south of the border

I believe he should be offered another one year contract. I think he''s currently not in his best form for whatever reason but over the last couple of seasons he has played much better in the second half of the season. I think he would be a very effective squad player, he could be played as an impact player off the bench and if he does hit some better form then obviously he starts the game, without question. Even during our last two home games the opposition saw fit to put two markers on him they were still scared of his attacking threat! Over his Norwich career definately qualifies as a legend.

Was''nt Iwan offered a position here on the coaching staff ?  But he left in favour of going to Gillingham as player for a year.

I think there''s a good chance of a deal being done in our favour because Birmingham will want to increase their transfer fund in Jan. and I think they would prefer to have a deal in place at the start of Jan rather than the at the end of it, if Martin Taylor prefers us over QPR then that also goes in our favour, both clubs are just ''playing hard ball'' at the moment.  We just have to hope that a lower premier league or upper championship club does not come into the picture and hijacks the deal!!

It''s a shame that Lee Croft does not seem to have improved significantly since he came here, his crossing leaves a bit to be desired! But I think he tends to link up better with Jon O. than Luke Chadwick or Jimmy Smith and he and Jon O. offers good pace down the right hand side.  Glen Roeder seems to prefer playing him off the bench which could be affecting his form, he could be doing that for an impact or he may also have reservations about playing him for a full 90 mins. We generally have a more balanced formation when he is playing which I like to see particularly when playing at home.  We need depth to our squad and therefore Glen Roeder should hang on to him he''s still reasonably young and hopefully his problems can be sorted out on the training ground.

I would say that Glen Roeder should try to keep him, I agree that he should be played in centre midfield but I think he is improving after being injured for so long.  We need players like him as cover and for competition for places in the team.  I think Jimmy Smith and Ched Evans are being kept in the team to improve Glen Roeder''s chance of negotiating an extension to their loan deals with their respective clubs if they were not in the starting line-up then this must reduce GR''s chances of keeping them.

Personally I have to admit I was not too excited when Glenn Roeder was announced as the new manager although I never really believed we were in with a genuine chance of getting Paul Jewell due to the lack of funds, however, I was of the opinion that we definately needed a manager with years and years of experience and therefore I would have not been unhappy with the appointmnet of Joe Royal !!! At the time I did think GR fell into that category and Martin Allen, Phil Parkinson and Steve Tilson did not. But its still early days in GR''s rein so we should not get too carried away with City''s recent form there is still a long way to go and there will be some more setbacks before we can say we are safe.  I think some tranfer activity in January is essential to secure our future in this league (viz. Martin Taylor) and for City to push on and build a team that in time are capable of competing in the top half of the league rather than in the bottom half.  OTBC

I think Matty P, Fozzy and Rusty have all done well over the last few games, it''s refreshing to have some proper competition for starting places now in central midfield, you can probably include Jimmy Smith in that group, I think there is more to come from JS now that he is getting his match fitness back.

Just watched the highlights from saturdays game and as I said in my earlier reply it seems to me there was an earlier foul from behind on Hucks the ref waived ''plan on'' our bench all jumped up and ''were doing their nut'' (including me!).  So city should have had a free kick near the halfway line before Sheffield''s move forward that lead to the disputed goal.  So on balance I would have felt aggrieved had sheffield''s goal been allowed to stand. At the end of the day it was the right result Mr. Robson!! (have also just read his rant on the BBC website) he should be looking more closely at why most of his team did''nt turn up until the last 10 minutes rather than blaming the ref for Sheffield''s failings on saturday.  OTBC

I couldn''t see whether is was on'' or offide from where I was sitting but I agree with MK Canary, Hucks was definately fouled just before Sheffield''s move forward that led to the goal, the foul happened right in front of me and how Mr Deadman let it go is beyond me!  So with regard to their so called goal justice was indeed done in that it was ruled out, perhaps the officals realised they got the earlier decision wrong.  OTBC

Did you watch the game? He was the only england player to get anywhere near the required performance level. However in my opinion we were outplayed in every department on and off the pitch!!

Well done the right decision and a welcome show of compassion to Graham Paddon''s family.

Please show Graham Paddon and his family some Respect on Saturday by postponing this ''protest''. The supporters of the ''protest'' will earn the Respect of others by doing it on another day.

I remember watching Graham Paddon from the river end terraces as a child he was my favourite player in that team of the earily 1970''s probably for that ferocious left foot shot of his, I can also remember being slightly upset when he left City to sign for West Ham, however, and I have to confess at being a temporary W. Ham fan when he played in the cup winners cup final in ''76, I think. One of the very few players worthy of being called a ''Norwich City Legend'' but he earned it!! a very sad day and my condolences to his family. Thanks for the memories, RIP.  

I am not a regular poster on this message board but andy larkin''s post and its sentiment has ''drawn me out of the woodwork'' to congatulate him on a the points he has made, they are well thought out and completely realistic...a breath of fresh air. The thing is with all managerial appointments in football and to state the obvious you never know how its going to work out.  I admit that I was not completely ''blown away'' when Glen Rouder was unvailed as our new manager, however, with a quick look over the list ''other runners and riders'' I think he has got enough experience to guide us out of this bad situation.  But as he said at the press conference it will require determination and hard work (from the players) and our support from the stands.  Obviously he will also need to draught in some loan players a.s.a.p. to strengthen the team (I see he has already started this process with the signing of Mathew Taylor from Birmingham), he will need some good fortune with future induries (i.e. he needs our ''best players'' to get fit, remain fit and stay in form) oh and did I mention he will need some good fortune!! I wish Glenn Rouder all the best with the task ahead.  I am also ''slightly old fashioned'' in that I think that while you are at Carrow Road you should get behind our team no matter how hard it is to watch sometimes. So let''s get behind our new manager and the team on sunday OTBC

It''s been a couple of weeks since Norwich played Hull away, some of you who were at the game like me did not have a great time leaving the stadium because of a few ''idiot'' Hull supporters who congregated behind a fence at the exit and thought it would good sport to throw some abuse and a few bottles in the direction of us norwich supporters, at the time it appeared the hull stewards and the local police were not doing enough to dispurse (or arrest) those responsible for trying to incite trouble between the two groups of supporters.  So I contacted Hull City to try and get an explanation of why this incident was not handled as well as it should have been.  Over the weekend I received the following reply from Hull''s safety officer and I thought that some you may find it of interest, personally I was pleased to learn that the culprits were eventually delt with.   "......Please accept my sincere apologies for the duress that you and any others that were with you were put under by a mindless few Hull City supporters (if you can call them that) whilst leaving our stadium.   Unfortunately you were victims of half a dozen supporters who had earlier been ejected from the ground for their behaviour towards the away supporters. As you say, a bit of banter is expected, but this lot went beyond the acceptable behaviour line and were dealt with accordingly. Normally at the end of games, Police officers outside the stadium create an arc to divert supporters away from the fence which then allows all supporters to leave the stadium simutaneously, but for whatever reason, they did not do this at this game and subsequently home supporters approached the fence. As the game was Police free inside the stadium, they didn''t have anyone in the control room to correct this action and as a result, when I saw this, I asked our Chief Steward to go down and try to correct this. The Police didn''t respond to the request and I had then to send extra stewards in to get this lot away from the fence by which time the damage had been done.   Since the game, I have viewed the CCTV footage from the area and I''m satisfied that the perpitrators were the six that were ejected from the stadium earlier and who tried to whip up support of others.   When these persons were ejected, local Police officers obtained names and addresses and passed their details on to us. I can now tell you that all six have been banned indefinitely from attending all events at the Stadium. The personal details were also passed on to the Police Football Liaison Officer for his attention.   There are no excuses for the behaviour of this group and though we don''t have a zero tolence, where possible we try to do something about it. This makes the total number of club bans now 64. It is a record we''re not proud of. Once again, I apologise and thankfully no one was hurt.   Best wishes for the rest of the season."   ****