Match rating at Tamworth and some of the facts I think.

[XXL16 0]

The facts:

(1) Without Safri in midifled, so I said Etuhu, Hughes and Robinson, we even cannot get the ball to play on the ground, against a Conference team!!!

(2) Huckerby and Dublin, you just need to play them week in week out if we want to stay in this league.

(3) Doherty was continued shocking, in a muddy pitch, he still always wait for the ball to bounce and not clear? Too much shirt pulling and on the other day we should concede another free kick in the danger zone.

(4) Tamworth''s goal was fully deserved, brilliant, although, it''s too late.

(5) The first meeting of "Un-official Hong Kong Norwich City supporter club" was very successful, hopefully we will make it Official soon! :)

My Match rating:

Gallacher 6, can do nothing about it with their goal and actually get a hand to it, not much to do.

Colin 6, start to have understanding with Lee Croft but when you play against a Conference team, should have to go more forward.

Drury 5, sorry my favourite player was a bit shocking today, we had some good passing moment but when the ball pass to him, he balloon it or give it away. Defensive he was always no problem.

Shackell 5, very nervous and some of the touches were too heavy, but still played better than his partner.

Doherty 3, very worrying, definitely worrying, please try to explain in a bubble pitch, when Tamworth defender kick a long ball upfield, why did our central half let the ball bounce, instead of clear the ball to the sidelines? Not once but twice in the game! Think if we are playing against another Championship team, we are 0-2 down already. Use your brain to play football please.

Croft 7, work hard on the right and always want to take his man on and beat them, but the crossing was not very good.

Safri 8, boss the midfield, tidy on the ball and switch sides were brilliant, and after he was substituted, no Norwich players can pass the ball -- did Peter Grant see it?

Etuhu 6, won a lot of headers in the games but missed two sitters in the first half, should have put them on target.

Huckerby 8, both goals were well taken and again when he got the ball, at least 2 defenders on him. Saw how he reacted when he scored the first goal, celebrated by diving to fans and should have got booked! But it just showed he loved the club, loved the fans, also his assist to Dion''s goal, just another brilliant cross on the left! Alright maybe Hucks cannot get us promoted this time, but still Hucks can get us out of the relegation battle -- single-handed. My Man of the Match.

Dublin 8, Championship''s Teddy Sheringham, no doubt about that, the first goal was just brilliant to have the awareness to see where tha ball was, second, just what Ryan Jarvis and Peter Thorne need to learn.

Earnshaw 5, missed a great chance to score in the first half and disappeared in the second half.

sub:

Robinson, Hughes and Thorne, all togther 2, when they came on, we just become poor and poorer! If the score was still 0-0, I am sure we will lose this game. It showed how weak was our bench was, why no Robert Eagle, why no Ryan Jarvis and why no Micky Spillane? WHY? WHY? WHY? If you don''t like the young players or think they are not good enough, please released all of them! Don''t forget they are in first team wages.

[Old Boy 0]

XLL16, I agree about Doherty - it really is worrying. It seems that he''s not really concentrating on the job. And now Shackell seems to be catching the same disease. Hucks was pretty good, but you''d hope that someone of his talent would shine against this opposition. The top players for me were (starting with the best) Dublin, Croft, Colin, Etuhu, Huckerby, Safri. They all adapted quickly to the conditions and were very professional. The others were quite flaky I thought, and you can''t really use the state of the pitch as an excuse. I remember watching a Man City game way back in the late 60''s or early 70''s (Colin Bell era anyway) on a rutted and snow-covered pitch - the game was a masterclass of great footballers adapting to atrocious conditions. Back to yesterday - we certainly fell apart a bit after the substitutions, although the subs were always likely to look poor at first because they would need to adapt to the conditions that the others were already used to. But even so, it didn''t look good at all. I did agree with the subs though, because we shouldn''t risk injuries among our key players once the game was won.

[Saint Canary 0]

I want to give him a special mention because I actually thought Colin was worth an 8 and our best player today.  He looked the most comfortable on the ball of all our players, used it well, played some clever passes, rarely gave it away, got forward well on occassions, put in a couple of nice crosses and kept any danger at bay from his side of the pitch.  However, he well and truly went back in his shell when Croft went off.  When all is said and done though he really got stuck in and it''s sad that the Dutchman seemed most passionate of all our players on FA Cup day.

As for the rest;

Gallacher 5 - Looked poor.  Came when he should of stayed a couple of times and nearly gave goals away for it.
Drury 5 - Poor.  Gave away too much space and awful use of the ball.
Shackell 5 - Too many mistakes and gave the ball away too often when under no pressure.  Solid in the air but as with Drury gave too much space away.
Doc 6 - OK and slightly more solid that Shackell.
Croft 7 - Did well, carried the ball when he got the chance.
Safri 6 - Have to strongly disagree with the potential MOM rating.  He may have been everywhere but he was everywhere the ball wasn''t in the first 20 minutes.  He was one of the main reasons Tamworth could have been a couple up because he never got close enough to make a tackle let alone win the ball.  He was in no mans land too much and didn''t look bothered. 
Etuhu 6 - Same as Safri in the first 20 minutes. 
Hux 8 - Scored two, made one.
Dublin 8 - Did exactly what was required of him. 
Earnie 5 - Just not his sort of game really. 

Subs
Hughes 6 - Did what I expected him to do.
Robinson 6 - Was available and used the ball well.  Actually saw him make a couple of sliding tackles as well.
Thorne 5 -  Won maybe 2 or 3 headers at best.

Overall I am glad we won because we were lucky not to be at least 2 down with only 20 minutes gone.  This performance summed us up perfectly for me and highlights the problems we have had for a long, long time now.  Tamworth, I repeat Tamworth opened us up far too easily without having to do anything of any real quality.  We allowed them too much space early on with Safri and Etuhu MIA in midfield.  The amount of space granted was highlighted best when their centre forward brought down a long ball, turned and found himself with no one near him.

[Ole 0]

For the first 20 minutes or so every player wearing yellow shirts looked poor.My ratings:Gallacher 5 - we need a better goalkeeper. Norwich has "always" had quality goalkeepers, but not now.Colin 7 - good positioning and made few mistakesDrury 5 - poor passing, most chances for Tamworth came when they attacked on his sideDoc 6 - good tackles, reminds me of Malky, although even slower than him... (is it possible?)Shackell 6 - needs to work with his passing gameCroft 4 - good with the ball, but he has to pass it to a team mate. Won many throw-ins....Safri 7 - our best midfielder by far. Good distribution, some quality long passes to Huckerby. Needs to be more offensive though.Etuhu 5 - won many duels, but his positioning is not good.Huckerby 7 - was marked out of the game in the first 40 minutes. Quality passes. Lucky to score two goals as both shots was mishit.Dublin 8 - my MOM. Won everything in the air. I wish he was 10 years younger.Earnshaw 5 - should have scored in the first half. Not much involved, but made a lot of space for Dublin and Huckerby.SubsHughes 4 - hopelessRobinson 3 - even more hopelessThorne 2 - I haven''t seen the legend Dean Coney play, but I doubt he was worse than this player.

[gazban 0]

Ole thought you were spot on with your reviews, though a bit generous to Etuhu who I thought was poor and Huckerby''s second was not a miss hit. I cannot believe how bad the subs were. IMO we should save our money for 2 midfielders and stick with Dublin up front. He was superb. drury was good defending but his distribution was appalling. Otherwise the whole performance, against a conference side shows why we are struggling against championship opposition.