Stanley

Stan was worried last week. Worried because he was mildly confident!

'There's no way a team as average as Sheffield Wednesday was going to roll us over for an eighth consecutive time…' went the thinking.

We'd performed with guts and guile at Birmingham and seemed to have a bit of wind in our tails. The arrival of Alan Lee had given us much more balance and at least half the squad was well rested after a fortnight off? and then?.

And then? …

So the great escape continues.

A point at Brum is no mean feat in anybody's estimation; to have deserved more and put in such a hard-fought and committed performance is promising indeed.

As it is, Gunn has now carved out a points tally worthy of a mid-table outfit with aspirations for the future.

 
Maybe, and just maybe, this year's Colditz-esque venture may even be such that it puts last year's break-out in the shade.

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Stan's always fancied being a lawyer. He went out with one for a few years, way back when, (yes, it was a she!) but that is as close to Lincoln's Inn as Stan ever got.

Thus the idea of being stood before a packed and awestruck court room whist cleverly weaving an indestructible case for the prosecution, has continued to appeal somewhat.

Sometimes Stan still imagines himself, Rumpole of the Bailey-like, shuffling papers, sipping a single malt and drawing …

Strikers who move … don't you just love 'em…

For in a season when the lithe and clever running of Arturo Lupoli was deemed unsuitable to the Championship by the man who brought him over here, and when the signing of a certain Alan Gow was ditched in order for old 'Arry Redknapp to off-load the raw without-that-much-talent OJ onto our squad of lightweight loanees, it seems somehow ironic that the introduction of three quick (in mind and feet…) front men …

Stan made the trip to QPR last Tuesday, more out of habit than anything, and witnessed a scrappy one nil against the odds victory.

Fair enough, we scrapped and battled and ultimately emerged victorious, but on the balance of play, three times out of four, we'd have lost that game. Indeed had a first minute chance been buried by the Hoops, as it should have been, City would have been beaten comfortably.

Post match celebrations were tempered with large doses of …

The thing is, of course, there are 11 games left and 33 points to play for.

 
And yet no-one who was at Carrow Road on Saturday will really believe that City have the quality, spirit or fight to get out of the mess they find themselves in.

 
The team look like dead men walking; the management looks out of its depth; and the board evidently lack ideas, money and options.

Our great club stands on the edge of the abyss and there appears little …

Kevin Baldwin got it spot on in his most recent column; maybe, we've cried relegation wolf once too often over the last few seasons and now no one's listening anymore.

Undoubtedly we've come close to the drop in years past, and at the rump of Grant's disastrous tenure we looked for all the world like a team heading for tier three, but right now it's getting very hard to imagine how we'll survive.

The salient point is that when Grant …

Kevin Baldwin got it spot on in his most recent column; maybe, we've cried relegation wolf once too often over the last few seasons and now no one's listening anymore.

Undoubtedly we've come close to the drop in years past, and at the rump of Grant's disastrous tenure we looked for all the world like a team heading for tier three, but right now it's getting very hard to imagine how we'll survive.

The salient point is that when Grant …

It is difficult for this Stan to work up the heart to pass comment on this latest chapter of a sorry, sorry season.

Any sense of anger at it all has generally passed with the sacking of Roeder.

Stan feels nothing but goodwill to Gunn, Butterworth and Crook. The fact that their appointments chances of success are fatally undermined by the mistakes of the previous two residents of the Carrow Road 'hot-seat' means Stan has only sympathy them.

That and a …

Love this club.

Stan has to be honest, he approached this game with trepidation.

As text messages came in from afar, all seemed to be thinking the same thing: this could be where the rosy glow of Gunn-love begins to fade.

Wolves score for fun; we concede for fun; the result will be a thumping 3-0 Wolves and the dogfight will get ever more messy.

Though the club had got extra bodies in, the January sales had not brought a …

That'll do!

Stan (sorry ro!) would have bitten your hand off for 1-1 prior to Friday night's kick-off, and at half-time to gain that scoreline he'd have bitten off his own… no, let's not go there.

Despite it “only” being a point against lowly Doncaster, we really must not underestimate how big that point potentially was. It may not seem like a reason for celebration, but Stan really does sense that this weekend's result was huge.

Wolves …

This is becoming a bit of a habit, isn't it?

The guillotine falls, much conjecture and cogitation by fans and club alike follows, and out pops the next man from the Norwich City Football Club managerial sausage factory!

The demise of, ahem, 'Saint' Glenn was less burning at the stake and more chasing from the county with a 'Thas not how we do it round here…' flea in his ear!

It was hardly a surprise in the end and in many …

As Stan weaved his way through the beaming faces that filled Carrow Road at 5pm on Saturday his phone peeped the arrival of an incoming text.

It was 'Black Cat' Dave?.

'In Germany and can't get the results. How have the Cats and the Canaries got on? Hope you're smiling?'
Indeed Stan was; like a Cheshire cat rather than a black one!

The news of Sunderland's demise to a ten-man Villa was broken as was our remarkable, …

As Stan weaved his way through the beaming faces that filled Carrow Road at 5pm on Saturday his phone peeped the arrival of an incoming text.

It was 'Black Cat' Dave?.

'In Germany and can't get the results. How have the Cats and the Canaries got on? Hope you're smiling?'
Indeed Stan was; like a Cheshire cat rather than a black one!

The news of Sunderland's demise to a ten-man Villa was broken as was our remarkable, …

Well, it had to happen.

Last night's performance was down right abysmal and registered a new low in our beloved club's history.

The crowd knew it; you sensed that the players knew it; only Mr Roeder seemed oblivious to the fact that the end had come.

So what can Stan say a mere few minutes after the news has broken? Glenn Roeder is no longer the boss. The Saint Glenn is dead, long live the … whoever it is.

First, last …

So much to talk about, so little time …

First things first: we lost again. We have now lost ten of our last 14 games. We are averaging less than a point a game over the course of the season. We are heading for relegation.

As always, we did not get stuffed. As always, we created chances. As always, we gave away a soft goal and failed to take the opportunities afforded to us.

Roeder, as is now his Hamilton-esque way, spoke afterwards of how well …

With old fashioned rattle packed, rosette pinned to his lapel and flat cap donned Stan rolled back the years and headed for The Valley with 3,000 equally deluded souls.

We're totally rubbish and our manager seems to have taken on a bet with someone, that he can p*ss off everyone in Norfolk within 12 months?.

But heh, this is the FA Cup, and when that little baby comes calling it's like a siren beckoning desperate men onto the rocks of footballing hope, …

Well, how low can you go?

For Stan, that was down there with the most inept performances of 'Hammy' Hamilton and old PG at his nadir.

Awful.

Of the 13 City players who played yesterday, only Patty, Crofty, Clingan and Doc can really wake up this morning and tell themselves that they gave their all.

Rusty, Lita and Marshall may not be too far behind. As for the rest of them – pitiful.

Poor old Stan doesn't …

And so it came to pass that the Angel Drinkell appeared before Stanley and spake words of profound wisdom.

 
'Do not take the road to the City of the sparkling Palace, because it is owned by an evil King of Jordan, and he will rob you blind. His army is foul to spy and play football in a kick and rush stylee. They will slaughter the meek men of Norfolk and the journey home will be vile.'

'But Angel Drinkell' pleaded Stan, 'the one they call …

Now that wasn't so difficult after all was it? What had seemed like the mother of all '12 pointers' to Stanley before this weekend's game with Charlton proved to be quite a timid affair.

A distinct lack of 'blood and thunder' for a contest which in the cold light of day may well condemn Charlton to relegation.

If they can't get themselves up for this type of clash then that now 14-game streak without a win is going to get longer and …