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swjf50

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Everything posted by swjf50

  1. Counting all games including the play-offs Played 25 won 17 lost 3 drew 5 . Goals for 50 GA 21 Very impressive don''t you think? If we could just cut down on those errors at the back and concede less, that would be fantastic. It seems to be the area we have to improve on the most and the area we need to strengthen, so hopefully AN will be bringing in some reinforcements pre-season.
  2. & of course Turner, Becchio and Lafferty. Will Andrew make the step up? I have my doubts.
  3. From our squad who do you expect to be leaving NCFC? Bunn, Garrido, RVW, Cuellar, I think will move on. Miguel is still young so perhaps he has potential, but I''m surprised he hasn''t featured in many development games. Has he left already? Will Gary O''Neil stick around? He''s had very few games so if we add to our midfield at all, surely he will be unlikely to get many minutes. He has been good to have around because of his experience. Odjidja is an unknown and he may be worth hanging onto and I personally hope AN gives him a chance to show us what he can do once he is fully fit and has had a good pre-season. Jacob Murphy may benefit from another spell on loan, together with Carlton Morris. I''m hoping Hooper will play a part in more games but because AN tends to play with only one up front I can''t see Hooper being the lone striker. He''s a good finisher but not a good target man, so perhaps he could fill Hoolahans place occasionally. Anyone got any ideas as to who else may leave?
  4. Superb performance from everyone on the day. Nobody can say we didn''t deserve to win. That spell after Jerome had scored was electric and as good as anything Arsenal have produced. Great to watch against a team that like to nullify and have the best defensive record in the Championship just terrific. We may have lost to Boro twice this season but we beat them when it mattered. Revenge is sweet. The loss at home was particularly painful especially when they were time wasting and falling over time and time again, but we had the biggest smiles at the end of the day.
  5. Well done Alex Neil and co !! Brilliant result and well done to the team who carried out the instructions in a disciplined way that was extremely effective. Proud of you all.
  6. I don''t think I would have either back. Snodgrass was potentially a good player but slowed play up as he allways wanted the ball on his left foot. His delivery was good but I will never forget him snatching the ball off Wolfswinkel and missing the penalty. Under Neil he would probably do much better but he''s not that quick. Fer was never played in his best position under Hughton but I don''t believe he works hard enough for the team. He has a good shot on him but rarely tracks back.
  7. Promising start after the first game under Adams but once our form slipped a third of the way through the season, it was hard to recover and it seemed the writing was on the wall for Adams. It was a shame in many respects we didn''t recruit AN a few weeks earlier.as if he had been we may have won automatic. Alex Neil appeared to gain the respect of the players almost from the very beginning and seems a good man manager and tactician. I was initially sorry to see Phelan leave and thought that might have been a big mistake, but AN and his assistant have done a good job. Under them we have been reasonably consistent and only had the odd game where we''ve slipped up ie Wigan at home, the Brentford game we lost 2-1 where we experimented because of injuries and finally the Rotherham game away I thought we should have one. Add to that the Middlesbrough disappointment where we were slow to get going. I think those have been the games under AN that have cost us. However, all sides even the best ones in the Premiership slip up from time to time, so we can''t criticise them too much. Once our best defensive line up was found we became more solid at the back and that was mainly down to having Bassong back. Under Adams we rarely kept the same defensive partnership for more than two games and none of the defenders were anywhere near as good as Bassong. Johnson''s new position on the left was a master stroke, as he has been an added goal threat and seems very comfortable there. Although not an orthodox winger by any means, his game has improved greatly under AN. All the midfield have chipped in with a good number of goals which has been very encouraging and if it wasn''t for them we wouldn''t be anywhere near the play offs. However this is a team game, so everyone should chip in. It''s been a little disappointing that our central defenders haven''t scored more from corners and free kicks. Grabban seemed to improve under AN and occasionally Redmond has looked promising although he has lacked a little consistency. If we go up, I would expect him to score more often and to improve his crossing. Whether this season has been a ''total'' success depends largely on whether we win the play offs, but as long as Alex Neil is here next season, I''m confident of a good campaign where ever we are.
  8. How did Odjidja Ofoe play today? I was pleased to see him get a good length of time on the pitch.
  9. How do you think we will do? Let''s imagine the final 4 will be Middlesbrough, Derby, Ipswich and us. If we play Derby in the semi final, will we overcome them? Our form has slipped in our last 2 games whereas Derby and Ipswich have improved a little, so I''m hoping we can rediscover our sharpness, otherwise I fear we may lose out. I would hate to see Ipswich go up.
  10. [quote user="Making Plans"]It''s hardly a punch, not sure that he''s even made contact. Surely the Rotherham guy would have gone to ground if he''s felt anything.In all honesty it''s a free kick to us, and maybe a yellow for the defender.Very harsh that Grabban sees red & the other walks away with nothing.[/quote] I agree. I think it''s pathetic. Grabban was trying to get out of the headlock and swung his arm, hardly making any contact if any at all. The defender, if he had been hit, would have made a meal out of it, as they always do and was more than likely very relieved he didn''t receive any punishment himself. I think contact by Grabban is minimal or non existent. Yes he was stupid to have swung his arm, but his act in the incident is not as bad as the defenders. If I had been Grabban, my natural reaction would have been to push him away and wrestle free, but he had to do something. It''s a split second reaction and you don''t really have too much time to think.
  11. Poor guy has been on the bench numerous times and made one 5 - 10 minute appearance. He made a good impression in that match, but has not come on since. Does he deserve to be given a better or longer time on the pitch ie against Fulham at least, if Bournmouth win on Monday? Can we not see what he is capable of? He came here with some good reviews, so it would be good to see him in action.
  12. Title ''Rotherham held by 10 Man Norwich'' , shouldn''t it read ''Norwich held by struggling Rotherham'' ? Yes I know we were down to ten players, but the fact is we have been held twice by Rotherham this season, once at home 11 v 11, which has cost us 4 points overall. Add those 4 points to our total now and we have automatic promotion.
  13. Let''s hope we can get up somehow and reap the rewards for a season at least, because missing out will be a huge disappointment and a massive loss in revenue.
  14. That might be true now but the gulf will get bigger because of the money being handed to clubs in the Premiership. However, where do we ideally want to compete, in the top half or the bottom half of the Premiership?
  15. I think one of our problems is that we don''t have enough creativity and good enough delivery from the wings to break sides down. Hoolahan can be predictable and Redmond although he has improved, is still not always using his pace enough or putting in a good cross. If you play against a side like Boro or a team playing as Wigan did, you need to stretch them by having some width and pace. If the attacks are too slow and methodical the opposition have too much time to get behind the ball. Against Wigan I was very disappointed in Redmond''s contribution. He didn''t seem to have any confidence to take on the full back and use his pace, when we were crying out for a quick raids to break up the opposition and find gaps. Sometimes you just have to do something the opposition is not expecting, be clever enough and sharp enough to break them down. Against Boro we just seemed to lack that crispness and creativity and Boro dealt well with everything we threw at them. We worked hard, but the quality was lacking in the final third.
  16. Our strike force, midfield and particularly the defence is nowhere good enough for the Premiership. All need strengthening. We need a left winger, another play maker to compete with Hoolahan who probably isn''t quite good enough for the Prem now. As has been said before our full backs struggle at times in the Championship, also Martin and I think our strikers would be below average if we were to gain promotion. Johnson, Howson, Tettey and Dorrans could do a good job, but as Lambert used to say, ''they need a little help''. If we miss out on promotion, I can see Redmond and Ruddy definitely moving on. Whether Hooper does, remains to be seen. He''s not had a great season but doesn''t start as often as he would like. There''s always the chance Celtic could come back for him or a lowish /promoted prem team. Jerome is a useful Championship striker and may get ten goals in the Prem under AN. Grabban would need to sharpen up and if we lost Hooper we''d probably need to add 2 new players to our strike force. We have Wolfswnkel returning, but do we want him or do we sell him for a loss? Johnson has had a great season and may attract attention from some clubs, so unfortunately he may leave if we fail to win the play-offs. Howson is another player who may have ambitions away from Norwich. So I expect big upheavals if we go up or remain in the Championship.
  17. This isn''t sour grapes but I feel all of the top four would struggle in the Premiership. I have no doubt about it at all. Even Leicester who ran away with the Championship last year will struggle to stay up, along with Burnley and QPR. The gulf becomes bigger year after year, that''s why it is important that we get promoted whatever way is possible. Unless we are fortunate enough to get a wealthy investor we will drop further behind. All promoted teams will need to spend heavily in the transfer market and will pay the price if their campaign is unsuccessful.
  18. Add to that Chris Martins goals which would have been extremely useful. Although Ayala had a couple of bad games here, he was still young and I could see he had potential. Who doesn''t have the occasional bad game anyway. He was probably the best defender on the pitch yesterday. So which manager let him go ? Instead we brought in Hoojfeld, Turner and a Spaniard I haven''t seen yet. We''ve had some poor acquisitions. I''m not sure whether Andreu will be good enough for the Championship, only time will tell.
  19. It''s tough to accept but we were second best despite our efforts. I believe Bournmouth and Watford will go up. Watford because of their superior goal difference to Middlesbrough. So we may get the chance of revenge through the play offs.. We''ll have to play better in order to break them down, so let''s see what we can do.
  20. [quote user="Mutley"]Amazingly it is possible for us to be promoted with a game to spare or to only need a draw v the bogiest of bogey teams on the last day. Forest to beat Watford - not an impossibilty Us to beat Boro and Rotherham reaching 88 points in the process - highly likely now With the above scenario taking place Watford could only manage 88 points by winning all of their last three games. Boro could only reach 87 points by winning their last two games. Surprisingly most of us have completely overlooked that we are guaranteed a play off place now which was IMO the bare minimum achievement at the start of the season. Effectively it would be a straight head to head with Watford IF we beat Boro.[/quote] I think not
  21. I wouldn''t say an awful performance. I''d say the effort was there, but the quality wasn''t. Disappointing in that respect. We needed more composure in the final third against a resolute tight defence and or a little luck. A few decisions went against us and of course Tettey was extremely unlucky with the own goal. I think we needed a win tonight to see us with a good chance of the automatics so even if we had drawn, we''d have probably missed out. Play offs here we come. If we fail to gain promotion, then we have AN to drive us forward the whole of next season.
  22. If we concede early or first, I would expect Middlesbrough to do a Wigan and be very difficult to break down, so am hoping that doesn''t happen.
  23. & deep fry them. I''d take a 2-0 win. If we lose I think our chances of automatic are slim at best. Watfords GD might be better than ours after Saturday if we don''t win and we would have to step up our goal scoring in the last 2 games to have any chance of going up auto.
  24. Does anyone know the latest news on Grabban? I''m hoping he''s 100% fit! as he does offer us something different and would be a useful addition to our match day squad. His form was good before his injury, as AN seemed to give him confidence and got the best out of him. When fully fit I would be inclined to start him ahead of Jerome as I think he needs a rest. Not that I don''t think Jerome has done a great job, as he has, but at times in recent games he''s looked tired. Grabban would be fresher, but may lack a little sharpness unless he has been able to build that up in training. Hooper has also looked good, so hopefully with Grabban almost there, we have options.
  25. I just thought we acted a little late before appointing a new manager. It''s been a tough ask for AN who has managed to get the best out of the players who have won 11 out of the last 14 I believe and still it is touch and go whether we will get automatic promotion or not. Both Middlesbrough and or Watford could overtake us if we slip up once in our last 3 games. It is extremely tight and if I had any complaints about his appointment it would be that it was made a couple of weeks too late.
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