Not a great performance by any means, but with ten to go, the bottom five teams have been averaging less than a point a game. Unless they can buck that trend, we're safe with what we have! (A few more wouldn't go amiss though)
Are we just tired, do you think? After all, we have a team of players who have all been playing at a higher level than ever in their career and that must take its toll after a season. We seemed to play with such fear, which hasn't been the Norwich way at all since Lambert came. Oh well, we somehow got a point and now Wolves and QPR need 14 points from 10 just to get level with us, while Wigan need 15 (and Bolton, who were awful yesterday against QPR, need 13. Since QPR have to play six of the top seven, and Wigan have to play five of them, that seems unlikely. Ref was truly awful, I thought, although not saying that affected the result. He had that pompous way of walking which crap refs always have. It's middle of the night here in Vietnam and I was hoping to go to bed relaxed, thinking we were definitely safe. Oh well, that's Norwich. Never do things the simple way.
If we go down, I will..... I don''t know what, but I'll do it. We will not go down. With our run-in, we will end up somewhere between 10th and 15th - but for me that's a very successful season.
I think the pressure is off us and it that time of the season where teams in mid table need to try and push on. I feel that we'll see a number of improved performances over the next few matches.
No a point gained in the quest, establish ourselves this season, improved squad and PL experience to start next season. Bring it on.
Some Norwich fans make my blood boil!!! I have been critical of us on occasions (Most notably in the FA Cup), but FFS, we are 12th in the Premier League. If you want to boo, get yourself down to Portman Road - I hear they have a few spare seats every week.
Interesting that the vast majority of the team out today was our championship team: Ruddy, Drury, Whitbread, Ward, Surman, Hoolahan, Crofts, Jackson, Holt, Fox with only Naughton added. These players have done fantastically to get to mid table in the prem. Our starting line up today would cost less than 4 million, less than every other starting line up in the premier league this weekend plus west ham and leicester's.
Probably quite high, his performance certainly won't go unnoticed, but every time we change it seems that it was last week's line-up that would have worked! Nope. These guys are professional athletes, they can play for one and a half hours every week without getting tired.
As disappointing as we may have been today there are still plenty of positives. We got a draw despite not playing well against an established premier league side (maybe not for much longer). It was an excellent goal from Wes, and Morrison look back to himself. Another point towards survival and we are 12th in the league. If you said we would have 36 points by early march most fans would've snapped your hand off. Booing the team is crazy, the only time it is acceptable is if the team has not put the effort in and there is no way you can say that about these lads. Another point gained, safety looks certain, happy days! OTBC
Difficult now to draw parallels with Doncaster last season. A bunch of fans turn up expecting a team to roll over for us when they are fighting for survival and then boo our players for daring to draw.
We shouldnt boo, but I can understand the frustration from the fans cos we should expect better than we got today. It happened earlier in the season when Blackburn were terrible yet they turn up and nearly beat us when we should be winning. These teams are bottom of the league for a reason, and we should be beating them and its simple as that. We are not new to this league now so we cant keep using that old excuse!
So now, after a very good start to our PL chapter which is down ONLY to extreme hard work by Lambo and team it is our God given right to turn up and beat teams like Wigan/Blackburn who have very good players and played very well in both those games? Some games we should win on paper, we haven't, others we should have lost on paper we've won (Swansea away) so it's all evened out IMO.
Going by your formula, holtys_boots, we should not be 12th. We are the youngest and probably cheapest squad in the league, and of course we are new to this league - this is the first time we have played Wigan at home in the Premier League.
Yes, booing is disgraceful. Two and a half years ago we were bottom of Division One (except for Soton, who had been docked ten points). Lambert's time at Carrow Road has been little short of miraculous and those idiots who boo should think what would happen if Lambert left us. I've been impressed with Bennett the last few games. I felt he was one of the few players to emerge from today with much credit and he is really starting to grow into the Prem. When I wondered if our players were tired, I wasn't really thinking of physical tiredness as much as psychological. It's been a steep learning curve for most of them and they are now 'experienced Premiership players' (QPR take note) but maybe they need a close season to come to terms with what they've achieved and to move on. Still very happy and if someone had told me we would be 14 points clear of 18th spot with ten games to go, I would have said 'dream on'. A win at Newcastle or home to Wolves and I think we can say we are officially safe.
Dare I say that I thought we played well at times. We had a few good periods where we kept the ball and the players had at most 3 touches. It was great football to watch and we looked good.
I find it difficult to comprehend this view. It takes seasons to become an established premier league season, there aren't ****e teams in this league. Every team has some high quality players and Wigan played well today, we didn't play as well as we could. That's football. Holt didn't have a good game, but players don't perform to their highest level game in game out, it's just not possible.
