Palace-Norwich

[patrickhiggins 0]

Really good today. Croft was outstanding, Jamie had his best game of the season in terms of contribution to the team. The whole midfield was excellent as well. We had the better chances and more of them. Their equalizer came from a free kick which should have gone our way, even though the defence fell apart to gift Morrison a free header from 6 yards. The team had a good shape and played really well, still need Tiny at the back though. No coincidence that the improved performance came with Fozzy back, he has developed so much. Hucks on the bench for a while I think...

[greg_cpfc 0]

Hello Canaries [:)]Just thought I''d post a Palace perspective on this - hope you don''t mind.I thought it was a really entertaining game, as Palace-Norwich matches normally are. End to end stuff, though I must concede your football was a lot easier on the eye. I think each team had little spells of dominance throughout the match, so it was quite even - both sides were guilty of wasteful finishing a couple of times.We''re still quite limited in our play, but to be 13 games unbeaten with that squad is quite remarkable, and I would gladly have taken a draw before the match, bearing in mind the run you''re on.I thought Croft was your outstanding player, and your number 17 (is that Otsemobor?) had our youngster Sean Scannell well worked out, and you played really well as a unit I think.Like I said, it was a good game and a  nice start to 2008 [H]

[lucky green trainers 0]

roeder reckons it was city''s best away performance.  good show - pleased for croft, curo and fozzy (best when fresh).

[Yellow Rages 0]

Marshall - 7 Neat and tidy with few saves to make but what he did have to do he did well.

Otsemobor - 6 Didn''t really offer us a great deal going forward today but defended well when called upon.

Camara - 7 The busier of the two fullbacks and had his man in his pocket. Some great challenges with some tidy short and long passing in addition.

Shackell - 6 Gave away a couple of needless free kicks when climbing over his man but fairly sound otherwise.

Doherty - 7   A little more cavalier that Shackell on the day and tended to read things very well. Simple yet effective clearances and didn''t do anything wrong.

Pattison - 7 Work rate is amazing and he''s a tough little character. Broke things up well and always available.

Russell - 7 Like Pattison, worked very hard and got his goal. Also some neat interchange in the middle of the park.

Fotheringham - 7 Workman-like performance from the skipper with somevery composed involvement. Nice passer of the ball and doesn''t mind putting his foot in.

Croft - 8 Wow! He ran and ran and ran, not just when attacking but also whilst providing some important covering at the back. His pace caused Palace problems all afternoon and they didn''t like it. Always available and showed great desire.

Dublin - 7.5 Won everything in the air and provided his usual advise around the field. Could have done a little better with his headed chance but will be sorely missed both as an example and as a target.

Cureton - 6.5 Worked very hard like so many others but lacked any positional sense to capitalise on the flick-on''s. Should have also squared the ball after a gut busting run by Russell when at a tight angle instead of shooting.

Subs:

Huckerby - 5.5 Didn''t really get involved

Evans - 6 Tried to hold the ball up and cause problems by getting in behind his marker but with limited effect. One neat cross across goal but with noone arriving it came to nothing.

 

 

[London_Canary 0]

I thought we played some really neat football today, some of the passing and moveing was the best ive seen from Norwich for some time. Some of our one touch build play that carved out some good chances was just fantastic and was very pleaseing on the eye. I agree with you though, we need Tiny back because i''m almost positive that we will miss him now that were back to the Doc and Shacks partnership. The biggest problems we have had over the last few weeks is out ability to kill the game off and score more than 1 goal, today we created the chances but I feel that were still in great need of a goalscorer, don''t know if GR''s got anyone in mind for January but if we want to take it to that next level we need a 20+ goals a season man that I don''t think we have right now.

[lucky green trainers 0]

[quote user="greg_cpfc"]Hello Canaries [:)]Just thought I''d post a Palace perspective on this - hope you don''t mind.I thought it was a really entertaining game, as Palace-Norwich matches normally are. End to end stuff, though I must concede your football was a lot easier on the eye. I think each team had little spells of dominance throughout the match, so it was quite even - both sides were guilty of wasteful finishing a couple of times.We''re still quite limited in our play, but to be 13 games unbeaten with that squad is quite remarkable, and I would gladly have taken a draw before the match, bearing in mind the run you''re on.I thought Croft was your outstanding player, and your number 17 (is that Otsemobor?) had our youngster Sean Scannell well worked out, and you played really well as a unit I think.Like I said, it was a good game and a  nice start to 2008 [H][/quote]sounds bout right.  nice one greg!!!

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Great passing football today, we would have taken a point before the game but a lot of us were disappointed not to get all three after. But a draw was the fair result after one of our better away performances in recent times.

It''s amazing how important Fotheringham has become since Safri went. He has a positive effect on our attitude and our ability to get the ball down and play.