Rotherham Match thoughts

[kick it off 1,948]

With all the Grabban drama, it seems not much has been posted on the actual game, so thought I''d share my thoughts on what I witnessed.

Firstly, Rotherham fans (the few that were there) were a pleasant bunch but utterly silent throughout the game. There was around 5600 in the stadium and just over 1000 of them were Norwich fans. 1000 fans away at Rotherham on a Tuesday night in 2nd round of the league cup, we really do have some of the best fans in the world. Away end was bouncing and loud throughout the entire game, great atmosphere.

Onto the game itself, and we looked pretty comfortable all the way through, although Rotherham had their chances and could have made it a lot less comfortable if they''d taken them. We always looked capable of stepping it up a gear if we needed to though, but fortunately that time never came to pass.

Rudd - Outstanding display. Had plenty to do, and excelled. A string of wonderful saves, commanded his box, and distribution was generally pretty good.

Defence - Wisdom looked excellent, aside from one stray backpass that nearly cost us a goal. Not sure if it was a lapse in concentration or what but he sold Rudd short by about 15 yards, it wasn''t even close. A real handful going forward and generally solid in defence, and linked really well with VOO. Bassong and Bennett looked solid, Toffolo had a very good game at LB and could (probably should) have capped his debut with a goal but he hit the keeper.

Midfield - Johnno didn''t have a great game. Think he must have left his shooting boots in Grabban''s kit bag because he certainly wasn''t wearing them. Hit a few over the bar, then got more and more greedy trying to make amends, and snatched at the ball more and more. Dorrans did well and was effective with his distribution of the ball. Howson had a decent game, was all over the pitch pressuring players into mistakes, scored an excellent goal, and looked dangerous every time he got the ball. O''Neil was solid and used the ball well, a decent showing for him.... VOO was probably my MOTM to be honest, he had a really good game, caused Rotherham all kinds of headaches when going forward and crunched a few tackles in the middle. Also did a lot of tracking back and kept Wisdom well protected.

Up top - Ricky was a bit of a mixed bag really. Sometimes his movement was brilliant, and he could/should have been played through numerous times. At other times, he looked a bit lost and seemed to run into odd positions. He didn''t have a wealth of chances to be fair, he had one difficult one when he got played in and hit the keeper, and his goal, which he took really well from an awkward cross. He showed flashes of being a wonderful player but showed flashes of being a lost puppy too. There was one piece of sublime control from a goal kick that was drifting out harmlessly for a throw in, which he brought down on a sixpence and flashed the pass across to give us a 2 on 1 scenario (which resulted in a wild Johnson hacked shot which hit Row Z). He has something does our Ricky, but its going to take a while to build him back up, and I''m not sure we can afford the time to do that.

[Gainer the Gopher 0]

Good stuff. 1,000 there for us? That''s stunning!!

I could see from the highlights you posted that Rudd was terrific.

Whose headed goal was ruled offside?

[Blurboy1980 36]

Looked like RVW had the goal disallowed

[Gainer the Gopher 0]

Thanks. I thought it was him but a small screen and no sound or replay on the highlights vid made it difficult to be certain.

[kick it off 1,948]

[quote user="Blurboy1980"]Looked like RVW had the goal disallowed[/quote]

It was indeed RvW with the disallowed goal. I think I sold Wisdom a bit short about the backpass, because it would appear it was actually Bassong who played that ball.

I forgot to mention too, there was so much positive feeling from the fans towards Ricky (even before the Grabban story broke last night) which was really pleasing to see. "If Ricky scores, we''re on the pitch" being my favourite chant of the night. The cheer when Ricky scored dwarfed the one for Howson''s goal, and I think everyone was genuinely pleased for the lad. The whole away end howling like wolves for a bit after he scored was hilarious. Definitely should be something we do every time he scores (if there are more opportunities to do it that is!) It obviously meant a lot to Ricky too and you could see it on his face when he celebrated, and when the final whistle went. Was nice to see him thanking the fans for the support afterwards too. I REALLY want him to come good!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/efb4p9X.png[/img]

[ron obvious 1,495]

Well, after the St. Ricky stories last night & your descriptions of last night''s performance, I''m really rooting for Ricky!

Getting quite emotional now (sniff).

Go Ricky, go!!

[ZLF 271]

Seems we dont have a striker who can score against prem teams,   yet all of them can against champs standard sides...  

What odds would you have got for RvW being the first striker to score for us this season??

Complete the striker clear out and get two from murphy, afobe and walters.

 

Good to hear Tofollo, Rudd and Vadis impressing;   more competition for places the better :-)

 

 

[clarkey1972 0]

Toffolo was excellent on debut I thought and should as said have scored.  He was a threat all night linking up well.  We got a proper player on our hands with young Harry I think !

 

Thought Bennett was poor to be honest and Bassong didnt have his best game.  they opened us up down the middle of defence a number of times which was worrying. 

 

While I always felt we had several more gears to go if needed it was uncomfortable just how many changes we gave Rotherham to score and to be honest they probably deserved to go to extra time.

[Barndoor 0]

Personally I thought wisdom was shockingly bad. He got done nearly every time they came down that side.

Whitaker is twice the player he is.