A Norwich fan's view of your game today

[Camuldonum 0]

The Girl Upstairs attended your game today together with her intended (a West Ham fan who does what he is told) and this is her view:

Very enjoyable first half - second half tailed off and Man U got right back in it.

Hoolahan the star of the show in the first half - the Man U kids simply could not cope with him and he got some very good crosses in and Martin was about an inch away from connecting with one of them which might well have been another goal.  Looked absolutely on form to me and if he carries on like that he''ll be a real handful in League One especially against slower older defenders.   He was turning kids a lot younger than he is.

Big surprise: McVeigh.  Thought he had a terrific first half - again a player getting in very accurate crosses.  Faded a bit later on but still a good performance I think.  I thought he was supposed to be a big fat oaf but he twice beat a Man U youngster for pace with enough time to put in a good cross.

Martin did very well, chased everything but also held the ball up well and seems quite a powerful player - unlucky not to connect with that cross at full stretch.  Looks as if he reads the game well.

Brilliant goal by Adeyemi who looks a real star (bet Man U have asked for his mobile number).  Fantastic work rate and a really thrilling goal because he had to muscle past a defender, did so, and in the same movement just let rip.  Keeper beaten all ends up and I doubt a Premier keeper would have got near that one.  I was sitting near some Man U fans who claimed he got lucky.  Don''t think so because he looked up to see where the keeper was and then hit it.

The Cureton curse continues - it must be killing him but it does look a bit as if the legs have gone and his accuracy with it as well.  Harsh to judge seeing just this game.  Maybe when the league starts he will pull something out of the bag but he looked inferior to the rest of the strike force today.

We could easily have had another goal in the first half - top class save by the Man U keeper from very close in.  Great reaction stop.  I think that was a Martin header.

Couldn''t see if it was a penalty or not but City keeper saved it anyway.  Pisspoor penalty I thought but he got to it and the ball ran free.  Whoever cleared that and I couldn''t see who it was reacted very very quickly as it was a spill that could easily have gone back in.

I thought we weren''t the same after Hoolahan went off, nowhere near creative at all.  Lost the engine as it were.  There were some good moments but the pace of the game, which wasn''t that much to start off with, fell away in the second half and without someone to drive us forward we let Man U get right back in it.  On the second half 1-1 was fair enough.  I thought we lost the trickery bit and just plodded about to be honest.

Holt impossible to judge: came on with about ten minutes to go but this was a warm afternoon with no one looking to get hurt and everyone was looking at their watch by then.  Ran about a bit but wasn''t really able to get into it at that stage.

Tudur whatever looked okay.  He''s a big bloke and got in some crunching "friendly" tackles.  Didn''t look like the sort of bloke to be easily knocked off a ball.

Good day.  Very good first half (is that the starting team?) which tailed off after half time.

Credit to the Man U kids - even if their supporters don''t know their names.  They were physically outcrunched quite a bit and never coped with Hoolahan in the first half but gave a very good account of themselves I thought and had the best of the second half when we lost our way a bit.  There was a bit with about 20 minutes to go when the Man U kids played a little bit of keep ball as we (nearly) ran around chasing it.

Cheeky little burgers.

[Lurd 0]

Would agree with all of that, except I thought Adeymi''s goal actually came from a bit of luck in that his first touch was so bad, it fooled the defender and left him with no option other than to shoot and luckily it went in. Could be wrong though!

[NCFC_Shaun 0]

[quote user="Larry David"]Would agree with all of that, except I thought Adeymi''s goal actually came from a bit of luck in that his first touch was so bad, it fooled the defender and left him with no option other than to shoot and luckily it went in. Could be wrong though!
[/quote]

Really? From where I was sitting it appeared to be on purpose. I felt he knocked it past the defender using his strength and pace to get through and have a whack at it. Who knows ...

[FU MAN SHOE 0]

The difference in the halves was certainly the centre midfield selection, who really controlled it in the first half, who brought the best out of the whole team. Their absence in the second left our attacking options to the long ball, which didn''t work...an untried combo down the right side with Whaley and Gill and the surprisingly okay combo of Lappin and Drury on the left. Martin, Adeyemi and McVeigh looked good first half, but I agree with others as Wes being the pick of the bunch.

[walks on water 0]

Thought the girl upsatirs appraisal was spot on.

I hope we can hang on to Hoolahan, and that the rumours about Bristol are rubbish -the guy is absolute class. He will be the difference in terms of creativity, they just couldn''t handle him.

Tom Adeyemi reminded me of a certain Mr Francis (in a good way!)

Very excited about Martin, he always seemed to have a good footballing brain, but far too slow physically.  The time away has seen him mature markedly; he looks powerful & quicker. A good prospect once again.

I remember wondering for a while, ''who''s the handy squat player on the right?'' ... OMG,..McVeigh!!!    -didn''t recognise him without the alice band. & he was good

Must give Askou(?!sp) a contract.

Drury looked ok.

Not sure about the kiwi striker, but Holt looked an absolute BEAST. The guy is slow but built like the proverbial outhouse. In contrast to how the kiwi on trial didn''t really get into the game, Holt went menacingly searching but this roaming pulled him out of where you would expect him to be as a striker. Liked what little I saw though, reminds me of Lee, but younger (is he slower?) and supposed to be more prolific.

The jury''s out on OTJ, Semmy looked a less ponderous headless chicken.

The centre of midfield needs some work. I''m looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about re Hughes.

[walks on water 0]

...oh and the less said about Curo the better (he just doesn''t cut the mustard,..come on Wolves)

From glimpses of what Whaley offers, I  recon this guy is going to be big for us.

Nelson looked ok, Doc looked the Doc, keeper ok, Gill ...was he on the pitch ? -didn''t notice. Spillane is a player I''ve always liked but he was pretty anonymous too.

I''m really looking forward to the season ahead. (Again! lol)

[ACE 0]

To be fair to Spillane he came on for ten minutes out of position![quote user="walks on water"]

...oh and the less said about Curo the better (he just doesn''t cut the mustard,..come on Wolves)

From glimpses of what Whaley offers, I  recon this guy is going to be big for us.

Nelson looked ok, Doc looked the Doc, keeper ok, Gill ...was he on the pitch ? -didn''t notice. Spillane is a player I''ve always liked but he was pretty anonymous too.

I''m really looking forward to the season ahead. (Again! lol)

[/quote]

[walks on water 0]

I know, always liked him as a player. One of the best things for me about the coming season over last years, is that we have some of our youth breaking the first team & definitely on merit. I would have no problems with Adeyemi & Martin starting. Was pretty awful last season, trying to muster support for a bunch of mercenarys, whose loyalty was quite understandably with their parent club.

I wasn''t one of those who believed that relegation would be good for NCFC, but I''m now having my doubts. The proof of the pudding and all that.....but I''ve a feeling this season is going to be interesting

[hardley 0]

As a far away supporter of all 13,000 miles thank you for a first class report of the match as you saw it.What a change from a host of those negative moaners that we get in this forum and that have unfortunately always been a tradition with Norwich City