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YankeeCanary

Confidence Is Not Our Strong Suit!

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Norwich is not a confident first place team. Some may dispute this because of our overall record and the fact that we are division leaders. However, with 36 games behind us there is enough clear evidence that Norwich have scrambled and fought their way to this lofty perch.

How many times this season have we seen them hanging on even when they had 10 men to face on the other side of the pitch. How many games have Norwich come out and absolutely dominated the game throughout supported by goals scored to reflect that dominance. I have not been there to witness it like many of you but I would guess the answer to be, rarely.

Possible exceptions would be against Millwall when they started the game strongly and scored 3 goals during the first half hour and the home win against Cardiff. Even when we won convincingly at Walsall ( with reports that we were the best team they had seen this season ) we were losing at half time and the confidence grew in leaps and bounds when we scored 3 goals in 12 minutes in the second half. Doesn’t that picture reflect exactly how things seemed in the 3-0 win against Gillingham.

Of course, none of us really know but it’s hard to believe that many of the recent starts, where we looked like we were not ready for the game in the first half, is due to an attitude problem. A team that is close to moving to Premier status does not likely have an attitude problem. No, it’s more likely a confidence issue where some of them may not quite believe the position they are in. I suspect NW is aware of this and that may have caused some of his comments yesterday.

Of course, he could have chosen his words a little more carefully so as to not irritate true supporters, but he’s human. If there is a confidence issue, who knows, his pre-game pep talk to the team may have been along the lines of “forget the Cardiff game, you’re home now and you’ve got the best fans in the country behind you”, and therefore the fan feedback in the first half took on a more ominous sound.

I could have put this on the “Worthy Dig “ thread but I honestly believe there may be a confidence issue and we need to look at it in that light. What do we all try to do when work colleagues, family members or friends experience lack of confidence. We encourage and support them demonstrably when they most need it. It does not matter how much money we have spent on them or how far we have traveled on their behalf. When they need support we give it without reservation.

Let’s do the same for our beloved team from minute one throughout and drown out the odd boo-boys because they will always have a greater presence than they should in a quiet, nervous crowd.

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Although there are points within your post which I agree with, I feel I must address a couple of things.

There are an awful lot of teams who struggle to break down 10 men - losing a player simply seems to galvanise the team, and it then becomes harder and harder to break them down. Did we not come from behind oursleves with 10 men this season at home to Derby? I don''t believe this is unique to Norwich. Yes, we may be scrambling and fighting our way to the end of the season, but all ggod teams have an in-built ability to win when not playing well.

Ok, maybe we haven''t dominated as many games as we would have liked, and backed that up with goals scored - but it is widely acknowledged that there are a lot of teams of a similar strength to us in this division, and it is simply our consistency which has brought us where we are. That said, Rotherham at home, Cardiff at home, Derby away - spring to mind, and these are just games I''ve been to!

I think it is only naturalk for nerves to set in - we have been top for a long time now, and have frequently got away with poor performances and dropped points. I know I am nervous, it has been far too long a stay in this division, so what must the players be going through? I back Worthy''s comments all the way - when the crowd at Carrow Road really gets behind the team, we can be worth an extra goal, so let''s do just that!

Onwards and upwards!

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Sorry YC I''ve got to disagree with you here. You start by saying that we''ve "scrambled and fought their way to this lofty perch". That makes us sound like we''ve played rubbish for most of our matches and just scraped a win. We''ve got the best defence in the division- Nobody has conceded less goals and we''ve got the best goal difference in the league by a fair way. Whenever any team is top of the league I think nerves set in. This is just because every other club wants to beat you. You go into every game and are expected to win. I think it''s fair to say that every other club expected us to beat Gillingham. I don''t mean this to sound arragant it''s just a fact. Therefore the players have got quite a lot of pressure on their shoulders as they go in to the game. As fans we''ve just got to be supportive- Get behind them from minute one. We have the ability to be the 12th man. This will be particularly important next year when (sorry, if) we go up. There will be a lot of occasions where we are losing at half time because we will be playing against much better opposition. We can''t send the team off with boos at half time- Confidence will be knocked then.

Overall this year I have been thoroughly impressed with the lads. In my short time as a season ticket holder (10 years) this is the best football I''ve seen us play, with the best players, manager, coaching staff and board. We are top on merit, we haven''t just scraped through at the last minute. We''ve been top for over 3 months now. I personally think confidence is sky high in the camp at the moment. That''s thanks to Nige and some of the superb players we have.

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YC, i have to agree with DD,

Yes, it appears that we have scrambled and scraped to get to the top, but this is the view generally shown if you read what the papers say. On the games i seen us play home and away this season, we''ve looked pretty sharp. There''s a real sence of togetherness on the park, with everyone working well in their roles. This creates a great unit that many teams find hard to penetrate, hence our great defensive record. Granted, the last 3 games have seen us playing pretty poor 1st halfs, but our poor performances still seem good enough to get us through to the promised land of the 2nd half, where our class really shines. Worthy has created a team that deservedly sits on top. Not through scraping, but hard graft, flowing football and sheer consistency. No other team in the first division can boast this, and fingers crossed, come may, the team will be well rewarded with 1st division championship medal sandwiches.

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I have read your comments but I still think I am making a valid point about lack of confidence. Norwich clearly does not appear to be performing like " a team that is going for it" right now. At this point in the season it does not matter how long they have been in first place, what their defensive record is over the season, how much flowing football they played in earlier games or what other teams are trying to do against us. With promotion and relegation affecting so many, most other teams are trying to do it against every other team. So let''s not use such rhetoric as an excuse. Those things are irrelevant as we come down to the crunch. In the past 6 games ( 4 of which were at home ) Norwich have taken 8 out of 18 possible points. If we do no better in the next 6 games I suspect the automatic promotion spots will be up for grabs. Of course, there is nothing the supporters can do other than continue to support them to the hilt but I, for one, hope that the team dramatically changes the way it begins forthcoming games and just comes out and plays at the outset like a team that is trying to move into the top division.

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don''t know if it is confidence entirely yankee

i agree we are scrapping through a lot of the games, but that is just this league, there are not that many teams who are truly far superior to us, when we play as we can, it is when we don''t turn up that frustrates me

i am confident we will still win this league, however, recently we have not been helping ourselves, is this confidence, fatigue, tactics, whatever i hope it is sorted out and soon, we cannot go through another gillingham

yesterday the conditions weren''t ideal, but palace managed and we didn''t threaten that much until mckenzie came on. We have to go out to win as if it is the last game every time, soon it will be the last game and we don''t want everything to rest on one result

we have the players to do it, and we know we are the best fans in the league, the support yesterday, by the way was wonderful, we sang throughout, so don''t want to hear anymore excuses that it is our attitude and lack of support which is the cause of not winning or the team not playing well

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Thanks for the feedback gazza. I agree about the great fans. I could not believe that only 14,000 attended the London match today between Millwall and West Ham, a match that I would have regarded as crucial to both teams. That really puts into perspective the support by all of you who travelled to London yesterday.

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Theres loads of Fake News out there!

O/T - Yankee Canary - FBIgate is bubbling away....I wonder if its going to include John Brennan (ex CIA director), Hillary Clinton etc ?

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We used to submit a post which would be moderated before it was published. 
Was anyone else on Canary Mail in the 90s?

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