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Iwan is God

They obviously don't consider us to be a threat!!

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Bristol City v Norwich City - Match Preview
Wednesday 26 Mar 2008 10:10:05 by Huw Griffiths
Another must win game for Gary Johnson''s men if they''re to keep automatic promotion in their own hands, against a Norwich side in poor away form.

Bristol City v Norwich City - Match Preview

Bristol City come into this game against Norwich on their worst run of form since November and Gary Johnson’s men will be desperate to get their promotion push back on track, following a return of just three points from the last fifteen available.

Remarkably, the gap between City and third place has been reduced by just one point during this poor run and promotion still remains in their hands, as other teams around them have failed to capitalise.

When City last faced Norwich back in October, the Canaries were a club in tailspin. They’d gone over nine hours and six matches without a goal, had parted company with manager, Peter Grant, and were relying on the lumbering and preposterously well paid John Hartson to reignite their fortunes.

City eventually ran out comfortable 3-1 winners at Carrow Road that day, following a brief scare when Darren Huckerby capitalised on an Orr error to level for the home side. But there have been big changes on and off the pitch at Norwich since that match, with the most notable change being Glenn Roeder, who was brought in as manager soon after.

Norwich Manager, Glenn Roeder

Roeder took over at Carrow Road with the team rooted to the bottom of the Championship, some five points adrift of safety. However, Roeder quickly steadied the ship and, as well as cutting short Hartson’s loan spell, he brought in some new faces, including Mo Camara from Derby, Ched Evans from Man City and Matthew Pattison from Newcastle.

Results soon picked up for Roeder’s team and, by the end of February, a 1-0 home win over Barnsley took Norwich up to 12th in the division, just seven points off the play offs, and a remarkable turnaround looked possible.

However, that proved to be a peak for Roeder, and March has proved to be an even more fruitless month for the Canaries than it has for Gary Johnson’s stuttering promotion challengers.

A run of four defeats and one draw in the first five games in March saw Norwich hovering just three points above the drop zone, and once again looking over their shoulders at the trapdoor rather than up to the promotion places. But last week’s 5-1 victory over lowly Colchester will have gone a good way towards quelling any fears that Roeder’s side were about to be dragged back into the relegation dogfight, with five points and four teams now separating them from the dreaded 22nd place.

Bristol City desperately need a win, not only to keep automatic promotion in their own hands, but to restore some confidence as they enter the final few games of the season, and they’re unlikely to get a better opportunity to do that than against a Norwich side that’s returned just one point from its last four away trips.

Returns to fitness for Lee Johnson and Jamie McCombe, plus a place in the starting line up for Steve Brooker would go a long way towards settling the home side down in what is likely to be a nervy affair if an early goal isn’t forthcoming. There may even be a return to the side for talismanic winger, Scott Murray, following Gary Johnson’s decision to leave him out of the reserve team line up on Tuesday, choosing instead to give Ivan Sproule a midweek run out.

However, whatever sixteen the City manager selects on Saturday, they should have too much for a Norwich side who have netted just one goal on their travels since the middle of February.

The last time City went five games without a victory, they followed it up with four wins and a draw from their next five matches (a run which began against a team in yellow…). Repeat that run again now and Premier League football will, in my opinion, be assured.

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[quote user="YellowIce"]

I enjoyed reading that  . . . has me fired up for this weekend. Hope we smash the b*stards!

[/quote]

Absolutely! Roeder should pin this up in the dressing room to fire the players up before kick off!!!

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Foor some reason I cant quite put my finger on I have a good feeling about this game.  I think Bristol may have lost their nerve as the reality of where they are in the table has dawned on them.  On paper they are hardly a team of world beaters but they have great spirit and have got some fantastic results this season against so-called better sides.  However, when you get down to the last few games teams like them have failed to make it over the line before and I think they will again this time as well.  I just hope they can avoid doing a Colchester next season for their sake.

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Bristol City away is probably historically one of our most profitable away grounds.

We have played there 28 times and won 13 of them and 5 draws.

I''m agreat believer in lucky and unlucky grounds so here''s to a nice 3 points on Saturday.

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jesus, how far we''ve fallen.  an ambitious promoted side sees us as cannon fodder - a sure fire bet to get their season back on track.  just as we viewed colchester last week.......ah well,hopefully, our boys won''t roll over, and we''ll do ''em!!! 

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I''ll be there this weekend, in the away end of course... and my view on this is that Bristol City must come out and attack us... and if they don''t get a goal within the first 15/20 minutes i think the home crowd could potentially get on their back... a fancy us stealing a point, but obviously i''m hoping for three. The first 15/20 minutes will decide whether or not Bristol City win this game.

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Am i missing something here? I can''t seen anything particularly inflammatory in this article. It just states the facts. If we were in the same position they are in and were playing at home against a team that has 1 away point in their last 5 games and has just come off a bad losing run, i would expect to win too.

Whether they will or not is an entirely different matter and they may well underestimate us simply by basing our abilities as a team on our recent form. A dangerous thing to do, we hope, but hardly insulting!

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[quote user="lucky green trainers"]jesus, how far we''ve fallen.  an ambitious promoted side sees us as cannon fodder - a sure fire bet to get their season back on track.  just as we viewed colchester last week.......ah well,hopefully, our boys won''t roll over, and we''ll do ''em!!! 

[/quote]I guess they have earned the right to look down at us. But it has to be said can you imagine any of the top 8 teams really giving it a go in the Premiership?I don''t like to say it but I think WBA are probably the only team with the "class" to competed and Stoke the "brawn". Even then I think the best Stoke will achieve is that of Bolton in their first season or so, struggling to be there at best and should the manager go then plop!WBA have been there and amazingly have held onto a lot of the players and even added in some departments.

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