• 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

Lambert offering no excuses for a shocker of a cup exit; Ayala's injury merely summed up his night.

23rd August 2011 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

Please share

City boss Paul Lambert tonight offered no excuses for the biggest defeat of his two-year managerial career as the Canaries’ interest in this season’s Carling Cup competition came to an abrupt end – courtesy of a 4-0 shocker at home to League One pace-setters MK Dons.

Two goals either side of the break and a knee injury to new arrival Daniel Ayala completed a miserable night for the Scot; an evening, he admitted, in which absolutely nothing went right for the Norfolk side.

“Really disappointing,” was the manager’s swift summing up of a pretty dismal night at Carrow Road. They have, in fairness, been all-too few and far between under Lambert’s watch. And while regulars have become used to early cup exits, to be dumped out by a four-goal margin – and at home – is not a good night’s work.

“Nothing went right – the whole game,” added Lambert, likely to make a full 11 changes for the trip to Chelsea on Saturday. That, he promised, would be a different proposition altogether to such a lukewarm outing in which positives were few and far between. If any.

“I can’t put my finger on why we never got going – and credit to MK Dons. They were the better side,” said Lambert simply.

He wasn’t about to point fingers. We win together, we lose together was the manager’s mantra.

“I’m not going to label one aspect of it; it was the team that didn’t function,” he said. Which was fair enough. Norwich struggled to get a shot on target; the midfield was all-too often second best; the defence parted like the Red Sea for pretty much all four of MK’s goals.

The fact that Ayala picked up a knock late on summed up the night.

“He picked up a knock and I need to see how bad that one is,” said Lambert, who will at least have a fit-again Zak Whitbread and an eligible Leon Barnett to call upon for the Chelsea game.

“He’s hurt his knee, but that just summed up the night. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. And it’s now how we respond to a defeat – that’s what it always is,” said the City boss, on a night when all three of the newly-promoted Premiership teams lost to lowlier opposition.

QPR, for example, were left to concentrate on the league via a 2-0 home defeat by Rochdale. The suspicion remains that when the prize is that great league-wise, it is very difficult to deliver the intensity of performance required to match cup opponents who have nothing to lose and all to a gain from a third round ticket into the bigger time.

“I never dwell on a win – let alone a defeat. I’m as disappointed as everybody else and it was a really strong side [that we put out]. But we got beat by the better side.”

The ‘fun’ started as early as the 21st minute when Daniel Ayala’s first start found the Spaniard sloppily passing the ball to the feet of Stephen Gleeson.

Which was all the invite the Dons needed to drive forward and slip Chadwick in behind Adam Drury for a sharp opening goal.

Chadwick – the one-time Manchester United starlet – might be remembered for many things injury-wise in his spell at Norwich, but he’s always been able to play.

As he proved again just after the hour-mark when he swapped a neat little pass with Dean Bowditch to open up the City defence completely before finishing
coolly.

In between, Adam Drury had taken a leaf out of Ritchie de Laet’s Premier League scrap book by getting horribly caught in possession on the near touchline by the lively Gleeson. Once again, off MK went; this time it was Sam Baldock with the smart finish from the edge of the box – Rudd shifting his weight right as the ball whizzed right.

Andrew Surman gifted the Dons their fourth on 67 minutes with a back pass of the suicidal variety. Substitute Daniel Powell could barely believe his luck as the ball fell to his feet, on his own, some 18 yards out.

Rudd could do little to stop No4 flying beyond him as the Canaries warmed up for this weekend’s trip to Chelsea with, arguably, the limpest and lamest display of Lambert’s two-year reign.

What any watching Chelsea scout would have made of it is anyone’s guess; my best guess would be that substitute Steve Morison is likely to be the only one in contention for a place in Lambert’s starting plans.

The sight of new-boy Ayala gingerly walking off in the 78th minute having at least refused the stretcher for his exit simply summed up a wholly wretched night for the 13,000-odd Canary supporters granted such a feast of committed cup football.


Please share

Filed Under: none

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

@NorwichCityFC Latest

norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
3 Oct

📺 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸

Our fixture away to Swansea City tomorrow is available to all supporters via Canaries TV 👇

Reply on Twitter 1709260776320446500 Retweet on Twitter 1709260776320446500 1 Like on Twitter 1709260776320446500 36 Twitter 1709260776320446500
norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
3 Oct

A selection of match-worn and signed shirts are available to bid on in our latest auction 🟡🟣

All proceeds will go to @NorwichCityAcad 🤝

Reply on Twitter 1709238227918307787 Retweet on Twitter 1709238227918307787 Like on Twitter 1709238227918307787 32 Twitter 1709238227918307787
norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
3 Oct

Academy player Jaiden Owen has signed his first professional contract with the club 📝

Congratulations, Jaiden 🤝

Reply on Twitter 1709221780601405633 Retweet on Twitter 1709221780601405633 7 Like on Twitter 1709221780601405633 162 Twitter 1709221780601405633
norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
3 Oct

🦢 The Opposition
📺 How to Follow
🎟 Ticket Info

Read our match preview ahead of tomorrow's trip to Swansea 👇

Reply on Twitter 1709146241517428824 Retweet on Twitter 1709146241517428824 2 Like on Twitter 1709146241517428824 24 Twitter 1709146241517428824
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