Clarets winger Chris Eagles was sounding a word of warning to his team-mates ahead of this Saturday's trip to Carrow Road – don't let the tiddlers wriggle off the hook.
For while the Canary faithful might bristle at the suggestion that they are one of this season's lesser lights in the eyes of the one-time Manchester United starlet, the reality is that seventh-placed Burnley will – inevitably – view a trip to Norwich as one game they really ought to win if they want to stay in that play-off pack.
City are, after all, now firmly in the bottom three following this week's round of mid-week games and having lost their last two games as some of that initial, new-manager 'bounce' begins to fade, will be seen as ready for the slaughter in a far-off Lancashire.
Which may yet prove Burnley's downfall and City's best hope – that this weekend's visitors fail to heed Eagles' warning.
“When we go to the top teams and when they come here, we always perform well and get a result,” he mused. “But for some reason against the teams below us, I'm not sure what it is. We might take our foot off the pedal, I don't know.”
On their day, Burnley can fly – as they proved with victories over both Premiership Spurs and West Bromwich Albion in the cup this season. They also racked up a 1-0 home win over Wolves last weekend.
The flip side comes in the 3-0 away defeat at Watford; the 2-1 defeat at Doncaster and the 2-1 home defeat by Barnsley.
They are, in short, a pretty bulk-standard Championship side. Just a little less inconsistent than most.
“We've just got to keep our heads focused,” the 23-year-old told the Lancashire Telegraph today.
“That's what the gaffer tells us in training every day because teams are going to try to get a 1-0 win because they know we can go on to win 4-0 – teams are going to recognise that we are a good team and when they get a goal they just sit back.”
Which is what Coventry clearly did at Turf Moor in mid-week – that having stolen into a 44th minute lead against the Clarets it needed Eagles' last-gasp strike to prise a point off the Sky Blues.
Whether the Canaries actually have it in them to get themselves into a 1-0 lead in the first place – and then sit back and defend said lead for the rest of the game is the $64 million question for Bryan Gunn and his coaching team to answer over the course of the next 13 games.
The feeling remains that City have goals in them – trouble is that they come at either end; that the Norfolk side are always good for at least one defensive clanger a game.
Little wonder, therefore, that new Canary coach Ian Crook could be found this week preaching the need for Norwich not to concede; that if they can just make themselves that much harder to beat, then they might have a chance.
To that end, City may yet have to deploy themselves in a far tighter shape; cut out the crosses that much earlier by slamming two, solid banks of four in front of the opposition.
Whether that will then cut out the individual errors that bedevil City's best intentions is another matter. But it might be a welcome start.
As would Sammy Clingan's return to Gunn's starting plans. The Northern Ireland international missed last weekend's trip to Preston with an aggravated thigh strain; if Norwich are to have a clean sheet to their name, his defensive midfield qualities might need to be well to the fore.
Either way Crook is all too well aware what the next three months are about to hold.
Relegatkion confirmed away at Portman Road is just one of the bigger nightmares that could yet lie beyond this weekend's efforts at clipping the Eagles' wings.
“I am not going to lie,” said Crook, as well-versed in City's remaining fixtures as anyone.
“Everybody says we take each game as it comes but I have already looked at what we have got in the last three games of the season as well. You do, you look through it,” he told the Eastern Daily Press.
“In saying that, each game is a cup final for us. The next one is a cup final and after that's gone the next one's a cup final.”
Leave a Reply