Before Wednesday night’s match, Bristol City striker Nahki Wells warned Norwich City that his side would go to Carrow Road to “turn over” the Canaries.
Well Nahki me ole China, you did not speak with forked tongue. Bristol threw the kitchen sink at us for a large proportion of the game and if we hadn’t taken those early chances through Teemu Pukki who knows what the outcome might have been.
The game began in Keystone Kops fashion with Josh Sargent deciding to go backwards when it was easier to shoot quickly followed at the other end by Sam Byram presenting Tommy Conway with a free hit. Conway was shocked enough to shank his shot well wide of Tim Krul’s right stick.
There was something like 54 seconds on the clock at that stage.
It was then that Pukki fortuitously came to the fore. His first came from a quickly taken Kenny McLean free kick that Bristol defender Kai Naismith misread and the man himself flicked the ball over the static Dan Bentley to then head into the empty net. A lovely little goal, that one.
Ten minutes later McLean intercepted a poor diagonal ball from the aforementioned Naismith and pointed to show Aaron Ramsey where to play in Pukki. I think Ramsey knew what to do anyway Kenny, but the thought was there!
Cue the Reds in upping the ante. Crossfield balls were pinged about with ease as Mark Sykes and Jay DaSilva enjoyed the freedom of the flanks and full-backs Byram and Max Aarons became isolated as the Bristol midfield supported the marauding wingbacks while ours went largely awol. Sykes in particular looked really handy.
It was no surprise when young Conway sent Canary hearts a fluttering when he pulled one back two minutes before the break when he lost Grant Hanley to score with a bullet header from close range.
The second half saw largely more of the same and it was concerning stuff to watch.
Even when Sargent restored the two-goal cushion with a firm 65th-minute header from a Gabriel Sara corner the game was never genuinely safe as we did not have the ability to calm things down and keep possession for any meaningful period of time.
Both James and Gary described Antoine Semenyo’s goal yesterday. I will only question that Aarons received an obvious head injury courtesy of Wells and three of our players had separate chances to put the ball out of play but instead rather ridiculously carried on while waiting for a whistle that never came.
Amidst the Bristol firestorm, we had enough chances to have put the game to bed at 4-2, but Wednesday was one of those nights when we were never going to do that.
As is my wont of late, it’s time to ask Don Harold for the opinion of the Man in the Stands.
“Blimey, we make life difficult for ourselves. We must stop giving the ball away. Luckily compared to the PL we’re playing in a pub league and getting away with it, but I fear that we will, at some time, pay heavily for our carelessness.
“However, we won and deserved to win. My brother who has travelled from Panama for a couple of games saw his first three points since we beat QPR 4-0 in 2018-19. And we were all treated to a memorable Pukki goal – he doesn’t get many with his head!
“When we weren’t giving the ball away we looked pretty good and six wins on the spin is impressive in anyone’s book. Let’s hope we keep the run going a least until the ridiculous international break.”
It has since emerged that Angus Gunn was absent from the bench with a knee injury and that Hanley played most of the second half in discomfiture with a shoulder concern. Byram was cramping up at the end so all three must be doubtful for the visit of draw specialists West Brom tomorrow.
We’ll find out more from Dean Smith later this morning.
It’s toying with reality when we sit back and realise that’s six wins on the bounce but I’m not knocking it and that’s for sure.
To balance that, it would be fantastic to see both Liam Gibbs and Isaac Hayden available for selection on October 1 – otherwise, we still haven’t even remotely replaced Alex Tettey or Olly Skipp.
Having said that, oh to have been a neutral watching that match, and what a classic main event it would have made for TV! Don’t be afraid to rearrange the timing of the return match at Ashton Gate Mr Sky!
And if you caught an early morning view of the match from Brentwood, LA, Mr Attanasio, now you can truly understand what it feels like to be a Norwich City supporter.
Excellently summed up as always Martin.
Having only seen brief highlights of this season so far, I can’t decide if we are still capable of another couple of gears, or if we’re at our limit with the players currently available….
Six on the bounce is not to be sniffed at at any level…..but apart from Bristol City (and they really did push us all the way!), have we really played anyone of note yet?
Plus, should we return to the “Promised Land”, it looks like we’ll require a re-build of Forest proportions – but without the money.
O T B C
Hi John
It appears to me that we have the capacity to go up a level or two – with the caveat that this can only happen when we get Gibbs back and/or Hayden fit.
Sheff Utd and Watford away will surely prove the ultimate tests of our promotion credentials and maybe we will have a couple back by then.
i agree that Bristol City pushed us harder than anyone else has this season.
Can you imagine us doing a Forest? 🙂
Cheers
Hope you are improving Mr P best wishes. Still some wrinkles to iron out, still some basics need sharpening. It was close to being How to chuck away a lead. But some resolve was on show thankfully. Read a guy who said a Premier team would have punished us true except , we have already seen that, twice -plus we are not in that league . Bristol are a decent side with Pearson a wily old fox, he knew how to play us with a constant high press, something we still seem to struggle a little with.
At end of the day we won that’s 6 in a row what is there to be unhappy about . My 10th game comes up against another of Bruce failures, how does he keep getting jobs ?
Hi Lad
Still in the land of the unknown I’m afraid. City get their scans back in 48 hours, I’m still waiting for mine after three weeks.
Bristol’s high press was relentless but they paid the ultimate price for it by leaving only three at the back which we pounced on whenever we could.
Like you, I do not understand why steve Bruce gets job after job after job.
Cheers
Excellent summary Martin.
I am glad to see I wasn’t the only one to see 👉 from our Kenny😂.
When you consider we are doing all this, 6 wins on the bounce, without any recognised holding midfielder players and the same at left back it is a big testament to the players and coaching staff who are finding ways to win.
Don is right had we performed like that in the Prem then it could have been West Ham or Newcastle all over again.
That may explain the subdued atmosphere along with quite a few empty seats, is there an apathy over all these excellent results? The knowledge as to what comes next.
I would implore the Canary Faithful to get right behind the team and manager. If we go up this year I feel under Smith with a bit more money coming from our new investors we can at least not embarrass
ourselves. I know it is daunting but as much as I loved Daniel Farke and don’t hold him responsible for the EPL relegations his style of play needed much better players than it seems the club could afford.
I too worry that Saturday maybe a bridge too far for Grant and Sam. The relentless nature of the Championship doesn’t allow for recovery time.
Hanley’s injury is worrying if it the same as last year, let’s hope not.
And wasn’t it lovely to see Teemu notch another brace.
It was also great to hear Teemu’s honesty in the pinkun. Who could have blamed him for wanting to stay in the EPL ? Not me, but he has been so truthful to his promise (That he would never force his way out of Carrow Road ) it shows what a great person he is and a man of his word.
Hi Tim
I wasn’t looking for the McLean finger, honest. It just kind of appeared!
I refuse to think about what might happen should we be promoted but I genuinely feel it’s in the back of everybody’s mind and proves to be a bit of a dampener for many supporters, particularly the older heads amongst us.
I interpret Dean Smith’s take on Hanley this morning to mean that he won’t start tomorrow. *Evaluation in training* coupled with bigging up Gibson points that way to me and if he is borderline I do not want to see us rest him only for Scotland to then go ahead and play him.
Pukki’s attitude is indeed exemplary.
Cheers
Hi Martin
Wednesday was a nervous game to watch enforced errors, poor passing and again getting bullied off the ball and a REF the wanted the game to flow and refused to book over zealous tackles.
Being a supporter for 60years I like the physical side or as one pundit put it the man’s game, yet talking to players after a badly time foul isn’t working and the players seem to think they get 3 chance before being booked that should stop first foul first booking, letting players put their arm around the REF when being warned is a booking offence, these REF’S want to be friends with the players they can’t as they are there to control the game.
Anyway the game was a great watch no matter who you supported on the night, McLean got an assist and a great pass to Ramsey then went missing in midfield again leaving El Nacho by himself, Byram needed his help none was given similar with Aarons, he seems to be first name on the team sheet and the last to be subbed he must have something than I’m not seeing.
WBA this weekend another tough call and a site dedicated to the Thrushes has said that it could be Bruce’s swansong as he’s not worked out and with the international break it would be a good time for a change.
Congratulations to Lewis getting a recall for N Ireland and that’s without any first team action at Newcastle.
Prutton says a 2-0 home win I will go with that
Hi Alex
*Nerves* wasn’t in it!
Some people are saying Max Aarons has peaked. I’m not sure because to me it looks more like a case of him missing Emi. Much of the time anyway.
When Gibbs and/or Hayden provide the means for us to put our foot on the ball and keep it there I don’t expect the midfield to remain as loose as it often is right now.
Bruce’s constant employment remains a mystery to me.
Luckily for WBA supporters their bird is known as a throstle, not a thrush 😉
Cheers
Marty, loved the Keystone cops, they like City generally got a result and there was a lot of wayward skill involved, our Dereham lad with his show boating and step overs would have fitted into that crew. We’re a winning and goodness knows what will happen in the next episode but it gives us something to talk about. Looking forward to Saturday which is more than I did last season.
Hi Cutty
You’re quite right – no dreading the teleprinter at 10 to 5 this season.
My ole Granny was a silents fanatic and I used to watch loads on Super 8 or whatever it was back in the early 60s when I was a tiny.
Is Todd tall enough for the Kops? Probably these days.
Cheers
I realised that once I posted the comment about the birds name not sure how they got the baggies tag
It’s either baggy clothing worn by supporters when they turned up straight from a shift at the metal works or a reference to two large bags used to collect gate money in the early days – nobody seems to know which!
The Throstle is the Germanic name for the Song Thrush