• 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

Hoolahan admits his wonder strike counts for now’t as City see two more points go AWOL

28th January 2009 By Latest News Leave a Comment

Please share

City star Wes Hoolahan was in little mood to celebrate his wonder strike last night after watching all his hard work undone by two, “sloppy goals”.

For just as the 26-year-old's 30-yard strike was out of the very top drawer before the break, so the manner of Southampton's two goals after it were a case of Norwich once again fumbling around in the bottom drawer. The pants drawer, in short.

But had Hoolahan ever hit a sweeter strike?

“No – I don't think so,” he said afterwards. “It was alright. But there's no point now because it feels like we lost, although we drew.”

Given the level of Kelvin Davis' performance – the ex-Ipswich keeper turned it on again in the corresponding fixture at St Mary's last autumn – it need to be something very special to beat the Saints No1 from that kind of distance.

And having been teed up by the quick-thinking of Sammy Clingan, so Hoolahan grabbed his second goal in as many games under new boss Bryan Gunn with an effort that had the lot – bend, dip, swerve, pace and accuracy. It ticked every box.

And yet what should have been a match-winning thing of beauty will get lost beneath the full-scale inquiry that inevitably follows another two, big home points lost. Particularly when all three would have pushed Southampton deeper into the mire.

“It does feel like a defeat – we're in the dressing room and all the boys are head down,” said Hoolahan afterwards.

“We're comfortably winning 2-0 and we give away two sloppy goals. So it does feel like a defeat.”

It was left to the resolutely upbeat Gunn to remind everyone that that one point could still cme to save Norwich's bacon this season as that clutch of ex-Premiership clubs struggle to keep their foothold in the second tier of the English game.

Leeds United won't be the only famous name gracing League One next season.

As ever, City were chalk and cheese. Or rather third and fourth gear before the break; second and third and then reverse afterwards.

“In the first-half I thought we were great; I thought we passed the ball – and then in the second-half it just seemed to be a bit flatter,” said Hoolahan, insisting that it wasn't nerves that strangled that first-half flow.

Gunn suggested afterwards that 2-0 is probably the most dangerous scoreline in football; that caught in two minds as to whether to push on and kill the game dead or sit back and protect what they'd already got, City ended up doing neither. And once Lloyd James' deep, diagonal cross into the box was floating goalward, so an all-too familiar script was being followed to the letter.

“I don't know what the case may be – we probably thought we were comfortable. I don't know. To get a deflected goal for the first one and then a sloppy one for the second and that changed the game around.

“I don't think we got nervous; I thought we were still comfortable – we just didn't pass the ball well and the movement wasn't as great as it was in the first.”

When it zipped, it worked. The luckless Jamie Cureton could have wrapped the contest up just before the interval as the Canaries really got into gear only for Davis to pull off a world class save to deny him. At that point, Norwich were flying – and then the half-time whistle blew.

“It did come at a bad time. We were zipping the ball about; we played well; thought we should have been three or four-nil up and the keeper made a great save from Curo [Cureton] that could probably have killed the game off.

“A bit disappointing, but hopefully we'll move on and we'll get a good three points on Friday.”

Hoolahan has, at least, now had a chance to see the new coach at work. And having never heard of this Crook character before, appears impressed. The two can both play for fun.

“He's not too bad,” said Hoolahan, with a smile. “He's been on the training pitch and shows off his skills now and again.

“I'd not heard of him before, but, yeh, he can play a bit…”


Please share

Filed Under: Latest news

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

@NorwichCityMFW latest

Tweets by @NorwichCityMFW

#NCFC LATEST

alandvalwemeet1 NCFC 'Al and Val's We Meet Again' - Podcast @alandvalwemeet1 ·
27m

Now out - Al & Val talk everything about Norwich City and Hull #ncfc #norwichfc #hullfc @NorwichCityFC @HullCity @OnelHernandez23 @EM10Buendia @pinkun @michaeljbailey @EFL @TalkNorwichCity @TimKrul @CapitalCanaries
https://open.spotify.com/show/6Vm2UrDtyBDBCN5hHPWoTI

Reply on Twitter 1556391915129606145 Retweet on Twitter 1556391915129606145 Like on Twitter 1556391915129606145 Twitter 1556391915129606145
my_baxi BAXI @my_baxi ·
32m

Baxi and the Football season 🤝

Pay all your bills with ease and Stay connect to watch and bet this Premier League ⚽⚽⚽

#Baxi #PremierLeague #NCFC
#LALISA #GameOn

Reply on Twitter 1556390806356910080 Retweet on Twitter 1556390806356910080 Like on Twitter 1556390806356910080 Twitter 1556390806356910080
pearciencfc Steven Pearce @pearciencfc ·
35m

As a football supporter I try to look at a situation in the reverse situation.
So, if Aarons had made 'that' tackle on a Wigan player, I would have expected them to get a penalty and a card of some colour for Aarons.
That's all that needs to be said really 🤷‍♂️.
#NCFC 💚💛

Reply on Twitter 1556389906049601536 Retweet on Twitter 1556389906049601536 Like on Twitter 1556389906049601536 4 Twitter 1556389906049601536
hodgeythehack Stuart Hodge @hodgeythehack ·
47m

🔰 #HodgeOnNodge Ep 2️⃣3️⃣
🎙 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐨 𝐍𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐳

The latest episode of the podcast is all about #NCFC’s No 2️⃣6️⃣ after his debut for the Canaries showed some clear promise.

Pic: @ElDeportivoLT

📺 http://youtu.be/2MDPjn4DzTU
🎧 http://hodge-on-nodge.captivate.fm

Reply on Twitter 1556386837773664256 Retweet on Twitter 1556386837773664256 Like on Twitter 1556386837773664256 3 Twitter 1556386837773664256
stevegedge Steve Gedge @stevegedge ·
52m

Finally a figure after not being in many - or any - Sunday papers: #ncfc v Wigan had a crowd total of 25,595.

Reply on Twitter 1556385620183875585 Retweet on Twitter 1556385620183875585 Like on Twitter 1556385620183875585 1 Twitter 1556385620183875585
Load More...

Copyright © 2022 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