Football is infamous for its cliches and buzzwords both ancient and modern, from *over the moon* and *sick as a parrot* through to *expressing yourself* and *taking one for the team*.
Saturday’s game against Sheffield Wednesday concentrated the Canary nation on one of the more modern terms: *quality*.
The first piece of quality was provided by Wednesday’s Adam Reach who pinged in a peach of a cross from the left. It would have been rude of Josh Windass not to duck across Ben Gibson to head it home. A great delivery and the perfect finish it must be said. I sometimes wish we could do simple but effective things like that, but we can’t.
We were up against a Tony Pulis side so there is no way after nearly 80 minutes us supporters weren’t sulking behind our tablets, laptops or even in the Carra for the 2,000 brave souls who made the effort to attend. I was utterly amazed the original allocation didn’t sell out to ST holders but maybe some folks feel, like me, that as much as they miss matchdays they’re only prepared to return under *normal circumstances*.
Pulis made his intentions very clear when he replaced goalscorer and sole striker Windass with defender Liam Palmer on around 65 minutes. Some of us then got a little bit of encouragement as in if Uncle Tony is shutting up shop this early we simply have to do something – and that right quick.
We witnessed another 15 minutes of banging our heads against the Wednesday wall and then came a moment of either desperation or tactical genius from Daniel Farke. On came Josh Martin to fabricate an almost instant key to the door.
Young Josh dropped his left arm to show Mario Vrancic where he wanted the ball and the world’s favourite Bosnian international threaded it through to him with a sublime pass. Cool as you like, Martin tapped it past keeper Joe Wildsmith for his first goal for the club. It won’t be his last, believe me.
Wildsmith’s reaction said it all. He just sat on his butt shaking his head while the blue and white defenders looked thunderstruck.
But if that was quality, Mario surpassed it just three minutes later.
Max Aarons twisted the Wednesday left-back inside out before laying it off to Vrancic and continuing his run. Mario knew, just knew, where Aarons would be and back-heeled it through for him.
A beautiful check from Max and then the ball was buried into the far corner of Wildman’s net. Quality.
Just before full-time Farke introduced the 18-year-old Tyrese Omotoye who won my heart with virtually his only involvement in the game. He ran the ball into the left-hand corner area in front of the Snakepit and ate up a whole minute of stoppage time by so doing.
In some ways that was my favourite moment of the match. Incredible maturity from such a young lad which I’d use as a counterargument to those who question our coaching methods.
Retrospectively, Olly Skipp certainly *took one for the team* with one of the better executed professional fouls I have seen at 0-1. He had to do it and he did.
The kids are alright, hey?
Pulis afterwards was *as sick as a parrot* as he bemoaned referee Jarred Gillett for not awarding his side a brace of penalties. Neither shout looked nailed on to me but maybe Mr Gillett balanced the decisions of Darren England at Luton in midweek in the sense of what goes around comes around.
I don’t normally select a man of the match but in this case I’m going to reference our pivotal duo of Skipp and Vrancic. You choose between them if you wish but I don’t feel able to myself.
Maybe we could temporarily rename Carrow Road *Quality Street*. That would be perfect for the Christmas period.
And don’t forget MFW regulars Ed and Chris – you were both at the Carra and I’d love to hear of your matchday experiences.
Morning Martin. Great summing up, and I think the whole team did brilliantly to overcome Pulis’ version of Trump’s wall. Fortunately, like Trump’s wall, we were able to find a couple of holes in it to slip through.
I think I’m right in saying that goal was Josh’s first touch? Great intelligence to show Mario where he wanted it, and a perfectly timed run to get on the end of the pass. Max kept his cool brilliantly to get the winner.
It was also superb to see Farke doing his bit with the fans after the final whistle. He deserved it, what an inspired substitution! I just hope it was cramp that caused Mario to go off before the end, but it did look a bit like a hamstring tweak.
Oh, credit to Wednesday for a super goal. Pulis is obviously trying to follow the Murinho model, judging by yesterday’s North London derby. It’s great credit to City that we found a way through the packed defence, when Arsenal couldn’t find a way in at Spurs.
Morning [just] Jim
Like Alex B [below] Spurs are my second team so I appreciate your comment about Mourinho – not too sure how far that particular comparison with Pulis goes though 🙂
I miss the oles too – it’s just the way that Farke trembles his hands at hip level before launching them I suppose.
Vrancic stood on the touchline enjoying his water bottle for a while before tunnelling it – a combination of cramp and $hithousing I would suggest.
Cheers
Good morning Mr P and an excellent article as usual. Great mention of Omotoye, who’s first thought when he got the ball was to head straight the corner flag – pure class and plaudits to DF and his coaching staff!! 🙂
What a great feeling after the game on Saturday!! As DF said, the fans drove the players on and I’m certain we could have beaten Derby had that game been played in front of fans and it was brilliant to be there {match report later!!).
It was great to see Pukki back in the starting 11, but I’m not convinced that he was 100% fit. Buendia does what he does and was on the receiving end of a nasty tackle and had the perpetrator not been writing on the ground in apparent agony, I and several of the fans around me felt that it should have been a red card. The injustice of that decision coupled with the Luton ‘penalty’ cancels out TP’s penalty claims IMO.
The Owls started of very brightly and had it not been for Stieperman’s goal-line clearance, they could have taken an early lead. We pretty much dominated possession, but couldn’t find get the early goal, though we did come close on several occasions.
Their goal was very well taken, though I think our defence could have prevented it. I, along with it seemed most of the other fans in the stadium sensed the worst, but the fams kept on singing and cheering.
DF then decided it was time for JM to enter the fray. His goal was pure genius/class or any number of superlatives you can think of. This was then TOTALLY outclassed by our 2nd goal – I don’t think I’ll ever tire of watching replays of it and I’ll make sure that my granddaughter watches it several times as well.
Here’s hoping that a few more of our injured players are fit enough to return soon and that DF will have the permitted 9 players on the bench.
I’ve seen some criticism of him for not putting some of the youngsters into the fray and as someone said yesterday, that if he’d put some of them on on Wednesday when we were 3-1 down it could harm their career – I tend to agree.
I see there is a small gap opening up below us and even if we were to lose on Wednesday, we would still be in the top 6. I was reading an article last week, reiterating that it is a ‘marathon and not a sprint’ – VERY true.
Match report –
I see there have been several others published yesterday, but here goes –
I got to CR just after 2pm and joined the relevant queue (I was in block H where under normal circumstances would be full of away fans). Everyone was wearing their masks/face coverings and the queue was moving quite steadily and soon it was my turn to have my temperature check. Ticket/ID/rucksack check completed and in through the turnstile.
NCFC deserve full credit in the way they handled everything and it was great to see the many smiling ‘eyes’ once inside the ground.
I normally arrive at the ground around 2.45 and chat to the other fans who sit near me before taking my seat a few minutes before kick-off, so was interesting to watch the players going through their warm-up.
It was a nice touch for Delia and Michael to come over and greet the fans and it was certainly appreciated.
The fans were great with their singing and chanting and it’s hard to believe that there were only 2,000 of us in the stadium.
I’m certain when that 2nd goal went in, had the stadium been full, the roof of the Barclay would now be in the car park!!
Would I go again if I had the chance – just try and stop me, though I completely agree with fans’ choice not to go until we get a full stadium/or are in a ‘vulnerable’ age group and on reflection, there were certainly fewer fans who fall into that group than I see on match days.
Hi Ed
First off thanks very much for your recalling the experience you enjoyed on Saturday. There’s a slightly off the wall piece on ACN just now but it hit home to me and you might enjoy reading it.
I can’t link remotely but Along Come Norwich are highly visible and as easy to find as us MFW folks are on the web.
I agree we would have taken Derby with even only 1,000 supporters in the ground. If only that professional foul had been committed *10 metres earlier*!
One thing I did pick up on iFollow and a couple of subsequent Paul Chesterton stills was the difference in height between Delia and the Stieperdude 🙂
Thanks for your report – much appreciated.
Thanks Martin and I read the report from Nick on ACN and the one from David Powles – and we all definitely enjoyed the experience and can’t wait to go again. 😀
The ACN article was ace – it took me longer to read than I would have liked as I virtually sight read but something in there was so poignant I kept going back to the detail to make sure I’d got it right!
The view from the UB is absolutely wonderful as the sun goes down and few clubs in the UK can boast that of course.
Whenever I feel down [not that often tbh] I thank my luckys that I live in Norfolk – I’ve been to almost literally thousands of places and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Martin;
It never ceases to amaze me how it’s sometimes difficult to entice “foreigners” to Norfolk, be they professional footballers or regular members of the population…….but once here, so, so many of them find it very difficult to leave.
O T B C
John:
That is so true.
I’m not born or bred but at a very early age I knew there was only one place I wanted to be and the advent of the computer, mobile phone, a company car and an understanding Fenland-born director facilitated it for me.
12 years in Blofield, 15 in Coltishall and seven in NR3 & Mundesley jointly – I couldn’t be happier.
Wes, Russ Martin, Cedric and so many others would agree 🙂
Saturday 6 pack.
1.kick of is a 1500, not 1500+20 seconds, but after Wednesdays early upfield soiree we run the show for 15 mins.
2. Game settles into the familiar Pulis pattern Ie going nowhere.
3 . Ifollow goes on strike again,shut down ,reboot half time.
4.WTF a moment of pure class from Reach, Windass does well and its unstoppable. As you say Matin credit where credit is due, and Pulis shuts up shop shutters down and parks the bus.
5.This is looking ropey, even Mr Weston is struggling to improve my mood. Farke decides , Martins on( the young one!) and its 1-1. Pass and move at its best.
6.2-1 Aarons and Vrancic sublime, or can I say vintage.
Game over, Pulis moaning.
Alls well that ends well. Onto Forest Wednesday.
Hi Bernie
#1 I didn’t even notice.
#2 Spot on.
#3 Never had a second’s problem with iFollow – hope I’m not talking that one up!
#4 It was parking the bus completely that killed off the Owls. Silly Tony.
#5 The impact of Josh Martin was immense – and he scored his first senior goal too.
#6 Sublime indeed. I guess that will be added to my long list of favourite City goals.
That’s enough football by numbers – I’m off to see Mr Weston.
Cheers!
I forgot to mention how much the fans enjoyed DF’s ‘oles’!! 😀
We’re used to them in the Barclay – good job Daniel didn’t get disorientated!
Marty, liked the Quality Street quip. On that theme next time you are back at Carra Rud it might be best if you put your new pearlies some where safe. Watching jaw dropping moments like those two goal scoring movements your knashers could get trodden on.
Hi Cutty
My days of the toffees in psychedelic yellow wrappers are well and truly over.
With your heart in your mouth false teeth are too risky to wear.
Cheers
Totally agree Martin.
For someone so young, to have the nous to take the ball into the corner as he did was quite remarkable from Mr Omotoye.
It was looking as if we were going to be frustrated again, but one thing Farke ball does is tire the opposition, whoever they are in this league.
Two superb goals; three excellent points.
What’s not to like??
O T B C
Hi John
I’m cautiously reckoning on Josh Martin, Bali Mumba and the even younger Tyrese Omotoye to become the successors to Jamal, Ben and Max. Yeah I left a further one out on purpose – we’ll see what his attitude is like on his return from *injury*
As soon as Tim Krul is back between the sticks there’ll be nothing not to like!
Thanks as usual.
I’ll raise your one at least 2 more….Sorensen looks a class act, and a real steal, and we’ve not even seen him in his preferred position….and to pinch a quote from elsewhere, Soto just looks like he really was “born to score”.
O T B C
OK I’ll call.
Sorensen WILL be the new Alex Tettey as unfortunately neither he nor Olly Skipp are even remotely likely to be with us next season.
Soto looks great in his vid clips – if I understood all this work permit squit I’d comment sensibly on it – but no comprende.
I think Tyrese was probably sent out with very clear instructions to take the ball to the corner and hold there as long as possible if the opportunity arose. Having said that, he carried out his instructions admirably, and it was also good to see him berate Pukki for not playing him in and choosing to shoot instead, although Pukki would probably have had it on target before the deflection that took it just wide.
Yes you’re probably right about the instructions but for such a young lad to take the info on board and adhere to it is truly admirable.
I hope to see a lot more of Tyrese Omotoye – and I reckon I will.
‘It’s all about the points’ is another cliche that we seem to be living by. The fluidity of performance isn’t quite there yet and perhaps we might never hit the heights of 2018-19-but, in my opinion, that was consistently the best football the Championship has ever seen. While we have so many injuries, I’m more than happy that we keep finding ways of winning and staying top.
My favourite Omotoye moment was just after he came on when he was demanding Pukki put him through and showed him where he wanted the ball. As you say, the kids are alright.
Hi Don
I missed the bit where Tyrese was bossing Pukki but I can quite believe it. There was also a lovely moment at the final whistle where McGovern hugged Martin. Age gap? Doesn’t seem to matter to us.
The cavalry will be coming over the hill in the next few weeks and there’s no reason why we can’t do this as long as we can hold on to Emi.
Cheers mate
Nicely done, Martin. Great result in the end. At 1-0 down with 10 mins to go – especially after losing the previous game and having an injury list longer than mine to Santa – it was starting to look like confidence was on the wane and we might be struggling for points for the next month or two. This has renewed faith in our ability to compete even without the full first team complement.
(NB. I’m not the Chris mentioned above who went,so looking forward to reading his first hand view!)
Hi Chris
The other Chris put his review up on Gary’s piece yesterday and a fine read it was.
As I’ve said to Ed [above] who also kindly gave us his experiences of matchday this morning there’s a rather alternative but nonetheless marvellous article from one of the ACN guys lurking around the net. Check it out.
And yes, the faith remains and should only reinforce itself from this point onwards.
Cheers
Hi Martin
An enjoyable read waiting in a car park while the wife and son do some early morning shopping.
As your summary goes it was a great game and all that turned up must have an enjoyable afternoon.
A blot on the copy book so the current bun say the Aaron’s hugged a supporter af he scored now the health and safety plus FA want cities and players comments on the rule breach.
Pulis had a few things to say after the game and said his defenders must pass the ball not kick in to touch as it just keeps coming back.
Big Sam was a waste of space on Quest but backed his old pal fir 2 pens abd a sending off.
I thought there had been a rule change were you could get punished twice for one offence ie either a pen or a sending off not both??? Someone will put me right.
Now on to Wednesday can be hammer a couple of nails into the Forest coffin ⚰ they are looking like a team with no confidence and Chris Houghton is having a tough time getting them going let’s not gave an ACN this week.
Can we expect anymore casualties to be ready to return, Rupp would be a good call only time and Farke will tell.
I think we just might have to forget the ODI series but the forest game is a RED Button on Sky.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay safe 🙏 and Stay Healthy
Hi Alex
Beggar your luck. Shopping in December – no ta!
Apparently we’ve simply been sent a stern reminder from the EFL about Covid regs and neither the Club nor Max will face any kind of fine or sanction.
I didn’t find Allardyce too bad on Quest personally but the presenter decided he would be Sam while Sam Parkin would have to be Sammy for purposes of differentiation.
Colin Murray’s back this week. Hooray!
I’ve been on Forest preview duty and it’s worth reading what friend of MFW Christian B has to say about his club tomorrow – let’s just say for now that he’s not confident.
Cheers mate
A good result it’s true but one achieved with two moments of magic following a lot of missed or sideways passing. Can anyone remember when we last scored from a corner? Man City is the last one I can recall. We keep winning which is good but I do worry about our lack of firepower. I thought Mario’s performance was one of his best particularly when he moved forward to Stiepermann’s position.
Hi Cyprus
Wish we had your weather.
No I can’t recall the last time we scored from a corner. Maybe Malky in 2003 from a Clint Easton [remember him?] delivery.
Or Jon Newsome in 1994?
Seriously the Mayor against Citeh is the last one I can genuinely remember too.
Thanks
Grant Hanley….at Burnley or Preston away in the F A Cup last season…..(Ithink)
I wish I had that weather too but we’re currently living In sunny Hull!!
Ha!
Great piece Martin.
I loved the fact dear old Tony went 6-3-1, as Mourinho would say you can never have enough holding midfield on the pitch at once. Or Mick’s 9-1 with Ipswich down here one time.
It baffles me the criticism we are getting, for goodness sake we have over half our 25 man squad out for the last few weeks.
I know Manchester United have gone up to 5th but they lurch from one European disaster to the next. They play c..p for half a match then seem to wake up at half time.
The matches I have seen them play Brighton, Chelsea spring to mind they have been very, very lucky but does anyone criticize Ole ? The old guard of Neville, Scholes etc certainly don’t even the shy and retiring Roy Keane chooses his words more carefully than if it was any other club.
My point is that in my opinion Daniel Farke and his backroom staff have done an amazing job to have us at the top of the Championship. And were he to be at Manchester United now they would be a lot better off. I cannot believe Ole is still there with Pochettino out of work.
I firmly believe Farke one day will manage a big club and we will remember very fondly of the time we had him here.
Also look how awful Sheffield United and WBA look, but the media boys still say good old Chris Wilder will get them out of it. Personally I hope he does but he has a job on to beat our 21 points at the moment.
It so easy to knock Norwich by media pundits and it angers me that they don’t do their homework.
Guess who did ? Matt Le Tissier and look what happened to him.
Hi Tim
On a personal level I have very little time for Man Utd but that notwithstanding I have to agree with your comments about them.
We will never be media darlings – the Delia novelty effect wore out over 20 years ago but I guess you don’t care about that and neither do I.
I’ve a friend who’s a Boro fan and he always says that geography counts for a lot in terms of the MSM – Teesside is not media-central and neither is Norfolk, although several second-homers about 20 miles further along the coastline from me might disagree about the latter.
Yes, Farke & his coaching team have made the very best out of a bad job injury-wise and all praise to them – now we’ve got a few guys trickling back future team selections will be fascinating.
Great comment – thanks.
Hello Martin, a great read and plenty of talking points.
As I said in my reply to Gary’s article, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day. Virtually from the moment we packed into my daughters car I felt a familiar tingle of anticipation. I did wonder if I could re engage with the habit of a lifetime after the long and tedious,break from all the things we enjoy.
I needn’t have worried.
To spend a whole afternoon with ones family sharing a passionate pastime and going through every emotion cannot be underestimated.
Taking heed of Farkes call for supporters to make as much noise as possible quite literally we roared encouragement at every attack, every set piece, every fractious moment.
Then, the killjoy Pulis as is his wont, appeared to have put a damper on the proceedings, swiping the cherry on the cake and some of the icing too.
With literally no sign of a comeback, the quick, elusive and clever attacking play of Vrancic and Martin proved over the Pulis wall, th plethora of centre halves and defensive midfielders. The fisrts thought was “can we win this now?”
The sublime nature of Aarons run into the box and Vrancic reverse ball put the seal on the day. If carlsberg did post lockdown tentative first steps back, this would be it.
The Owls however, are no mugs. They are falsely adrift at the bottom and under Pulis will undoubtedly gain altitude as lesser sides fall back. There were still a couple of moments of alarm to negotiate.
In short, I’m going again, even if purchasing multiple tickets at 30 quid a time is a trifle steep!
Thanks for that Chris
There are two teams in the lower echelons that I do NOT see going down and one of them is certainly Wednesday. The other would be Forest under Hughton but we’ll find out a bit more about them tomorrow of course.
Maybe Derby will get away with it too if they sort things out under Rooney in January. although I’m less confident about them than the others.
It’s so relevant to squad depth and first XI quality these days and as much as I like both Warney and Gareth Ainsworth they do not have that strength in depth available to them so it will be a big ask for either of them to stay up.
Family & friends are key to a match day – I can only describe our tribe as *followers* although number one son enjoys coming along very occasionally.
I do miss my Barclay mates though 🙁
I forgot to add, the sight of omotoye racing to the corner flag as per instructions made me chuckle. There is something inherently endearing about youngsters with an eagerness to please and the ability to follow orders to,the exact letter.
Yeah – I was equally impressed.