I tell you what, and I say this without even the tiniest hint of irony - I ****ing love Chris Hootun I do!! Couldn't have been happier for him last night, very possibly his finest hour as Norwich manager and hopefully the catalyst to a strong end of season and top ten finish
That, I hope will happen. I said ages ago I think he is the kind of manager who needs a bit of time to put a strong team together, it seems to me he works in quite a methodical way and eventually I think it will work. Despite some of our results and what people say we are not far off being a very decent prem team. Small margins of course.
We have spoken before on various threads about luck and maybe yesterday we actually had some. Three or so wonderful saves from JR and a couple of awful misses from Soldado. This makes up a bit for unlucky losses to West Ham and Cardiff and sets us up for an exciting climax to the season. Well done CH well done Norwich City.
Tipsy. Re. his needing time, CH is actually relatively inexperienced as a manager (for example, he's managed for just over half as many games as Paul Lambert, and PL is regarded as pretty inexperienced). Makes what CH is doing at Carrow Road in terms of modernising the backroom, rebuilding the team, improving the all round quality etc. all the more creditable IMO. I'm with Munky, I admire him for what he has already done for us and what he is in process of doing.
It possibly was, but don't forget we were on a roll back then and everything was looking far more positive. There was an awful lot of pressure on him yesterday, much of it ridiculous in my opinion, and Spurs came into the game with the best away record in the division after hammering Newcastle away in their last game. Everything pointed to us being outclassed again, but it was in fact the opposite, and all three of the Spurs fans I've spoken to this morning had nothing but admiration for our performance and the way we were tactically set up from the off. Everything went absolutely according to plan and has lifted the spirits around the club - even within some of the outers - at a time when it needed to so that's why I consider it as potentially his finest hour yet.
You're right, Munky, there was a sense of unity and (dare I say) belief at the final whistle yesterday which has been largely absent this season. Having Howson and Wes both on the bench was a tremendous boost to inners, outers and shake it all abouters, too
You've got to hand it to Hughton and Fairplay to him! He always knows how to bang one out when the pressure is on!
He and Laudrup fell out, and he was not prepared to sit on the bench all season and watch someone like De Guzman (Laudrups pet) play in front of him?...............
It's true that the circumstances were very different and actually impossible to compare, but my reasoning is that this Spurs is a completely different proposition compared to the Man U team which ran away with the title by 12 points. Beating them, managed by Fergie, was a much more impressive achievement in my book and even better than the 2-0 victory achieved by Worthington. I think the circumstances of yesterday and the "shock" of the result have been overstated somewhat. I don't think there was any more pressure on him yesterday than there was, for example, away to West Brom or at other low points this season (or even occasionally last). This perception of pressure caused by McNally's comments was purely a fiction in the media based on an ambiguous one-line answer to a direct question in a very long and otherwise wholly supportive interview. As for the teams - Spurs have notoriously struggled following Europa League matches (yes, lots of players were rested, but still 7 players who played on Thursday started), their form has been shakier than their results suggest (Sherwood has been very lucky IMO and it's no surprise that many Spurs fans are unconvinced despite the good run because he is tactically questionable), we have actually been in good form despite our results and we have actually been consistently strong at home, with several clean sheets in a row. That was why I put my money on us to win 1-0 at 11 to 1. My only regret is that I didn't have more conviction and only bet £3!!!
We scored so infrequently while it was gone that we had just sort of forgotten it was taken away in the first place. I personally like it and think that the fans usually do what they want the second the goal goes in but then it's nice to stay cheering to the music, especially when it loops back around. Just makes the noise of the crowd last longer.
Well, as they're such a rare commodity at Carrow road, it makes precious little difference whether they have it or not
PL Clean Sheet Table 2013-14 (not including the last round of matches) 1 West Ham 2 Arsenal 3 Chelsea 4 Spurs 5 Man City 6 Norwich 7 Southampton 8 Everton 9 Man U 10 Hull 11 Newcastle 12 Palace 13 Sunderland 14 Villa 15 Liverpool 16 Swansea 17 Cardiff 18 Stoke 19 WBA 20 Fulham We have kept 10 so far, same as Man City and Saints (tho' Man City have played one game fewer). WHU at the top have 13, Fulham at the bottom only 3. Note: Chelsea, Man City, Newcastle, Hull, Man Utd and ourselves all kept another CS this weekend, so we are up to 11 in all, that's nearly 41% of our matches.
Yes indeed. I think CH has got it right though: it is better to be needing to score more goals than to be needing to stop conceding them. The stats prove it: 0>1, i.e none conceded is more valuable in terms of points than one scored.
