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Two tackles by Masina showed just how much we have missed him. Fingers crossed he remains fit for the rest of the season.
Well Xisco Munoz said that we would see a difference, and I think we were all happy to confirm that he was correct. Much better, even if we were hanging on a bit at the end.
We were defending deep at the end same as the last five years in the Prem but more determination not to concede Better going forward and could have been 3 - 0 up at half time so that was better Deeney was a bit off the pace at times and Gray was a bit rusty in front of goal Pericia might have scored the chance he had if he had had more game time Overall better and deserved to win
We should have won by more, had 3 clear chances other than the goal. I had to keep walking out the room and pacing up and down. A good game. Norwich have a couple of easier games now and our next game is postponed so when we play away at Swansea we will be 9 back from the top unless we are lucky with other results. Bournemouth have 2 tough away games to come. We need to keep in touch now. We all know that 3 or 4 results in a row will boot you up the table. Let's keep hoping!
Surely only if they are made one at a time? Norwich's 5 were made in 2 groups and our 5 were made in 3 groups - there's no way they took 5 minutes.
Yes. And I advised them on their lack of paternal heritage as a result. Didn’t like that, they are too good an outfit to do that, and it doesn’t fit with their club ethos.
I have a stopwatch on it every second half (anal, I know). It was 3.30 so I guess they could have done 3 or 4 but not 5. They get it right about a quarter of the time. Bring on rugby timing please!
“I am very happy in this moment. I want to say thank you very much to the players. This is the first step, we won this important game against a very good team. We can grow, we can be better. We need to work very hard but now is the moment to enjoy because it was a very hard game. I want to enjoy it, I have a very good group, very good people inside the dressing room and this way we can succeed.” please log in to view this image Xisco Muñoz
I actually thought five minutes was at the long end of about right. There were a couple of talking-to's as well as the YC's. I think both Capoue and Sarr would have walked last season - as Matt Rowson oft puts it: "coulda rather than shoulda" but imho definitely "woulda" as we had players go for less! In the end I thought it was a very good refereeing performance, and y'all know how supercritical I am of my former colleagues!
No wonder the new man is popular - even let Ben in the dressing room with his Go pro! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jGBdoBWlwGQ
I know we had a go at refs in the Premiership, but on the whole I think they were better than the ones we’ve had this season. With the exception of John Brooks - I thought he was excellent. I thought Capoue was very lucky indeed, and if he’d gone I wouldn’t have had any complaints. Sarr was lucky too. I thought his hit out at Pukki was petulant and would have seen him go if we were in the Prem. But I thought it worked out in the interest of common sense. I particularly liked how Brooks dealt with Sarr after that. He did this thing called ‘talking’ to the player, rather than communicating via different colour cards. He was top drawer in that match. I think Norwich got off lightly too in a couple of places; their inability to stay on their feet perhaps warranted cards, but the fact the official wasn’t fooled, and clearly demonstrated he wasn’t, meant he didn’t need to use cards and so facilitated another win for common sense. John Brooks
He refereed for the sake of the game and for the players rather than beholden to the law. It was very much a performance that you cannot afford to have if you want to break grass roots level. This was an argument I had so often with the Blazers: we referees are there for the players to help them have a good game within the spirit of the laws not to punish every transgression to the fullest extent like some sort of Judge Dredd with cards and whistle! It was lost on too many of them- "they can't have a game without us" they say... to which I'd reply that they can, just not a very good one. Fair play to John Brooks: he seems to understand that by not making it all about him it becomes about him!
I must admit to having a chuckle when I see a ref telling a player off who has little to no English. Perhaps as well as knowing the rules of the game they should be multi-lingual.
