My lad is back on the coach and on his way back home! He's proud of Crawley tonight despite of the result!
Norwich City FC ‏@NorwichCityFC 23s Neil Adams confirms Ryan Bennett had an operation on his ankle ligaments today and that he will be out for 'six to eight weeks'. #NCFC
Poor bloke, rotten luck. Can't see him getting his place back before January unless further injuries put him back in contention.
On the match - a decent result, even if anything worse would have been disappointing. Delighted with the players getting a run-out. Am I the only one to feel that Becchio playing is actually a good thing? After all, on his day he is a 20-goal Championship striker. While I am still reserving judgment on Adams, the one thing you have to give the guy as a manager is he seems very good at motivating players. Without wanting to get into too much of a Hughton debate, one of the big things that I think alienated many fans early on is that he seemed completely incapable or uninterested in motivating the players for cup matches.
Gutted for him, I injured my ankle about 5 weeks ago, didnt need surgery but its still fragile, reckon he'll do well indeed to be back in 6-8
Not sure on that one but we need competition and back up, Martin's not a centre back and Bassong isn't favoured anymore.
trouble is ,i think his day has been and gone but i am begining to warm to adams, at least you can see he cares
Just got back from the game. Firstly, well done to Crawley. They gave us a real game tonight and but for some goal line clearances and a fantastic Declan Rudd save in the first half it really could have gone either way. Special mention for Izale McLeod. Fantastic hold up play and was a handful all night. Now, onto Norwich. Rudd had a very good game. Claimed a corner well, saved well from McLeod and look generally very composed. Nearly kept out the OG too. Whittaker I thought had a good game, especially second half when we were tiring and the defence was coming under increased pressure. Got some good tackles in and took pressure off. Kyle McFadden looked like he has been playing centre-half for us for years. Perhaps we don't need another CB? I still think we'll go in for one, probably on loan, but he's a really useful player. Maybe we should get him out on loan? Cuellar looked composed (apart from the oggy) but looks short of match practice, as did Surman and Bennett who was played out of position. The two big positives for me were Cameron Jerome and Josh Murphy. Jerome tired after 65-70 minutes, but that's to be expected as he's short of matches. He's got a good touch, holds the ball up well, has a good shot and has the physicality that, apart from Lafferty, we don't have much of in the squad. Murphy was fantastic. Two great finishes, especially the second, but also didn't slack on his defensive duties. Without his goal-line clearance (which looked like it had a hint of hand ball about it) we'd be playing extra time. I'd still start Redmond on Saturday, but Murphy is really pushing him, which is great for us. Redmond will know his place is under threat and I believe it'll push him on to start delivering more goals and assists for us. Overall, good game and good win. Roll on Saturday and Watford....ummm..I mean Bournemouth
Cheers tmyag Rudd is turning into a fine player by all accounts. Great to hear so many youth players stepping up as well. I'm also glad that Whittaker had a strong game - I can't help but feel he and Redmond are the new Steve Morisons. Whittaker is a very good attacking full back, but he does need defensive support so should be used carefully, but he is far from useless and is quite possibly the best right back in the league
No worries! Yeah, our first goal was from his shot, which Jensen made a complete hash of to be fair. Whoever is playing CM just needs to be aware that he has a habit of getting dreadfully out of position and hold a bit deeper when he goes. He is a bit shaky, there's no denying that, but I think what he brings enough to the team at Championship level for that not to be a major issue. My only worry with Rudd is that he's too good to sit on the bench. It's a bit of a Cech / Courtois situation for us. Ruddy isn't old, and if he's our number 1 for the next few years, then Rudd will no doubt be looking to move on.
P.S - It was fantastic to see so many young Canary fans there tonight. Kids for a quid is a great deal and we look like we're set for another generation of die hard yellows!
Thought we looked a bit disjointed tonight really but then that was the be expected with the sweeping changes and the introduction of the youth players. Agree with everything that TMYG said, very good summary. I'd add that with Rudd his control of the box needs working on several times he would get lost in a pack penalty area from set pieces where Ruddy would have taken the ball easily he would punch or sometimes not come out, his shot stopping however was superb. I'd also say that Surman looked pretty ropey made some good passes but wasted maybe more than some of the youngsters, also slipped over three or four times. On the Murphy redmond debate id still fall on the side of redmond mostly because the defending for both Murphy's goals was pretty poor, both good goals and well taken but it won't be that easy on saturday and Redmonds is a better battler with the ball and far better without it, Murphy was shrugged off in challenges several times. Id like to see Josh on 60 minutes when defenders are a bit tired and have him on the left and Redderz on the right.
Just back from the game myself and these two comments say a lot of what I wanted to. Rudd - excellent shot-stopping, but needs to command his box more from set pieces. Perhaps looks a little too lightweight for me Martin - standard game for him, although perhaps slightly sloppier that he's capable of McFadden - Very impressed, seemed right at home in the heart of our defence. Would never have guessed it was his first senior appearance the way he bossed Cuellar about at times and made sure players held the defensive line. Strong in the air against some physical strikers, and played it well on the deck too. Couple of slips could have been costly, and a couple of times showed signs of his inexperience, but certainly looking forward to seeing more of him. Cuellar - Seemed like a poor-man's Bassong to me. At times the solid, calming influence you need at the back, but certainly more than capable of a mistake at times. Letting the ball bounce over his head was a Sunday League mistake that could have cost us. Also seems to like roaming out from defence like Bassong. He burst out of defence with the ball a couple of times, and I'm sure he made an overlapping run for Josh Murphy at one point. Clearly short of fitness, but it'll come. One slightly worrying habit I noticed was the way he reacts to opposition goal kicks. We were holding a reasonably high line, and to presumably compensate for his lack of pace, he starts running back before the 'keeper takes the kick. That plays opposition strikers on side, and if our other defenders don't learn to adapt to this and react similarly, it's going to create a lot of room behind our defence in wide areas. Whittaker - Seriously needs to work on his positioning, was woeful at times and better teams will take advantage of it. Also too keen to play out of defence when it's not safe to do so. Jacob Murphy - Overshadowed by his brother, but a reasonable performance. Not ready for the championship yet. Excellent pass to his brother for our second. Surman - Largely anonymous in an unfamiliar role. He needed to dictate play more in the middle of the pitch when we had the ball, and largely didn't. Bennett - Slightly greater presence in the game than Surman, again in an unfamiliar role. Really surprised Adams didn't feel the need for a proper defensive midfielder, which I feel would have helped no end Josh Murphy - This game was settled really by two moments of quality, and they both came from him. He does Redmond's "cut in and shoot" routine better than Redmond does! Scored with both feet, and I felt his end product in general wasn't too shabby. Doesn't quite have the same confidence as Redmond to take his man on, but I do feel he's got the ability. Would not be worried if he was to start championship games against weaker sides. Jerome - Here's where my match report differs from tmyag's, I thought he was pretty dreadful. Didn't seem to give the CB's a lot of problems, won little in the air, and I've seen brick walls with a better first touch. Would be concerned if he's been brought in so we've got someone to play route 1 to, as it didn't appear that he'd be too effective at it. In his defence, he's probably slightly short of match fitness, and wasn't helped by the formation. Midfielders seemed afraid to run past him on the rare occasions he did win something a little deeper, but with the lack of cover in central midfield that's not too surprising I guess. Didn't seem to link up too well with Loza, but it's hardly a familiar partnership. Also seemed disinterested at times, but hopefully it's more a case of "Steve Morison syndrome", where he just didn't go for anything he wasn't 90% certain he'd win. Loza - Also fairly anonymous, didn't have a great contribution to the game. Would like to see him go out on loan to league 1 or 2 as he's certainly not ready for the championship. Hall-Johnson - I thought he was more of a central midfielder, so was surprised when he played wide rather than replacing Bennett in the middle. Seemed to have a decent turn of pace, but hard to judge his overall ability though. Becchio - Reasonably decent cameo from the forgotten man for me. Came on to seemingly ironic cheers, but put himself around well, and importantly was prepared to drop deep to pick up possession, something neither Jerome or Loza would do all game. Late on that helped take pressure off our defence, and his harrying led to the third goal. Pleased to see he still looked engaged, despite his lack of game time. Would rather have him than Loza making the bench in the future, assuming he stays. Adams - I felt the line-up was bold to say the least, and really felt we could have done with a defensive midfielder on the pitch, even if it was McGeehan rather than Tettey, Johnson or O'Neil. Surman and Bennett is a central midfield I never want to see again! Showed faith in his youngsters though and it paid off, particularly the inclusion of McFadden. Front 2 didn't really function that well, and was surprised he seemed content to let them sit on the shoulders of their CB when we weren't in possession, really could have done with having one drop deeper to pick the ball up. Must be hoping for more lower league opposition in the next round to give his youngsters another go.
Agree with you about Hall-Johnson, DH, I thought the exact same thing when he came on. I actually thought that Jerome was pretty good, made some good runs ahead of Loza who failed to pick him out and used his strength well. Both Jerome and Ceullar looked short of fitness and match practise but i was generally quite pleased with Jerome's contribution.
