Effortless Norwich put sorry Scunthorpe to the slaughter

After a week’s holidaying in North Norfolk I arrived back in the City on Friday afternoon and eased my way towards the big fixture against Scunthorpe. Driving through Kelling, near Cromer, on Friday morning I remarked to my good lady that the primary school football pitch at the small village school was the sort I used to ply my trade on in the early-to-mid 1980s while I was at Hingham Primary School. “We used to sometimes turn up with eleven players and we’d have to give the other school a couple as they used to be short - sometimes we’d play nine against nine.” And it was this thought that was in my mind after half an hour of this match against lowly Scunthorpe. New Iron manager Alan Knill had just seen his side reduced to ten men after a trip on Grant Holt and the skipper tucked away his penalty to give Norwich a 2-0 lead. I suppose had we leant them Elliot Ward and maybe given them Holt too, that may have made an even contest of it. It was safe to say that in this game, a nine man Norwich side would probably have beaten a 12-man Scunthorpe side, such was the gulf in class. Hopefully the two sides will both be in different leagues this season, with Norwich heading for the Premier League. Today at least, the gulf was massive. With striker Aaron Wilbraham ruled out for the season, recent loan addition Dani Pacheco was given a start alongside Grant Holt up front and it took just ten minutes for the two to combine to give Norwich the lead. Holt’s penalty made it 2-0 and with half an hour left, City wrapped up the points with Holt grabbing his hat-trick. Game over then, but more was to happen. Wes Hoolahan limped out of the game, Grant Holt was rested and City handed a debut to their second recent addition, Sam Vokes, who ended the game up front alongside Simeon Jackson. Jackson grabbed a fourth and then a fifth and in stoppage time helped himself to an unlikely quick-fire hat-trick. Plus points from today? Well, Pacheco looks a great player and seemed to effortlessly slip into the City system. Praise too for Marc Tierney who pelts forward with all the pace and purpose of Ashley Cole. At sometimes it seemed both he and Russell Martin were actually playing up front. The crowd too were excellent today, and it was great to see former City man Michael Nelson get such a great reception. He was a top servant when the club went through tricky times, but I can’t be alone in thinking it was great to see him again at Carrow Road and not in a Norwich shirt!

Late goals rush against Bristol City gives City something to hang on to!

Finally, we’ve got something to hold on to this season after late goals beat Bristol City.
I’ve never known a season fly by as quickly as this one, can it really be seven months ago that Watford came to Carrow Road, beat City easily and gave us all such cause for concern.
I was convinced after that match in early August that we were going to struggle this season, but after what we can now look back at a marvellous season, we’re in the top two and we’ve now got something to cling on to.
Sky’s choice to screen this clash meant all the other promotion challengers had played this weekend and after some great results, only single points were picked up by most of the top ten. That meant a win over Bristol City, themselves pre-season favourites to be there or thereabouts would give Norwich a three-point barrier from third place.
I’d missed City’s 1-1 draw against Preston due to illness, but was back in my Jarrold Stand seat to see City kick off with a real bang. Wes Hoolahan won a fortunate penalty inside 45 seconds and Grant Holt cooly despatched the spot kick past David James. One-up with less than two minutes on the clock.
From then on in, the first half wizzed by with the visiting Robins doing little. Albert Adomah, linked with City last summer went close, but City could and should have increased their lead, perhaps Simeon Jackson’s failure to get anything on a Russell Martin cross/shot was the most glaring miss.
City looked solid, Elliot Ward was simply outstanding and the midfield was busy and workmanlike. Jackson looked lively and on another night could have scored five. Sadly for the Canadian, he just doesn’t inspire confidence in front of goal. Sure he’s full of pace and positivity. But Jackson in the top flight? The jury’s out.
Jackson had the best of plenty of chances to put Norwich 2-0 or 3-0 up and an Andrew Crofts piledriver fizzed just over the bar. But despite the constant Norwich pressure – and it was at times just simply a matter of when Norwich scored, they just couldn’t get that vital second.
And you know what happens when you don’t score a second goal in The Championship? Yep, you get punished. Cue a quick break, some hesitant Norwich defending, a fortunate deflection and with 20 minutes to go, City found themselves at 1-1 and heading for a third straight home score draw.
Henri Lansbury came on for Jackson with ten minutes to go, and City pushed for a deserved winner.
With the game nearing the 90 minute mark, City found the winner. Hoolahan picked up John Ruddy’s long clearance, seemed to have fluffed his shot but then fired past James.
Four minutes of injury time to hang on for City and, with less than a minute of added time gone, it got even better.
Good work from Lansbury in the corner fell to Andrew Surman who hit the ball hard and low through James’ legs for his first goal in a City shirt.
Fantastic overall performance, crucial night for City to win, and now, something to build on for The Canaries. Win the rest of our games and we’re in the Premier League – and it’s been a long, long time since we’ve been able to utter to say that.

Great expectations for City are snuffed out on night of errors

Cast your mind back to mid September and Doncaster Rovers inflicted Norwich’s first away defeat of the season – and we’ve only lost twice on the road since.
That in itself shows what a good team Doncaster are and the fact we held them to a 1-1 draw at Carrow Road tonight seems to have been lost among the great expectations this season has garnered.
I was at the Keepmoat Stadium that night, bizarrely I was on my honeymoon. City were torn apart by James Coppinger and although they staged a late salvo, the home side were worthy winners.
Since then out paths have gone pretty much the opposite way and Rovers arrived in Norfolk with such a depleted side that their chairman is believed to have tried to get the game called off.
Rovers did show up and with the game plan to frustrate City, they did a great job. Had this been a visit from Leeds or Nottingham Forest we’d have marvelled at their neat football and their astute tactics. Because it was Doncaster who’d lost 6-0 at home to Ipswich last week, we expected them to roll over and die.
But they didn’t. They contributed the perfect tactics, playing just Jason Euell up front and using the likes of John Oster down the channels to play a neat passing game. They didn’t take many risks and that made for an incredibly dull opening half an hour.
Nothing of note happened – Grant Holt picked up an early injury and spent most of that time hobbling around before popping up on the half hour when he knocked home Adam Drury’s long pass.
Drury should have made it 2-0 before half-time when he found himself in the penalty box but shot wide. That was pretty much it for the first half, Doncaster didn’t do an awful lot and Carrow Road seemed subdued but content this would be a routine win.
The fact that didn’t happen was the big surprise. Doncaster continued to do little, but it was one of those nights when nothing went City’s way. Fluid off the ball runs went wrong, simple throughballs didn’t happen and it was no surprise that Doncaster got back on level terms in the last ten minutes.
Rovers won a fortunate corner when the ball somehow trickled over the line and from that corner, Drury headed into his own net.
The reaction of the crowd was strange. Maybe we’ve been treated to too many dramatic finishes this season – but at the final whistle most Canary followers just got up and left. When some of the City players applauded the Jarrold Stand at the end of the game. There was no applauding back.
All credit to Doncaster, they did a job on us. Following City really is as unpredictable as ever.

Programme Monthly at risk unless new editor(s) can be found

Norfolk-based magazine Programme Monthly is close to folding up unless someone steps into replace outgoing editor John Litster.
Litster, who has run the magazine single-handidly since its inception in 1981 is keen to step down from the editor’s chair and has appealed for new blood to take the popular title into a new direction.
Programme Monthly and Football Collectable, to give the monthly magazine its full title has built up a cult readership of thousands over the last 30 years with its mix of articles on the world of football programme collecting.
Editor Litster will appeal for new help in the March issue of the magazine due out later this month.
He has confirmed there are three different roles in running the magazine, which has just celebrated its 30th anniversary, which he currently performs and these could be filled by up to three people.
Litster said: “Once I find someone to take on these tasks, I intend to have no future part in the magazine’s activities, and, frankly, the sooner that happens the better, both from my own point of view, and for the good of the magazine, which requires ideas and new directions.
“I am afraid that the imperative is to find someone, or some people, to do the actual work in making these changes and improvements. If no-one comes forward, I regret that the likely outcome is that I will close down the magazine.”
Contact John Litster at progm@hotmail.com if you can help.

High drama at Carrow Road as Norwich leave it late to beat Reading

Wow. Norwich v Reading and if ever a game summed up a Norwich City match this season, this was it. Red card, drama, fisticuffs, poor defending and of course, a late, late winner.
It’s getting to be such a great formula and you’ve got to ask yourself – has Carrow Road ever seen so much drama in one season?
When the two sides met in Berkshire back in November there was similar high drama, mostly centered around Grant Holt’s questionable red card for a foul on Ian Harte.
Pre-match message boards had talked about the kind of reception Harte should get from the City fans – more of that later as an incident midway through this game could mean more trouble from the FA.
As for the match itself, well City’s starting XI is pretty much the strongest side Paul Lambert can put out at the moment. His first choice back four, his favoured two strikers and the midfield of Hoolahan, Crofts, Lansbury and Fox is what you’d expect to see on a City team sheet. A returning Andrew Surman would later come on for Lansbury.
City got off to an awful start, with Elliot Ward conceding a corner in the first ten seconds and putting in a generally under-par display for most of the game. Reading looked like they could run riot in the first five minutes but as the game settled down, with Harte booed at every touch, Norwich played some excellent football and deservedly took the lead after 16 minutes with Hoolahan twisting past Jay Tabb and rolling the ball across the penalty box for Henri Lansbury who really couldn’t miss.
City had chances to add to the scoring but Reading were a growing threat, particularly the gangly figure of Mali striker Jimmy Kebe. I’ve been a big fan of Kebe since he signed for Reading and he was certainly The Royals’ biggest threat.
Kebe won the ball from a stuttering Ward on 26 minutes, broke quickly down the right and slotted the ball across the box for Shane Long to tuck the ball home despite the efforts of Leon Barnett.
All square at the break and with Surman on for Lansbury on the hour, the game entered half an hour of high, high drama.
First Reading’s young Turkish defender Jem Karacan was dismissed for a bad tackle on David Fox. The City bench all leapt up and the players came together for the first time with pushing and shoving all over the place. Karacan was shown a straight red, but I thought the tackle wasn’t that bad. Clearly it was late and a yellow for sure, but I think the general reaction spurred the ref to brandish a red.
Reading didn’t do a bad job with ten men, but their attacking flair definitely tailed off for the last 20 minutes.
And so to the first big incident. With 20 minutes to go Ian Harte was preparing to take a throw in right in the corner of the Jarrold Stand/Barclay touchline. An object, was thrown at Harte from the Lower Barclay, clipped Harte on the shoulder and bounced up and appeared to strike the linesman.
Skipper Holt was frustrated, picking up the lighter and throwing it to the floor, before handing it to a steward.
While the stewards entered the crowd looking for a culprit, Reading broke down the left, Leon Barnett pulled up with a hamstring injury and Reading won a corner. For a minute or two Carrow Road went crazy. The stewards were in the bottom of the Barclay hauling out fans, Barnett was in the opposite corner getting treatment, Zak Whitbread was trying to come on and Reading were waiting to take a corner. Thankfully City didn’t concede. Barnett went off, Zak came on, the Barclay calmed down, the lino was fine and the game continued.
The returning Surman clipped the bar but that strike was far too early for it to be included in a Norwich game in 2011. City fans stayed calm, we knew something would happen as the game entered the magical stoppage time period.
Sure enough the multiple substitutions and Reading timewasting conjoured up four extra minutes. Fans around me in the Jarrold Stand started to leave – but all of them seemed to mention that City would probably score. It’s not in irony anymore – it’s more a fact now as it had already happened seven times this season.
And sure enough with nothing left on the clock, Andrew Crofts spun a ball across the box, Aaron Wilbraham and a Reading defender missed the ball and who was there at the far post but Holt to tuck the ball in.
That set up more wild celebrations on the half way line and another much-needed three points. The fact that Paul Lambert came on the pitch and applauded the whole crowd spoke volumes about what a great atmosphere Carrow Road created today.

Three lucky points against Millwall in the season you just don't want to leave early!

I don't think there are many City fans who will argue against the fact we are a very lucky club tonight.
After sitting through the first hour of tonight's game I was ready to chalk this one down as one of those games we're gonna lose every now and then.
Millwall came and parked the bus. They did what Pompey and Palace did this season, they just bled all our creativity dry, struck on the break and looked set to shut up shop and head down the A11 with all three points.
Saying that, there was still half an hour to go and I was incredibly surprised that people started to pack up on the hour and head out of the ground (a woman near me went on 62 minutes!) in this season when Norwich are making a habit of grabbing late, late goals.
Paul Lambert changed things around again after Saturday's draw at Crystal Palace, with Adam Drury, Zak Whitbread, Chris Martin and Wes Hoolahan missing from the starting line up. Simeon Jackson partnered Grant Holt up front and Marc Tierney made his first start.
It's the first time I've seen Tierney in a City shirt and I thought he was solid and reasonably adventurous going forward. Compared to the timid nature of Steven Smith, who may have been playing in his place on a night like this, Tierney looks miles better.
There wasn't much to chew the cud over in the first 45 minutes, Simon Lappin missed a couple of good chances, nothing went Norwich's way and 0-0 was a fair reflection.
Norwich were on the wrong end of some curious refereeing decisions in the early second half and after Millwall's opener, three changes were made with Aaron Wilbraham, Anthony McNamee and Wes Hoolahan coming on.
All three really freshened City up going forwards and, after Holt won a free kick with 15 minutes to go, Henri Lansbury clipped a lovely right foot shot against the upright and Elliot Ward stabbed home from close range.
City pressed and pressed for the winner, which didn't look like coming until late late pressure saw Lansbury pop up with a winner in the fourth and final minute of stoppage time.
To say we deserved this win is an understatement, but boy oh boy will we take it!
This game reminded me of the win over Southend at Carrow Road last February when we played pretty poorly against a team hanging on for the win. Oli Johnson's two goals that night against a team wearing the exact same colours also came pretty much at the same time.