Another away day, with a long depressing journey there and back. We were mauled by Norwich City today, 3-1, with us scoring first and the home side scoring once in the first half and twice in the second half. I had trust in Rosenior heading into this game as he said that the last game, Stoke away, was just one of those games and that the fans should be getting excited. Well, for the first time since he took on the job, he certainly let me down. Oh, and if it makes it worse, Norwich have not won at home since 29 October 2022.
Heading into this game we have won two, drawn one and lost two, whereas Norwich have lost three and won two in their last five league matches. We have, also, gone three games without conceding; however, Norwich have conceded seven goals and they have not had a clean sheet since last month. Nonetheless, we were just one point behind them in the league so these three points were vital for both sides.
The starting line-up for us today was changed since our clash with Stoke on Saturday as Benjamin Tetteh, back from suspension, replaced Aarron Connolly, who was unfit to play, Ryan Longman started instead of Greg Docherty, who was benched for some reason and Ryan Woods replaced Ozan Tufan. That now meant that the starting eleven was Matt Ingram, in goal; Cyrus Christie, Sean McLoughlin, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves, as the back four; Regan Slater, Jean Seri, Ryan Longman, Ryan Woods, making up the middle and that leaves Óscar Estupiñán and Benjamin Tetteh as the front two. On the bench for us was: Lewie Coyle; Callum Elder; Ozan Tufan; Greg Docherty; Malcolm Ebiowei; Karl Darlow and Dimitrios Pelkas. I was quite happy when this squad was announced and we are starting to have a lot of options which is something that we did not have at the start of the season. However, despite the clean sheets, I think that we need to start our newly signed goalkeeper instead of Ingram as he is starting to make too many mistakes, his distribution is terrible and he is slow to react when he gets the ball. Other than that, we had a strong team.
In the first period, it was us who started off well and we looked good on the ball. And, 14 minutes in, it did not take us long to take the lead. Ryan Woods’ cross was only half cleared, Slater headed it back into the box, where it was nodded onto Greaves by Tetteh to fire it into the back of the net. I have to say that the away end erupted; however, our jubilations were quickly silenced when four minutes later, in the 18th minute, the home side responded well. Their winger made a darting run to the edge of the box, where he pulled the ball back for Kieran Dowell to slide the ball into the back of the net with a help from Jacob Greaves. Now, sitting on the other side of the stadium, that was the most dramatic goal I have seen as it took ages to hit the back of the net. So after chanting ‘who are ya’ to them after we scored, we got a taste of our own medicine.
For the remainder of the half, we were dominated and we could not get near our goal. Norwich were organised well and every player was distributed perfectly; they all had space and every one of our player’s was marked. I could tell that they used to be in the Premier League and it won't be long until they are back there. We just could not get the ball and whenever we did, we just lost it due to us going backwards and passing to the ghosts. The best part of the first period was when our fans started chanting ‘where are you?’ and ‘let’s be having you’ to the home fans, which was mocking the speech that Delia Smith delivered to the Norwich fans in 2005. Neither team managed to score and the first half ended level.
In the second period, we did not even have a shot on goal and the hosts took control over the game. They were pinging the ball about like they were in training and created so many opportunities. It did not take them long to take the lead as in the 58th minute Onel Hernandez made a run into the box, dribbled past his defenders and squared it to Gabriel Sara, who curled it into the net. I have to say that our defence was very breakable and their players ran through it like we were a stack of hay. To be honest I saw this coming as we seemed to be a bit nervous and hesitant when we had the ball, especially at the back.
Cyrus Christie had a poor performance today as he was not winning any of his duels and he let so many attackers past him. It was such a shame to see this as he has been really good for us recently and he was a massive help in our clash with Cardiff. To be honest, it seemed that every player was very sloppy and they looked like they were hungover. If they want any hope at getting promoted then they need to be performing at high levels in every single game. Another thing that we did today that really frustrated me was not pushing out from set pieces. It just allowed the opposition to collect the ball and come at us again. As soon as that ball has been cleared, the whole team needs to push out and go for the ball, which will, also, put the other team under pressure and they will make mistakes. But, we did not do this and we ended up putting the pressure on ourselves.
For the remainder of the half, we made a lot of substitutions; bringing on Ozan Tufan, Lewie Coyle, Malcolm Ebiowei, Dimitrios Pelkas and Greg Docherty. Normally, Liam makes the right substitutions at the right time and they usually have a huge impact; however, this was not the case and if anything it made it worse; in the 89th minute Josh Sargenr’s emphatic shot increased their advantage and our hopes of coming back into it were crushed. The game ended 3-1 to The Canaries.
In the end we just could not have time on the ball and when we did we did nothing with it. On the other hand, Norwich had more possession, 59%, and they completed 576 passes compared with our 413. It was also safe to say that the home side made their time on the ball count as they had 21 shots to our three. This is very strange to see as we have not performed like this under the management of Rosenior.
So my long three hours and forty minutes journey down South and on the back roads was made worse by watching them get smashed. I really hope that we do not start performing like this for the rest of the fixtures because I have already booked my tickets to Bristol, which is a much longer journey than the one I have just been on. Let’s hope that this was just a one off and that we can regain our form when we face Preston at home on Saturday.
Norwich City 3-1 Hull City
Great read, well the content rather than the scoreline for you! We play Norwich on Saturday, so reading this was a great insight into their recent game.