unique

Say what you like about Barton, but he hasn''t completely lost the plot...... Here is his opinion on MOTD''s Shearer :- "P.S. My final point, ur a s*** pundit/manager...

This week has nothing to do with parochial support. Football is about entertainment as much as anything else - the Arsenal game was far and away the most entertaining game of the weekend, and should have been given billing accordingly. Believe it or not, there are a large number of football fans who do not have the luxury of Sky and therefore have to rely on the BBC to represent the PL. I would rather endure Adrian Childs, Andy Townsend, adverts,or the occasional blackout if it meant never having to watch Lineker, Shearer, Hansen or Lawrenson ever present another football programme ever again........

The simple fact is that Arsenal v Norwich was THE most entertaining game of the weekend. I read the comments of many neutral observers over the weekend who went as far to say that it was one of the best games all season. So it wasn''t just Norwich fans who missed out, but fans of football in general. Going by MOTD''s usual criteria, the game with the highest number of goals is shown first or second. The fact that it was the first match over the weekend gave it a valid reason to be shown first. The game had a massive bearing on the chase for Champions League places, hence its importance. Whichever way you choose to look at it, they skipped over the match, showing no interviews, few comments, with Dixon leaving a parting shot about the standard of defending. The sooner BBC loses the privilege of showing Premier League football, the better........

Not shown in the running order at the beginning of the programme....no managerial interviews afterwards.......it was almost as if it never happened, let alone mattered......tiresome.......but astonished that they felt it prudent to show it before the thriller at Molineux......

PL''s appearance on ''Goals on Sunday'' couldn''t be timed better. No other Premier League match to discuss from yesterday, and the opportunity for Norwich fans to bask in the lavish praise that will surely be heaped on the team after yesterday''s unbelievable performance. Every player seemed on top of their game, and the energy of the team belied the fact that it was the penultimate game of the season. If McCleish was watching the game, then he will surely be hoping for some points against Spurs today. If Hodgson was watching it, then there is very little hope for the immediate future of England if he picks Crouch ahead of Holt in his opening squad. Individual performances should not be singled out, However, Ryan Bennett looked far more assured in the centre of defence with Russell Martin.Martin has been a revelation whenever he has played in the centre this season. For Lappin to step up to the mark, and more, on the few occasions he has been selected to play, must surely secure his position in the squad for next season. Many neutral supporters are proclaiming yesterday''s game as one of the best football matches this season. After a slight dip in form, PL put together a team with the perfect balance of skill, energy and work-rate that has left every Canary supporter very proud this weekend.

An excellent post. The frustrating thing for me is that, giving penalties away for fun aside, we have regressed to the sort of defending that kicked off the season and just gave away so many points. The phrase "we will/must learn from these defensive mistakes" is sounding like a well worn record, and having conceded eleven goals in the last three games is testimony that certain players are just not adapting to the standard of football. Things wouldn''t seem quite so bad if we were looking threatening in attack - but we''re not. Goal attempts must have fallen to an all-season low. Fans frustrations are greater because expectations, rightly or wrongly, had reached expectations of a top-half end of season position. It is made worse as we slip behind Swansea, and see teams like Wigan playing free-flowing football, giving every top-six team one of their toughest games of the season. Liverpool came to the city with a much-changed team, bereft of premiership points, one possible eye on Wembley, and potentially as vulnerable as they have ever been on a visit to Carrow Road. The fact that we presented Suarez, of all players, with his first ever? Premiership hat-trick, tripling his goal tally into the bargain, made defeat particularly hard to take. I was hoping, several matches ago, that PL would try and finish the season with a settled, and what he considered, his best side. This would have been an experiment itself, as he has not pursued this policy all season. The constant team-changing doesn''t seem to be practised by any other manager save for perhaps Pulis. It has worked well up to a point for Norwich this season, but I feel a settled side would be better equipped to impose itself on the opposition than we have managed of late.

For that worthless attempted tackle on Suarez alone, Ward should not be in the Norwich City side for the last two games of the season. Pathetic.

The goals were flying in in the first part of the season when quality crosses were being provided by Tierney, Pilkington and Bennett. Only Bennett has been playing regularly of late, hence the reduction in headed goals and fewer opportunities for Holt and Morison.

I only got part way through my original post - hit the ''post'' button instead of the ''preview'' button - (how many posters have done likewise?) when intending to correct - there doesn''t appear to be an ''edit'' option.....hence no proper conclusion. This messageboard needs updating.

Irrespective of their differing styles of football, both teams find themselves on 43 points with 3 games to play, having reached that total in two very contrasting ways. Norwich have gained four points from the two clean sheets they have kept so far this season, Swansea have gained twenty-nine! That is a stark statistic for which all sorts of reasons could be given:- Swansea''s greater possession offers fewer opportunities to the opposition? Norwich''s more ''gung-ho'' styles offers less protection to the defence? Norwich have barely had a settled back four all season....Swansea have? Vorm settled into the Premiership far quicker than Ruddy, and has probably been one of the top two keepers this season? Rodgers appears to have a more cautious approach than Lambert? Only two City players have made 28 or more appearances this season, Swansea have eight. Nineteen City players have made 8 or more appearances, only fourteen Swansea players have done the same. As both clubs start to prepare for their second season in the Premier League, Lambert has far more experience in his squad than Rodgers.There is already speculation about clubs being interested in Vorm, which could have a considerable effect on their defence. We may lose Naughton, they may lose Caulker. Sigurdsson will be coveted by clubs willing to pay far a far greater salary than Swansea can offer.

I couldn''t stand Gary Neville as a player, but as a football pundit he has been a breath of fresh air this season. Honest, forthright, surprisingly unbiased, Neville is so far ahead of the dinosaurs wheeled onto Match of the Day week after week, that I will be very surprised if the format for the Beeb''s flagship football programme is not drastically changed next season. Ten out of ten for Neville, and long may he continue with Sky Sports.

I rather think Drury would have wished for their appearance to be cancelled - he''ll be squirming on the sofa as he tries to explain why he left Formica completely and woefully unmarked at the far post for the first goal........sorting the defence is clearly the priority for next season......

I wouldn''t be surprised if the majority of their fans already see themselves relegated, and would see it as just desserts for the Venkys and their appointment of Kean as the manager. This really is a great opportunity to do to others as Fulham did to us. Their fans will be brittle, and that should work in Norwich''s favour. Yakubu''s and Hoilett''s potential absence will considerably blunt their attacking potential.

I would be far more worried if I was a Swansea fan. If managers had followed Paul Lambert''s example at the Liberty, where he showed the tactics needed to beat them (Mancini clearly didn''t), Swansea could have found themselves in a much worse position than they are currently. Caulker is likely to go back to Spurs. The permanent signing of Sigurdsson is far from a foregone conclusion (and he has  been far and away their main talisman in the second half of the season). Vorm is a likely target for wealthier clubs during the summer. These are three extremely key players in what is a relatively thin squad which, unlike Norwich''s, is still littered with players with limited Premiership experience. Lambert''s tactical nous is a major plus, and I would be extremely surprised if we finished below Swansea next season.

There hasn''t been a better time to visit Ewood Park this season..... Steve Kean appears to have totally lost the backing of the fans after the Givet incident and the heavy defeat, at the weekend. With just one recognised centre-back available - Scott Dann, (providing things aren''t patched up with Givet), and Hoilett and Yakubu limping off injured, Blackburn look a club in disarray. An early City goal could see things turning very ugly for Kean and his team. I know things never seem to work out how they should, but I cannot think of a better place for Norwich to be playing away, to cast off the shadow of Saturday''s unwarranted heavy defeat.

If ever a performance and result underlined how inappropriate it would be for any one Norwich player to pick up the award this season, then yesterday was it. Recent excellent regular performers such as Fox, Hoolahan and Surman stood down, and the players that came in were superb. This has happened the entire season. So PotS should, imho be '' the Squad of 2012 '' - a fitting tribute to the superb effort from every member of Paul Lambert''s squad in what has been a third season of uninterrupted success for NCFC.

I know this old chestnut raises its head nearly every week but blimey, Lineker and the Beeb plumbed new depths this weekend. Barely four minutes coverage....no time for any analysis.....Shearer making a cynical remark in the background.....it was a bloody disgrace. Better to have not bothered at all, rather than this apology for the highlights of the game and a representation of the balance of play. Everton v WBA is as much a ''mid-table'' fixture as Norwich''s match, but was treated with nowhere near as much disdain. Many Norwich supporters do not have Sky and are therefore left with the petty morsels that MOTD has to offer. I am really developing an intense dislike of these smug presenters/analysts/a***holes that are representing the BBC''s flagship football programme - possibly the only stain on what has been a fantastic first season back in the Premier League.

So how many supporters were aware of PL''s recent trip to Barcelona, where he watched the training and spoke with Pep Guardiola? This man is operating on a completely different level to any previous Norwich City manager - fingers crossed the Board matches his ambition.

Half-time.......Jackson or Holt on for Surman and let''s really make their back-line put in a shift......

Norwich have beaten Swansea twice this season, so would it not have been astute of Martinez, Mancini and Jol to perhaps study these two games to see if there is a tactically sensible way to play Swansea? Wigan were woeful, Mancini started with just Balotelli up front - a decision that showed naievety far beyond his managerial position. He brought on Aguero after 30 minutes or so when he realised the error of his ways. Very bad planning. Jol, by his own admittance, told his team to stand off Swansea, something that is proving tactically flawed. Probably one of Fulham''s worst performances of the season, and guaranteed not to be repeated in a fortnight''s time. Now all this either makes Lambert a tactical genius, Norwich players extremely adept at carrying out instruction, other managers as arrogant, or a mix of all three. During the first part of the season, Norwich and Swansea were being mentioned in the same breath. Of late it has all been about ''Swansea''. Sour grapes?...maybe.....but Vorm aside, two of their best players currently are Caulker and Siggy, both of whom are loan players who they will need to sign up pretty quickly if their form is to be sustained next season.

The ''massive disappointment'' was........''one effort on target, playing at home against the bottom club in the league'' in the first sixty or so minutes of the game, especially when staying up is almost a foregone conclusion. Any neutral watching the match, (and unfortunately there would have been plenty), may well have thought that not only were Wigan playing at home, but that both teams were in the bottom five fighting relegation. Whether it was Lambert''s starting formation, the trip to Spain, an inability to ''get themselves up'' against lower opposition, an inner belief that they have reached safety or any other factor, every fan watching Sunday''s game was expecting Al-Habsi to be troubled far more than he was, and the biggest disappointment for me was knowing Swansea had beaten Man City, moved above Norwich in the table, and that Norwich will no doubt face a Man City side, with the return of both Kompany and Lescott, and will find winning against them a much harder task than the little Welsh darlings......... Heading our ''mini-league'' should now be the primary target of Lambert and the players.

.....one effort on target, playing at home against the bottom club in the league, up until Holt was taken off, was a massive disappointment. It was not that long ago, (and may still be the case up to now), that Norwich had scored more headed goals than any other Premiership club. Goals have dried up a little, of late, along with the number of dangerous crosses being played into the penalty area. Pilkington, Bennett, Tierney and Naughton were the prime architects of these superbly accurate crosses in the first half of the season, and Holt and Morison''s prowess in the air certainly paid off. Yesterday''s midfield of Surman, Hoolahan, Fox and Crofts, coupled with Drury''s understandable inclination not to support the attack so readily, was never going to offer danger down either wing, and the game became more about stopping Wigan, than creating clear-cut opportunities for ourselves. Holt''s frustration at being substituted was probably as much about the paucity of service he had been receiving as much as anything else. The introduction of Morison, Pilkington and Bennett, offered far more threat, and begged the question why Lambert didn''t start with the two wingers, who offer as much defensively as they do going forward. Lambert is showing a great deal of loyalty towards Jackson, who has shown a desire and determination as great as any Norwich player so far this season. However, his obvious desire to get on the score sheet seemed to cloud his judgement on more than one occasion yesterday and his decision making was poor. The Premiership is very much a squad game, and Crofts is proving himself very much to be a squad player. He starts for Wales on a regular basis, but when he starts for Norwich at Carrow Road, I can''t help feeling that our attacking intent has been blunted. Crofts strikes me as the sort of player that can be brought on with ten minutes to go, to try and help protect a lead, there are far better attacking options when playing at home. When all is said and done, yesterday''s disappointment was a product of the level of expectancy brought about by two and a half seasons of uninterrupted success. Who would have believed that failing to move into eighth spot in the middle of March, would seem such a wasted opportunity?

...just gone way up in my estimation......gave a strong shout for Grant Holt to be given a chance for England during the ITV1 studio coverage before the Wembley match.

EVERY Norwich City player has stepped up to the plate this season...and some. But if you had to name one player out of the entire squad who is perhaps under-achieving, then I think Hoolahan''s name would crop up more than most. A penalty aside, he hasn''t troubled the scoreboard this season other than the opening goal. I wouldn''t know what his assist count is, but I would guess that the two stats are nowhere near as high as a player with his talent should produce. The fact that he seemingly surenders more possession than any other player is a frustration, but as much to do with his appetite for the ball. Although he has proved a far greater asset to Norwich than Taraabt has to QPR, he has had nowhere near the impact that McClean has had on Sunderland this last month or so. Hoolahan will continue to frustrate and divide fans'' opinions right up to the last game of the season, no doubt.

Top post Fozzie - this should be compulsory reading for all fans of Norwich City FC.