Haven't watched it for months. Got young kids and struggle to stay up that late! Also we offer nothing interesting to the wider footballing public, that's why we are on last almost always.
This is comical. We came away from Selhurst Park with a draw, which is rather better than we normally achieve (last victory away against Palace 1996). As RBF has said, the failure to win the game after taking the lead can hardly be laid at Chris Hughton's door. The match was poor, but in the conditions that's hardly surprising. So what's the great problem? Regarding whether CH is the man to take us forward, he was appointed to keep us up and bring the playing (as opposed to financial) side of the club up to the standard of professional organization necessary for a PL club. He is doing that. What exactly does "take us forward" mean? Well actually the board defined what it meant this season by setting CH the target of a top 10 finish. They didn't define it in terms of pleasing every moaner and grumbler among the fans. They defined it in measurable terms, and despite the handicap of a succession of injuries to key players, the target is still well within reach. CH is half way through a three year contract; he is not contracted beyond June 2015. If the board decide action is needed before then, they will take it. I trust them, but obviously quite a few on here do not. The long term future of NCFC does not depend right now on playing attractive football or being entertaining. Nor will it be furthered by "gambling" on change for change sake. Right now it depends on picking up enough points to stay in the PL and a draw at Selhurst Park is a contribution to that end.
Great post Robbie, though I doubt many will regard it as such, we have too many fans now with an agenda!
I agree, the time to review Hughton's progress is at the end of the season and if McNally then decides it is best for us to change managers I like to think I will get behind the new manager, but if in the meantime the board has confidence than so do I. By the way does anybody know why Whittaker started ahead of Russell Martin yesterday?
Unless Russ had a bit of a knock, my guess is that it was simply rotation. Hectic festive schedule and all that. I noticed WhoScored? gave Bradley Johnson the highest rating of all of our players for the Palace game (average rating was 6.5 and he got 7.6). He must've been doing something right. Jason Puncheon was the only player to get a higher rating than him with a whopping 8.3 .
Yep, bang on the money once again Robbie Though to be honest, and I'm sure you won't mind me saying this, to me this is all patently obvious and shouldn't really need explaining - at least it shouldn't need explaining anyway, but then again you just can't account for everyone's sense of reality now can you
I still don't get why martin was dropped, it was his first game for a wee while so hardly needed to be rotated and he does seem to link much better with Snodgrass, Whittaker's passing ability seems to have deserted him.
And remind me, how many points did Cardiff and Swansea pick up from their games yesterday? Oh yes, that's right, they picked up a combined total of zero points - that'll be one less than us And you're saying we defended terribly yesterday? Well that just shows either how determined you are to make things up to criticise our manager, or just how little you know about football because I was at the game and in those conditions I can only describe our defensive display as nigh on magnificent, and aside from the penalty (which I've yet to see a replay of so can't comment on it's legitimacy) Palace never looked like scoring. And if I hear one more use of the phrase "false position" then I am fairly certain I am going to puke, it's one of the most ridiculous and ignorant things that I read on here - and believe me, I read a lot of ridiculous and ignorant stuff to choose from! Jesus H. Christ man, you don't half talk some rubbish - seriously!! It's getting embarrassing now
Believe me, getting your point across as well as that really is nothing to aspire to - I'd aim your sights bit higher than that if I were you chap
Well, Jesus's mammy was often heard to say "if you're a good boy you'll become a messiah just like the man we envisage visiting Norwich sometime in the 21st century and guaranteeing premier league status (again), that man will be called Chris Hughton, so eat up your vegetables"
With apologies for singling you out here, Chippy, and turning over old grass (and please bear in mind that, notwithstanding the subsequent win against West Brom, I am firmly of the opinion that Hughton should have been dismissed after the debacle against Liverpool): a quick glance at the CPL prediction thread shows that you predicted that we would be beaten by Palace. I don't understand why, if that was your prediction, you are unhappy with the result yesterday - if anything I would have expected delight! It's this sort of pre-ordained opinion about our performance that I feel somewhat undermines the arguments of the Hughton outers. Every failure to win is a stick to beat him with. The fact is that we got a draw in horrible conditions much better suited to our opponents' style, without being seriously threatened at the back, with several major refereeing decisions going against us and our best midfielder having a shocker. I think it would help people's cases if they used the best evidence for their arguments, rather than trying to tailor every single match to suit their opinion. The fact is that Hughton will get it right sometimes and will get it wrong sometimes, whichever side of the fence you are on. On that basis, the result against Fulham shows to me what limitations Hughton has as a manager, whereas against Palace he was relatively impressive - the former is why I don't believe he can take us to the next level, but the latter helps explain to me why the board are willing to stick with him for the meantime. I see no use in trying to shoehorn a good, if not great, result into another example for disappointment, when realistically it does far more damage to Palace's cause (and ergo ours) than it damages ours. Of course it could have been better, but it was without a doubt acceptable. Hughton is demonstrably with us for the short to medium term, might as well get behind him and the team
Superb post Rob, brilliant The bits in black totally highlight my frustrations with these debates we have and may in part explain why sometimes some of my reactions are considered somewhat inflammatory by some people. It's just impossible to have a reasoned debate with someone if they refuse to see the other side of the argument, and simply insist on turning everything they can into a negative in order to slate our manager. How anyone can fail to see any positive at all from taking a point (only denied all three by a contentious penalty decision awarded to a player who shouldn't have been on the pitch don't forget) away at an in-form side in appalling conditions that far suited their direct style, and who claims that we had "just survived a battering" despite the facts showing us having had the lion's share of possession and chances just isn't worth arguing with in my opinion. To then criticise the manager and call him a "fool" for having three strikers on the bench rather than another midfielder (despite having no other options within the 25 man squad) simply underlines this rampant desperation to find fault in every single thing the manager does. It's desperate, it's pathetic and it's frankly embarrassing from where I'm sitting At least us in the Hootun in camp (I refuse to use the ridiculous "happy clappers" phrase - oh please!) recognise limitations and can at least try to comprehend the other side of the argument, however a lot of those who want him out simply refuse to do this, put up the blinkers and are only ever looking for - to borrow Rob analogy - for a stick to beat him with. In my opinion it's sad, really really sad.
In fairness, nobody is lily white and perfect - I think Chippy is often simply sticking up for himself and venting justifiable frustration (even if it's not always in the way I would choose). The Hughton-inners are equally like to paint excessive positives or highlight a previous result despite when the focus should be on the failures within the match in question (e.g. I think Hughton got off far too lightly for the match against Fulham).
