Oh dear....

[westoncanary. 0]

...I''m starting to get used to losing.  When the score came through I didn''t do my usual (what my wife calls) "hysterics", I just thought "OK, I didn''t expect anything today."  I now realise I was wrong to think like that, we just played Spurs at FCR and I was being defeatist from the start, something which I never normally am, cautious maybe but not defeatist.  If I am alone in thinking like this then I apologise to you all, but the REAL problem is if I am not alone in my thoughts and this is being transmitted to the players.

Is the general feeling now that we can only pick up points from those around us and anything else we get is a bonus?  If it is, we are in BIG trouble.  We ARE a Premiership club, here on virtue and merit, Nigel please start believing it and getting that point across to the players, our next match is away to Middlesborough, who WILL be smarting from defeat and desperate to put themselves back on track, the big question is will WE be hurting enough to compete with them, we should be because we have now gone 180 mins without a goal.  This is not acceptable and the eleven men which start on Tuesday ought to be the hungriest and most committed team which have ever started a game for this club. 

I feel the coming week will prove to be the most defining of the whole season so far, please lads, believe in yourselves, you can do it.  OTBC 

[Thirsty Lizard 3,186]

I think if you had been at the game Weston you wouldn''t be anywhere near as depressed. The fact is that in the first half we totally dominated the game. We''ve hit the post, hit the bar, had two cleared off the line, their player has sliced the ball over his own bar from two yards out and known nothing about it, Robinson has palmed out a couple of fierce shots which another day would have been scored on the rebound  and all this has happened in spite of yet more scandalous refereeing by Mike Riley who in my opinion has no intention of being fair, but just wants to make sure the ''big'' team wins.

Yes it''s depressing that we''ve ultimately lost, but if you had been watching you would realise that there is absolutely no way this Norwich team is just accepting defeat or rolling over against so called bigger teams. A lot of things went our way last season, but absolutely nothing seems to be going for us in games this season (when was the last time three players had gone off injured by half time?).

One thing does seem to be going for us in general though, and that''s that there are other teams who are in even bigger trouble than us.

We are not in the relegation places and still have a great chance of staying up!

[LinkNR9 0]

Have to agree about the officials, they were abysmal again today. Apart from Mark Clattenburg, the refs in this Division are far worse than the Championship; the linesmen are poor as well, as the dceision that led to their first goal proves. It was NOT a corner, yet we paid for it (although Drury deserves some credit for a pathetic clearance).

[BedsCanary 0]

A Premiership referee wants to earn as much money as he can and move up the ladder in football just like we all do in our own jobs and sadly, that means sucking up to the big boys, whether it be London''s media machine or big name managers and directors who have plenty of influence in the FA. For the sake of a his career he will favour the bigger teams and the big names who are likely to influence his rise up the ladder.

Mr. Riley always had that smug look on his face everytime he waves on a blatant foul on a City player or awards a free-kick (or a corner in today''s case) to the oposition when 24,500 people can all see he''s wrong.

In response to the original post though, Norwich were class today and it was very much a smash and grab by Tottenham. I wouldn''t be too worried. Had we had abit of luck and a different referee we would be looking at celebrating a 2 or 3 nil win, but that''s football.

[shropshire canary 0]

Quite agree with mr Rosario here - and having listened o the Baggies performance on our long journey home it cheered me some more.

I''ll take our luck in the games that matter and come the middle of may.

[Northern Canary 0]

I also did not take it so badly when conceeding the goals. I would have reacted a lot worse a few weeks ago but have now got used to the fact we are in a relegation dogfight. Im not sure if i should be pleased or annoyed that we played well and yet still lost. A bit of both. It is tottenham though, they are a team in good form whereass we are a team with so many injuries

[westoncanary. 0]

Fair points guys.  I wasn''t at the game but having seen the highlights on MOTD you would have thought Spurs were the relegation candidates and we were the ones with 4 wins on the spin! (1st half anyway).   Where has our luck gone by the way?  Leon did everything but score and as for that "corner", Robbie Keane knew it wasn''t one, you could tell by his reaction.

So, on the whole I am more upbeat today and I DO believe in the team, I was questioning my own reaction to defeat in my original thread.  COYY