City boss Chris Hughton couldn’t hide his frustrations at this weekend’s 2-2 home draw with Swansea City as the Canaries painful progress towards Premier League safety continued.
It was Norwich fifth draw in their last six home games; they are getting there – but more by way of a crawl than a canter.
And at the end of the day, the point still left the Norfolk side four clear of the relegation zone; this evening’s 1-1 draw between Wigan and QPR in every likelihood condemning the latter to the drop. Wigan, as is their wont, will fight to the bitter end.
Newcastle’s crucial win over Fulham allowed them to leap-frog over City; of greater significance, however, was Sunderland’s latest defeat – this time 2-1 away at Chelsea.
The new manager ‘bounce’ has yet to impact on their slide down the table; nor are Stoke a particularly happy ship.
And in coming back from a goal-down as the Swans turned on the footballing style yesterday, so the Canaries once again demonstrated character and commitment to the cause.
Hughton’s frustrations were, therefore, two-fold – in that Norwich couldn’t kill the game completely with Kei Kamara squandering the chance of the match and that Swansea were allowed to grab a leveller and a share of the spoils via Luke Moore’s 75th minute strike.
“The players couldn’t have shown any more determination to get back in the game – and they showed just how much they wanted to win this football match here,” said the City chief, after Norwich failed to get close to their ever-footballing visitors in the game’s early exchanges.
In the end, salvation first came in the form of Robert Snodgrass’ free header off an Elliott Bennett delivery; it was the Scot’s sixth Premier League goal of the season. Now City’s leading scorer, it also makes the 25-year-old winger a genuine contender for the club’s Player of the Season vote.
By the time Michael Turner drove home a second, hopes were high that – finally – Norwich’s survival campaign could gain that extra little bit of momentum that comes with three, prized points.
Nope…
“I felt comfortable at 2-1 – even if these have got good, offensive players who can open you up,” added Hughton.
“We had the best chance of the game with Kei Kamara – it looked certain that he was going to score – and that would have been enough to see us win the game.
“And we have found it difficult to score goals of late; today we scored two – and could have had more. But, today, we conceded soft goals.”
Norwich’s defensive resolve wasn’t wholly helped by the 15th minute exit of keeper Mark Bunn through injury; a groin strain found Lee Camp being recalled to the frontline fray.
But in amidst all such frustrations and Hughton’s on-going decision to favour Kamara over skipper Grant Holt, the faithful stood firm and were willing their heroes over the finishing line – as they will need to do again next week when a near-doomed Reading arrive in Norfolk.
Victory would put City on 38 points; just two shy of the famed 40-point mark. It would all-but seal the Royals’ fate too. Their 2-0 home defeat by Southampton left them eight points away from safety – form and fortune having long deserted them.
“We know that we have to give them something,” said Hughton, well aware that they supporters will do so much to set the mood next weekend.
“But having that support behind you – as they showed in real good patches today – it helps us,” he told the BBC. The visit of an improving Aston Villa will be another one to set the pulses racing; the nerves jangling.
“It’s going to be tight, I think, the last six games of the season,” added the Canary boss.
“And we need to make sure that we show as much determination in those final six games as we did today. If we do that, then we’ll be OK.”
Where is a win going to come from?
Six games left in what can only be described as a frustrating season for Norwich City supporters. With games against Arsenal,Reading,stoke,Villa, West Brom and Man City, you can realisticly say there are probably only four games which we can get points from! Our woeful performances and lack of attcking ambition due to a very defensive formation and one dimensional tactics, has certainly left a sour taste in the mouths of Norwich City fans. Whether you are a fan of Chris Hughtons or not the statistics dont lie! Norwich have had a working attacking formation changed from last season to a new defensive format. This has not only enabled us to invite pressure into our own half, but also ostracize our leading goal scorer from the side and put him in a position anywhere apart from in front of goal. Looking at Grant Holt’s attitude on saturday one would have to sympathise with the forward. Not only has he had to change the way he plays but also get dropped for doing so when he cant score any goals. If Chris Hughton had done his homework he would have noticed that Grant Holt needs to play up front with someone. We had all hoped this would have been in the form of Becchio or Kamara? To our dismay we still play an unproven striker upfront on his own, instead of our tallisman. As for Becchio we might as well left him on loan at leeeds for the rest of the season. One does have to question why all of a sudden Norwich cant seem to score goals. Previous seasons under Lambert always brought goals and the core of team has not changed? Are we to presume all the Norwich players have lost the ability to score? Or have they been tacticly and mentally changed so they arent able to score? The answer stops at the manager and as far as im concerned he has a lot to answer for! After the appauling display at Wigan we still play the same formation and team. This can only be classed as stubborn or stupid? If you have a team which cant even muster a shot on target at Wigan, surely changing things up and providing more firepower would be the first thing on the agenda?
Reading is a must win game! At the minute Norwich only look capable at mustering a draw. We are only four points clear form the drop and everyone else around is playing better! People seem to forget that 40 points is not a definite survival target! it only takes Sunderland and Wigan to win a few, and we are going down. This is more than possible with a new manager at the helm at Sunderland and Wigans late form in the season which we saw last year. Personally i think Norwich will be on 39 points at the end of the season, I hope im proved wrong!
Whatever the outcome as fan I dont particulary wish to see defensive nail biting games at Carrow Road. We were always at our best when we went at teams which was proven last season. This lackluster approach is extremely dissapointing which our new manager has brought in. If we do manage to stay up or go down i think Hughton needs to go. With a win ratio below 30% and a complete lack of ambition when it comes to attacking footall, it wouldnt matter if we had Van wolfswinkel or Van Basten up front with no service or attacking opportunities they still wont score, in this game points mean prizes!
It’s about time some of our fans had a reality check. The last thing we need at this moment in time is people on the managers and players backs. This season was always going to be tough and was work in progress. Paul Lambert knew it hence why it left at the top. CH is a top class manager – his brief was to keep us up and he will. Time for some of our so called fans to get real rather than having delusional expectations of where we should be right now.
I’d rather have a few nail-biting games than a few dead rubbers. 2 teams are already doomed, lest we forget.
There are other teams in a similar situation to us, so I see I see it as a 6 horse race between Wigan, Sunderland, Villa, Stoke and Norwich.
After we lost at Chelsea in October, we had just 3 points from our opening 7 games. I’d have snapped your hand off at that point if you’d have offered me 35 points after 32 games and 4 points clear of the drop-zone.
This season was never going to be about any more than staying in the league. At present we remain on course to do that, though with work still to do. We have still got ourselves in a good enough position to achieve our goal this season.
With 6 games left, we can discard 2 of them as expected defeats (Arsenal and Man City).
That leaves 4 games, where realistically 1 win, 2 draws and 1 defeat is good enough to achieve what we need. Even 1 win, 1 draw and 2 defeats would give us 39 points and possibly a nervy last day to survive, but that COULD still be enough.
After this weekend’s results I imagine Chris Hughton will ultimately let out a huge sigh of relief.
We all know that by half-time Swansea could have been out of sight, much as we were at their place, and just as deservedly so.
By full time we could also have had our strike force options reduced by one for the next three games; most neutral observers agree that Grant Holt was a very lucky man not to see red for his shin-scrape on Flores.
So whilst another draw is frustrating, especially after leading late on, all in all it could have been a lot worse.
Much has been made of Hughton’s “negative” tactics. Strangely though they were hardly mentioned in the autumn. One up front with Wes playing off him was working. Why isn’t it now?
The answer is presumably that the support acts that have replaced injured players haven’t quite been up to the job. Howson certainly hasn’t shone in Tettey’s place, and until Saturday neither had Elliott Bennett come close to matching Pilkington. Russell Martin has kept Whittaker out, yet the Scot (the genuine one that is) seemed to be a key player on our long unbeaten run.
I wonder if once Whittaker recovered Martin could have played the holding role in Tettey’s absence? He is certainly intelligent enough to play in less familiar positions as he showed as an emergency centre half last year.
There is one big positive. As far as we can tell team spirit remains intact and everybody is playing for the shirt, something I doubt Her Majesty’s Rangers could claim, nor possibly some Mackems and Potters.
I just feel there is one good performance in there, one game where we will bury the opposition and our fears of relegation once and for all. Reading at home would be an obvious bet, Villa less so given Lambert’s record from the away dressing room.
But I just have a hunch it may be away to Stoke. They have Man U next and then QPR. If they don’t get points from those games they will surely be playing with fear, and that’s often a recipe for disaster. We’ll see….
I don’t know why I wasted my time reading that long-winded post from Greg. It’s completely unrealistic. NCFC fans need to realise that we are building something here. Greg totally fails to mention the huge defensive improvements under Hughton – we certainly have a more solid base to build from, and that is what all the best sides do – gung ho is only going to get you so far for so long.
Hughton has an excellent record for attacking football at both Newcastle and Birmingham, as fans of those clubs will attest. I have no doubt that with better players at his disposal, he will make us into a cohesive unit.
But no, let’s sack him and hire Paulo Di Canio…
Is it just me or does Chris Hughton have an uncanny ability to state the “bleddin’ obvious”. look back at any of his comments in this article and you’ll see what I mean. listen to him on the radio or TV and its always the same – verbal beige. Never says anything interesting.
Just a Response to Lee, where on earth are the defensive improvements?????? We have still conceded big numbers to the big clubs and smaller,goal diference is worse now than it was at the end of the season! Secondly you cannot build anything when you go back down to the championship! Do you not think there is a clause in Van Wolfswinkels contract if we get relegated? Dont know what you have been watching this season but you like many others are in dreamland! I certainly would not recommend hiring Di Canio but clearly someone else is needed especially when you loose control of the dressing room!!!!