Tuesday night’s 3-1 win over Birmingham will probably only be remembered for one thing and that of course is the thunderb@stard from Marcelino Nunez. You know, the one where John Ruddy remained rooted to the spot as it flew over his shoulder and into the River End net.
The worthies in the Regency Security Stand [River Enders to us died-in-the-wool traditionalists] were treated to a bird’s eye view as Kevin Long’s headed clearance orbited Saturn at least twice before Nunez dropped his shoulder and returned it with interest via one of the sweetest volleys you are likely to see.
It was so good a strike it was reminiscent of Jonny Howson’s goal against Forest a few seasons back. All that makes me think Yorkshire Jonny’s was the better of the two is the fact that he scored it at the “right” end as I was behind the goal in my usual perch in the Barclay.
Soon afterwards, a pinpoint cross was met by our Chilean international who hit the ball deliberately into the turf to keep it down and beat Ruddy with consummate ease and for the whole of that first 45 minutes we were a joy to watch, knocking the ball about for fun and dominating proceedings throughout with something like 72 per cent possession and very few instances of simply knocking it about at the back.
Blues manager John Eustace had little to lose and at the break replaced ineffective midfielder Juninho Bacuna with veteran striker Lukas Jutkiewicz and they started to pile the pressure on, particularly with regard to Kenny McLean and Gaby Sara who were targeted for some individual attention of a sometimes less-than-gentle persuasion.
As self-belief pulled on a Blue shirt for a while we became equally stifled and frustrated, with a great finish from Maxime Colin making it a nervy 2-1 on 53 minutes. The right-back popped up on the edge of the area to beat Angus Gunn into his bottom right corner and I’ll be honest here, I spent the next 15 minutes fully expecting one of our beloved ACN moments.
As regular MFW readers will know, I have had to give up my season ticket [and just about every other activity enjoyed by red-blooded members of the human race] so followed the match on Canaries TV with its excellent commentary from Chris Goreham.
What didn’t help my blood pressure overmuch were the constant reminders from Radio Norfolk guest Greg Downes concerning how Birmingham had pegged us back from 2-0 to 2-2 in that meaningless Carabao Cup game at Carrow Road much earlier in the season. I can still hear him now!
But my worries came to naught and Christos Tzolis put the game nicely to bed with a fine finish as his shot bisected a brace of Birmingham defenders to beat Ruddy at the big man’s far post.
To my mind this goal symbolically represented the young Greek’s reassimilation into the Canary squad and who knows what a confidence booster it might prove for him – and at just the right time too.
It is incredible to think that with just 49 points from 33 games, we are still in the mix for the playoffs as only Burnley steadfastly refuse to join in the game of To Me, To You that every other team from second to 15th appears to be playing with the available points.
There remain only two small questions that the post-match inquest failed to deliver that I would like answers to.
Firstly, where was Dimi Giannoulis’ head between the resumption and when he was hooked [interestingly, Lungi Sorensen was preferred to Sam McCallum]?
And secondly, when Onel Hernandez picked up a knock he was replaced by Tzolis rather than Marquinhos. Was this David Wagner’s free choice or is Marquinhos not yet fit to get 20 minutes under his belt?
So in just what shape does this leave us to face Cardiff City at Carrow Road on Saturday?
Right now I don’t know if my ar$e is bored, punched or countersunk. Wagner will not have heard that Cockney expression for Ain’t got a Scooby before, but although he’d never admit it he might well be feeling the same way 
Anyway, I’m pleased to say that this game most certainly was entertainment:
(50) Paul Weller plays Thats Entertainment with Noel Gallagher – YouTube
One of your better musical choices, Mr P!
Hi Dan
I love The Jam – they were brilliant live too.
Legend has it that Weller wrote the lyrics on a couple of beermats in his South London local.
It’s hard to accept that the song is over 40 years old 🙂
Cheers
Hi Martin
Well the departures of our scouting department continues, it seems Brighton have taken on Mr Hoyle head of our emerging talent without much of a fight, his father owner Huddersfield at one time.
Seems anyone that might be good at recruitment is soon snapped up from city not sure how many we have lost from that department in the last few years but we surely can’t keep losing good staff can we.
Stick or twist we know the memo is out there on how to beat city all the other 23 clubs must have seen it but now and then someone ignores it and gets turned over like Jasper Carrots Brummies will Cardiff come out all guns blazing or more Wigan with a quick high press to stifle cities midfield.
The next 2 games will be interesting one still in a relegation fight and the other in with city for a possible playoff spot.
The New Den isn’t much different from the Old Den both in reception from the supporters and in style of play and never give up attitude so the Valkeries had better be up for a fight as for the home game with Cardiff just maybe another home win to build momentum.
Onwards and upwards
Hi Alex
As you will know there is always a reason why a high percentage of people leave a single department in any organisation.
Poor pay, poor working conditions or a combination of the two plus the head of department being a bit of a tw@t is normally enough to swing a departure.
I’m glad I’m down for the MFW Millwall preview not the Cardiff one because I have seen a lot of the former this season and precious little of the latter.
I can’t speak with any authority about Cardiff but Millwall will be its usual tough challenge. That notwithstanding they often tend to fall away around this time of year but the fightback against Burnley seems to say different in 2023.
Cheers
I’ll go for the head of dept being a french roof tile.
Hi Bernie
Ah, a palindrome of *loot*!
Cheers
My guess is that Lungi was preferred to McCallum simply to balance the introduction of Tzolis. DW’s instructions probably were simple: to Christos- attack; to Lungi – defend. If Sam had got the gig then he would naturally go into the Tzolis space and leave gaps. In addition, letting CT off his defensive brief, at this stage of his fledgling City career, may have been a clever move.
Hi Nick
That explanation makes sense to me for sure – thanks.
There are echoes of Hucks and Adam Drury in there somewhere although either of those two would have been on the bench very often!
Cheers
If we play 4-3-3 Tzolis is ideally suited to that left sided position, cutting in on goal onto his right foot,that is his speciality. Hernandez does a lot of good work but is shown onto his weaker foot or has to check back inside.We saw from the second goal how useful a quick left footed cross can be. Marquinos is more of a winger so perhaps he’ll play when Sargent is back and we use two centre forwards. It was a good decision to use Tzolis, it will help him regain his confidence and put his career back on track. I could never understand how someone we paid so much for was playing for someone else and we were helping with his wages. Smith never gave him a proper chance and wasn’t bothered about writing off such an amount of investment.
I thought the Nunez goal was better than Howson’s he had less to aim at but nobody got anywhere near it. Nunez and Idah work well together and Sara is quality.
Hi Gil
*I could never understand how someone we paid so much for was playing for someone else and we were helping with his wages.*
Me too, and the same would go for Rashica who is still with Galatasaray in Turkey.
Despite Tzolis coming back into the fold I don’t see that happening with Rashica.
*Nunez v Howson* is so subjective I don’t think anybody is right or wrong with their choice in this case. Both cracking goals and that’s what really counts 🙂
Cheers
Like you Martin I was just so relieved with the win.
With so many forward players out it was a great three points. And Natcho’s goal was indeed “LovelyJubbly”
Perhaps Sam wasn’t as fit as we thought or as Nick said it was tactical.
It is a snapshot of this team at present McCallum, Dimi, Sara, Nunez, Andy O, Kenny, Onel and Kieran all lurch from being very good to not very good in as little a time as 72 hours on occasions.
There in lies the task ahead of DW.
I was pleased to see Greg Downs back on Radio Norfolk Martin, even though I do agree harking back to that game wasn’t good for the nerves😱
I like Greg’s honesty just like Rivo’s, I still wonder if Rivo still thinks he is better than Josh Sargent this season😂 as he did last.
Hi Tim
I liked the Lovely Jubbly line too and it’s great that Nunez seems truly part of the group while still, by his own admission, struggling to pick up very much English.
The more I think about it the more I reckon Nick was right about Tzolis.
Greg Downs is fine. My comment was about what was said rather than who said it.
Rivo and Mark Walton remain my favourites.
Cheers
When all is said and done watching Wagnerball is a dam sight better than Smudgerball, win, lose or draw. It’s great we’re still in with a chance of top six that would have been most unlikely without the manager change.
The club is being poorly run and staff morale isn’t great there again it’s very challenging times in a great many businesses e.g. construction, all the public service strikes, etc.
Cardiff at home always reminds me of Hucks brilliant hatrick in Dec 2003, what a memory!
Yes we all thought that would be Hucks’ last game for us but in 33 days he was our player on a permanent.
He was absolutely on fire that day.
I couldn’t remember if the final one [at the Barclay End of course] went down as an own goal or not. I couldn’t resist it so I looked it up on NCFC official and it went down as Huckerby, Roberts, Fleming [both Huckerby assists] and Vidmar own goal.
Cheers
You’re right, I’m getting old.
Funny how the mind plays tricks but absolutely loved watching Hucks, will always be in my City top 3.
Same here. Mark Bowen and the Cumbrian Holty make up my trio.
No place for Michael Theoklitos then🤣
Can’t argue, what a trio!
How ironic that it took a keeper [Gunny] to sign him!
It never ceases to amaze me Martin, how currently we’re either great or cr@p….there is no middle ground whatsoever with this bunch.
We had been lurching from game to game, but on Tuesday it moved from first half to second. Surely if their manager can see how to nullify our first half system, we should be able to out-manouevre their amended set-up…..or it that just too simplistic??
And, am I the only one who still wonders why Sorenson only gets a few minutes here and there??
7 points from the next 3 matches will do us nicely I think.
Oh; and The Jam were just brilliant!!
O T B C
Hi John
We remind me of a car Mrs P had a few years ago. It had a faulty engine management light which randomly put it into safe mode for no reason and performance fell by about 50%.
Even the brilliant garage we’ve used for years took a while to work it out and fix it and I hope Wagner can do the same.
There’s a lot of love for The Jam today 🙂
Cheers
Hi Martin,
The Jam were a nifty little band, although I never caught them live.
It would be a great achievement for City to make the play-offs this season, even if we didn’t go up it would give us a target for 23/24.
The way the guys are coming out of their shells this end of the season, if we did achieve the darn-nigh-impossible, it might be very interesting to see how we fared up there anyway.
Lets hope the guys produce more of this exciting brand of football against Cardiff, and bring home another three points on Saturday!
What’s your views on the Millwall team and the way they play these days, guys?
OTBC !
Hi Kev
I haven’t asked him yet – it’s first on the to-do list for tomorrow – but I’m hoping to get the lowdown on all things Millwall from regular MFW preview provider Nick Hart.
Nick is the guy behind Achtung! Millwall and what he doesn’t know about the current goings-on down Bermondsey way isn’t worth knowing.
I saw the Jam about three years apart – first at the Marquee and later Brixton Academy. They were ace both times.
Cheers
Marty, I think Waggy is like the rest of us, trying to figure out what combination of players can do what to whom and why. It‘s like building a house of cards, you think you‘ve got it sussed then someone opens the door and puff it‘s a mess. Maybe there‘s the basis of a consistently good team in there somewhere, but Prem quality? Nah! Still it‘s an improvement over what we had.
Hi Cutty
I had an English teacher whose most annoying putdown was *little steps for little feet*, where yards of creativity came a poor second to a single grammatical error.
Under the terms of Wagner’s remit I perversely think it’s appropriate, as in:
*Premier League, you’re having a laugh*!
Cheers