Feel a bit shell-shocked to be honest so not going to write a report on the game. I just wanted to mention that to play that well against a Stoke team who will in all likelihood end up top half was great. But then to have it robbed from us by an incompetent official leaves a bitter taste. There aren't many teams who can be as physical as Stoke but we had them rocking for 60 minutes. We can play physically when necessary but we are able to compliment it with some great football. All I will say is that last week we were nervy and we looked a bit like a team playing against a team a league higher than us. Today, we looked like a Premier League side. Well played boys - play like that every week and we will have no problems* staying up. Very, very proud of them. *Officials are likely to be a major problem on the evidence so far!
Those 4 pts dropped through crap refereeing could be costly, 100% effort from the team though ....Feels like a defeat today i m gutted
Us finish in the top half? I can tell you now, that there is no chance of that happening. More likely battling relegation with the utter ****e squad we have. I'm sure you will stay up, you'll finish above us I reckon comfortably. You should've won today, we were very poor and you were much better than us.
According to your manager, he and the team can't believe you didn't get a hatful in the second half. I must of watched a different game to him.
Carra ... there is only so many times a ball can roll along a line b4 somebody will put it in ...... There was plenty of chances .. the prob is they look knackered from Europe and until Transfer deadline we are lackin numbers I assume we will bring in another 5/6 players .... i feel it may be a tuff winter ahead for u boys if you think you played that well and not won .. IMO of course no malice intended..
Up until the sending off, we dominated for long periods and restricted Stoke to long shots and the odd half chance. After the red card, of course you are going to press us, but to say you should of had a hatful is ridiculous. We didn't help ourselves though, as for the last 5 minutes our defensive line was on the 6 yard line!
Such a load of crap, until the goal the only chance that I thought went close was Etherington's free kick, which was quality. All the rest were shots that looked desperate. I definitely think Stoke looked knackered, but you never really looked good on the road and it took you more than half an hour to score a goal against ten men. Also, lets bear in mind that we scored a decent goal against a defence that held the likes of Torres (playing well) and Drogba out last weekend. If there had been no red card for Barnett I don't think you would have had a sniff at goal other than long shots.
Just seen the sending off incident again on t'internet. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkncik_norwich-vs-stoke-highlights_sport Dear me. Regardless of whether or not it was in the box what Leon is supposed to have done wrong there I just do not know. He ran in a straight line, made no attempt to impede the player, didn't use his arms at all and didn't even appear to be aware he had Walters on his shoulder at any point. Walters simply lost balance and fell over, that's it. Ruddy was there to collect the ball so it wasn't even a clear goalscoring opportunity so it becomes clear that the ref is either a cheat (which I'm 100% sure he's not) or just completely incompetent and clueless about how to do his job. I was down at the River End but I could see there was nothing in the challenge, and watching the highlights only further confirms this so why can these paid, and supposedly qualified, officials not conspire between them to see what was so blatantly obvious? I'm afraid Mr.Swarbrick (never heard of him personally, where has he sprung up from?) has really got to have a good look at himself when he watches that again tonight and ask himself if he really should be doing something else as a career that perhaps doesn't have such a financial and emotional impact on so many people. That abomination cost us two points today, absolutely no question and I don't need to point out just how vital that could be come May. When are we going to start having officials who have actually played the game at some point in their lives so can show just a smidgen of empathy when such situations arise? Having clueless muppets with no balls in charge of games of this magnitude is just not good enough, nowhere near. Rant over (for now)
Its almost embarrasing to watch!!!! He got it sooooo wrong. Stoke, consider yourselves lucky boys. Ive seen better refereeing up leigh park playing fields.
Good review, on both accounts. Not for a lack of vocabulary, i struggle to put into words how infuriating it is for me watching that incident again. The referee's decision is utterly incomprehensible for anyone making an objective observation. I have an inkling my hatred for MotD will only esculate further tonight.
I watched the whole game live via the internet today. Honest oppinion from me is.... I thought we Stoke were well on top first 15 mins and HOW did you dominate for 60 mins. We panicked at times and that's nothing new with how we play away from home. IF you think Norwich deserved to win that game who are you kidding? YES the ref was woeful and... I KNOW he didn't help matters but once you were down to ten men, we were well on top, apart from 5/10 mins you had a decent spell 2nd half. We didn't play that well and I don't think Norwich were that good. Just my own oppinions of course I don't see Norwich that often. You can stay up and I think you will. But, there will be a lot more games this season where you will be put under more pressure than we could muster today. At 11 v 10 we should really have scored more and won the game. But, I don't think either team deserved the 3pts. Good luck for the season
Er, hate to point this out to you but you're supposed to be on top with an extra man on the pitch, and we didn't deserve to be a man down so I'm not quite sure what your point is here fella, it sounds like you're talking a load of ****
Pottermouth- yes Stoke definitely on top first 15, but all the match reports make it clear Norwich dominated the next half hour. You came out fighting after the break. We deserved to win because, in all honesty, our defence was pretty awesome. I say that because until the sending off, I never felt Stoke ever even looked like threatening, bar the Etherington free kick. Part of the reason you didn't create many chances and look that good was because our full backs completely stopped your wingers, and bar the goal, both KJ and Walters never had a free, unchallenged header because our centre-halves were playing well. This is highlighted by the fact that, as you say, once we were down to ten men and had a debutant at centre-back who's only twenty and joined the club on Monday, you really should have scored multiple times, and yet didn't. If that harsh sending off had never happened, I don't doubt for a minute that we would have won. I would agree that Norwich didn't offer all that much offensively either- but part of the reason for that is our two most creative players were left on the bench (Hoolahan, last week's goal scorer, and Fox) because the team picked was designed to match your physicality, which it did. In the end I would agree that, due to the sending off, a fair result was 1-1. Thanks for the good luck, though. I think you're going to do well in Europe because you've got a good mix of fast wingers and solid defence (holding out Chelsea was impressive).
Thats the first time I've seen the sending off incident since the game and I'm more annoyed now than when I was at the game. Barnett was in front of Walters, Walters made a lunge for the ball, lost his balance and fell over. Not a free kick as far as I'm concerned. The thing I thought I'd noticed during the game and have now had it confirmed is that the ref was initially going to show a yellow. he took it out of his pocket, half raised it and then changed his mind and produced the red. I'd love to know why he decided to change the card. Did Barnett say something to him? Did the linesman (who incidentally didn't flag for the penalty) say anything to change his mind? Or was he just so incompetent he pulled out the wrong card?
Not without improving our squad we won't. The fact that the most forward thinking player on our bench was Danny Pugh isn't good, as he is a holding centre mid in honesty!!
