Cometh the 81st minute, cometh the young Irishman. That selfless cutback from *old-stager* Teemu Pukki to Adam Idah, which was put to bed with aplomb slowed the over-beating hearts of the Canary Nation.
It was just sheer bloody relief for surely almost all of us as in… what 12-game losing streak? What inability to win behind closed doors? What team cannot keep a clean sheet with Ben Gibson still to emerge?
As some wag said elsewhere, we’re now 15 games unbeaten in the Championship which is actually well worthy of our collective consideration.
But more of Adam [call me EEdah] Idah later as I have more in common with him than I would ever have imagined.
Our win at the John Smooth’s Extra Smiths stadium was not sprinkled with stardust. Of course it wasn’t but it was just the kind of opening match result and performance that we would have all taken before kick-off.
Huddersfield created very little and we could have won by more, no doubting that. But a prile of points is what counts and it’s been a long, long time since we achieved that feat. Six months ago in fact.
Yes, we could have a brace of penalties. The forearm of Juninho Bacuna was blatant, there’s no hiding that one to these eyes. But talking of forearms I had no idea Todd Cantwell was into MMA so it could have worked both ways.
Afterwards a clearly satisfied and content Daniel Farke mentioned the honesty of one of our less favoured referees, Geoff Eltringham, who personally apologised to our head honcho for his penalty refusals. I reckon that’s even more admirable these days as some refs appear to think themselves above that type of conciliatory action.
Farke was equally honest when he said: “I will tell you a secret. I was not happy with Adam [Idah]’s performances in training during the week and there was a proper outburst from me”.
Would Daniel have said that should we have lost? Make your own minds up on that one if you will.
And while contemplating that, let’s also consider how many of the squad were bench-bound or omitted altogether.
It was absolutely great to see Jordan Hugill, Alex Tettey and possibly another couple of players I cannot recall congratulate Idah in the pure, big-hearted and genuine way that they did. It bodes well for the future in terms of our esprit du corps.
As MFW regulars will know, I’d far rather we were in the Premier League but one of the great bonuses of Championship participation for me is watching the EFL on Quest rerun on a Sunday morning.
Colin Murray is a darling and yesterday he was joined by Paul Cook of Tranmere and Wigan fame and Sam Parkin who has played for Walsall, Rochdale and quite a few clubs in between. They came up with a couple of gems between the three of them – and not a patronising comment in earshot.
Sam was extolling the virtues of newly-promoted Swindon Town, who feature three players called Smith in their squad.
Colin chipped back with *there’s no need to panic when you’ve got the Smiths* without mentioning Norwich in that context before going on to make a further Morrissey/Marr reference that Sam got and Paul? Maybe.
Paul Cook later said he was so touched when a young Wigan supporter sold all his toys in a garage sale and donated the money to the club that he subsequently took a signed shirt round to the lad in question only to be told it wasn’t from his favourite player!
How fecking refreshing after Krispy Lugs & Co is that?
So to end with here is my tenuous connection to Adam Idah.
Adam was born and bred in Cork in South Western Ireland. As was one of my grandfathers – apparently. Adam grew up under the GAA discipline, which included him playing Gaelic football and… hurling. Former schoolmasters say he was adept at both until being streamlined into FAI football only.
As part of my job I did two successive years covering the Irish Science Teachers Association’s annual conference at Jury’s Hotel in Cork. My surname has the extra ‘E’ in it as in Penneys statement stores in Dublin and Cork – think small Bloomingdales.
The conference was not for the faint-hearted as it ended on a Saturday with an extremely boozy Ceilidh. The second year, good folks I’d met called Finn, Declan and Stephen asked me if I’d like to “go to the Pairc” to watch the hurling on the Sunday – Cork against Kilkenny I think.
Three sheets to the wind I bit their hands off.
The next morning Finn banged on my hotel room door and slung a cellophane packet at me saying: “put that on. We’ll not take you if you don’t”. It was a brand new red & white hooped Corcaigh Rebels top.
I put it on, we went to the hurling, got incredibly merry again and I had to have a further night in the hotel to recover before scrounging a lift to the airport and flying home.
This must have been around the time Adam Idah was born.
And yes I’ve still got the shirt, which I’m very proud of.
But not as much as Adam Idah must be about his Irish full cap and NCFC ones.
What a couple of weeks for the young man.
Good morning Martin on this SUNNY Monday morning here in Norwich – I’m off to the North Norfolk coast for some slightly cooler weather.
How fantastic was that win on Saturday and I thought your comment about being 15 games unbeaten in the Championship was excellent.
I must admit that I was quite relieved to see us hold out for the win – exactly what I asked for in Billy’s article on Saturday morning. Apparently, when Aarons was bundled over in the box, even the HTFC reporters behind DDF/PD/CS said – ‘penalty all day long!!’
All we can hope is that the team use this as a springboard to go on and rack up a few more wins. One comment I saw is that ‘we won ugly’ and if we have even faint aspirations of finishing anywhere near the top of the league – there will be any number of games where we’ll need a repeat performance of ‘winning ugly’ and the ability to close the game out when taking the lead late in the game.
I see the England bowlers did the necessary yesterday and took 4 Australian wickets for a miserly 3 runs. 😀
Enjoy the summer weather over the next couple of days and roll on Saturday!!
Hi Ed
Trust me to be in the City this week – Mundesley/Trimingham was gorgeous last week but October is my favourite time of year on that coastline. Warm and peaceful.
I robbed the *15 games unbeaten* quote from somebody on the Net on Saturday evening. It was so good it needed sharing.
From what I saw we weren’t ugly apart from Mr Cantwell’s misdemeanor but the clean sheet was terrific for everybody. Especially the players of course.
The ODI transformation was incredible. I’d given up at 143-2 but Jofra and Woakes thought otherwise, as did [S] Curran.
Enjoy the coast.
An enjoyable morning coffee read Mr P as always. I keep forgetting to turn the TV for the very quick highlights. I watched jug lugs about twice during last season, those were after Man City and Everton games. Simply cannot stand the people on there.
Often fancied watching hurling live. but never seen it over the pool in England.
Watching city’s goal via sky’s 2-minute video, I also noticed how bloody quick Placheta is, he appeared like out of nowhere just behind Idah. Had Idah has missed the ball he was there also. Good covering
Perhaps I was expecting a tad too much out of the game, given reading the mess the Terriers were thought to be in, they did what many teams will do to us, make it hard to break down, perhaps more concerned about damage limitation. City’s first opener win since Blackbum under Alex Neil 2016 before that Worthington in 2002. hell that seems light years back now. Who would not take a few more wins like that as the season progresses ? I have a feeling we will see them anyways.
Interesting article on the Mail online, if right are we as well off as some would have us believe, this pandemic looks to be continuing for a while yet. Selling players to cover the loss, would sound about right to me
Have a good week, until the next one
Hi Lad
I can cope with Danny Murphy and Wrighty on MotD but Lineker retains all the appeal of a smug slug. A one-man reason to swerve paying the BBC Licence, if I could be bothered.
Was it Gary G who coined the phrase Usain Placheta yesterday? Whoever it was has a point cos that guy is like greased weasel $hit. Eadie? Hucks? They’d be hanging on to his coat tails I’d reckon!
I could settle for many, many more wins like that.
Saw the Mail article too – it’s pot-stirring the obvious. Of course one more will go and it might well be Emi. Or Max, or Todd or Ben. Hopefully not the latter.
Back in the day the Pairc had a Sunday alcohol licence when many of the bars *officially* didn’t. The hurling was vicious, injurious and crazy but it was a wonderful experience.
Cheers
My only trip to Cork involved a taxi ride from airport to hotel and a fast-running totally unintelligible commentary from the taxi driver. I could only describe it as a a rapid version of Glaswegian with a Welsh lilt. I’ve not heard an interview with Idah but if he talks like that we’ve got no chance of understanding a word.
Nobody yet knows how good Idah can be, but one thing that stands out is he doesn’t seemed fazed by pressure. We’ve lost 12 in a row, are 10 minutes from a poor result at a weakish club, and his manager’s bent his ear during the week. When there’s the pressure of expectation even the simplest-looking chance is missable. He could so easily have got under that, or dragged it to the left, or even taken an extra touch, conscious of Stearman sliding in. He was having none of it.
I saw his hat trick at Preston (how about Hugill and Idah up top against them next week? Probably not). His first chance there was coolly finished too, no hesitation, no doubt in his mind, just slot it home.
My impression is that he won’t become the sort of striker who has a hot streak and then dry up – as has happened to Pukki – but will knock them in from time to time, ticking along unspectacularly, and at the end of the season you suddenly realise he’s got a very handy 15 goals to his name.
Good on him, and good on Farke for making sure he doesn’t get carried away just because he’s now a full international.
Hi Keith
I kind of think Idah & Hugill together against Preston could be an option later in the game rather than from the start but DF’s got a large squad to keep happy so you never know.
Stephen Kenny certainly rates young Adam within the RoI set-up – he brought him through the under-21s before their joint elevation to first team responsibilities.
With a guilty Stearman thundering in it would indeed have been easy to sky it but the lad kept his cool to perfection.
Your comment about the taxi driver makes me laugh because there’s another side to Cork. It’s not all Jurys, the river and the castle believe me. I went to a backstreet bar with Stephen during a lull in the conference and at a couple of p[o]ints he had to translate for me – it’s a dialectical thing – and I’ve been used to listening to Irish speech for most of my life!
Thanks a lot.
Marty, I wondered where you got your touch of Cloch na Blarnan. I like the 15 games unbeaten quip, gotta make the most of it, on such things fine tales are told.
Cutty I probably have pedigree dogs because I am a mongrel myself.
A German grandmother. Grandad Albert from Cork was replaced by *grandad* Louis Martin from Donegal after Albert buggered off and left Frau Omering a little bit needy. Louis was my dad’s biological father and is also why I am called Martin.
Dad told me that about a year before he died although I’d long suspected it.
It gets better though: my other grandparents were Cockneys. I only consciously ever met one of the four of them, Grandma Gladys, who wasn’t Welsh.
I’m not one for trawling the Net for quotes but that stat stuck with me.
Thanks ole pal.
Just watched the highlights again. For the first time, I noticed that Pukki had started sprinting forwards before Stearman made that backpass. Anticipation like that is encouraging, looks like he’s getting his mojo back, and the way he sat the defender on his ar5e before laying it off to Idah was coolness personified. (Every time I see it, I’m still afraid Idah is going to put it over the bar!)
And the pace of Placheta is wondrous to behold! He started off a good ten yards further back than Idah, and arrived in the box alongside him. Apparently he covered the distance from the halfway line to the penalty area in 2 seconds! He was clocked at 33.5Km/h in Poland, which puts him in the top ten professional footballers in the world for pace. What a great opportunity for a breakout when we’re defending corners. It’s almost like having Hucks back!
Hi Jim
Placheta would skin Hucks and that’s no disrespect to the Great Man in any way.
It was indeed great to watch the Pukki assist and that incredible footage of Placheta reminded me of a greyhound I should have backed at Walthamstow all those years ago!
Thanks as always
Good read as normal clean sheet as pleasing as win nowt for krul other then a few catches some promising debuts too see kenny stayclean started as well as dm not good bet he wont be a regular come end of season keep well mate 😊
Hi Kev
You’re quite right about the Mayor. Sorensen will surely be pressing him for a start in his place sooner rather than later. Can’t see Ollie Skipp moving aside any time soon.
You keep good too mate.
Hi Martin
Watching Quest on Saturday I found city slightly underperformed maybe a bit nervous after the Luton game.
The bench all responded when Adam scored what was good to see as you say and our new striker Hugill must have been disappointed not to have been the one to get on but if everyone stays and keep fit then most weeks there will be a few players in the same position.
Next up is A N and PNE that will be another tough call so it is onwards and upwards being all the pundits second favourite for promotion is daunting but Farke and team will keep them grounded.
Well the last of the cricket on Wednesday at the Ageas Bowl on the south coast can another adopted Irishman lead England to another series win over the Aussies as yesterday win was really a hard earned win and completely out of the blue.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay safe and stay healthy
Hi Alex
I’m not so sure Hugill would have made up the ground like Idah did – let alone Placheta!
That Polish lad will surely have run of the mill Championship RBs bricking it.
There is discontent at Deepdale. Have a look at the MFW Preston preview on Friday 🙂
Cheers