Now that the dust has settled somewhat after last night's match it's time to reflect on what that result really means. I would suggest that with what is now a five point gap between us and 2nd spot the play-offs are now our only hope of promotion back to the promised land. With only 8 games to go it will be extremely difficult now to catch the top two regardless of the remaining fixtures for all those involved at the top of the league.
I am extremely frustrated that the club appear to have thrown away their best chance of a return to the top flight due to the previous managerial appointment which nearly all found incredulous, all water under the bridge now I know. We really did give ourselves a mountain to climb after the poor run of results prior to Adams leaving and it was never going to be easy, our new manager however has worked wonders thus far.
Alex Neil's ability to get the best out of a squad with limited ability will now in all probabilty be needed should we fail to go up when our better players, Howson, Redmond, Johnson, Ruddy et al could well leave for pastures new in the close season. We might still make it this year but our inability to put teams away when we are on top has probably cost us. After the resounding win against Ipswich which seems an eternity ago now, for the first time this campaign I really believed we could do it but subsequent results and performances' and in particular last night's, have brought me back down to earth with a bump. The reality is Watford and 'Boro are now on a roll and Bournemouth are now bang on form once again and in my opinion will finish as the top three. We the fans and Alex Neil knew we had to win last night and he said as much in his post match interview. He was gutted you could tell that and so was I, I didn't even celebrate Loza's equaliser as I knew how the other games had finished and a point simply wasn't good enough.
Should we go up through the play-offs with a day out at Wembley to boot that would be fantastic, probably better than finishing second, if only victory could be guaranteed eh ?
One can never predict end of season results in any division, there are always going to be surprises and it would be folly to try to do so but looking at our run in I reckon we're good for at least 15 points which would cement a play-off place but not autos. Even if we were to win all of our remaining games we could still fall short with a 91 points total, however that probably would end up being enough. We can no longer say that there's a long way to go because quite simply there isn't. Eight games to go isn't many and our players really do now need to show their mettle and sweat blood for that famous canary yellow shirt.
A Norwich v Ipswich play-off final could still happen, are you up for it ? Could your nerves take the strain ? What would it be like to savour victory ? What would defeat do to you ?
OTBC
KIO
I am extremely frustrated that the club appear to have thrown away their best chance of a return to the top flight due to the previous managerial appointment which nearly all found incredulous, all water under the bridge now I know. We really did give ourselves a mountain to climb after the poor run of results prior to Adams leaving and it was never going to be easy, our new manager however has worked wonders thus far.
Alex Neil's ability to get the best out of a squad with limited ability will now in all probabilty be needed should we fail to go up when our better players, Howson, Redmond, Johnson, Ruddy et al could well leave for pastures new in the close season. We might still make it this year but our inability to put teams away when we are on top has probably cost us. After the resounding win against Ipswich which seems an eternity ago now, for the first time this campaign I really believed we could do it but subsequent results and performances' and in particular last night's, have brought me back down to earth with a bump. The reality is Watford and 'Boro are now on a roll and Bournemouth are now bang on form once again and in my opinion will finish as the top three. We the fans and Alex Neil knew we had to win last night and he said as much in his post match interview. He was gutted you could tell that and so was I, I didn't even celebrate Loza's equaliser as I knew how the other games had finished and a point simply wasn't good enough.
Should we go up through the play-offs with a day out at Wembley to boot that would be fantastic, probably better than finishing second, if only victory could be guaranteed eh ?
One can never predict end of season results in any division, there are always going to be surprises and it would be folly to try to do so but looking at our run in I reckon we're good for at least 15 points which would cement a play-off place but not autos. Even if we were to win all of our remaining games we could still fall short with a 91 points total, however that probably would end up being enough. We can no longer say that there's a long way to go because quite simply there isn't. Eight games to go isn't many and our players really do now need to show their mettle and sweat blood for that famous canary yellow shirt.
A Norwich v Ipswich play-off final could still happen, are you up for it ? Could your nerves take the strain ? What would it be like to savour victory ? What would defeat do to you ?
OTBC
KIO
Now I certaintly wasn't trying to say we have not improved, clearly we have, but as I said there are still vestiges of the same problems. ANd if we continue to labour against packed defenses or have lapses then we create problems for ourselves.
