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“The stark reality in that part of the world must be the mirror opposite at Norwich. That’s management appointments, that’s owner engagement... I know Delia (Smith) and her husband and the owners of Norwich very well and their investment and their involvement – both emotional, physical, logistical, financial – is unequivocal.” Good to see these kind of comments regarding Delia. Always her fault when it's not going well by those not so keen to give recognition when it is.

Just read this: https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/50073 and thought it was very funny. There but for the grace of god and all that. Very complimentary about us but absolutely damning about the Rs. My favourite passage: “...my absolute favourite bit of Saturday, the absolute classic of the QPR away from home collapse genre, was in the 21st minute. Jake Bidwell, absolutely all over the ****ing shop, tried to deliberately commit a foul after being skinned yet again and ended up injuring himself. While prostrate on the ground clutching his leg, his friend and colleague Joel Lynch approached the resulting loose ball and in attempting to clear it downfield completely miscued it and sent it fizzing along the ground at two million miles an hour straight into the side of Bidwell’s head. With the full back now both injured and concussed, and the ball back with Norwich who had an extra man, and Lynch out of position, the Canaries set about us again. Panicked, Lynch vacated his position altogether and came charging out to the man with the ball, committing himself with a big lunge which Buendia was able to calmly sidestep and move onwards with the ball towards a penalty area that now contained half the population of Norwich, two QPR defenders and one goalkeeper. The QPR defenders who were left then, for reasons I daren’t even begin to imagine, decided to creak that ****ing offside trap into life again. Now the penalty box contained half the population of Norwich, all of them onside, and one goalkeeper. Hernandez, almost too easy for him, tried an outlandish chip and missed.”

Had a look at their thread about it and someone on there was saying that Ipswich wanted to give Leeds 5,000 tickets, but a certain Paul Lambert vetoed it because he didn't want to "give Leeds an advantage in what could be a crucial match in Ipswich's bid to stay up".

Again, we all understood it. We just think its stupid.

No, Maddison really wasn’t. Too many people actually said we’re better off without Maddison which is ridiculous. He was one of the good things in a struggling season that was all about transition but it was because he’s that good that he still shone through whilst the club was going through the massive changes. Selling him was a necessity unfortunately but no doubt had he stayed, we’d still have togetherness (that comes from Farkes leadership), we’d also still have bucket loads of goals and probably a smoother start to the season. To compare him to those that clearly didn’t fit in the group (Oliveira) is disrespectful to what James brought to the team and club last season, a model professional who will reach the top of the game.

Tempted fate

... I suspect the temptations of Kimberley might have ended my footballing ambitions ...

"And even if you don’t care about any of that, even if you hate all of those people in that away end because they’ve dared to have a moan when you’ve punted the ball into touch under no pressure again, even if you never liked QPR in the first place and don’t give a stuff about all the great and not so great players that came before you, even if you think they’re all twats and it’s a tin pot club and you can’t wait to be out of here, aren’t you supposed to be a professional athlete? You’ve presumably toiled long and hard all the way through your childhood and teenage years to get to this point where you’re paid ridiculous sums of money to play football for a living. While all your mates were out drinking and shagging, you were in your parents’ house sleeping. When your peers went home from their day at school, you got in the car every night and drove miles and miles to some poxy training ground for some wannabee Jose Mourinho in an initialled tracksuit to yell and scream at you about pattern of play and moving through the thirds and all sorts of **** like that. You did your maths homework by the flicker of motorway lights on the backseat of your mum’s Volvo. You ate nothing but chicken and pasta when everybody else your age was eating McDonalds and Kimberley from second set Geography. You sacrificed loads to get to this point. Did you really do all that so you could amble about and ****ing embarrass yourself, your club and its supporters like this? Was that what it was all for? Did 14-year-old you always dream of being a professional footballer so you could phone in ****ing non-efforts like this and pick your money up regardless? If so, then you probably should have just gone and hung around outside the chicken shop with all the other pencil-dicked, pimple-faced, useless little **** that will never amount to anything either. If not, then what in the name of absolute **** are you playing at?" Love it 😂

I expect them to, otherwise the players will have difficulty getting off 😋

When Preston played us they looked like world beaters, they play these no mark tin pot teams and don’t bother turning up. Raised their game in their cup final against us.

LDC probably doesn't think so anymore - especially if someone agrees. 🤭

Switched off now. The pictures of their knuckle-draggers celebrating is too much. If I want to want to see Neanderthals, I'll watch the History Channel.

Not very informative, but nice to bask (no cross dressing here, thank you very much) in the glow ... https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/2019/apr/09/norwich-city-championship-table

Remember when Celtic fans travelled en mass to come to the Drury testimonial? Most of them weren't actually at the game, they just showed up to run riot around the city. Pretty sure they covered most of POW Road in a huge Celtic flag. It's a shocking sight, in all honesty, and I agree with FTW... I wouldn't want to see the moronic Leeds fans (for the most part they are idiotic, although I do know some nice Leeds fans) causing ridiculous amounts of trouble... even in Ipswich. The Leeds fans are some of the worst I've experienced coming to Carrow Road. Smashing things up and leaving a right old mess in their wake. I don't get why they feel the need to do this. I sincerely hope they drop out of the running altogether. It would make me chuckle quite heartily.

Well...there's 40 minutes of my life I'm not getting back

attendance above having ground only half full removing bush from roof Paul Lambert to not say fantastic at a press interview season ticket sales into four figures Matt Gill to confirm he made the right decision

No, the whole point is to go batsh it crazy at that point. It is to get carried away with it, just as I did after our third goalon Saturday. I fact I was thinking of six or seven by the end. Bsed on what ? How we had played in the first half, that's what. Of course a piano could fall out of the sky and squash the ref so they game might be stopped. It is up to each supporter how they react as regards optimism, blind faith or serious delusion. As far as my belief is concerned on this matter it is one of having watched some of the consistently finest play I have seen a City team play. From last years tippity tap to this years rippity rap as they tear opposition teams apart. And as certain as I am about us being Champions I am also certain that nothing I do, or anything else anyone else on here does, will make a blind bit of difference to how things turn out. They say you should not look back with regrets about what you might have done - well if we do fail to get promoted then I don't want to look back and think I could have been as happy as a pig in sh it during those weeks leading up to that failure, so I will continue to believe we will be champions as either way it turns out I will have had had some great weeks celebrating it, come what may 😋

Im thinking Sheff Utd will beat Brum tomorrow night, its a hard ask for any team to beat both Leeds and Sheff. in the space of 3 or 4 days. Both Yorkshire clubs are up there for a reason so dont expect either to drop to many points in the run in...especially Wilder's lot. City have a nice cushion but they cannot afford to drop to many points. Keep on doing as theyve done and they should be ok. Reading, on paper, look there for the taking, but they do sneak a good number of away draws, so will they park the bus? We will see.

I was thinking of a rainy slate grey downpour at the end of a long slog kind of afternoon at Rochdale Nuff Said. The kind of game that shows you're not far away but even at a new lower level you're not up to it.

Peter Grant used to do that.

Gonna be extra tough for AN now. A gust of wind has blown Bamford over and triggered a red card.

However did Preston beat us they look crap

Now, avoiding the temptation for naughty words because this is a family forum, I get Dirty Leeds, Championship Forever!

to put it in perspective both us and Leeds have Wigan, Villa and Weds to play so they have Preston, Brentford, and the binners to make up 7 points we have Reading, Wigan and Blackburn to hold that lead assume same results for each of the same games then we need one win out of Reading, Wigan and Blackburn to finish ahead

Not after paying all that money, no 😛

I know Hart isn't good but being replaced by the owner of the Fat Duck is something else...

I actually think that I have run out of gloating. My sides have been split so many times I don't think that they could take anymore. The gap is so wide, the domination is so complete and without challenge that it's 110%, as they say. What is more the table gives only part of the picture as they have been in slow, painful decline for years and years now, whilst NCFC, although yo-yoing somewhat, are proven to be the undisputed "Pride of Anglia" (their terminology based upon events some forty years ago, and more.) In every aspect we so superior that even the old mantra about everything in the game being cyclical would seem to hold little water. We might not succeed in our next venture but they seem destined to be failures forevermore. Whilst we feast from the top table they scramble around for any crumb of comfort they can find and gleefully hang on to every cynical promise from a disinterested owner, a managerial has been and the aged among their squad. Such has been the drip-drip, Chinese water torture nature of their demise that it is tempting to feel sorry for their supporters. This though is football rivalry, a very unique and total form of mutual disregard, so sympathy has no place in the equation. I am therefore nearly out of this rivalry thing, but enough will remain for me to keep a distant eye upon their fortunes next season and enjoy their every set-back.

Thanks for all your responses , I don’t get to see many Norwich games , so didn’t see Pritchard nor Maddison for you , so was glad to get your answers , having seen them both close hand . i have been very impressed with Maddison for Leicester , and I would love to see him at The Lane full time.

Farke wants a keeper who is good with his feet too, though. That's the reason Guardiola didn't fancy Hart for Man City. If we do sign another keeper it'll be one who can distribute better and is more technically sound.

Maddison is a player who I am chuffed to say was on our books for a short period. He delighted us when he played a full season for us, something that many regret hadn't happened before, and showed the world that he had the ability to play for a club bigger than us. We will never know if he would have fitted in to the current team. We have to imagine yes and DF would have been delighted to have him. He certainly would have enjoyed the freedom our style gives class players and I'm sure he would have scored a few. Alex Pritchard is a very good player but not in the class of Maddison. Going to Huddersfield who must have feared coming straight back down whereas Maddison went to Leicester shows the gulf in class.

Pretty big gap between the two players.

I understand that and it wasn't aimed at you. Just generally, people seem to think we're a better 'team' without Maddison. We're not. We're a very, very good team without him; imagine how good we'd be with him.

Still understand, still stupid.

I mean if we, as football fans, can't get a little carried away and excitable when, in a season where it was far from expected we're top of the league and points clear, then when can we? Seasons like this don't happen that often. We've been more than spoilt with the kind of football we've seen this season, but we've also generally been spoilt over the last 10 years or so. There are so, so many clubs that have had nothing like the rollercoaster we've had. I'm confident leading up to every game. Then when I get to the ground, i'm suddenly a nervous wreck. Then we score and literally pass through the opposition and I'm dreaming of the champions league in a couple of years. We concede and my first thought is Max Aarons is off to Palace. It's football - it's emotional - or at least it should be.

This is all very well. What you failed to mention is that there isn't a strong link between the supporters and Manchester. 😎

I think LDC is simply taking a lead from DF's attitude not to assume anything beyond the next game. DF quite reasonably, wants the team focussed and on its toes for each game and there's no question that the sentiments of fans do spill over into teams. Fearing that might spill over in chats in a forum may be a bit extreme, but I can see the logic to avoid it spilling over into the atmosphere at Carrow Road on a match day.

Supporters, to not keep banging on about their history.

Very good. We have the internet to thank for this level of relatively up-to-date, in-depth grassroots-specialist game analysis. You just couldn't get anything like this in the past, unless you had a pal who was particularly football-clever. It illuminates the game in the way that the commentators, pundits and reporters of the traditional media don't / won't / can't do.

Haven't seen this mob before. I thought Marco was popping up out wide more than usual ... https://footballbh.net/2019/04/08/norwich-qpr-championship-tacticalanalysis-analysis-statistics/

Todd is Decent, but not on the same level as Vrancic or Leitner. I’m confident I’ve seen enough to suggest Todd’s level is championship at best, whereas Leitner and Vrancic will not look out of place in the Premier League. My feeling is that Todd will have a similar career to Chris Martin, and that Norwich will probably outgrow him. Possibly Webber feels the same, considering the contract situation.

Many people were similarly concerned when Hanley got injured in pre-season. And when Hernandez got injured in September. And when Leitner was injured in November. And Klose. And Tettey. And Vrancic. All perceived as key players at the time of their enforced absences. I think that even if Krul, Zimbo, Trybull and Pukki took the rest of the season off we'd still get enough wins to go up.

Congratulations Mr Apples! 🌟 Congratulations Parma! It's great to have some money in the pot already!

I'm probably just still bitter. I also cannot see any logic in him getting manager of the year over Farke. They spent marginally more than us in the offseason (transfermarkt predicts £6 million outlay, largely thanks to big money signing Egan, and us at just shy of £5 million). Okay, they lost Brooks but we lost James Maddison and Josh Murphy so had bigger holes to fill in the summer than they. He started the season with a team that had finished 10th and only 6 points off the playoffs, Farke started the season with a team that had finished 9 points further back in 14th and a whole 15 points off the playoffs. So, on what basis has anyone come to the conclusion that Wilder, whose team currently sit 7 points behind Farke's, has done a better job? I know they've spent a bit more, but you could argue that even Bielsa has done a better job this term than Wilder.

Forgot to say well done Parma.

People used to blame Morty for this ..

Great result Parma! 👍 Cheers for all the great suggestions, it was a cracking set to choose from! 💛💚 I'm now off to put my order in for an embroidered gold star...😱🤣 Apples

"You can't win anything with kids." –Alan Hansen, 1995.