1 Old Trafford – WOW!
This was my first visit to the home of Manchester United in 19 years and wow, the place has changed. Only Ryan Giggs remains from the last time I came, there was no Stretford end then and the stand at the other end is now twice as big.
I went to the game with my mate Mike, a big United fan, who I’ve not seen for well over a decade and it was great to chew the cud during the game, even if I sat in the United end high up behind the goal in the East Stand.
2 For a massive ground, Old Trafford is pretty quiet.
Maybe it was a hangover from the Basel game in the Champions League, but the United crowd were so, so quiet, only coming alive in the last 20 minutes when Anderson and Danny Welbeck scored their goals. The City fans were in fine voice, however, and did themselves proud with the predictable ditty: “We’re Norwich City, we’ve come for our scarves.”
3 Norwich didn’t score but we’ve come on leaps and bounds since Chelsea.
Games against Bolton and Wigan on the road are one thing, games against Chelsea and Man United are another. The only game we can really compare this one to was Chelsea away five weeks ago, and even though we didn’t score, we were so much more organised. The back four were immense, five across the middle worked and we created plenty of chances. Away at Old Trafford, what more can you ask? As I said to Mike in the first half, we were more than a match for United, we just needed two strikers up front to give us a chance of winning the game!
But considering this was pretty much the biggest games in the careers of most of the Norwich players, we put in a great performance.
4 Steve Morison had his best game in a Norwich shirt.
I touched on how improved he looked against Sunderland on Monday, today his performance seemed to go up a notch. It’s never easy being in a team like Norwich when you visit the Champions and, as the lone man up front, it was always going to be a long hot afternoon for the Welsh international. But, to his credit, he had a good game. In the first half he didn’t get that much joy out of the United back four, he would have had a tap in had Elliott Bennett found him early on, but in the second he was awesome. Time and time again he found space, won the ball for fun and should have done better to set up Wes Hoolahan in the second half.
5 Marc Tierney and Bradley Johnson are the heartbeat of this Norwich team.
Boy oh boy did Tierney and Johnson get stuck in today. Both were awesome and, aside from perhaps Bennett who had a great game, they were my star performers. Sitting in with the United fans gave me a renewed perspective of the impact of Tierney – the chap behind me was consistently moaning about “That fookin’ number 23”. He was everywhere at Old Trafford, getting forward, defending with finesse and keeping Wayne Rooney at bay. Johnson too was great, sitting with David Fox in front of the back four. Last time he played at Old Trafford for Leeds he was a winner, and today, he was unlucky not to have left the ground with something too.
6 Anthony Pilkington’s miss was a massive chance, but he’ll get over it.
My first thoughts after watching Pilkington’s missed chance on 65 minutes was the famous Gordon Smith chance to win the 1983 FA Cup final for Brighton against United. It wasn’t quite in the same league as that, or indeed Fernando Torres’ chance against United last month.
But Pilks will certainly know he should have scored after Johnson’s through ball sent him through and Antonio Valencia made a hash of things.
He did everything right apart and from hit the back of the net, but the fact he had the pace and power to get into that position in the first place was great. Pilks has taken to the Premier League with ease and looks really comfortable out there on the left. It won’t be long before he scores his second top flight goal – I reckon it will come against Swansea in two weeks.
7 Jonny Evans and Phil Jones are poles apart.
United’s two central defenders are currently standing in for Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic and while Jones just seems to get better and better, Evans was dreadful today.
Evans was ‘done’ by Steve Morison on a number of occasions, particularly the chance he should have squared to Hoolahan and the reason that ball never came across was down to Jones.
It was Jones again who snuffed out the Bennett cross that Morison could have tapped in to an unguarded net. Evans had little confidence and if he can’t keep someone like Morison in his pocket, god knows how he’ll get on against the more illustrious strikers in the Premier League. Jones, on the other hand, is a really exciting prospect and has a natural desire to steam forward at any opportunity. 8 Stuart Atwell actually had a good game.
Norwich’s first game with the controversial Mr Atwell in the top flight and when I saw his name on the programme I was worried there would be a big controversial moment. There was one in the first half when a United player went down and Marc Tierney put the ball into touch and it never came back to City, but apart from that, Atwell had a good game. There was only one booking in the game and it was never the sort of game that was going to get out of hand.
9 Rooney and Hernandez had an off day.
They were both doubts earlier in the week and even though both started, they were pretty ineffective. It can’t be easy trying to find space when there are eight, nine or ten yellow shirts blocking the path to goal and the two United strikers seemed pretty frustrated. When you think that five weeks ago Arsenal conceded eight, Norwich had plenty more about them at the back, and that obviously made it really tough for Rooney and Hernandez.
10. Boy was it hot!
Manchester. In October. In shorts! This was certainly one of those games I’ll be filing under those bizarre weather games in recent Norwich City history. Off the top of my head that list will include the Herenveen friendly in August 2000 when the players ran off the pitch to avoid a hail storm, Yeovil away in 2009 when the blinding sun meant I could hardly watch any of the first half and Huddersfield at home a few weeks after that when it was absolutely freezing.
No comments:
Post a Comment