James Colman

Stick or Twist? Always a dilemma and one faced by Dean Smith in advance of the trip to Molineux.  He promised a strong lineup saying that he valued the cup, so it was something of a surprise to see four changes from the game against Watford – five by the time kick-off came around.  A […]

This natch report comes to you from dizzying heights – both literally and figuratively. I watched the game from Aspen Colorado, a breathless 7800ft above sea level, and at the end of it, City are in the equally breathless position of outside the bottom four albeit having played extra games. You didn’t need to be […]

So admit it, you forgot what it feels like! I walked across the streets of New York, on my way to a rendezvous with the New York Canaries in the Football factory, with a feeling of trepidation.  Was there any conceivable way that the result would be anything other than another defeat? The team selection […]

When the team sheet landed at 2 o’clock, it had the feel of a selection made from the last players standing.  6 changes from the rout on boxing day, no Teemu Pukki on the sheet, two goalkeepers and one sub short on the bench. I feared the worst. For the opening minutes, City looked bright. Within […]

I’ll start tonight’s match report by listing the meaningful efforts on goal by City. Now for the rest of the game. As performances go, it is easy to exhaust the list of superlatives to describe how awful the first half.  Shapeless, listless, languid.  I could go on.  From the kickoff, Villa looked like a side […]

Trepidation.  That was the overriding emotion of a day where for once, I wasn’t counting the minutes until kick-off. Quite the opposite in fact.  The news from the Friday press conference was hardly encouraging, with cagey references to an indeterminate number of players awaiting PR results. Man Utd, rejuvenated under a new manager. It had […]

Ever had that recurring nightmare? You know the one, where everything is in slow motion and no matter what you do, whenever you have the dream, you cannot affect the outcome. The one that happens every weekend. Daniel Farke struggled to find the right balance between defensive solidity and attacking potency in the latter days […]

Ten days into the Dean Smith regime, for me, his second team selection was always going to be more telling than his first. Would the likes of Todd Cantwell have suitably impressed the new man in a week on the pitches of Colney? Does Hanley keep his place in defence? The questions were answered and […]

So much seemed to have changed since I sat down to pen my words on the City victory at Brentford. Daniel Farke gone. Dean Smith in. Todd Cantwell and Billy Gilmour in from the wilderness and a feeling of cautious, careful optimism around Carrow Road. The feeling lasted precisely three minutes. Other than a brief moment where […]

[James wrote this piece prior to last night’s news – Ed] The players formed up in the centre circle. The crowd fell silent and as the trumpeter sounded the last post, I cannot have been the only Canary fan wondering if this would indeed be the last post for Daniel Farke. Fear not. Perhaps buoyed by […]

After the dismal performance last week, everyone connected with Norwich was expecting both a reaction from the players and changes to the team. They got both but ultimately City were left with exactly the same. Nil points. When the team broke, there was something resembling incredulity from many City fans, with what looked like a back […]

As football matches go, this was a tough a watch as you will ever get as a City fan.  Few expected Norwich to get anything from this game, but equally few could have predicted such abject misery. City were unchanged, the game plan was clear. Keep it tight. Be tough to break down. Don’t concede […]

There was a sense of cautious hope, some may even say optimism going into this game. Farke resisted the clamour for the darling of the national media, Billy Gilmour, to be included and elected to play an unchanged side, apparently citing the lack of time that the squad had had together since the last game.  The […]

Ignore the noise is the Farke mantra. It is fortunate that he is able to heed his own advice. The noise this week told him that so far this season he had made too many changes, or that he needed to make sweeping changes, switch to 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or even 4-4-2.  In the end, Farke […]

Cut. Copy. Paste.  From any of the games from two years ago. An all too familiar script, and all too familiar outcome. Daniel Farke retained the formation from the midweek game with Liverpool, Kabak coming in for Omobamidele, Williams in for Giannoulis.  But it was immediately obvious that this was far more a 5-3-2 than […]

Given that Daniel Farke had barely a day to work with his players since the capitulation to Watford, it should come as no surprise to any Canary fan that, once again, there was a familiar theme to this defeat. The Sky commentator summed it up in eight words. Too porous at the back. Too blunt up front. […]

So that’s it.  The extended pre-season is over. It’s down to the real games next week against Watford. Daniel Farke has a history of transformation in the post-international break period.  Perhaps it was expecting a bit much for him to pull off the same trick this time, particularly with several players away on extended international duty […]