Well, it’s happened again: we have been beaten in our own backyard 1-2 by Norwich, under the lights and on Sky Sports too. It’s a shame as I felt really confident heading into this game, not least because our best signing Fabio Carvalho was starting, but because it was a packed out stadium and we needed a comeback after our defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on New Year’s Day. That’s now four loses in five games. It’s alright saying we are still around the playoffs, however, these are the games that we must be winning if we still want to be there at the end of the season; six teams now have the opportunity to leapfrog us in the table. Further, we need another way of playing because every team has worked us out and when they do, we have no other plan.
Nonetheless, I do think that we played some amazing football and we were by far the better side: 19 shots to their 9; 67% of the possession and 695 passes to their 358. It just shows that it is not about how much of the ball we have, it’s what we do with it that counts. That’s exactly what an experienced team like Norwich did to us last night.
Rosenior made four changes to the starting eleven that lost at Hillsborough in our last league clash, replacing Matt Ingram; Sean McLoughlin; Jason Lokilo and Liam Delap, who is supposed to be out for a while, with Ryan Allsop; Matty Jacobs; Fabio Carvalho and Scott Twine. That meant we lined up as follows, in a 4-2-3-1 formation: Ryan Allsop back betwixt the sticks; captain Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Matty Jacobs holding the fort; Tyler Morton and Regan Slater below them and Ozan Tufan, Fabio Carvalho and Scott Twine, who were above the man leading the line, Aaron Connolly.
We got off to a shaky start in the opening 15 minutes when Aaron Connolly went down a couple of times in the first few minutes and had to be replaced after he collided, very badly, with Angus Gunn, their keeper, in the 14th minute, which convinced Rosenior to take him off and put on Billy Sharp, our other new signing. Connolly is an incredible player, but he is injury prone and it’s not ideal.
Alas, this did not prevent us from carrying out our game plan as we piled on the pressure and got the ball into some dangerous places. The only problem: we did not do anything with it and took those extra touches, which gave Norwich extra time to get their players back and tussle us off the ball. We only had one decent chance in the first half hour, when Scott Twine was released on the left-hand side of the box, before getting his shot off, which fizzled past the far post.
Then, after soaking up the pressure and doing some hefty defending, the Canaries caught us out and broke after Rowe, their top goalscorer, nudged Morton off the ball, which allowed him to ghost past seven players before using the outside of his foot to trivela the ball into the back of the net. An exquisite goal, but where was the defence? It was like they were scared of him and went in the opposite direction. They could have easily prevented the goal if they put a challenge in.
The rest of the half was more or less the same stuff as the first 30 minutes; us controlling the ball, but not making any opportunities and wasting time.
The second half was much better from us and this is where most of our dangerous opportunities came from and, to be honest, Norwich were not putting up much of a fight. However, other than Tufan’s volley towards goal, which just grazed the post, all the work was being done for Angus Gunn. Until the 65th minute, which saw a great spell of pressure from the home side. The two best chances came from Slater, when he took a shot from range, which was destined for goal, but was put behind for a corner, and Sharp’s snapshot from the penalty area was parried away. Even Tufan had a great shot in the box, which was blocked by Gunn’s feet.
Then, disaster struck. As everyone for us was up-front, there was nobody back for us to prevent a quick and decisive counter-attack from the visitors and in the 88th minute, they sealed the deal. Onel Hernandez made a darting run on the right flank, before sending in a teasing cross, which was converted in by Fassnacht, who replaced Rowe just 6 minutes prior.
We eventually reduced the deficit and gave something for the 22,000 plus (well probably a quarter of that after they scored) who came out to watch what was meant to be a promising match, something to cheer about. In the 91st minute, out of virtually nothing, Tyler Morton rifled home a cracker from 25 yards out; a mere consolation.
I have to say we didn’t play awfully, we just could not take our chances, which seems like a pattern this season. I still do not have any hopes with a top six finish and these teams are probably doing us a favour: if we did go up, we would come straight back down and I think we need to have one more season in the Championship to build our team. On the positive side, Carvalho looked energetic and threatening and Sharp is another Delap. We still need a few more recruitments, though.
Our next match in the league is against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, but before that, a clash with Birmingham at their stadium to play the second leg of the Third Round of the FA Cup. Something needs to change if we want any chance at winning these fixtures.
You can watch the highlights here.
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