It's all about how you handle defeat ....

[macdougalls perm 0]

[quote user="BlyBlyBabes"]

nutty. Its also just as much about how you handle success. Like 13 games unbeaten.

Didn''t handle it too well at all, did we?

OTBC 

 

[/quote]

How come..... because we lost a game?! Not sure I follow you on this one, BBB - unless you are suggesting that we should never have lost another game again?

[lucky green trainers 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

[quote user="lucky green trainers"]  our run has faltered, and lets all hope we win on saturday, cos i don''t fancy being dragged back down into the dogfight again.

[/quote]

This was the point of the thread Lucky! 1 defeat and some fans are ''crying like babies'' about relegation. Do you realise that in the first 13 games this season under Grant we manged to pick up 8 points. Surely the most pessimistic of fans don''t see the last 13 games being that bad or worse?

 

 

[/quote]evening NN.  sure, we''ve had a great run, and we were only 4 points off the play-offs - our best this season, and many fans began dreaming of mounting a play-off challenge.  however, the reality of hull personally hit me hard - it was obvious there and then we''ve not got a squad with enough depth to mount a serious challenge.  even the players had started talking about a play-off place, but its obvious injuries, suspensions and individual loss of form would catch us sooner or later.  rationally, we can''t expect to go all the way - and why should we???  do we deserve it - has this club acted like a proper, professional entity- whose aim is to gain promotion, and has made realistic and appropriate resources available to achieve it??? no - its shoestring stuff - i mean 7 loanees at one point, with only 5 who can play at any time - its fantasy, even ridiculous, stuff - rather than ambitious in the sense it could ever work.  its audacious and radical, but forced upon us through monetary constraints.i applaud roedy - the man had acheived minor miracles since he''s been here, thats clear, but every team who goes on a long unbeaten run (our best in history wasn''t it???) eventually blips.  lets be honest, inconsistency is the name of this league - watford looked like running away with this league early doors, but had a hideous run - only halted of late.  the champions spot is still up for grabs in this league this season, by 4 teams at least.  its that close.  so although i agree wholeheartedly with your suggestion that it would be irrational to suggest our form could dip to the level of grant/duffy - its perfectly reasonable to believe we could be heading for a dip of form that could see us settle in mid-table between now and the rest of the season - even to the point where we could be on the fringes of the relegation battle again.  lets not forget, this month and last yielded some tasty looking winnable ties that  we''ve done well to capitalise on.   but we''ve also got to play  watford (A), stoke (H),  Sheffield UTD (A), Bristol (A), Burnley (H), Ipswich (A), WBA (H) & QPR (H).  IMO we need a couple of wins and draws here, with 3 points against our winnable ties - Blackpool (H), Coventry (A), Colchester(H), & Sheffield Wed (H) to be safe from the drop.  its clear for all to see, we''ve still got some tricky, hard games coming up -  and a poor run could see us sucked back in, especially if some of our top performers get crocked, or lose form - cos its clear we''ve got no ready replacements.  roedy knows from bitter experience that confidence can be drained as quick as its instilled - and i''m sure he''ll he working like hell to get the boys up and fighting for a win on saturday - and i''m sure he and clark will do it.  so, taking all these facts into consideration, i''ll be happy with a mid-table run, and wait to see if roedy gets enough money in the summer, to target players he believes can take this club forward (whatever that means, as each fan has their own interpretation of that!!!)

[arrdee 2]

[quote user="BlyBlyBabes"][quote user="we8wba"][quote user="paint_me_yellow"]

[quote user="we8wba"]bouncebackability is needed for norwich[/quote]

"Boing Boing" as your pathetic local rivals would say[;)] (although they are top of the tree atm so not so pathetic maybe, but still its a crap catchphrase they''ve adopted)

[/quote]

top tree 4th nowdays? hmmm not when last checked!!! if you on about those tesco carrier bags then i didnt see much boing boing vs us last march or october nor even at playoff final

they will reach fa cup semis, which is GREAT!!as i get to see them get their hopes up, go to wemberly and get crushed by manutd!! live actually couldnt be sweeter on my view of them

[/quote]

Why don''t you run along now and go and learn to write English on NHT time instead of bothering us.

You could come back in a couple of years or so when Wolves are in League 1. Problem is then that with us in the Prem you wouldn''t have much to talk about would you. Assuming that the NHT waste sleuths haven''t sussed you yet.

Clement Atlee is resting peacefully - now don''t you go and make him turn over, there''s a good lad.

OTBC

 

OTBC

[/quote]

Laugh my head off "babies" are you saying we8wba is some kind of Clement Atlee in embryo ? or even Keir Hardie as a youngster? No he is just using his "perks" with the N.H.S to his advantage, arrdee.

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

[quote user="arrdee"][quote user="BlyBlyBabes"][quote user="we8wba"][quote user="paint_me_yellow"]

[quote user="we8wba"]bouncebackability is needed for norwich[/quote]

"Boing Boing" as your pathetic local rivals would say[;)] (although they are top of the tree atm so not so pathetic maybe, but still its a crap catchphrase they''ve adopted)

[/quote]

top tree 4th nowdays? hmmm not when last checked!!! if you on about those tesco carrier bags then i didnt see much boing boing vs us last march or october nor even at playoff final

they will reach fa cup semis, which is GREAT!!as i get to see them get their hopes up, go to wemberly and get crushed by manutd!! live actually couldnt be sweeter on my view of them

[/quote]

 

 

Why don''t you run along now and go and learn to write English on NHT time instead of bothering us.

You could come back in a couple of years or so when Wolves are in League 1. Problem is then that with us in the Prem you wouldn''t have much to talk about would you. Assuming that the NHT waste sleuths haven''t sussed you yet.

Clement Atlee is resting peacefully - now don''t you go and make him turn over, there''s a good lad.

OTBC

[/quote]

Laugh my head off "babies" are you saying we8wba is some kind of Clement Atlee in embryo ? or even Keir Hardie as a youngster? No he is just using his "perks" with the N.H.S to his advantage, arrdee.

[/quote]

RD I fear that with your lighthearted response to the evident mis-use of NHT time & resources that Clem has no doubt now started turning in his grave. The irony is that we8wba probably doesn''t even know who he was. But you do - so sausages, sausages, sausages...........

Did you know that at one time in his younger days Keir Hardie was MP for West Ham? And  that he loved bangers & mash.........

My grandfather (the Norfolk one) loved sausages. Food of the working man he said - gave him energy.

And they used to have ''pig fry'' on Friday''s.

OTBC

 

 

 

[nutty nigel 7,535]

Lucky.. I posted this somewhere else yesterday but we got 8 points from those first 13 games under Grant/Duffy and if we returned to that level of form, which you yourself admit is an irrational suggestion, we would still get 50 points. So any improvement of that would see us safe. And it''s worth repeating that while we have collected 24 points from our last 13 games - Scunthorpe and Sheffield Wednesday have collected 9 each, Coventry 11, and Southampton and Colchester 12. So in order for us to be back in a relegation battle these sides would need to have as an upturn in fortunes as big as our downturn. You have to admit all this is a little far fetched after just one draw and one defeat. 53 points im sure would see us safe and the quicker we get them the happier we will be. As for a play-off challenge - I now believe it as unlikely as a relegation battle. We are 9 points away from 6th and 10 points clear of 22nd. You couldn''t get more mid-table than that and it''s where I expect us to stay.

As soon as we are safe I expect to see Roeder trying different things with the players he has here this season and I wouldn''t rule out an unpopular departure before the season ends.

 

[Stevie Wonder 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

[quote user="lucky green trainers"]  our run has faltered, and lets all hope we win on saturday, cos i don''t fancy being dragged back down into the dogfight again.


[/quote]

This was the point of the thread Lucky! 1 defeat and some fans are ''crying like babies'' about relegation. Do you realise that in the first 13 games this season under Grant we manged to pick up 8 points. Surely the most pessimistic of fans don''t see the last 13 games being that bad or worse?

[/quote]

8 points in the last 13 games may see us safe! Football is very strange though, prior to Leicester we had a run of 1 defeat in 16 which followed on from 11 games within out a win. We have some potentially tricky games coming up with an inform Barnsley and trips to Watford (in form) and Coventry (potential new manager syndrome). Defeats in those 3 games could see us dragged back down into the bottom 6. We are 9 points off the play offs and 10 off the relegation places so we could go either way. Personally, I see us finishing somewhere between 12th and 18th with around 55 points which after our start would be a decent achievement.

However, my main concern remains that we do not have much of a squad in place for next year. Will any of the loanee''s become permanent? Surely if Camara was going to be a permanent signing we would have done that in Jan to free up another loan if required - surely he would have cost £100K at most? If we should lose the likes of Marshall & Russell as well then we have the biggest re-build in history coming in the summer and this, for me, is a real concern. We could be in similar situation to the start of this year with a host of new players trying to gel into a team. If we sign 10 players then at best you would imagine 3 will be failures (even the likes of Fergie & Wenger sign the odd duffer) and if Roeder follows the example of Grant then 7 of them will be total pants! For instance we are likely to have 3 strikers in Cureton, Martin & Renton........

Whilst I have no problems with loan players we seem to have too many and most of them are young and inexperienced. Whilst Evans and Bertrand have worked out the others haven''t as yet although unlike some on this forum I feel we need to give Gibbs and Henry more than 60 mins in an unfamilar role! The failure to add another striker in Jan was baffling and the failure to add one with Curo out and Dublin playing every game makes that decision even more strange. We now have a situation where a number of our "permanent" players are unavailable and we cannot utilise all available players as one of the loan players will always be unavailable. Also we will have to play Pattison who has had very little game time in the last month and the likes of Spillane, Martin and Hucks who haven''t been making the bench because of the loan players.

Saturday is a big game and we need to put in a performance and come away with a result to nip any discord in the bud. It doesn''t take too much for our notoriously fickle fans to turn....

[we8wba 0]

truly bly get of your high horse mate

you trying to be clever doesnt suit you, if you check my post which you created as wasting work time was 10.25pm!

if i post in the day you ever thought maybe he not at work today, or maybe its the weekend

why do you always post in the day? your wasting work time surely? im hardly a doctor mate whos coming on here checking the latest posts rather than saving a little child

do you know there other jobs in the nhs other than being nurses or doctors??

[nutty nigel 7,535]

Stevie Wonder - Don''t you worry ''bout a thing [8]

Why would we return to the form from the first 13 games? Many of those players have left the club, Grant and Duffy have left the club. If you took the worst 13 results since Roeder arrived, thats 2 wins - 7 draws - 4 defeats - 13 points. That would leave us on 55 points and safe. His best 13 would be 9 wins and 4 draws which would still only see us on 73 points so the play-offs are slightly more likely than relegation but in truth surely we are, what some fans like to call, "mid-table mediocrity". But surely fans will accept that as a good start under Roeder after just 8 points from the first 13 games under Grant/Duffy.

As for concerns about next season, while I agree if you take away the loan players and the out of contact players the numbers are way to small, it''s still THIS season. It''s February and apart from the work Roeder can do "behind the scenes" to prepare, we won''t actually see anything until the summer. There''s 13 games to go this season and I''m afraid that''s all we can look forward to. I think it''s likely that more players could leave as soon as we are safe, and it''s unlikely any more will come in until the summer.

I agree with you about the loan signings. It''s impossible to judge Gibbs and Henry on an hours play. I don''t agree they were out of position though. I doubt if either of them are tough enough to play central midfield in the championship. I also think fans are particularly harsh in their judgements because they don''t understand these young players being on the pitch in front of Huckerby. I think the reason why Pattison hasn''t been starting is because he IS primarily a central midfielder but Russell and Fotheringham have nailed down those two places. We will see some changes to the midfield on Saturday because of suspensions. I would start with Croft - Spillane - Pattison - Bertrand but I doubt Roeder will. But we know these players and we don''t know Gibbs and Henry. I would have Huckerby up front with Evans or on the bench but definitely not pushing a trolley around Waitrose!

 

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

As soon as we are safe I expect to see Roeder trying different things with the players he has here this season and I wouldn''t rule out an unpopular departure before the season ends.

[/quote]

Since the last two disappointing performances I think Hucks could be gone sooner rather than later too...  When does the US season start?

[arrdee 2]

[quote user="BlyBlyBabes"][quote user="arrdee"][quote user="BlyBlyBabes"][quote user="we8wba"][quote user="paint_me_yellow"]

[quote user="we8wba"]bouncebackability is needed for norwich[/quote]

"Boing Boing" as your pathetic local rivals would say[;)] (although they are top of the tree atm so not so pathetic maybe, but still its a crap catchphrase they''ve adopted)

[/quote]

top tree 4th nowdays? hmmm not when last checked!!! if you on about those tesco carrier bags then i didnt see much boing boing vs us last march or october nor even at playoff final

they will reach fa cup semis, which is GREAT!!as i get to see them get their hopes up, go to wemberly and get crushed by manutd!! live actually couldnt be sweeter on my view of them

[/quote]

 

 

Why don''t you run along now and go and learn to write English on NHT time instead of bothering us.

You could come back in a couple of years or so when Wolves are in League 1. Problem is then that with us in the Prem you wouldn''t have much to talk about would you. Assuming that the NHT waste sleuths haven''t sussed you yet.

Clement Atlee is resting peacefully - now don''t you go and make him turn over, there''s a good lad.

OTBC

[/quote]

Laugh my head off "babies" are you saying we8wba is some kind of Clement Atlee in embryo ? or even Keir Hardie as a youngster? No he is just using his "perks" with the N.H.S to his advantage, arrdee.

[/quote]

RD I fear that with your lighthearted response to the evident mis-use of NHT time & resources that Clem has no doubt now started turning in his grave. The irony is that we8wba probably doesn''t even know who he was. But you do - so sausages, sausages, sausages...........

Did you know that at one time in his younger days Keir Hardie was MP for West Ham? And  that he loved bangers & mash.........

My grandfather (the Norfolk one) loved sausages. Food of the working man he said - gave him energy.

And they used to have ''pig fry'' on Friday''s.

OTBC

 

 

 

[/quote]

Yes Bly , Pigs fry on Fri how wonderful and burping all weekend , the modern housewife knows nothing of the treats that abound within the world . Can you you think of anything better than a good old plate of pigs fry ? I always love the spidery bits done to a frazzle , do you Bly ? Those lovely old boys who worked on the farm in all weathers were never cold or wet because they had the warmth of a marrow bone stock , pudding beef , or as you say Bly pigs fry and sausages . No lettuces for them bly , they had no runny noses or tummy bugs , their faces would be aglow with just pure health .We must return to those days Bly , I am doing my bit are you ? arrdee.

[Stevie Wonder 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

Stevie Wonder - Don''t you worry ''bout a thing [8]

Why would we return to the form from the first 13 games? Many of those players have left the club, Grant and Duffy have left the club. If you took the worst 13 results since Roeder arrived, thats 2 wins - 7 draws - 4 defeats - 13 points. That would leave us on 55 points and safe. His best 13 would be 9 wins and 4 draws which would still only see us on 73 points so the play-offs are slightly more likely than relegation but in truth surely we are, what some fans like to call, "mid-table mediocrity". But surely fans will accept that as a good start under Roeder after just 8 points from the first 13 games under Grant/Duffy.

As for concerns about next season, while I agree if you take away the loan players and the out of contact players the numbers are way to small, it''s still THIS season. It''s February and apart from the work Roeder can do "behind the scenes" to prepare, we won''t actually see anything until the summer. There''s 13 games to go this season and I''m afraid that''s all we can look forward to. I think it''s likely that more players could leave as soon as we are safe, and it''s unlikely any more will come in until the summer.

I agree with you about the loan signings. It''s impossible to judge Gibbs and Henry on an hours play. I don''t agree they were out of position though. I doubt if either of them are tough enough to play central midfield in the championship. I also think fans are particularly harsh in their judgements because they don''t understand these young players being on the pitch in front of Huckerby. I think the reason why Pattison hasn''t been starting is because he IS primarily a central midfielder but Russell and Fotheringham have nailed down those two places. We will see some changes to the midfield on Saturday because of suspensions. I would start with Croft - Spillane - Pattison - Bertrand but I doubt Roeder will. But we know these players and we don''t know Gibbs and Henry. I would have Huckerby up front with Evans or on the bench but definitely not pushing a trolley around Waitrose!

 

[/quote]

As I often do NN i find myself agreeing with a lot of your views. However, I think we need to be concerned about next season as it seems to have been a long time since there was any kind of long term plan in place for this club. For the 3rd time in 4 years we are about to see a summer rebuilding job done at Carrow Road. In most cases it takes a couple of years to establish a winning team with our own championship winning team being a good example as it is was one assembled over the course of 3 or 4 seasons. The 2 previous attempts were spectacular failures and whilst I have some faith in Roeder there is no guarantee that his signings will work. As someone posted recently (I think it was Jas or CJF) we just about have a first 11 available for next year but that is it. We have been lucky since Roeder took over in that only Chadwick has suffered a major injury but we are operating with 2 senior centre backs, 3 senior midfielders, 1 right winger and 3 strikers (one of whom is 19 and one who is 38!). Now it may be that some of the loan players will be signed permanently - I suspect Man City would sell Evans for £1.5M plus a hefty sell on and Chelsea may let Bertrand leave and if Reading are relegated then we may be more of attractive proposition with our bigger attendances etc. What we will need to do is get the balance in the squad right and sign some young up and coming players but also some good experienced campaigners such as Taylor - with Hux and Dion going and Camara maybe not signing we will be lacking in top level experience.

I don''t want to be all doom and gloom because things have improved tremendously under Roeder but we still have an awful lot of work to do before we can realistically compete in this division over 46 games.

[Stevie Wonder 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

Stevie Wonder - Don''t you worry ''bout a thing [8]

Why would we return to the form from the first 13 games? Many of those players have left the club, Grant and Duffy have left the club. If you took the worst 13 results since Roeder arrived, thats 2 wins - 7 draws - 4 defeats - 13 points. That would leave us on 55 points and safe. His best 13 would be 9 wins and 4 draws which would still only see us on 73 points so the play-offs are slightly more likely than relegation but in truth surely we are, what some fans like to call, "mid-table mediocrity". But surely fans will accept that as a good start under Roeder after just 8 points from the first 13 games under Grant/Duffy.

As for concerns about next season, while I agree if you take away the loan players and the out of contact players the numbers are way to small, it''s still THIS season. It''s February and apart from the work Roeder can do "behind the scenes" to prepare, we won''t actually see anything until the summer. There''s 13 games to go this season and I''m afraid that''s all we can look forward to. I think it''s likely that more players could leave as soon as we are safe, and it''s unlikely any more will come in until the summer.

I agree with you about the loan signings. It''s impossible to judge Gibbs and Henry on an hours play. I don''t agree they were out of position though. I doubt if either of them are tough enough to play central midfield in the championship. I also think fans are particularly harsh in their judgements because they don''t understand these young players being on the pitch in front of Huckerby. I think the reason why Pattison hasn''t been starting is because he IS primarily a central midfielder but Russell and Fotheringham have nailed down those two places. We will see some changes to the midfield on Saturday because of suspensions. I would start with Croft - Spillane - Pattison - Bertrand but I doubt Roeder will. But we know these players and we don''t know Gibbs and Henry. I would have Huckerby up front with Evans or on the bench but definitely not pushing a trolley around Waitrose!

 

[/quote]

As I often do NN i find myself agreeing with a lot of your views. However, I think we need to be concerned about next season as it seems to have been a long time since there was any kind of long term plan in place for this club. For the 3rd time in 4 years we are about to see a summer rebuilding job done at Carrow Road. In most cases it takes a couple of years to establish a winning team with our own championship winning team being a good example as it is was one assembled over the course of 3 or 4 seasons. The 2 previous attempts were spectacular failures and whilst I have some faith in Roeder there is no guarantee that his signings will work. As someone posted recently (I think it was Jas or CJF) we just about have a first 11 available for next year but that is it. We have been lucky since Roeder took over in that only Chadwick has suffered a major injury but we are operating with 2 senior centre backs, 3 senior midfielders, 1 right winger and 3 strikers (one of whom is 19 and one who is 38!). Now it may be that some of the loan players will be signed permanently - I suspect Man City would sell Evans for £1.5M plus a hefty sell on and Chelsea may let Bertrand leave and if Reading are relegated then we may be more of attractive proposition with our bigger attendances etc. What we will need to do is get the balance in the squad right and sign some young up and coming players but also some good experienced campaigners such as Taylor - with Hux and Dion going and Camara maybe not signing we will be lacking in top level experience.

I don''t want to be all doom and gloom because things have improved tremendously under Roeder but we still have an awful lot of work to do before we can realistically compete in this division over 46 games.