The Official Norwich City Thread

[Oceans]

As easy as it is to say, credit to Middlesbrough and their fans. From the Middlesbrough peeps I had the pleasure to meet upon arrival they were welcoming, kind and loyal to their club. Several Middlesbrough fans had photos taken with my boy in his Norwich kit as requested.
Fingers crossed for you guys next season.

[nicanary]

Oceans said:

As easy as it is to say, credit to Middlesbrough and their fans. From the Middlesbrough peeps I had the pleasure to meet upon arrival they were welcoming, kind and loyal to their club. Several Middlesbrough fans had photos taken with my boy in his Norwich kit as requested.
Fingers crossed for you guys next season.

Agreed. I thought the two sets of fans behaved in great fashion, a real "family" atmosphere. Not a great final, but decent enough entertainment. Onwards and upwards......

[Challo]

Congratulations. Not the greatest final to watch but you guys did the damage in the first half and didn't let Boro play at all. Well deserved to go up.

What did surprise me was the amount of players you had kept from your days in the premiership. Hopefully that puts you in a better place with experience at the next level.

[The Moose]

nicanary said:

Oceans said:

As easy as it is to say, credit to Middlesbrough and their fans. From the Middlesbrough peeps I had the pleasure to meet upon arrival they were welcoming, kind and loyal to their club. Several Middlesbrough fans had photos taken with my boy in his Norwich kit as requested.
Fingers crossed for you guys next season.

Agreed. I thought the two sets of fans behaved in great fashion, a real "family" atmosphere. Not a great final, but decent enough entertainment. Onwards and upwards......

On the whole, you are correct - friendly banter from Middlesborough fans on the train (both ways) and in/around the stadium and restaurant.

However, on leaving the ground going back to the over ground stadium, as a pair of yellow shirts making their way through a field of red, we did receive quite a bit of abuse. However it wasn't all the fans, and interestingly, other Middlesborough fans did pipe up with comments telling their fans to shut up and stop embarrassing them etc which I thought was good of them.

[andyjo1982]

Brilliant day yesterday. Atmosphere was amazing. The team were superb, couldn't fault any of the players, nobody was phased in any way, shape or form. The fans were on top form.

My only issue was with Wembley, they are clearly not prepared for the trafic of around 200 odd buses, hence why the Boro team were late. I had what should've been a 2-2 and half hour journey that took 4 and half hours each way, mainly due to the last 6 miles getting there, and getting out the car park after. We should've arrived at about 12, but got there just after 2, then spent and hour and half in the car park. So poor for such a big venue. So I din't get time to mingle or take many pics before, and queues for programs were already pretty big.

Still, its good to be back in the PL, and I have every confidence that Alex Neil can keep us there. 4 or 5 astute and quality signings, couple up top, and 2 or 3 at the back, and I'm sure we will be fine.

OTBC

[BrabusMog]

That area is a nightmare for traffic. I have lost count the amount of times it's taken me over an hour to get from Brent Cross to Hanger Lane around the North Circular. Short of moving the national stadium somewhere else, there's nothing that can be done to sort the traffic issues.

[darren f]

Well, if there is a prize for the most shockingly bad set of home, away and 3rd kits I think we've already get that wrapped up!

The best of it is we will only need the away kit for Watford and have no need whatsoever for the third kit (... which rather pointlessly is predominantly yellow and green anyway). It can only be in existence for shirt sales revenue, but honestly who is going to buy that

[nicanary]

I think all clubs have had a "bad year" with shirt design at some time or other, but Jeez, that's bad. My eyes!......The away strip is OK but the other 2, dear lord.......Who at the club gives the nod? Stevie Wonder?

[Black can man]

Strewth that is truly dreadful .

[baldy1926]

Well that was a disappointing start.
How could that muppet be a premiership ref. I think he would be more suited to a sunday league.
The game should our lack of firepower and dodgy back line.

[Timbo_S2]

No one felt compelled to add anything to this recently then?

8 points from 6 games in the league, 11th place, and a cup run!

Team appears to be playing well, and a great team spirit. Still got a couple of players to get back into the team too...

[nicanary]

Timbo_S2 said:

No one felt compelled to add anything to this recently then?

8 points from 6 games in the league, 11th place, and a cup run!

Team appears to be playing well, and a great team spirit. Still got a couple of players to get back into the team too...

One football writer suggested that all 3 promoted clubs stood a chance of staying up, because Newcastle and Sunderland were so fecking awful. It's a good point.

I live "away" but my brother told me the story behind Johnson's sale. Maybe Lewis will perk up and start scoring.

[nicanary]

Looks like being a long winter.............

[CooperD]

Sadly our stay in the Premiership looks to be a brief one. Plenty of calls on other media sites for the manager to go. However I feel the buck should stop with Delia and her cronies. We seem to have the attacking capability of a Rottweiler with gum disease. Our defence is completely hopeless. Only two or three players have performed to any great degree. Robbie Brady, Wes Hoolahan and Gary O'Neill are the ones I can think of. The players we signed in the January transfer window haven't really bedded in yet. I'm not one calling for Alex Neill to go. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't be in the Premiership and when we do get relegated I would rather he stay and try to get us back out of the championship. If after say 10 games we aren't going well then maybe that is the time to get rid of him. Two of the clubs relegated last season, Hull and Burnley kept their managers and are now challenging for the top two positions in the Championship.

[anonymous-user]

CooperD said:

Sadly our stay in the Premiership looks to be a brief one. Plenty of calls on other media sites for the manager to go. However I feel the buck should stop with Delia and her cronies. We seem to have the attacking capability of a Rottweiler with gum disease. Our defence is completely hopeless. Only two or three players have performed to any great degree. Robbie Brady, Wes Hoolahan and Gary O'Neill are the ones I can think of. The players we signed in the January transfer window haven't really bedded in yet. I'm not one calling for Alex Neill to go. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't be in the Premiership and when we do get relegated I would rather he stay and try to get us back out of the championship. If after say 10 games we aren't going well then maybe that is the time to get rid of him. Two of the clubs relegated last season, Hull and Burnley kept their managers and are now challenging for the top two positions in the Championship.

I watched Norwich play Chelsea the other night and thought how unlucky they were, a Chelsea back pass and the goalie picked the ball up which should have been a free kick and an offside goal for Chelsea's second. Any Norwich fan starting pointing fingers whose to blame need a reality check, if they go down fine tune the team and they will be back up again.
If your an Aston Villa fan then you've got a genuine reason to moan.

[nicanary]

We deserved more from the Chelsea match, and Jerome missed one the proverbial granny would have slotted in.

But we just don't have the squad to make a serious attempt to remain in the top flight. What was considered a good squad in the Championship doesn't cut it against the big boys - a lot of "useful" players but nobody who stands out as quality. Even Redmond has been ineffective and I don't think any of the top clubs are going to come along with a cheque book. Like a lot of wingers, he looks fancy but has no end product.

It's no big deal with me personally. In the modern football world of big-money clubs, City can only hope to be a see-saw club, maybe staying up for the odd season or so. It doesn't worry me.

PS Hang on to Alex. As you say, if he can't cut in in the Championship, then's the time to sever relations.

[dub16v]

This is why Norwich will get relegated and Arsenal won't win the league: http://www.skysports.com/football/news/15118/10189...

% of big chances missed
1. Cameron Jerome (Norwich) - 81.8%
2. Christian Benteke (Liverpool) - 80%
3. Theo Walcott (Arsenal) - 76.9%
4. Bafetimbi Gomis (Swansea) - 75%
5. Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) - 68.4%
6. Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) - 66.7%
7. Arouna Kone (Everton) - 66.7%
8. Rudy Gestede (Aston Villa) - 66.7%

[nicanary]

dub16v said:

This is why Norwich will get relegated and Arsenal won't win the league: http://www.skysports.com/football/news/15118/10189...

% of big chances missed
1. Cameron Jerome (Norwich) - 81.8%
2. Christian Benteke (Liverpool) - 80%
3. Theo Walcott (Arsenal) - 76.9%
4. Bafetimbi Gomis (Swansea) - 75%
5. Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) - 68.4%
6. Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) - 66.7%
7. Arouna Kone (Everton) - 66.7%
8. Rudy Gestede (Aston Villa) - 66.7%

And there's the rub - City have bought every second-rate striker available in the last couple of years (or so it seems) and none of them can score (where's Ted McDougall when you need him?). Jerome gets in good positions, he can dominate defenders, but he can't "finish". Having said that, if he did he would be snapped up by a bigger club.

I wonder what Aguero's percentage is?

[nicanary]

Couldn't have gone any better for us. Let them take points off each other.

[nicanary]

I listened to 5-Live whilst working. We made hard work of that - the Magpies didn't turn up till the last 15 minutes, and we should have had it wrapped up by then. I think we've got enough passion to stay up, we must aim for all 3 points against Palace and not go there thinking defensively. It never works.