Norwich City (4-4-2): Marshall; Otsemobor, Bertrand, Pearce, Doherty; Cureton, Russell, Pattison, Huckerby; Evans, Dublin. Subs: Gilks, Shackell, Croft, Camara, Gibbs.
City chief Glenn Roeder – or rather Mother Nature – sprung at least one, big surprise ahead of today's derby clash with Ipswich Town as skipper Mark Fotheringham disappeared without trace.
Given the re-shuffle that immediately entailed, the only conclusion was that Fotheringham must have picked up a late injury. A neck injury sustained in training was the early word.
All of which then found Roeder re-employing Matty Pattison in central midfield alongside Darel Russell with Darren Huckerby, presumeably, then returning to his favoured left-midfield station on his 200th appearance for the Norfolk club.
The real interest came on the right where, with Lee Croft sat patiently on the bench, the City opted to give all three of his strike options a start – Dion Dublin, Jamie Cureton and Ched Evans.
Given that playing Huckerby in a midfield three would be fraught with peril, the answer would appear to be to play Cureton in that wide role enabling Evans and Dublin to drive down the middle.
Those roles could, of course, be reversed with Evans handed the wide role. Either way and having made much of the two from three argument on Friday, the City boss decided to go three from three and leave Town boss Jim Magilton to scratch his head and wonder just what the neighbours were up to.
The two from three argument was also applied to the centre of the City defence where Gary Doherty, Jason Shackell and the on-loan Alex Pearce have long been scrabbling over a starting place.
In the end – and despite the blank sheet against Burnley last week – Shackell was the one to miss out.
For the home side, the big surprise was the complete disappearance of Alan Lee. Boy wonder Jordan Rhodes was on the bench; the fear being that he will be one with the Danny Haynes moment in him.
Leave a Reply