Those of us at Carrow Road on Saturday, watching the players out on their feet at the final whistle after repelling the inevitably-launched kitchen sink from Everton, were at least glad of one thing. At least Watford have to play again before we play them so they’ll be even more knackered than us. So, inevitably […]
WEST HAM PREVIEW: Some buoyant, organised and motivated Irons await
Early in the second half [of Sunday’s game] on Twitter, I began my planning for this piece. @AndyHead02: ‘Oh FFS I’ve got to do the @MFW_NCFC preview for Wednesday off the back of this… Can I just write “West Ham are going to beat us” and leave it at that @Gary_Gowers? #NCFC‘ To which I […]
Headteacher’s Report: Andy H delivers his halfway appraisal of the Class of 2021-22
Tis now the bleakest of mid-winters. Whilst our school has time and again proven to be outstanding at the comprehensive level, we remain unable to compete against the Super-Rich Ivy League academies and we are currently halfway through another Annus Horribilis. Herr Farke did his best to get the class producing results but was found […]
WOLVES PREVIEW – Lage and Smith both hoping for more of the same
The last match preview I wrote was pre-Chelsea so apologies if I’m jinxing us. If we get hit for seven on Saturday feel free to blame me. If the task facing us at Stamford Bridge was gargantuan, Wolves at home is still sizeable. They’re not sixth in the table for no reason. Away from Molineux, […]
The underdog vs the nice guy vs the overprivileged son of the establishment
The last few days of post-Daniel Norwich City have been a whirlwind of very little information. A tweet from a renowned in-the-know City aficionado at the start of the week suggested that Norwegian coach Kjetil Knutsen from Bodo/Glimt was going to be the replacement for Farke. Shortly afterwards the usually reliable John Percy of the […]
Crossed Purposes: City a million miles away from having anything cohesive to build on
The myriad issues of why City have imploded so spectacularly this season have been debated by fans and pundits alike over recent weeks. One area I don’t think has seen much focus though is the growing disconnect, if not personally, at least philosophically, between the work of Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke. Until this season […]
CHELSEA PREVIEW…
I often enjoy writing the previews. It can be an interesting exercise to analyse the opposition and try and work out how they’re likely to set up and suggest weaknesses that City may be able to exploit. In the Championship it was fun. Then I started thinking about this game and the word “fun” didn’t […]
LEICESTER PREVIEW: Our pre-season is over, let’s start collecting some points.
Saturday 5.00 pm: “Jesus, that defending… and still no defensive midfielder in sight… it’s eerily reminiscent of the last ten games of 19/20… I’m getting nervous”. Monday 12:00 pm: “Brandon Williams has been confirmed. He might be more needed than we thought after Saturday. Good signing that”. Monday 10:00 pm: “Leicester took a pasting and […]
No panic stations yet, but let’s not kid ourselves the prep has gone as planned
If you’re reading this you’re already enough of a part of the online #NCFC community to have found the MFW site, and so more than likely you’ll be at least regularly aware of the ongoing message boards and Twitter hashtags around #NCFC. While there is good fun, humour and comradeship to be found amongst City […]
For us children of the Webberlution, it’s fascinating to see how this squad evolves
With the Championship trophy sitting pride of place on the Carrow Road mantelpiece, Stuart Webber has embarked upon another challenging offseason, reshaping Daniel Farke’s squad once more. Unlike previous years, he actually has something of a “war chest” this time, mainly thanks to the club-record sale of Emi Buendia, albeit some of this has already […]
Headteacher’s Report: Andy H delivers his 2020-21 end-of-term appraisal
We watched with tremendous pride from afar as Herr Farke’s class represented us with the intelligence, creativity and courage which has become their trademark. Another successful year means we will once again be facing our Oxbridge-level counterparts next term, but we will do so full of confidence and steadfast in our resolve to keep improving […]
READING PREVIEW: By 5:00 pm tomorrow, will City be ‘Championes’ once more?
Okay, I confess. If Watford hadn’t won on Saturday, this would have been about half a paragraph long because we’d have had the title and Reading are out of playoff contention so both teams would be on the beach. Yarmouth admittedly, but the beach nonetheless. But bloody Sarr had to go and score didn’t he? […]
TERRIERS PREVIEW: Plodders… water carriers… and Frazier Campbell worldies
A Tuesday night at home, under the floodlights, with promotion inching closer. How good would it be to have Carrow Road packed to the rafters for this one? Sadly, we’re still a few months away from such lofty ambitions of normality, but as the potential for such activities gets closer and closer, so does the […]
LUTON PREVIEW: Buoyant Hatters at the Carra, after two big wins on the spin
So once more, I’ve drawn the lucky straw and got the preview for the same team I did earlier in the season. If you want to know how that went, I’m sure Mr Gowers will be kind enough to insert a link here. Having read it back, I wasn’t far off. Luton, coming off a […]
COVENTRY PREVIEW: Ball-playing Scots… lumpy loanees… & that nice Mr Robins
This could have been a very different task on paper had Norwich not done a professional demolition job against Stoke on Saturday. Despite throwing opportunities at the opposition, having a week of uninterrupted preparation allowed the instinctive passing, movement and creativity to flow in the final third in a way that had been absent in […]
CARDIFF PREVIEW: Moore to step into the Bluebirds’ Big Sean Morrison™ breach?
Alright, I can save us all a lot of time on this one. If Mr Gowers would be so kind as to <INSERT LINK HERE> you can see my Cardiff preview from when we played the home fixture less than a month ago. You’re welcome. [nice try, Andy – Ed] What you want more?… Jeez… […]
Headteacher’s Report: Andy H delivers his half-way appraisal of the Class of 2021
As the famous composer B. Jovi. once said, “Wooooooohhhh, we’re halfway there”. Herr Farke’s class were very low on confidence after a difficult last year, but they have done us all proud with a sparkling return to the results we always knew they were capable of. We all hope they can continue in this vein […]
CARDIFF PREVIEW: Beware the kick up the backside. The Bluebirds are on the rise
Having just watched us reinforce our place at the top of the Championship table by beating a decent Reading side without really getting out of second gear, it’s difficult not to get a little carried away by dreams of promotion and thinking about how great the football will be at Carrow Road on Saturday. So […]
LUTON PREVIEW: Buendia… Hogmanay… Priti Patel… knife-throwers… & Mr Jones
Wednesday sees our beloved Bundesliga boss lead his bedraggled, battle-weary B-Team to Bedfordshire for a battle against Luton’s basement-bothering boverachiever’s. Okay, I overreached on the alliteration at the end, but there is one key B that will be in our favour at Kenilworth Road: Buendia. While City somehow managed to give a pleasing facsimile of […]
BRIZZLE PREVIEW: Kidney stones… 3-5-2s… Chris Martins… and dodgy defences
I’ve just finished watching Bournemouth 1 Bristol City 0 on Wednesday night on the red button in preparation for this preview. Never let it be said that I won’t suffer for you all. I had a kidney stone a couple of years ago, and on balance I had more fun sweating in fear and pain […]