I have been following Norwich City for 20 years now. Not a long time compared to some supporters, but at 26 years old the Canaries have taken up a sizable portion of my life. In those 20 years I have witnessed three promotions, three relegations, two championships, a play-off final defeat and seen the club on the brink of administration twice, however the one thing I have never witnessed is a decent cup run. There was a time in the late '80's and early '90's that Norwich were a decent cup side. We won the league cup in '85 and reached the semi's of the FA cup in '89 and '92, however I wasn't born until a month after the Milk Cup final, I was too young to remember the '89 cup run and didn't really start taking an interest in football until after the season after '92 cup run. Since then Norwich have been somewhat atrocious when it comes to knock-out competitions, either misjudging a lower league side or getting soundly beaten by a top flight side. This seasons FA Cup has bought about a change. We seem to have finally gotten the hang of cup games again and more importantly we have a manager who takes them seriously. There was the temptation against Burnley to field a weakened side, but we didn't and beat the play-off contenders 4-1 and today against West Brom we did the same. Instead of risking a second string side, or giving fringe players a chance and claiming we were resting players so we could focus on the league we named a side that with exception of putting John Ruddy back in goal and finding space for Steve Morison could quite conceivably be named against Sunderland in our next game. Naturally this has split fans. Do we want a cup run or not? As you'd expect, Roy Hodgson came out after the defeat and declared "But now we can concentrate on our main priority, which is staying in the Premier League." It's becoming a common thing to hear a manager saying this after a cup defeat, particularly after a defeat to a lower league side or a side of similar standing and stature. However his words ring true for the majority of fans in the Premier League. Do you risk losing out on the cash cow that is the Premier League for a run in the cup and trip to Wembley or do you sacrifice the cup for league safety? A lot of managers are increasingly opting for the latter, leaving the cup to be passed around between the top four or five in the Premier League. While I can see the logic behind an early cup exit for teams such as Norwich, less games, no more distraction there are also plenty of positives for going as far down the road to Wembley as possible. As I see it there are three main reasons for following this line of thought. One, a cup run brings money to a club. While this income may not be as essential to a side already in the Premier League as it is to say a Crawley Town or Stevenage, it is still a nice little earner that can add a few £££'s to the transfer kitty. Secondly, winning is a good habit to get into. When your team is in form and playing well why would you want to derail that momentum by fielding a weakened side and crashing out to a lower league side and knocking the confidence of the players who featured in the game? The final reason for having a cup run is the prestige of winning the trophy. There are only five or six teams who can realistically win the Premier League which means the FA Cup is the best option for the rest of the teams to try and get some silverware at the end of the season. All this brings me back to the question to run or not to run? I will always be firmly in the camp of go as far as you can in the cup. Partly because its good for the clubs moral and confidence and partly because I, like most Norwich fans REALLY want a day out at Wembley.
Do remember that we reached the 5th round 5 years a go and we haven't got past the 5th round this time yet!
Dazz spot on. I was pissed off today when we took holt off and brought on Wilbraham by anyones view it was hardly demonstrating unbridled passion and ambition to win the cup but we did win and should go all out to do our fecking best it is- a complete no brainer for me
So younwantbto win a game when holt is playing ok and you bring Wilbraham on I can see that happening if we ever got to a final FFs
No I'm taking about today's game jesus, read the post and follow the logic through it was about the cup
Are u being deliberately obtuse if it is instilled through the overarching attitude of the management and football hierarchies in general that the pl is the only thing that matters then it is impossible for that not to be transmitted to the players and my view is that they seemed to care less about winning this game than they did against WBA two weeks ago Just my view
I disagree about us learning how to play cup games. How did we do against MK Dons? However, I don't see winning games as a bad thing and as long as we avoid replays I believe we can use it to our advantage and that is to keep momentum and a decent run going in league and cup and keep the squad match fit.
