Jim Smith 2,317 Posted February 8, 2009 All in all a very frustrating and disappointing day. I thought that Bristol City looked the best team i have seen us play at Carrow Road this season and looked a real threat whenever they attacked although we didn''t help ourselves with the way we sat off them in the first half and we certainly were not helped by Mr D''usro denying us what looked to me like 3 penalties and generally not giving us anything of any note during the entire game.I thought we started very poorly and for the first 20 minutes they cur us open almost at will. Russell simply was not in the game for the first half and we struggled big time. The defenders constantly backed off and gave Bristol far too much respect. Having seen the Doherty incident on Tv today i still can''t tell if it was a pen or not. The angle the ball goes in tends to suggest he got a touch on it but from the footage you really can''t tell. i can see why he gave it and sent him off (as quickly as he possibly could!).I thought in general the passion and commitment shown in the second half was superb and really can''t fault them at all for their effort. We could very easily have got a point in the end - its just a shame we had to get angry at the ref before closing them down properly. If we had doen that from the start the game may have been different. Other random thoughts:1. Thought Croft''s second half effort/commitment was up there with anything i''ve ever seen from a Norwich player!2. Drury was absolutely useless defensively. He still drifts too far inside and gives his man too much space. His man also walked past him at will in the second half.3. Clingan is superb at centre half. If we had another decent CM i''d be tempted to convert him to a CB!4. Fozzy was better than usual and I thought did well when he came on.5. Another frustrating shift from Otsemabor!6. I really can''t wait for the day we beat those b**tards! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beauseant 0 Posted February 8, 2009 Pretty much agree with all of that, Jim, although I also thought that big Carl had an excellent game. The fullbacks are really weak,and add very little going forward,and I wonder whether a sweeper system with Sammy in the key role (which has been mooted on here this week) is the way forward, although, if Davies comes in he may make a difference , as may Leitjer. As I''ve posted elsewhere, we have to defend better as a team, not just the back four, as Skuse was given alarming amounts of freedom culminating in the first goal, our midfield tracking being non existent. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim Smith 2,317 Posted February 8, 2009 Yes meant to mention Cort - his all round display was excellent. Should have done a lot better with the chance just after half time though. That was a really good opportunity. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
grantroederdisaster 0 Posted February 8, 2009 A horrible frustrating day with a result that really puts us in the brown stuff bigtime and we''ve now got to get wins ASAP! Their was 2 blatant penalty offences that the ref missed in the 1st half alone - Cort nearly having his shirt ripped of by a Bristol defender and then a Bristol bloke blatantly handballed! In the 2nd half Drury was pushed! Bristol were the better team and looked more likely to score but the game was almost ended as a contest when the Doc got sent of thanks to Marshalls miskick putting the Doc on a no win situation. From where I sat it looked like the Doc brought Adebola down and he was the last man so the ref had choice. I haven''t seen it on TV but so I can''t say whether or not the ref got it wrong but in the split second he has to decide it did look like a penalty and sending off!Our failiure to do anything else after the Doc was sent off proves how important he is to the team cause late on in the 2nd half he could of pushed forward giving us more attacking impetus. We stood of Bristol far to much especially the outstanding Adebola. It annoys me when the guy is classed as a donkey because he one hell of a player who is bvery effective and has lots of end products to results to prove my point. We passed to ball better in the 2nd half but as usual were trying to walk the ball into the net and were far to slow moving and were not putting the ball into the Bristol box enough especially with big men like Cort and Killen to aim at. Why we didn''t revert to 3 aty the back, replacing Drury with a forward I don''t know, we need to show more urgency and a willingness to gamble more! Players to stand out out for me - Marshall - Basically his miskick lost us the game! Grounds - Yes he scored but he didn''t look at all convincing at the back just like his other games since returning. His clearances whather by head or kicking seem to go anywhere and a lot of his succesfull tackles and clearances seem more by luck than judgement. Makes things hard work for the Doc and rest of the team. Needs to be replaced by a better CB! Drury - Was poor but then again the little games hes played its no surprise but then aghain hes no worse than Bertrand and I''d rather have Drury in the side for a battle than Bertrand! Clingan - ASnother commanding performance even when moved to the back looked better than Grounds! Cort - Much improved and just needs more match fitness. Killen - Looks like he can handle himself and can play as a targetman but we play to his strengths cause we were not direct enough when it mattered. Cureton - Yes the guys Norwich through and through, is a nice guy but he isn''t good enough now and is trying to hard which is why hes missing so many. We need to look beyond Cureton because he is a weak link and isn''t doing the team any good whatsoever! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
