According to the Twitter commentary, Grabban was our liveliest striker in that half, though Hooper had two or three shots as well. Elliot Bennett looked very lively as well. In addition to his goal, Lafferty drew comment for this: "A powerful driving run from Lafferty, who feeds Redmond on the left" and Paddy Davitt adds: "Josh Murphy continues 2 be the go-to man here. bundle of pace and energy down the left flank. Good signs 4 what is 2 come". There are some good signs of promise, it seems. Davitt's final comment: "0-1. ncfc win, lafferty on the mark but huge credit to dtfc. pushed the visitors the full 90mins. Good workout all round".
Not bothered about the score, playing against a bunch of part timers assholes you would expect more goals, but I guess it's getting players fitness up and some game time and get to know new players.
It is all understandable granted, but they do train together, and I very much would expect each of the first and second half line ups to have train together and worked on things like attacking patterns in the days leading up to this game. Anyway I'm not after attacking the new management team and there is still time for manythings to get sorted out. But with every game (or half game, good on ya laffers!) where we don't score in preseason is it important? For confidence, absofuckinlutely! Anyway preseason is young, we'll improve and start scoring for fun by the wolves curtain raiser, won't we? Bah! Bah!
Who are Newcastle Town? lol Some part time side who have been smashed 6-0 by Vale. Sort of score I expected today. Rustiness and lack of gelling aside, players of our quality should be able to stuff part timers easily. yes it is first pre season and a bit of a fitness match, but surely people were expecting a bigger win today? Nevermind, no injuries and a goal for our new boy. Not all bad
Why so disrespectful to Dereham, Drunky? Apparently they worked their socks off to deny City and deserve credit for that. This is a huge game for them, but it's hardly that for the City players.
Because I know a couple of them from work and they annoy the hell out of me and are the biggest jerks ever, nothing against Dereham but I was just hoping they'd get embarrassed.
Maybe it should be a bigger game in their minds! They need a mentality that every game must be 100% each game we should be (and this is partly based on the; we will attack, score goals and entertain soundbites from the club) trying to overwhelm the opposition (even if realistically we can't do this every match, mentally if you can't think it's what you are going to do or at least try to do then it's unlikely to ever happen!) we most definitely should believe we can and perhaps should maul nonleaguers? That's not to be disrespectful to dtfc. It's just a reflection on where each side is in the footballing food chain. And all the players should be thinking, we are fighting for a place in the starting 11, and busting a gut to be fit, to win every game (winning being a habit, and bloomin good for moral and confidence too). We won so no panicking necessary, but and it isn't unrealistic, a couple more or just both halves won would have been what the doctor ordered! Bah!
It might be worth reading the Pink'un's match summary. Paddy Davitt was actually at the match, unlike the rest of us. http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/dereham_town_0_norwich_city_1_1_3682049
When anyone who went to the game gets in, any chance of some player ratings, did anyone, maybe a newbie stand out? a review of the tactical approach (was it the same/similar both half's? I.e. Any signs of how Adams will set us up in the coming season) and any positives/negatives you may of observed. Bah!
The formation in the first half was definitely a diamond with Grabban and Hooper up front, Loza in the hole behind them and E.Bennett and Surman on the flanks (which might suggest that Adams doesn't see Surman in the ACM role?). This created a reasonable number of chances, but the lack of familiarity was probably a factor in the lack of goals. I'm not sure but the second half seems to be a 4-4-2 with Lafferty and Becchio providing what Davitt describes as a more physical presence up front and Redmond and Josh Murphy providing the width. There were a number of substitutions by both sides in the second half which disrupted the coherence of play. The most impressive players according to Davitt were Grabban, Lafferty, Elliot Bennett and Josh Murphy.
despite the concerning scoreline it was a decent work out against a very good dereham side (sorry, did i sound too much like hughton there?) but we do have some major issues and these STILL revolve around midfield and creativity. it is absolutely essential we sign a creative midfielder this summer, someone who can get his foot on the ball and dictate the play in forward areas. to say we are screaming out for one is not an understatement. plus points: got my first proper look at grabban and liked what i saw - he should be a real asset. gafaiti at the back is not far away from the first team in my opinion. lafferty is a handful but then we already knew that! redmond looked sharp, unlucky not to score. josh murphy has come back from the summer break looking like a man on a mission. great to have elliott bennett back. negatives: russell martin is not a centre back. hooper is carrying some serious timber. loza isn't ready. rvw missed out through injury and will play midweek at braintree - actually, that's a positive! struggled (as usual) to carve out great openings and this has to be a huge worry when you consider we were facing a side from level 8 of the pyramid. ok, on another day we'd have scored four or five and and nobody would batter an eyelid - the performance was probably worthy of a difference in scoreline as such, but despite pre season being all about fitness it would be wrong to show no concern about this trait that we have had for two years now. lots of work to be done if we want to be anywhere near the top of the championship come may 2015.
