It might well beggar belief, but Canaries prove to be more annoying than pigeons and seagulls!

By: Martyn | August 24th, 2008

Although I confidently predicted a 2-0 cruise, it turned out to be more like a trip on the ill-fated Titanic. We got the exciting part and ride on the ship, but then it all went pear and iceberg-shaped. We rested on our laurels and paid the price for some Laurel & Hardy defending. Understandably I’m biased towards my own team, but on paper, perhaps Norwich were better value for their draw than I make out. They hit the post and Jamie Cureton did his best to aim a penalty into the Grange End rather than goal. Nevertheless, the spell I predicted from us after we had scored the first goal - the spell that is less magic than a squib in the Harry Potter series of books, and duller than the Teacup ride at the funfair - naturally surfaced as it always does. It’s rather like John Cleese’s character in Clockwork or the class geek in registration: Always there, and always on time. After our front pairing promised to take us to Sea World, the defence and midfield stepped in, dunked our heads in the nearest pond and told us to make do. We could so easily have finished the Canaries off, but when we needed the midfield to provide us with Bonfire Night sparks all we got were those of a one-year old’s birthday cake. So yet again, after taking a 2-goal lead and looking relatively comfortable old problems floated in the pint’s head and jumped out to bite us on the arse. In fact, all 18,032 of us received and felt those molars on our posterior and come the end of the season those bite marks may come back to haunt us.

This week I will bracket the players by traffic light pepper colours. Evryone knows that green peppers are the worst in taste, but for the purposes of my bracketing they represent a favorable column!

Green Peppers

Paul Parry - Thrived in the position-switching roles with McCormack and evidenced some quality through-ball’s and crosses, poignant and defence dragging runs, and an incredible will to drive the team on.
Ross McCormack - Two goals, and won the penalty which he so calmly and superbly slotted away. Very lively, and always looking to link-up with his fellow front-men. An admirable and exciting performance full of urgency and drive that really was worth writing home about.
Jay Bothroyd - Constantly involved. Showed multiple examples of his awesome strength, holding ability, touch, battling qualities, as well as a neat lay-off here and there and an assist for the first goal.

Amber Peppers

Mark Kennedy - Showed some good passing, positioning, and crossing… yet… was… taken… off… (???). I’m sure you’ve already guessed what happened next, foresight fans.
Miguel Comminges - It would be rather easy to place the French-Guadeloupian in the Red Peppers column. Everything he did was a bit mouldy and rotten. Positionally he was caught out on more than one occasion. His marking was too tight, and when presented with the opportunity to put a decent ball into the box, he spooned hopelessly into the Grange End. However, he gets the redemption of a place in the Amber Peppers column because (A). He shouldn’t have been brought on as a full-back as the defence didn’t need changing whilst under the kosh and (B). From what I’ve seen him of him, he looks like he could do a far better job on the wing and should be in the team in that position ahead of Ledley.
Steven Thompson - Received little time to make an impact, but showed off his usual strength and classy touches. One bad pass blotted his copybook mind.
Peter Whittingham - Iffy or lively? I couldn’t or can’t decide. Almost got us a winner with a bouncing strike defended brilliantly by Pattison, and got on the ball more often than he normally does when he starts. However, let himself down by getting caught needlessly in possession and not being alert to the Canaries threat when on the ball, and one hopelessly lousy cross summed up his and our last 20 minutes.

Red Peppers

- Dave Jones - Why on earth did he take off McCormack when the boy was on a hat-trick? Why on earth did he meddle with our defence and replace Kennedy for Comminges? Two absolutely baffling decisions that played a large part in costing us a point.
- Tom Heaton - Crap positioning for both goals, almost spilled a save into his own net, and his kicking looked dreadful as per. Just plain useless and a liability.
- Darcy Blake - Arguably thrown in at the deep end accompanied by the whole hoo-hah of “We can’t be too harsh, he isn’t a full-back” and so on. But if he isn’t a full-back, why does he always seem to crop up there and not in his supposed central midfield position? I’ve written previously about how this season could be make or break for Darcy, and with any more performances similar to the one given yesterday, it’s definitely gonna be curtains for the tenacious Valleys lad. There were one or two moments of promise - a good tackle and an excellent turn and cross spring to mind. Regardless, he was at times too gung-ho, too tight when marking, not adept at reading the unfolding situation, and in one instance, dived in for the ball at the same time as Darren Purse in a communication breakdown that could well have cost us.
- Darren Purse - Too casual, too lax, too cack. At fault for both goals; one via dreadful marking (or lack of it), the other from lazily deciding the linesman would play Lupoli offside. Showed his tough character by treating Koroma rougher than stubble when he came on, but is this enough to warrant a regular place in a side at this level? Nada.
- Roger Johnson - Similarly at fault for switching off for both Norwich goals. As strong as ever, but I lost count how many times his absolutely woeful passing cost us possession. 90% of the time, these passes are mishit and direction-less without any sort of pressure whatsoever. Very, very frustrating and grating and further evidence as to why Johnson is yet to make the step up to the Premier League and probably never will.
- Joe Ledley - Why is he being played if we’re being told he’s carrying an injury?! He’s offering absolutely f-all to the team this season (the same applied in the pre-season game against Ajax), and may well be further aggravating the knock he has. What are the positives Dave Jones draws from playing him? Nobody else can sure as hell see any. Yesterday he gave away a penalty, showed a wide range of heavy and lacklustre passing, looked asleep and lethargic when on the ball or when it was near him, threw in a few bad CK’s, and horribly miscued and directed a shot. Dear dear me.
- Stephen McPhail - A few very good crunching tackles aside - bar one that gave away a FK on the edge of our area - McPhail didn’t give the team what we really needed from him: Creativity and control.
- Riccardo Scimeca - Clearly not fit or back in his stride or rhythm. Too anonymous, and is bound to lose his place when Rae resumes full fitness. I may draw derision and ridicule here, but would a month-long loan move to a League One side be all that bad for club and player? He’d gain full match fitness, maybe some momentum, and he wouldn’t be acting as a liability in our team. It’s an option our management team should definitely be considering.

Three Who Impressed Me For Norwich City:

- Dejan Stefanovic - Strong and read the game well, although at fault for the first goal with a horrid touch.
- Matthew Pattison - Energetic, tireless, potent running, penalty-winning, last ditch defending, post-hitting, and always a threat. A cracking showing.
- Arturo Lupoli - Fairly obvious. The on-loan Fiorentina man directed his two goals into the net excellently.

So What Did Yesterday’s Game Tell Us About The Team:

- Dave Jones does have balls and control over the team. Peter Whittingham was correctly benched, even though Dave should have gone all the way and dropped the currently dismal (and supposedly injured) Ledley too.
- Clearly, all 11 have still to gel as team, and all 11 must learn to eradicate mistakes that’ll punish any good work done by their teammates. We have the photo… all we need now is the frame.
- Switching Parry and McCormack between the wing and forward positions is a great tactical innovation and must be continued.
- Darren Purse really is finished at this level.
- We wait so long for Riccy Scimeca to come back, and when he does, we long for Gavin Rae! Both are very different players and at the moment I’m sorry to say, Riccardo really is a shadow of his former self. Perhaps the team missed Gavin Rae’s more energetic and dynamic style of play yesterday? Although such play is not resplendently creative, Rae might well have grounded the ball more in our midfield’s favour and thus, we could have bagged another goal that would have sapped all of Norwich’s belief and made Dave Jones reconsider such entirely unnecessary substitutions.

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p.s. Not one of my Championship score predictions was correct. Erm, onwards and upwards?(!)