What a frustrating game to watch and I am glad I watched it on the TV au lieu du making the 314 miles round trip down to Carrow Road. This is not the best way to start the season; however, there are still 45 games left to play, with 135 points up for grabs. There is no need to panic.
Our opponents finished 13th last season, seven points from playoffs, and they lost four and drew one in their last five matches of the previous season. However, they are unbeaten in all of their pre-season friendlies, winning four and drawing three, so they looked very comfortable and on a mission heading into this match. For us, we finished 15th last season and won one, drew three and lost one in our last five games and we also went on a little unbeaten run during our pre-season. And, with all the hype from the new additions to our squad and the hard work put in during training, we looked ready and raring to go too. But, today’s performance was exactly the same as last season and the only big positive to take away was that Liam Delap looks in good form.
According to LiveScore, we were in a 4-4-2 formation and our line-up was like this: Matt Ingram in goal, unfortunately we no longer have Darlow as he went to Leeds; Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Ruben Vinagre made up the back four; Adama Traore, Regan Slater, Jean Seri and Harry Vaughan were in the middle and Ozan Tufan and Liam Delap were up-front. On the bench, a very strong one, was: Sean McLoughlin; Ryan Longman; Xavier Simons; Oscar Estupinan; Brandon Fleming; Jason Lokilo; Thimothee Lo-Tutala; Cyrus Christie and Aaron Connolly. Yes, you read that correctly. We finally signed him for one year and it would have been daft not to.
The first period started very slow and both sides were just getting used to the feel of things, but it was mostly the hosts who were in control and they had the first opportunities; Gabriel Sara fired a decent effort, but it just went wide and Rowe’s, a huge threat, low shot just grazed the post. Then, from nothing, we took the lead, like we did last season when we faced them at Carrow Road. Confusion and mis-comunciation from Norwich at the back led to Liam Delap stealing the ball near the edge of the box and he calmly fired the ball into the back of the net. This is what we needed; a good start and some confidence for our new players. But, my smiles were soon turned upside down for the rest of the half.
Three minutes later, Norwich had the ball in the box, which released their striker, but thankfully Ingram had it covered and it went behind for a corner, which nothing came from. The Canaries turned the game around after this and began to dominate in possession. The way they played was incredible and what they were really good at was intercepting our passes, turning, running up to goal and shooting at the goal without making an error. They came very close due to this in the 28th minute; Nunez struck from outside the box after winning the ball back and quickly turning and releasing his shot before our players could stop him. It was tipped over the bar, but this came very quickly and it is something other teams need to look out for.
Then, as I anticipated, they equalised in added time; it came from what I talked about above: Rowe intercepted our weak pass, turned, ran a few yards and shot from 18 yards out and the ball beautifully curled into the top left corner. I was frightened for what was to come in the next period, but at least the result was not as bad as QPR’s; they went 4-0 down against watford!
The second period began in the same way the first period ended, except they did not score (that came later). Norwich kept the ball like it was stuck to their feet and whenever we won it back, we did nothing with it or lost it. I understand our opponents are a top quality team, but we have the ability to at least have a few chances. The only chance we had was in the 65th minute; Delap fired from 35 yards out, which was tipped over the bar. He is a brilliant player and a huge part of our squad. He is always fighting for the ball–he wins most of the time–pushing us up and bringing energy to the attack. Him and some of the back four were the only players who looked bothered.
Throughout the half we made five substitutions: Tufan, Delap, Vaughan, Vinagre and Traore came off and McLoughlin, Christie, Simons, Estupinan and Connolly came on. I thought this would add something to the team, but it did not and what came next was a summary of our performance overall. In the 95th minute, Norwich were awarded a corner, which was whipped into the box and after a poor attempt to clear it, the ball deflected into the feet of Idah, who steered it home. We appealed in vain for offside and there was a minute where the referee talked with the linesman about his decision. But, the goal was given and the next bad thing to happen was not hearing the final whistle, it was seeing the referee run over to Rosenior and give him a red card. So, we will not see him on the touchline for a couple of games and I really hope that does not damage our start to what should be a promising campaign.
Norwich did deserve to win; however, it should not have happened that way. To look on the bright side, Middlesbrough, who were in the playoffs last season, lost and every other Yorkshire team lost too, with Leeds still to play tomorrow. Could it be a Yorkshire curse?
We play again on Tuesday night against Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup and then we host rivals Sheffield Wednesday next week. Let’s hope we can turn it around, put this loss behind us and get back on track.
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