City’s Under-23s were beaten 5-2 by West Bromwich Albion at The Walks on Monday night, a series of defensive errors cancelling out goals by Jon Rowe and Tom Dickson-Peters for the home side. The young Canaries started well and had their visitors on the back foot from the off, Rowe forcing a good stop from […]
Column
City new boys must cut out mistakes to be effective in a relegation battle
‘He was good apart from the…’ This is fast becoming a popular phrase among Norwich City fans. ‘Mathias Norman was good apart from his lax tracking for the second goal’; ‘Christos Tzolis was good apart from the penalty miss’; ‘Ozan Kabak was good apart from the rash challenge on Allan’. Even in a terrible season […]
Too early for the white flag? Or are we not long for this plush Premier League world?
Almost to this very day two years ago I had to go to the NNUH for a full dental extraction. The guy in the next bed to me was a Polish fella called Marek who was in for some kind of preventative DVT operation. Neither of us could stand the noise from the other patients […]
Amid all the doom and gloom, please can we at least have our Farkeball back?
This Premier League lark isn’t much fun is it. Not when you support Norwich City. Not at the moment. In fact, it’s hard to recall a time when City have been in the top flight and things have felt quite so grim. The stats back it up. Played 6. Lost 6. Goal difference -14. Things […]
MATCH REPORT: An all too familiar script, and all too familiar outcome at Goodison
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 […]
With Derby and Reading on the brink, it’s time for a reset. Step forward *Fair Game*
With FIFA desperately trying to force through two-yearly World Cup’s with all the lucrative money-making opportunities they would bring and £100m transfer fees now barely raising an eyebrow, the game seems to be intent on hurtling towards a point where will see more and more clubs crash and burn as they try to stay aboard […]
EVERTON PREVIEW: The final Goodison hurrah for the travelling Yellow Army?
We play Everton at Goodison Park tomorrow, which is almost certainly the last chance our loyal group of away supporters, both regular and casual, will have the opportunity to visit that grand old stadium before, with a little financial help from Liverpool City Council, a new stadium is built not too far away from the […]
More of the same and the tide could turn; the very last thing Daniel Farke deserves
It’s August 2013. Saturday, the 24th of August, 2013, to be precise. I’m not going to flog it any further by giving you the time (but it would have been five-ish in the afternoon). Norwich City had just played out a flat, uninspiring, 0-1 Premier League defeat at the KC Stadium against a Hull City side […]
Press high, pick off an early City mistake, score from it and it’s all but game over…
How often have us Norwich City types come across the phrase *Boys against Men*? Quite a lot if you’ve seen its use as many times as I have recently – I’ve lost count in all honesty. But on Tuesday night against Liverpool at Carrow Road there was a novel twist on the oft-used cliché. The […]
Another match, another loss. The same old story as City enter Project Restart Mark II
Another match, another loss for City as they were unceremoniously dumped from the Carabao Cup last night, but after the repetition of a familiar result, at least the script felt slightly altered. After weeks of the same old naivety, defensive errors and lack of creativity, it was courteous of the Canaries to throw in some […]
MATCH REPORT: Too easy for Liverpool. “Porous at the back. Blunt up front”
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. […]
Hope. The Currency of the modern football fan
Norwich fans are no strangers to challenging times. We have a small and inglorious hall of fame of moments where being a Norwich fan seemed more an unwanted life sentence than the joy and pleasure we feel for the majority of the time. That hall of fame includes a penalty shootout at the Millennium Stadium, […]
LIVERPOOL PREVIEW – a repeat of opening day but with 22(?) different faces
We’ve got a repeat of the opening Premier League fixture on Wednesday night with the return of the mighty Liverpool to Carrow Road in the Carabao Cup third round. I’ve discovered via another chat with the excellent Tony Evans, who is a columnist for The Independent, a former Football Editor of The Times, a contributor to […]
Reasons to be cheerful…
Twas a grim weekend, so in the spirit of looking for positivity… Positive, positive, positive… Right, here goes. 1. The squad Good cover in nearly every position. Two very good goalkeepers; four quick full-backs; two centre-backs with proven ability and two more with exciting potential; a plethora of dynamic wingers; three forwards with goals in […]
Something better change. More of the same and this season only ends one way
I was scheduled to pass my season ticket to a mate on Saturday. It had been an agreement for over a month as he lives in the West Midlands and rarely gets to Carrow Road at the moment. You don’t renege on a deal like that. But on Friday dinner time I was feeling the […]
Five games in and the going is tough. Very tough. Oh for a single point on the board
You know things are not going well when you’ve had to give Match of the Day the swerve for five consecutive Saturdays. Some of you are no doubt braver than I, but Lineker’s half-hearted ‘and Norwich?’ that invariably follows the collective gushing over the qualities of our opponents is too much to take when the […]
MATCH REPORT: No City heroes as Hornets make it five on the spin against Canaries
‘You got me monologuing. The words are from the villain ‘Syndrome’ in the Disney Pixar Film ‘The Incredibles’, but could equally be applied to Daniel Farke after his pre-match press conference this week. Regrettably, there were no superheroes at Carrow Road today, nor anything Incredible. Despite his passionate defence of his players, Farke made changes […]
“The key is to stay positive”: Farke’s rallying cry to keep the faith
Norwich City head coach Daniel Farke has passionately reiterated the importance of positivity as the Canaries head into their crucial match against Watford, claiming that 100% of supporters must remain upbeat to earn Premier League establishment. The German denied that the game was ‘must-win’ for his side, but called on supporters to “make Carrow Road […]
WATFORD PREVIEW – The season starts here
The real test of whether Norwich City can survive in the top flight begins at Carrow Road tomorrow. Before we come back and expand on that, a brief detour to Watford – the club closest to where I live, though not to my heart. My Watford-supporting friends assure me I’m safe to write this column. […]
Will game number 5 be the one? And has Webber addressed the bullying issue?
The joy of watching Emma Radacanu winning the US Open last Saturday evening may have temporarily eased the pain of another City defeat but was only a short-term fix. I’m not sure what specifically it is about an away defeat at the Emirates that encaptures everything about Norwich City in the Premier League (we tend […]