A nasty throw-back to days past and managers gone. Time to move swiftly on…

9th March 2008 By Guest Blogger Leave a Comment

Please share

Coventry: car manufacturing, heavy bombing, The Specials' 'Ghost Town', Rosario and big Cyril Regis. The place is a dump, the Ricoh stadium is a typical flat-pack, IKEA job lacking soul and a sense of tradition, and Stan can find it in himself to have few fond memories of trips past.

Sure, Stan can remember the odd win at Highfield Road; even a bonkers Christmas game circa 1978. But just as we usually do them at our place, they tend to hold us at theirs. Some things never change …

Stan certainly had high hopes. The 'blips' against Blackpool and Leicester had been interspersed with a good win over Barnsley and a good point at Watford. The suspended were back; the new lads beginning to settle in nicely. Even Jamie was beginning to find that old scoring touch: two goals in one game was beginning to look a possibility.

Unfortunately, 8 March 2008 was a shocker, recalling not just previous trips to Cov, but also aspects of the dark days post-Premier Worthy and the nadir of old PG. Let us count the ways.

First, no 4-4-2, but that weird 'fluid' line up St Glen seemed to have binned with everything else 'old' Norwich when he arrived. Was it 4-5-1, or 4-3-3. No, it was a dog's dinner and the players looked as lost as they always have done when playing it.

Second, a soft first goal scored via their man getting behind the defence to pull a cross back and bang! Watch repeats of goals against from the last three (maybe four) years and that move is rivalled only by the 'free header from a set-piece' as the principal means of our undoing.

Third, a loss of shape, confidence and purpose ensured two tactical changes and two substitutions in the first 30 minutes – enough to recall PG at his card-shuffling best. Even Cov looked like they wondered what on earth was going on. It had to be done mind, but oh, the embarrassment.

Fourth, the less said about Velasco the better. If he was fit, then he currently ranks just below Louis-Jean, Colin and Sutch in the right-back league table. Camara's switch was less to do with his actual performance, but even so…

Trouble was, this all meant Doc was now pushed out to right-back where he was set against a tricky wideman who had pulled a Spanish international to pieces. Stan does not need to spell out the result.

Fifth, David Marshall was superb, sparing our blushes just as he did at Wolves and QPR earlier in the season. This really could have been Leicester and beyond.

Sixth, finally, the discipline went. Stan lost count of the bookings, but two sendings off was the least of it. A Cov acquaintance of Stan's told him that City were the dirtiest team he had ever seen.

Now, while that is obviously nonsense, and the ref was predictably woeful, it still tells a tale. For a moment, Stan thought he saw the ghost of 'Le Juge' smiling down over the Ricoh.

All in all, then, this was the latest in a recent run of reality-checks. Four points from the last 15 is not a good return.

Stan knows, and even predicted, that mid-table was what we should hope for and expect given our awful start to the season. Stan also knows that St Glenn has done a remarkable job in getting us out of the mire. But games like this reveal just what a massive task the great man has ahead of him.

Thank God it is only Stoke at home on Tuesday…


Please share

Filed Under: Column, Stanley

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

FIND MY FOOTBALL WRITER ON

As featured on NewsNow: Norwich City news” style=

Norwich City News 24/7

#NCFC LATEST

paddyjdavitt Paddy Davitt @paddyjdavitt ·
55m

#NCFC DW on state of play in the table. 'This game does not decide anything. We will fight on. But we have to be better. We know this.'

Is it 4/6 minimum over Easter pair of games? 'It makes no sense to set points targets.'

Reply on Twitter 1642207820685664256 Retweet on Twitter 1642207820685664256 Like on Twitter 1642207820685664256 Twitter 1642207820685664256
paddyjdavitt Paddy Davitt @paddyjdavitt ·
57m

#NCFC DW feels #SUFC will go up automatically with #Burnley

Reply on Twitter 1642207179011653632 Retweet on Twitter 1642207179011653632 Like on Twitter 1642207179011653632 Twitter 1642207179011653632
paddyjdavitt Paddy Davitt @paddyjdavitt ·
58m

#NCFC DW admits lack of goals in final third is a concern. Put to him Pukki hasn't scored at the Carra in 200-odd days.

'We have to better individually and collectively. We don't have to doubt Teemu's quality. But our offensive players were not able to produce. This is true.'

Reply on Twitter 1642207085482917889 Retweet on Twitter 1642207085482917889 Like on Twitter 1642207085482917889 1 Twitter 1642207085482917889
saund65 Canaries Caption It @saund65 ·
58m

Funnily enough, in retrospect the #NCFC point at Huddersfield and clean sheet at Stoke were pretty good results considering those sides results recently.
But you have to win your home games to be a serious contender.

Reply on Twitter 1642207014888546305 Retweet on Twitter 1642207014888546305 Like on Twitter 1642207014888546305 Twitter 1642207014888546305
mattjohnson333 Matt Johnson @mattjohnson333 ·
58m

So gutted with that #ncfc performance. Managed to convince a few friends who have become disconnected with the club to return, equally my son attended for first time and it was absolutely dreadful. Feeling a bit lost. Worse things in life. I know. But just feel so disconnected.

Reply on Twitter 1642206930285350913 Retweet on Twitter 1642206930285350913 Like on Twitter 1642206930285350913 Twitter 1642206930285350913
Load More...

Copyright © 2023 21VC Ltd | All rights reserved | Not to be reproduced without prior permission.

Disclaimer: The information on this website consists of personal opinions. Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information contained on these Web pages is accurate and correct at the time of writing we do not accept any liability whatsover for any loss or damage caused by reliance on this information.

We do not accept any responsibility for information contained in other websites to which this site links. We strongly advise users to check any information before acting or relying on it.

Developed and Hosted by