The style of play we had under Lambert was entertaining to watch, but we had very few clean sheets during his tenure and towards the end of the season when he was at the helm, we won very few games - I'm not convinced that we would have stayed up with him in charge last season. Excellent post CC!!!!
Teams in the Championship include (at present) Blackburn, Nottingham Forrest, Leeds, Birmingham & Wigan. This list includes European Cup winners, European Cup Semi-finalists, Premiership winners, Europa Cup league members and FA Cup winners. Several teams have been in the Premiership before and have now found themselves in a lower league. Perhaps, for a city the size of Norwich and the fact that we don't have such a distinguished record as some teams mentioned above, if we do get relegated we will be in good company.
The truth is, relegation would mean losing out best players and virtually starting all over again. I personally wouldn't be optimistic about promotion either. The idea of 'pulling together now' seems all too ironic now.
It may well have been a mistake to ditch Hughton.He just had this knack of producing a result when we needed one.I really hope that I am wrong and that Adams will produce a win between now and the end of the season.
Would that be like Stoke & WBA ? Or the six on the spin we lost away? Hughton had more than enough chances to turn things around, there's no way IMO that he'd have kept us up, but we'll never know as i'm guessing you'll say?
Who can forget KIO's rant when we beat Spurs because it meant Hughton had bought more time? He was renowned by outers and pundits alike as always winning when he really had to! I believe Fulham away was just such a game but despicable behaviour by a section of the crowd against WBA forced McNally's hand and most likely robbed us of the chance of staying up!
Nah the WBA game was the winnable game where he need to pull a rabbit out of the hat and didn't, our away performances of late had been so dire there was no chance we would have gone to fulham and won.
But that was my whole point Bath, he always pulled a rabbit out of the hat when it was LEAST expected, not MOST expected like WBA
I can see both your points to be honest. But the must win game for me was WBA at home. Given our track record against Fulham and our quite frankly awful away form I don't think that we had any hope of taking points from that game with CH in charge. I know it's easy to be wise after the event but on Saturday what I saw was us taking the game to Fulham and even their manager admitted that we were the better team. Something that couldn't be said about the away performances we witnessed under CH. We used to collapse and not only against the big teams but against teams like Villa and Swansea, teams we really should be giving ourselves a chance against, it got all to familiar I am afraid. It wasn't if we would win or lose away from home, it was how much we would lose by. I don't think that after the total capitulation of the Swans game and the non performance against WBA at home David Mcnally had any other choice. CH and the players backed him into a corner and he had to react. For me though it was about 8 months too late. There were ZERO signs of improvement and the results were dire. Don't mistake me for someone who has a vendetta against CH because I don't. I am simply saying what I saw.
The irony being if we all had pulled together earlier in the season that we might never be in this situation in the first place?
I saw the exact same problems when we played against Fullham as I did in many games under Hughton. The difference is that Hughton usually set up a team that looked convincing against the big clubs. Can Neil Adams? I hope so.
You can dress it up any way you like - and blame who ever the hell you like, but Kemp has it spot on here As for (implicitly) blaming a section of the fan base, well, bollox, if they'd been happy - or even 60% content with the fare on offer, there'd have been no complaints. Plus, as a result of many miserable performances ever since the (now legendary) ten game unbeaten run came to an end, it wasn't as if the board of directors couldn't see the slippery slope on which we fell flat on our arses. So, if the worst case scenario does occur, it's McNally's fault for not recognising that we had an inherent - and worsening problem much, much sooner.
I can't believe that, did you watch the match? We had something that was AWOL with Hughton away from home, attacking intent. Ok we lost but at least we had a damn good crack at it we were the better team and were exciting to watch. I personally would rather go down fighting and actually trying to secure the points we need rather than slipping away quietly when no ones looking whilst repeatedly apologizing for being crap. Problem is we have lost our balls as a team and the players feel worthless. Where we used to say "come on then lets have it" we now say "if were lucky we can sneak a draw here" This is embodied by our club record signing who looks so impotent it's unreal.
nail, head. I wish Hughton well - there is plenty he did right for the club. I am positive we are much better placed than we were when he took over in terms of club infrastructure. But Hughton wasn't capable of getting it right on the pitch. The Fulham match was a big improvement. We outplayed Fulham for much of it - possession was good, and the clear instructions given meant a lot of the players knew what they were doing. I thought the substitutions were timely and correct, and could well have come off. The players looked very motivated. Correct me if I am wrong, but RvW had two shots on target and two off it - that adds a third to his total. Very unlucky not to score. I agree that there were a few similar problems: (1) playing against a defensive team we struggled to break down - this is partly playing staff (and for that Hughton shares a portion of the blame as we lack another creative midfielder), but also the nature of the league. We came much closer to breaking Fulham down than we have to many other teams away. (2) defensive fragility - not something that Adams was really designed to deal with. The way we played, we were always going to be vulnerable on the break. The goal should definitely not have happened and I though Turner was clearly unfit, and really struggled to cope with Rodallega who is a good 3 inches shorter, but no-one really to blame there. (3) heads going down after conceding. This is something we desperately need to sort out. However, the timing of the goal against the run of play would have shaken most teams. Yes, it has been a feature of our whole season, but I think the circumstances were particularly unfortunate. We didn't go on to concede a hatful, which is a key difference.
Fullham was an improvement? An improvement from what? Of course the performance was better than previous away games to Swansea etc but that is because we were playing such a poor team. What is this fight that you speak of because after Fullham scored they looked the most likely to score again - in spite of being such a poor team. I've heard many on here say we were unlucky not to win against Fullham let alone loose - I agree - but yet when we were unlucky to lose games under Hughton (and very often) the saying was that you create your own luck?!? We can't have it both ways can we?
No maybe for me. If we had given unequivocal support in the way that Palace fans have, I think we would have had a very different season. People were discussing how long to give CH in August, and there was a vicious reaction to Snodgrass having the audacity to take, and miss, a penalty in September, and so it has gone on. It's no wonder we've seen lots of individual errors from players that have, in my view, been playing with too much fear all season.
An improved performance, an improved tactical set-up, improved tactical substitutions and improved desire shown by the players. We were not unlucky to lose at Villa, Swansea or Southampton, even at home to W Brom. It was therefore an improvement. We were deteriorating fast and this match seemed to have stopped the rot. Unfortunately, it may be too little, too late, but I don't for a moment believe we would have been better under Hughton. Certainly not luckier. And probably a hell of a lot worse. As for fight - I can't believe you even suggest there wasn't fight. I'm trying to think of a single player who didn't look like they were trying their hardest, which is a lot more than can be said for the W Brom performance. We were better coming out in the second half - Snodders came very close and as did Turner. Fulham only looked dangerous on the break once we'd thrown everyone forward (though I have already accepted our defence was shaky, as it was under Hughton). I appreciate you're worried. I appreciate you think we will go down. As do I. I just think the atmosphere feels a lot better, the tactics were better and the performance was better. For me it was always about the football.
Spot on Cromer, entirely agree, the buck always stops at the very top. I have said more than once before that McNally's failure to act sooner will no doubt be our downfall. If we do go down I think the best word to sum it up would be 'unnecessary' simple as that
You'll also remember that Palace got rid of there "Hughton" at the right time, allowing the new man time to get them out of the **** !
