Norwich's big Premier League season kicks off with 7-0 friendly romp over Gorleston

Norwich City’s Premier League season is under way after a comfortable 7-0 win at a wet and soggy Emerald Park with plenty of Paul Lambert’s summer signing son show.
Last season my football-watching campaign was bookended by a trip to Anderlecht at the end of July and a seat at the Champions League final at Wembley to end it. This season will end in over a year’s time at the Olympic 2012 football final also at Wembley and it started today at Gorleston of all places.
Norwich put out a really strong team, making multiple substitutions and, barring Anthony Pilkington, most of Lambert’s squad were on show.
I’ve not been to Emerald Park before and after shelling out the questionable £15 for a ticket I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s a great little ground and the fact that it was covered all the way round was a huge plus on a very grey Norfolk afternoon.
City started with Chris Martin and Grant Holt up front with David Fox and Wes Hoolahan pulling the strings in midfield and it was clear early on that this was to be one of those days when it was a question of how many goals the strikers would pick up.
The scoring started early with Holt bundling home the opener and soon after Zak Whitbread made it 2-0 with a header from a corner. City were creating chances at will and after a crude hack on Martin which looked initially worrying enough for Paul Lambert to leave his dugout seat and prowl along the touchline, Holt hit his second form the penalty spot.
After half an hour Holt and Martin were replaced by Steve Morison and Simeon Jackson and the Canadian looked by far the liveliest of the pair. Korey smith drilled home a fourth from long range and Jackson re-directed Morison’s goal-bound header to make it 5-0 at the break.
Plenty of fresh faces joined the action in the second half – John Ruddy, Russell Martin, Leon Barnett, Elliot Ward, Elliott Bennett, Andrew Crofts, Andrew Surman and Bradley Johnson who was perhaps the most impressive player of the second 45 minutes.
The former Leeds player’s shooting skills are well known and he must have had four or five cracks at the Gorleston goal, one of which made it 6-0 with plenty of time left on the clock.
Morison and Jackson made way for the third new striker partnership of the afternoon on the hour as James Vaughan and Aaron Wilbraham came on and both seemed intent on getting their name on the scoresheet.
I do feel a bit sorry for Wilbraham who was picked up at an important time in the Championship season and you feel won’t have much of a part to play in the Premier League. In fairness he did struggle to score against Gorleston and you worry if that really is the case what good he’d be if he needed to come on in the Premier League.
Wilbraham did score the seventh, so credit to him for that, but I think it may be a good move for both player and club if was sent out on a season-long loan.
All in all a great game, lovely to see City in action today after a 10-week break and can’t wait for the build up to the news season to get ever more intense ahead of the Wigan clash four weeks today.