Battersea, good work! No surprises for me and does show Hooper's class / efficiency. If we do make it up this season we're going to need him. Thanks for crunching the numbers.
I am reasonably confident we will go up, and the reason I am is because the team and Alex Neil don't have this attitude that promotion is a done deal. The whole "take each game as it comes" is the right approach, yes we have the best squad in the division and are capable of beating every team we will play but football isn't that simple as we all know. As somebody has pointed out, Bournemouth looked out of it a week ago, they are now top of the table. This time next week it will probably shuffle up again and so forth. I can't remember the Championship ever being this tight, and I imagine for a neutral it's probably the most entertaining division in Europe at the moment. Personally, I know the nerves between now and the end of the season will probably be shot to bits, I don't think anyone is going to run away with it. I think both promotion places are going to go right down to the wire.
It also guarantees the most overly used cliché in internet footy forums is going to get a work out over the next few weeks... "plenty more twists and turns to come" *shudders*
Totally agree YellowLittle - I feel certain that most if not all of the promotion places will be decided on the last day of the season.
Yes supers (in a way) - the 2 autos and the play-off places I'm sure will be 'up for grabs' on the last day. We owe Fulham a resounding defeat!!!!
My head and logic tell me that we should finish top 2. We have an excellent first XI and, more importantly an awful lot of cover in place. We have just lost our top scorer through injury and we have either Jerome or Hooper to bring in. We have depth in CM and (finally) a settled and mostly in-form back five with a fair bit of cover there as well. We have a manager riding the crest of a wave who seems to have an awful lot of tactical acumen and excellent motivational skills. He has managed to bring Bassong back into the fold and got Wes (and to be fair pre-injury Grabs) firing. I am hopeful that Vadis will be able to come in and show us what a good player he is to help us kick on. Whilst I rate Dorrans he doesn't look completely up to speed but hopefully the more he plays the better he will get and he will also be a shot in the arm for the run in and to take a bit of creative pressure from Wes. How good the French lad will be I don't know. Clearly AN must rate him as he bought him but he can't be pulling up too many trees in training not to get a look in thus far. I think if the defence can cut out the stupid errors we will have every chance. Particularly after we beat Derby on Saturday!
I agree about Dorrans. From what I've seen he isn't quite in tune with the squad yet, but his touch and class are pretty obvious so once he gets up to speed I can seem him playing a very big part in the last five or six games
Efficient yes but he doesn't get into goal scoring positions as often as I hoped, when he does he is lethal but Jerome and Grabban always manage to get in the thick of it even if they waste a lot of chances.
Isn't that just because he's deeper lying? He's better on the ball and his passing is superior, so I feel he's wasted as an out-and-out striker, but it inevitably means he won't be "in the thick of it" as often
Possibly but against Wigan he was so quiet that he was subbed after 45 mins, taking off our most lethal striker and throwing on Morris late on seemed a bit daft Rob.
I think you have actually highlighted the issue with Hooper. He is absolutely lethal when he's on form. But my god if he even has a match off it takes him seemingly ages to recover match fitness and he is absent for every minute you play him while he's recovering.
He will be involved in every game now and it will be brilliant if he starts banging them in. This is turning out to be our most exciting season since Lg1 for me, I honestly can't wait for games now. The Prem became quite depressing losing and firing blanks most weeks.
/\ this!! I most definitely want promotion but we're going to miss this excitement if we do. The "thrill" of keeping our heads above water in the PL doesn't do it for me quite so much. I guess that's part of the benefit of supporting a team like Norwich. You get the highs and lows which make the highs even better. Better that than a stagnant mid-table going nowhere and achieving nothing club.
Both Odjidja-Ofoe and Andreu had great games for the U21s yesterday, so they could also feature in the remaining games: http://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwic...norwich_city_u21s_beat_southampton_1_3985466?
