Just got back from Reading...

[Canary Boy 0]

Hi all

What a day! Not sure if it has been mentioned by anyone else yet but the noise and support coming from us City fans last night was absolutely sensational. We outsung the Reading fans (who far outnumbered us) ten times over! When Mulryne scored at the end, everyone went so mad I was nearly made deaf! The stand shook!

Still, a fairly even first half but Norwich''s second half performance was great, we were all over them. Here is a quick summary of how I think each player performed...

Green - Solid and made 2 or 3 fantastic saves.
Edworthy - Had a good game. Made one or two vital tackles.
Mackay - Solid as ever.
Fleming - My man of the match. He won everything at the back!
Druey - Another good performace at left back. Received a nasty knock though.
Cooper - Excellent and ran with the ball several times. Looked dangerous.
Francis - Worked hard and played very well. Linked well with Holt.
Holt - Underated by the outside world. Like a steam train he went for everything in midfiled. His passing was 10/10
Huckerby - Hardly touched the ball in the first half. Second half he was dangerous every time he got it. Brought down several times and the ref ran away laughing! How things changed quickly.
Svensson - Worked like a horse. Tired towards the end but won a lot in the air.
Mulryne - Brief appearance, but what an appearance!
Roberts - Brief, but very lively and influencial. Could have scored late on.

There we go. Enjoyed the game

[Mook 0]

You missed out Small Paul. And no wonder, as he was cr*p compared to his usual performances, most of his passes were way off the mark. Still, he is recovering from an illness and hopefully will be back to his normal brilliant best before the end of the season.

I also don''t think you give enough credit to Francis, who gets my vote for man of the match. He was everywhere, and did his best to get forward too.

[0 0]

I got back from the game at about midnight. I think some fans let us down on the singing front but once we scored it went mad! All in all a good day out.

Was anyone else on COACH 4?

[James Long 0]

Forgetting Brennan obviously because that was a time waster but Canary Boy isn''t there someone you''ve forgotten?

[Foghorn 0]

Don''t know where you were sitting dirtyWATER, but where I was everyone was joining in, all through the game, not just after we scored. Friends who watched it on tele said they couldn''t hear the Reading fans at all, just us.

As for We Love You Paul, his first half performance was below par - he seemed to want to come inside all the while - so we had no width in the first half. Cooper also kept coming inside to get back on to his left foot, so everything was getting condensed in the middle, which suited Reading and allowed their fuul-backs to get forward. In the second half McVeigh stayed out wider, and was more effective until he got cramp. Hucks got more into it in the second half because we had more options out wide.

I thought Francis, Holt and MacKay were excellent. Flemming was finding it a bit hard in the first half against Forster, but had no trouble marking the Goat when he came on. Green was Green! One excellent save, some solid standard saves, but still tending to favour a big punt down field rather than take some of the opportunities for a quick throw to Edworthy/Drury/Cooper when the opportunity arose. All round it was a great team performance, and Mullers did excellently with the goal.

[Dirty Lyle 0]

Perhaps Dirtywater (no relation, I''m sure) was sitting near me. I didn''t think the singing reached the usual high standards of the away support until the goal went in. Having said that we took the points which was what counted. It reminded me of the Millennium Stadium when we scored.

I think the fans at the northern away matches tend to produce more noise perhaps because there are fewer kids in the crowd. Before any of you start, I appreciate that we need kids coming to the games to ensure we have a future etc etc and therefore have answered ny own point.

On a different less controversial note, did anybody listen to the BBC Radio Berkshire phone-in after the game? We try to listen to the home phone-ins (similar to Neil Adams version) on the way back from the away games to get an impression of what they thought of us, both fans and team (BBC radio normally advertise their local frequency on a hoarding in the ground).

As you might imagine the Reading fans were a little peeved with the result but some of what they said went too far. One text message to the studio said that the writer would look forward with glee to us being thrashed every game next season while another stated that we were a terrible side and Delia''s cooking was awful. Then again, I don''t recall any of her recipes requiring sour grapes. This was the same phone-in when we beat them 2-0 last season where callers were calling for Pardew''s head five games into the season after getting them promotion from div 2.

They came across as a bunch of bad losers and just a little sad. If the positions had been reversed I hope we might have had more dignity in defeat.

GREAT FINISH MULLERS!!!

[Dream on Canaries 0]

Hi dirtywater, my son and I were on coach 4 - we got dropped off in the layby near Attleborough. Re the singing, it was quite quiet where we were, to the lefthand edge of the stand, but we did our best. Great victory anyway.

[BedsCanary 0]

I didn''t think the atmosphere was all that great either, not at least until the goal went in. But then again, I think those tin "pop-up" stadium''s all tend to be similar in terms of atmosphere, in that they''re too ''open air'' to generate as much noise as a Carrow Road.

You can''t beat the look on the Reading fans faces when we scored.

Neale Barry - MotM

[Canary Boy 0]

So I did miss Paul McVeigh...well spotted. He made a couple of superb runs down the middle and nearly went all the way! A good performace I thought considering he has been rough.

I was about half way up the stand and just to the left of the goal....great noise from the City fans as a whole. A great day out.

Good bus service from Reading FC to the station as well. Only £1 and plenty of buses laid on. Top Reading Bus Station!

[Canary Boy 0]

So I did miss Paul McVeigh...well spotted. He made a couple of superb runs down the middle and nearly went all the way! A good performace I thought considering he has been rough.

I was about half way up the stand and just to the left of the goal....great noise from the City fans as a whole. A great day out.

Good bus service from Reading FC to the station as well. Only £1 and plenty of buses laid on. Top Marks Reading Bus Station!

[chicken 0]

My man of the match has to be Edworthy. Did no one else notice how he was effectively the only player offering width and actually did Coopers job for him?

Cooper was not GREAT. He was average, but then what do you expect from a left-footed player out on the right? He showed some class but didnt seem to know what to do with the ball half the time.

Francis was disappointing, he only offered a little height and some good man-marking and disapointed me with his passing etc, after all he is chosen above Mulryne.

Huckerby was ofcourse great but went down a little bit easily which led to the ref treating him harshly.

Drury had a very poor game in my opinion seemed to get beaten every time there was an attack down their right.

A very even game for those of you that didnt see the match. Had it not been for Green, Reading would have had a goal or two in the first half. Luckily Worthington gave them a boot up the arse in the break and they did better.

Very pleased to see that we can play averagely and still get the result required. I would just have prefered to have seen a little more passing, perhaps the introduction of Mullers earlier?

[Mook 0]

Chicken, what you on about?? We didn''t play averagely, we played well against a strong Reading team, away from hom. Francis was phenomenal, great work rate, great tackles, good passing and driving forwards to occupy their defence!

Edworthy chips the ball down the right too often, but did offer some width. I agree entirely about Cooper, just because he had the ball a lot doesn''t mean he was great. He will get better with games though, when he understands how we play.