Well, that was emotional.
I say emotional, what I really mean is heart-wrenching. And all within four hours of having been on a Championship high.
I say high, what I really mean is being massively relieved that an ordinary performance somehow yielded three vital points and upset Russell Martin in the process.
Let’s start with City.
While it may not have been the post-World Cup break revolution that Dean Smith alluded to, there was undoubtedly plenty of doggedness and resolve on display as they rode out a South Wales storm to secure the win.
Work has clearly been ongoing to improve the team’s work without the ball and to have emerged with a clean sheet when you’ve been under the cosh for 75 minutes suggests it wasn’t time entirely wasted.
Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait until the next World Cup break (yes, I know there won’t be one) for them to spend time working on improving their quality with the ball.
But let’s focus on the positives for now. Any away win in the Championship should be celebrated because they don’t come easy and it was a victory that kept us in fourth place – especially vital as second-placed Sheffield United also won.
A six-point gap between City and the automatic places feels manageable with still 24 games to go. But, as is the Championship’s wont, it’s so very tight, with Coventry, down in 15th place, only six points adrift of us.
The margin for error, and dropped points, is slim.
City’s start yesterday was the stuff of dreams, and Teemu Pukki could easily have scored even before he eventually did in the move that led to the corner.
From thereon in, with Swansea being a side that likes to dominate the ball in a Farke style, it was always destined to be a cling-on-to-what-we-have type of performance, but in the first half there was at least an attacking intent and a desire to play with menace on the break.
With the Swans cranking up the pressure in the second period, that menace dissipated, and the passing became sloppy and imprecise. That we were so poor in possession was probably exacerbated by the fact that the style of play Russell Martin demands was once ours.
In the Championship we would do that for fun but with added threat in the final third. Ultimately, Swansea don’t have a Teemu Pukki who can help turn all of that possession into goals. Thankfully.
And, also thankfully, when the City defences were breached – and it wasn’t very often – we have a Gunn in goal who is playing at the top of his game and is starting to exude the type of authority in his box that was once the preserve of his dad.
It also helped that Swansea’s best chance fell to the head of Kyle Naughton – a fine player but not one renowned for his far-post headers.
Dean Smith was chuffed at the end, as he should be with three points, but I’d like to think he was at least a little bit unhappy over our paucity with the ball. A targeted improvement with the ball shouldn’t come at the expense of a decline in our use of it.
Good sides can do both.
As ever, mystery and intrigue surrounded the non-appearance of Todd Cantwell who, according to Smith, was left out after they agreed he would benefit more from extra training.
Odd.
But, all things considered, it was a win and an important one. After Smith declared we’d return after the break “a different animal”, it would have been troubling if that animal had been a two-week-old kitten.
As it transpired, we ended up with something lacking in style or class but dogged and determined. I’ll leave you to conclude what type of animal that is.
So, room for improvement, but we take the win and move on.
***
As for England’s exit from the World Cup … ouch!
In prepping my son pre-match for the inevitable heartbreak, we ended up listing all the England tournament exits I’ve had the dubious pleasure of witnessing.
They were, of course, numerous but it did give me the chance to re-tell the tale of the only one I actually witnessed in person – in St Etienne 1998 when, despite Michael Owen’s super-goal, we lost on penalties to Argentina.
That was painful and was not dissimilar to last night’s in that it was a game in which England played well. Lots and lots of ifs in that one too, including if David Beckham hadn’t kicked out at Diego Simeone, but since then most England exits have been borne of them not being quite good enough with the ball.
That was the case when we lost to Croatia in the semifinal four years ago and also in last summer’s European Championship final against Italy. In both games, we took the lead but were found wanting when it came to controlling the game.
Not so last night.
While there were some tricky moments in last night’s first half, in the second England were the better side. They passed the ball better than the French, they controlled the game better than the French and looked every bit as effective as the current world champions in almost every department.
That they came up just short boiled down to two moments – a quality cross from Griezemann and a missed penalty from Harry Kane. And that’s it. That was the difference.
To quote Ian Smith (cricket fans will understand), “the barest of margins”.
But knockout football is all about the winning, and ifs and buts count for nothing. It’s brutal and that Kane will now have to live with that missed pen for the rest of his days is cruel for a bloke who has led that England line with such distinction for so long.
There are no words that console while the pain is so raw, but when the dust settles it should be recognised that this England team, for all the supposed limitations of its manager, is no longer cowed by teams of greater reputation and higher ranking.
This team proved last night that it can now go toe-to-toe with the best and compete on a level playing field.
And for the first time in ages, at around 9pm last night, I felt proud to be English.
Pre-break City lost or drew 2 or 3 games in which they were probably the better side. Yesterday, they managed to do the opposite.
As for England, losing in a QF looks bad in the record books, but in truth we got the rough end of the draw. From what I’ve seen those are the best 2 teams in the competition. Just a shame we had to meet two rounds too soon.
Sadly Gary A weak Ref was England’s down fall possibly a Kane penalty before we got one and letting the French have to much leeway in fouls whereas we got pulled up and booked at the slightest touch.
Martin saying city players apologised to him fir his side losing not do sure, we have all played the game at different levels and a win is a win but saying sorry to the opposition manager no, you might say hard luck or similar but not apologise for taking the points.
Steve Martin as with a few Ref’s this season seem to wave the yellow card at city players more than the opposition maybe they want to see if it matches the shirts lucky we don’t wear RED.
We did wear red!
So we did the Ref must be like me colour blind 🤣🤣🤣
👍🏻😂
Excellent summary of yesterday’s two halves. I have one question about each of them. If your only job is to play football, how can you be unfit when you’ve been under your bosses watchful eyes for four weeks? And how outrageously poor was the referee last night? We complain of the incompetence in the Championship but he took it to another level (with the benefit of VAR too).
O T B C
Should the scorer if the first penalty take the second penalty. I have a vague memory of a City game where our penalty taker scored one and then missed a second one which upset the manager at the time as the manager wanted a second taker for the second pen. Trouble is I just can’t currently recall the names.
John Bond was the manager, but I can’t remember the players involved. Taking two penalties against your club teammate is always going to be a bit of a risk. The second one, Loris went where Caine had put the first one, and was in with a chance of saving it, had it been on target.
I’ve seen a comment that England’s plane home will probably land before Caine’s penalty does!
3pts clean sheet and a bit of luck to boot, something we have not had much of the last 18 mths
As for England two pub teams two mid/top table championship teams beaten then a quick winger and old fashioned no 9 undo us and tell the world what we already knew Stones and Mcguire are not international centre backs.
All in all football needs a massive reboot from what little I saw of the world cup it was very dull and the players are average at best but you know my thoughts on the Premier lge m8!
A very good summing up of Saturdays feast of football Gary.
With regard to England, it is hard to draw any other conclusion than Francophilic favrotism from the actions of the officials and the absurd and corrupt VAR. the performance of the team exceeded my pre match prediction and we looked quite good in the main.
As for City, currently sitting in fourth place, it says: much about the quality of the division that we sit astride such a lofty perch. Having watched the team in third, Blackburn stink ewood park out yesterday morning taking a 4-1 drubbing from Preston gives some indication of the quality on offer.
The feeling remains that this collection of international players should be achieving more against solid journeyman types that they usually encounter.
In the event a win is a win and I always enjoy the warm feeling brought on by an away win. The centre halves were stubborn and Angus Gunn was competent, confident and totally assured in all his work, from his handling to his use of the ball with his feet. I’m starting to rate him highly. The goal from a order is a rare treat. One thing Sara offers is a good dead ball delivery and the McLean front post run and sharp finish by PuKki has a lot to commend it.
That apart, the second half was a dour spectacle. Swansea overplayed and had no real focal point, despite dominating possession we weren’t clinging on for dear life. Just existing.
Next week – blackburn – must win.
Sorry to be a miserableist again Gary (and I’m not even commenting on City) but I’m afraid you seem to have fallen into this same trap as the pundits after the match last night. We lost, as per usual and all because we’ve got this safety first type of manager (ring any bells) who England seem to employ time after time and until this mentality changes then we’ll continue to fail when it comes to the crunch against quality teams.
We failed to overcome both USA and France but in our usual flat track bully style we did manage to crush the might of Iran, Wales and Senegal.
You can pontificate all you like about playing well and dominating games but how many clear cut chances were created by England during that second period when as you rightly say we stood toe to toe with the French. James Maddison didn’t get one kick throughout the whole tournament and I have my doubts (injury or not) as to whether he was ever going to in Southgate’s mind. Despite the fact that his stats this season in an underperforming Leicester side have been excellent, it appeared that he was only included in the squad to deter the peasants from revolting. Coupled with the fact that there were others on the bench who given the chance maybe could have thrown a little stardust around is it any wonder that the same old same old has happened again and we’re on the plane home.
I fully understand that you need workhorses in every team but as someone from a vintage who’s witnessed us winning a World Cup I can name you countless players who didn’t get a fair crack of the whip when it came to pulling on the England Jersey because they were considered luxuries or mavericks.
Watching the aftermatch musings of Gary Neville and Ian Wright last night telling us all what a great job Gareth is doing, I couldn’t help thinking that the look on Roy Keane’s face said it all really and surprisingly enough he managed to hold back from putting the boot in out of sympathy to them.
I don’t feel proud Gary, I’m just hugely disappointed.
Fair enough, Bob. You didn’t think we played well in last night’s second half? I did write in the piece that, ultimately, knockout football is all about winning and we didn’t.
Hit nail long the head Bob.
England are a very average side playing in a very average world cup. Who has really shone during the finals? No one really not seen a Rossi, Gazza, Cruyff or the genius of Brazil 70 or 82.
Fifa and uefa need to look long and hard at all football because for me it almost dead in all but name.
Go back to what made it great look at some of the stupid rules they have brought in and go back to basics! Or on the other hand I’m oldschool and hate the rubbish we are served up these days!
Looking through social media, Norwich seem to be getting more criticism from their supporters after winning than England are after losing.
Thassa rummin’ if you ask me.
Hi Don
Just maybe the critism I’d due to a plonker saying we would return a different animal, he might still be for it to return from the TAXIDERMISTS
Swansea didnt have luck + typically they lacked scoring quality. Swansea was also statistically way better and that does not look so bright in the Norwich perspective.
Middlesbrough under Carrick keeps on getting good results, from bottom to top 6 seems to be very realistic. Luton lost their manager and now QPR lost and right away their results are bad. Its sad.
England-France was a strange game, it was expected that there was not going to be any kind of intensity. It looked like a friendly game where all players knew the outcome. If you play the world cup quarter final and your players do not have interest to be careful in your own penalty area and cause stupid penalties, there is something very wrong in your team. Typical France, in euro 20 they went out in the last 16 round and didnt show any feelings, intensity or will to win. They beat England, because England just cant mentally win no matter what chances you give them when games get very important.
I will remember this world cup as a complete lack of sportsmanship. Thank god its mainly been those so called media superstars, Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe are all sad figures. Argentina-Netherlands was finally a game where both sides really wanted to win, it was the best game in this tournament but when the game is over then everything that happened during the game is over. Messi by the way even proved that he has a short person complex and we are talking about a person who has great responsibility.
We are never having steak and chips at Norwich we have to make do with sausage and chips and just look forward to when the new potatoes are due it’s unlikely to be any different for us Norwich supporters such as things are be great full for three points never mind the dross and how we achieved them strange ol season this one having been so bored with us since Houghton. Whiskey coming out later might cheer me up Abit 🤗
Don; I suspect that’s due to many of them/us not quite grasping the “new animal” that Smith & Shakespeare created during the break!
O T B C
Hi Gary, my response certainly wasn’t intended as having a pop at you or your thoughts on the game but you’ve asked a question so I’ll respond again. As they say it’s all about opinions, I can only recall one shot on target from Bellingham in the second half and the two penalties which in my view doesn’t really amount to playing well. There’s been a lot of huffing and puffing about the referee and VAR but it wasn’t all one way, I seem to recall Henderson shoving Giroud over but unsurprisingly that barely got a mention from the likes of Lee Dixon who was totally biased in his views throughout. Anyway Gary, what started as ’30 years of hurt’ from Messrs Baddiel and Skinner is fast approaching double that and it’s high time this situation is rectified so that the likes of you can experience what your father and me have been lucky enough to already.
Sadly both teams that I follow just happen to have head coaches that appear to be cut from the same cloth and I don’t rate either, so yes you’re right things are a bit raw.