curiously the BBC Norwich City website's front page has a blog from back in Sept just before the Bolton game. Lots of glorious armchair punditry in the comments! Some choice bits below! http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thefootballtacticsblog/2011/09/norwich_learn_harsh_lessons_of.html seems along time ago that we had to put up with such cliched opinions no?
Funny reading that an thinking that we won three of the next four and have been in the top half of the table. Pretty much ever since. With hind-sight it does look like a series of ridiculous opinions, although the overriding tone is pretty positive in that people wanted unto stay up. Also I think most of us would have agreed at that point that staying up would be an achivement, it really is, we've just surpassed expectations and long may it continue!
i'm the first to admit i wasn't sure we could make the step up, but it makes me beam to read those comments and think how cliched and wrong they turned out to be!
Oh yeah, it's fantastic and your right it makes that bit better people thought we couldn't. Also, let's face it, at the end of the day, football fans mostly speak in clichés.
I thought this thread was going to be about The Doc's goalscoring debut for Wycombe at the weekend, never mind
I'd have been as sick as a parrot if we'd have been struggling in the bottom 3 all season, but I'm over the moon the way the team have performed this season. The boys have done magnificent.
I normally avoid clichés like the plague, but at the end of the day, it's been all hands to the pump. We're back in the saddle, and the ball is in our court.
The way people criminaly underated us highlights a, frankly, black-hole in the general populous' footballing knowledge. Every one of us to a man(or woman) knew we'd do fine this season. we knew because we knew what Lambert is capable of doing and what the players he brings in are capable of. It's shocking that people didn't do their homework, some people have no feel for the game at all.
Good post, although, a shocking lack of clichés. Seriously, though, just shows how little the average media pundit knows.
at the end of the day it's all swings and roundabouts really we'll be there or thereabouts(personal fave) come the run-in
From an outside perspective, at that point Lee Dixon was spot on. Norwich were pretty dreadful in that game and defensively looked like a Championship side up against Premier League strikers in the early part of the season. The confidence and stature has grown since then but I don't think he was wrong at that point. He said there needed to be an improvement and there has been, although you are relying a lot on Ruddy who has been outstanding.
Norwich showed this weekend that they're too good for the drop as we reach the business end of the season. Man U had a difficult trip to the South East looking to avoid the potential banana skin of defeat to a hardworking Norwich, who threatened to gatecrash Man U's party. On paper Man u looked favorites, but there are no easy games, and Paul Lamberts done a fantastic job down there. Norwich are a hard team to break down, and it was all to play for, as both teams looked to do their talking on the pitch. Norwich set out their stall, and looked to keep it tight at the back for the first 20 minutes. They ran their socks off, covering every blade of grass. Norwich like to get the ball down and play,and chose not to park the bus. It was end to end stuff but what the game needed was a goal, and Scholes delivered the killer ball thanks to some schoolboy errors, and The keeper won’t have been happy with conceding from there. However its a game of two halves, and Norwich didn't let their heads drop. The best form of defence is attack, and Journeyman Grant Holt's rallying cry lifted Norwich. He may lack that half a yard of pace, but you couldn't question his commitment, and he got in man u's faces constantly. Norwich were in the ascendancy, and the crowd in good voice, as the inspired substitution Wilbraham had a screamer denied by a save right out of the top draw. There were some handbags, Scholes doing just enough to put him off, and if that foul was outside the area, 9 times out of 10 it’s a free kick and i've seen them given, but the ref wasn't impressed. Grant Holt finally put Norwich right back in it as he literally pinged it on a sixpence, showing that for a big guy he's good with his feet. I'm not sure how much the keeper knew about that one, but the next goal was going to be really important. Ryan Giggs finally revealed what a great engine he's got to win it at the death, Man U showing the mark of true champions by grinding out a result in a game Norwich probably deserved to get something from. 'The result was hard on a spirited Norwich side who didn't quite get the rub of the green, but they've made a lot of new friends in the premier league today, and its in their hands now. You can't win anything in February but you can lose it, and no doubt they're over the moon with what the gaffers trying to do there. It's a marathon not a sprint, and they'll dust themselves off and go again next week, taking it one game at a time, after all you can only play the team infront of you. Football's a funny old game, but the players have been a credit to themselves, and they're a great advertisment for the premier league. At the end of the day the real winner tonight was football. right. i think thats all the cliches, well, the 65 i could think of anyway!
i was focusing more on the comments below it. Dixons always been fair to us, and is now seemingly a big fan.
