***** NCFC v Watford 100% official match thread *****

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

A few people getting a bit carried away with this ‘4 losses against the prem teams from last season’ thing, as a reminder;

0-1 Bournemouth away - no Buendia and no Cantwell and one of the first games of the season - we were still getting over the lockdown hangover - can’t read anything into that 

0-1 Watford away - a tight game with limited chances which Watford edged, disappointing performance but not surprising given Watford’s home record 

1-3 Bournemouth at home - absolutely schooled them for 20 mins, scored one of the goals of the season, then got a man sent off very harshly and had to play 70 mins with 10 men - can’t read anything in to that 

0-1 Watford at home - 3 days after the Bournemouth game played with 10 men for the majority, followed by the promotion party. Whereas Watford still absolutely needed to win. Can’t read too much into that either 

So of the 4 games only the Watford away performance came without any mitigating factors. I think it’s pretty harsh to use it as a bar for measuring anything against to be honest.

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by Hank shoots Skyler

[Capt. Pants 4,202]

Unless you believe some of the hype on here we haven't really learnt much from tonight in terms of next season.

We know where we come up up short and where we need to strengthen. Midfield is woefully lightweight and we need better quality coming on than the subs we saw tonight. Tonight's loss will be a good thing in the long run and Farke and Webber will be straight on it I'm sure.

It's worrying that we are pretty awful against the slightest of physicality and that simply has to be addressed.

Edited April 20, 2021 by Capt. Pants

[ron obvious 1,501]

Not on it tonight. You can always tell, we win the ball & then lose the second tackle, get in each others way, get knocked off the ball easily ... then the passing goes off & it's all a bit of a shambles.

You could tell in the first few minutes. Saturday was completely the opposite, we were gonna murder B'mth before the sending off.

Never mind, probably still be champions. Can' we make 100 points though? Be difficult now.

Edit - I thought there were only 3 games left, but BBC hadn't updated & said 4.

So difficult becomes impossible. Doh.

Edited April 20, 2021 by ron obvious

[Moosebadge 28]

Thank you for the 6 points Norwich. Enjoy the title when you win it. I have been terrified for days after Watford lost to Luton. Now i can almost touch promotion. Enjoy the title well deserved.

 

[Jpootz 15]

It was a performance that had worrying similarities to the end of last season. Watford were just too physical for us. Also concerning that we've not taken a single point and only scored one goal in the 4 matches against the teams that came down with us. However, we do have Gibson and Giannoulis to come back into the side plus whoever we bring in during the summer. I really like Kenny but I think we need an upgrade in his position. 

[FenwayFrank 2,457]

9 minutes ago, Greavsy said:

Is that a promise?! Does that include other forums too?! 

Would that be the other forums that you don’t like but go on for a look every now and then? 

[Alex 26]

40 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

This. People will no doubt hate me for saying it but not being able to beat Watford nor Bournmouth once this season (both of whom playing with almost the exact same squads they had in the prem) who were so god awful in the prem two seasons ago is a worrying thing.

They were not that bad in The Premier League last season they only got relegated by a point and I think Watford may have stayed up up if Delafeou never got injured in February and Sarr wasn't out for a handful of games at a crucial time. They both sold plenty of their best players also, therefore it is by no means virtually the same squads. 

Edited April 20, 2021 by Alex

[Greavsy 2,412]

1 minute ago, FenwayFrank said:

Would that be the other forums that you don’t like but go on for a look every now and then? 

Any forum you like, 

Bakersonline.com
Sausagedogsoftheinternet.co.uk

Btw Im rooting for Cuthbert.............Im sure youre team Colin! 😉 

[Ken Hairy 3,760]

8 minutes ago, Moosebadge said:

Thank you for the 6 points Norwich. Enjoy the title when you win it. I have been terrified for days after Watford lost to Luton. Now i can almost touch promotion. Enjoy the title well deserved.

 

We'll be seeing you again next season mate 👍

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

1 minute ago, Capt. Pants said:

Unless you believe some of the hype on here we haven't really learnt much from tonight in terms of next season.

We know where we come up up short and where we need to strengthen. Midfield is woefully lightweight and we need better quality coming on than the subs we saw tonight. Tonight's loss will be a good thing in the long run and Farke and Webber will be straight on it I'm sure.

It's worrying that we are pretty awful against the slightest of physicality and that simply has to be addressed.

Bournemouth and Watford are far from the only physical sides in the league though. What about Middlesbrough, Stoke, Cardiff, Millwall, Swansea etc? We’ve shown this season we can really dig in and win dirty, how many wins by 1 goal is it now? How many less goals conceded than 2 years ago? 

Come on now let’s not take away from what has been a dramatically improved version of the Farke Norwich City, just because of 4 bad results against the two prem teams from last season.

4 bad results which, as mentioned above, I don’t think you can draw too much at all.

I would agree though that we still need to beef the team up before we can expect to be consistently competitive in the prem, but to suggest we haven’t really learnt anything is incredibly harsh - it’s been evident all season. 

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

8 minutes ago, Moosebadge said:

Thank you for the 6 points Norwich. Enjoy the title when you win it. I have been terrified for days after Watford lost to Luton. Now i can almost touch promotion. Enjoy the title well deserved.

 

Fair play Moosebadge, comfortably deserved winners tonight. A shame this fixture didn’t come a few weeks ago when both teams were really at it and everything was still to play for - although it did make the outcome of tonight easier to watch! 

[K Lo 221]

A very frustrating game.
It reminded me of most of our fixtures last year against Burnley, West Ham, Watford and every other team that seemingly bullied us off the ball and got away with too many cynical fouls.

[norfolkbroadslim 223]

Only 5 defeats all season then 2 in a row, at home too, as soon as promotion is confirmed.  That's no coincidence.  The main aim of the season was promotion.  We'd already achieved that.  Liken it to a team in a top league staying at 100% on it once they've had the title confirmed.  Very few do.

We all knew the squad needed strengthening for the PL before these last 2 games.  Webber and Farke certainly knew it.  In the grand scheme of things the last 2 results have changed very little.

That's why I'm not concerned by these results.  The season's objective had already been achieved and we all already knew that the squad needed strengthening.

This is without even taking into account our injuries especially in defence, Giannoulis' suspension and some walking wounded, nor the congested season regularly having to play 2 games a week.  Where we'd already reached 90 points and had promotion confirmed with 5 games to spare.

I'm sure that we will win the title and I have no doubt that we will start the PL with a stronger squad than the one that started it 2 seasons ago.

 

[Crafty Canary 495]

When Brighton last got promoted they had a similar lead over Newcastle with 5 games to go and blew up allowing Newcastle to become Champions. Let’s hope we get the points needed to secure the title. QPR are on a good run at the moment and finished Swansea’s lingering hopes of automatic promotion tonight. Reading still have a chance of making the play offs as do Barnsley so they will be up for it against us. Watford’s last three against Millwall (H), Brentford (A) and Swansea (H) are now less difficult as Brentford and Swansea will be looking to the play offs.

[CANARYKING 634]

Wasn’t very happy with the diving, Emi was  bad but Onel ........

[lappinitup 629]

1 hour ago, Greavsy said:

Keep Lapps in reserve, as hes had most wins this season.

I've already put in a transfer request.

If I'm not first choice I'm off....

Must be another lot out there who like stars. *****

🤣

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Very disappointing. I kept hoping something was going to happen but it got worse by the minute.

Ollie's worst game by far but apart from Krul, Hanley and McLean, we were hopeless. 

Still we crack on against QPR and look for the three we need. 

[Greavsy 2,412]

5 minutes ago, lappinitup said:

I've already put in a transfer request.

If I'm not first choice I'm off....

Must be another lot out there who like stars. *****

🤣

Lapps  - you're the thread starter of experience, of choice. And nailed on certainty. 

Its just time to give some yoof a chance, their time in the spotlight, but with your arm around them, so show them the way. 

You are very much a part of our journey onwards................Your stars matter! 

In Lapps we trust! 

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

Hideous club.. can not stand Watford or their fans. 

 

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,738]

1 hour ago, Moosebadge said:

Thank you for the 6 points Norwich. Enjoy the title when you win it. I have been terrified for days after Watford lost to Luton. Now i can almost touch promotion. Enjoy the title well deserved.

 

The way btentford and swansea are ending this season , it will emerge that we actually won promotion about 6 weeks ago....

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,738]

37 minutes ago, Crafty Canary said:

When Brighton last got promoted they had a similar lead over Newcastle with 5 games to go and blew up allowing Newcastle to become Champions. Let’s hope we get the points needed to secure the title. QPR are on a good run at the moment and finished Swansea’s lingering hopes of automatic promotion tonight. Reading still have a chance of making the play offs as do Barnsley so they will be up for it against us. Watford’s last three against Millwall (H), Brentford (A) and Swansea (H) are now less difficult as Brentford and Swansea will be looking to the play offs.

Brighton were (I think) 8 pts ahead of newcastle with 3 left....and lost all 3 whilst newcastle won all 3.

The first of brightons 3 was at carrow rd where we won 2-0 (2 david stockdale o.gs) . Their fans were selling Brighton 'champions' flags/scarfs around the ground before and after...

[Jim Smith 2,314]

59 minutes ago, Hank shoots Skyler said:

Bournemouth and Watford are far from the only physical sides in the league though. What about Middlesbrough, Stoke, Cardiff, Millwall, Swansea etc? We’ve shown this season we can really dig in and win dirty, how many wins by 1 goal is it now? How many less goals conceded than 2 years ago? 

Come on now let’s not take away from what has been a dramatically improved version of the Farke Norwich City, just because of 4 bad results against the two prem teams from last season.

4 bad results which, as mentioned above, I don’t think you can draw too much at all.

I would agree though that we still need to beef the team up before we can expect to be consistently competitive in the prem, but to suggest we haven’t really learnt anything is incredibly harsh - it’s been evident all season. 

It’s physicality mixed with a bit of nous and pace (Danjuma or Sarr) that is the problem we don’t deal well with. Every prem team has it but we can’t say we’ve not been warned and we have the opportunity to address it. If Webber does not address it this summer he will have failed. 

[Branston Pickle 3,638]

4 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

The way btentford and swansea are ending this season , it will emerge that we actually won promotion about 6 weeks ago....

Sad, but right now you’d probably say Bmuff were favourites for the playoffs; Swansea have been awful recently, Brentford cant stop drawing and have a poor p/o record to start with.

[Canarywary 104]

People are saying it's a worry that we've lost to 2 of last season's Prem teams, but unless you think it's realistic to expect us to win literally every match this season, we're going to lose some matches. We either lose those few matches to the other best teams in the league, or we lose to the weaker teams. I know which I'd be more concerned about.
Which teams in the history of Championship promotion haven't lost some games/had disappointing performances over the course of their promotion season?

[Branston Pickle 3,638]

6 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

Brighton were (I think) 8 pts ahead of newcastle with 3 left....and lost all 3 whilst newcastle won all 3.

The first of brightons 3 was at carrow rd where we won 2-0 (2 david stockdale o.gs) . Their fans were selling Brighton 'champions' flags/scarfs around the ground before and after...

Tbh I’m not overly bothered about finishing first or second, promotion was the aim...but from where we were we should finish top - if we don’t it’ll be two pretty dire end of seasons in the spin.  Imo should still manage it, perhaps v Reading.

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

23 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

It’s physicality mixed with a bit of nous and pace (Danjuma or Sarr) that is the problem we don’t deal well with. Every prem team has it but we can’t say we’ve not been warned and we have the opportunity to address it. If Webber does not address it this summer he will have failed. 

Sorry Jim didn’t see you’d already responded here.

I don’t disagree, I think 3/4 of the Bournemouth / Watford games could’ve been much better placed this season though. 

Fact is that pace and power are always going to be an issue for us, but we’ve gotten better against it this season, and hopefully with some decent spending in summer we’ll get better again next season 👍

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

26 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

Sad, but right now you’d probably say Bmuff were favourites for the playoffs; Swansea have been awful recently, Brentford cant stop drawing and have a poor p/o record to start with.

I really hope Bournemouth stay down, horrible bastards 

[Nuff Said 5,092]

2 hours ago, Monty13 said:

The last two results have been a warning for next season.

Yes, don’t have a player sent off early.

[daly 500]

11 hours ago, Hank shoots Skyler said:

I really hope Bournemouth stay down, horrible bastards 

As stated Watford have the easier games

QPR on a run

Reading and Barnsley fighting for Playoffs

Be a great shame if we blow it now

[Moosebadge 28]

Cant see it guys. As soon as we get promoted our players will be on the beach after two gruelling seasons. Title would have been the highest honour Watford have ever won. But the real prize is having 1 year prem income and 2 years ofparachute payments. We wont be spending stupidly this time. Your model is the way to go.

Teally hope to visit Carrow Road again next year. Since i last attended a game a chance my team could have been relegated and promoted. Be like it never happened.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Moosebadge