Vital Norwich view of the game (+ SB interview - in top right corner) A Miserable Defeat Norwich City's first away game of the season ended in a miserable one nil defeat at Hull yesterday. Expectations beforehand were high, with Leroy Fer making his debut for the Canaries and following in the wake of last weekend's encouraging draw with Everton. Wes Hoolahan dropped to the bench to accommodate Fer and was to play off van Wolfswinkel. Elsewhere, on paper, the side looked a little unbalanced with no recognised right winger in the side. With Elliot Bennett ruled out and Robert Snodgrass only making the bench after injury problems, Johnny Howson played on the right with Alex Tettey joining Bradley Johnson in the centre. It all started well for City with the Canaries quickly moving the ball around the pitch and Fer going close to scoring with a header that was only just wide. Redmond also tested McGregor with a swerving shot from long range but the Scottish keeper wasn't troubled too much. But City were rocked back on their heels when referee, Mike Jones gave what looked like a soft penalty when Turner tangled with Sagbo. Replays showed that it really was soft and Alan Hansen thought so as well. By contrast, Turner was shoved over by Curtis Davies in a similar incident in the opposite penalty area that all agreed was a definite penalty - but it wasn't given. Anyway, Robbie Brady sent John Ruddy the wrong way with a low spot kick to the keeper's right and it was one nil. Hull almost shot themselves in the foot just minutes later when the lively Sagbo was shown a straight red card for violent conduct. It was all a bit confusing at first as the referee pointed for Sagbo to leave the field. Replays showed that the lad had tangled with Russell Martin and clearly moved his head forward in a "head butt" motion albeit he didn't make contact with the City Captain. Everyone knows you can't do that, yet players still do so on occasions and they get red cards, crazy stuff. So Norwich would now be playing against 10 men for about an hour, surely that would yield results? A golden opportunity? No, an opportunity missed more like. Redmond's free kick hit the base of McGregor's post on the stroke of half time but then surely during the break, Hughton would go more aggressive, wouldn't he? Johnson made way for Snodgrass with Howson moving inside. To my mind, if Snodgrass was fit, surely he should've started? He's such an important player for City, but maybe he was there just in case. Anyway, Norwich started the half brightly again and moved the ball around well. But the main concern was the amount of shots we had - despite managing 13 shots to Hull's 6, only 4 of those shots were on target with Hull managing just one on target. Against ten men, and no disrespect to Hull, but they're not Man City, we should be doing a lot better. Most of our shots were from long range which is what Hull reduced us to. Fair play to them though, they dug in and were resilient and made it hard for us. McGregor's toughest moment of the afternoon came when van Wolfswinkel struck a great header goalwards that produced a very good reaction save to tip the ball over, but that was about it. Hughton eventually introduced Johan Elmander, who replaced Tettey with Fer dropping into midfield on 65 minutes to allow two up front, but it didn't produce a goal. Hoolahan replaced Redmond on 73 minutes but the little magician couldn't help pull a rabbit out of the hat and Norwich slumped to a desperate defeat. Hull City boss Steve Bruce: 'We are obviously delighted to get up running, it was vitally important. We couldn't have made it more difficult for ourselves with the sending off. 'Last season we got ourselves promoted because defensively we were organised. We didn't score a lot but defensively our organisation was sound. 'If we are going to make a fist of it in the Premier League this season we are going to have to be good without the ball.' "We had to defend for our lives really," he said. "I think our goalkeeper had to make a couple of saves but Norwich didn`t really create loads of chances despite obviously having a lot of the ball. I`m delighted with that. It is a big boost for us. I haven`t seen a replay of the penalty incident but you see them given and you see them don`t. I actually thought some of the other decisions he made were really baffling. Maybe we got away with a big decision today." Norwich City boss Chris Hughton: 'We were chasing it in the second half and had a lot of the play, and some good periods of play. But we didn't pressure their goal enough for the amount of the ball we had in the final third.' "We had to show more quality in the final third," he said. "We certainly had enough possession and if I look at the areas we got into then it was certainly more than Hull did but you would expect that with them down to 10-men for a period of time. It looked in the second half that it would be a matter of time before we broke them down but we came up against a very resilient Hull team. That can happen when you are down 10 and they make it difficult for you. "I thought it was an incredibly soft penalty. Anyone here would have seen an incident before that one involving Curtis Davies and Michael Turner that was certainly a bigger incident for a penalty. If you are going to give the one against Michael then you must give the one also moments before involving Michael when he was pushed at a corner by Curtis Davies. If the lad was about to head the ball in the back of the net then maybe you look at it but the lad was never going to get to the ball. Is there some contact? Yes, there is but you see that in every game and in lots of moments during games." This was a poor performance against a side that in these circumstances we should be beating. On the plus side, I thought that Leroy Fer had a good game and this bodes well for the future. He was strong and a threat in the air with good feet. On the minus side, I thought Garrido wasn't great and I didn't think he was too good last week either. With Olsson on the bench and chomping at the bit, Javier will need to up his game or else. Next up are Bury in the League cup on Tuesday night with a chance against lower league opposition to get a first win of the season. But we cannot be complacent. It is also a chance for the likes of Olsson to get some game time and make an impact on the manager. I don't know how far away Hooper is from being fit but I think we need him back. I note that Liverpool played the same formation as City yesterday, with Sturridge up top and Aspas behind him. Could that work for City with Hooper behind RvW? Will Hughton be that adventurous? Only time will tell. Hull: McGregor, Elmohamady, Chester, Davies, Figueroa, Huddlestone, Koren (Rosenior 83), Livermore, Aluko (Graham 72), Sagbo, Brady (Boyd 79). Subs (not used): Harper, Bruce, Meyler, McShane. Norwich: Ruddy, Whittaker, Turner, Martin, Garrido, Redmond (Hoolahan 73), Johnson (Snodgrass 45), Tettey (Elmander 65), Howson, Fer, van Wolfswinkel. Subs (not used): Mark Bunn, Luciano Becchio, Martin Olsson, Ryan Bennett. Referee: Mike Jones (Chester) http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=329890
Why is Chris Hughton such as cry-baby bitch? Just watched MOTD and he claims that Turner's "push" was more of a penalty claim than Sagbo's obvious rugby tackle... Never liked Hughton.
Well they fear for their jobs,these managers. They earn a '**** load' of money,and they feel the pressure of keeping it that way. So they try to influence fans opinion. I can understand them really,but it is annoying. I think if he were a neutral watching that game,he would have said something like,"the foul on Turner was a carbon copy of the penalty decision,but referees will always be inconsistent in their decision making,that's football",which is how it was in my view. We'll have bad decisions go against us this season,that's for sure.
If you had just spent over £25m on new players this Summer and then failed to score against the 10 men of a newly promoted side for over an hour, wouldn't you desperately look for excuses?
Hughton isnt a whiner. Turner held Sagbo as Terry, Ivanovic and Cahill did consistently last week and as they did against Villa. We wouldnt have won without the penalty. Of course he's going to complain. Dont get me wrong those kind of fouls have gone unpunished for too long. Then out of the blue a ref gives one. Can you imagine next week and we are holding Man City until the 89th minute and then the ref gives a penalty for Chezz or Davies doing just that. What will we say??
Alright Hull bors? I've somewhat got over Saturday's result now. I made the trip up to the KC (from London - I'm an exiled Canary), and first of all I'd like to commend your fans. Walking back from the ground to the train station I was tapped on the shoulder by a number of you lot offering their condolences and asking what I thought of the game. The Hull fans I spoke to seemed a friendly (and knowledgeable) bunch. Some Norwich fans will make a lot of the whole "we should have had a penalty too" thing, but to be frank we really didn't deserve anything from the game. Davies and Chester were absolutely immense for you (apart from one or two crosses, we didn't trouble your defence at all), as was Huddlestone. Elmo and Figueroa were generally excellent, and McGregor didn't put a foot (hand?) wrong at all. The game has given Hughton a fair amount to think about, but I doubt he would have had to let the players know just how disappointing their performance was. Hopefully this post isn't too boring as I'm sure quite a few of you felt similarly (in terms of the performances) after the game. Cheers.
I've just found this interesting image on an article about the game. It shows all the defensive work we did while down to 10 men. please log in to view this image One interesting point on the pic - we had only one failed clearance in the penalty box. It must be Wolf's header.
Something a bit O/T, but i've just seen Garth Crooks team of the week. No Hull player. He even has Bakary Sagna at CB ahead of Davies. What a ****ing stupid ****.
Thanks for that. If I were a Naaaaarch fan, I'd be concerned about the way Hughton reacted to the game. Considering he spent £25m over the Summer and already has an established Premier League squad to moan about penalties and bad refereeing when his side couldn't score against 10 men, from a team that has just come up a league, for over an hour is frankly laughable and a bit pathetic and insulting to Norwich fans. I thought he was supposed to be more honest than that. Anyway, good luck for the rest of the season. I see no reason why your squad cannot at least match the achievements of last season.
Good result Tiggers, well done - think Norwich will be a dangerous side to play against this season with their expensive acquisitions - they'll pick up some 'surprise' points - now you just need another ten wins!
