The Boys Are Back In Town...

[Supermarket Prodigy 0]

Hi all, sorry it''s a little late, I''ve tried to spruce up my style a bit this week. As always, all feedback positive or negative is welcome. Here''s hoping this is a springboard for our season!

SP

 

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN…

 

CITY got back to winning ways in confident style with goals from deadly duo Chris Martin and Grant Holt leading to a 4-1 victory over Gillingham in the Carling Cup 2^nd Round…

 

Arriving at Carrow Road, there’s always this feeling in my stomach, one I can’t quite explain. It’s a mixture of adrenalin, hope, optimism, fear and joy moulded into one that steadily rises as you walk from County Hall, down the roads with your fellow Supporters, across the Bridge and first set eyes on Carra. Tonight was vital to get back to winning ways after a less than convincing start on Friday. Marching my way through the turnstiles and taking my seat, mild adrenalin buzzed around my body, my knees knocked together. Am I nervous? I thought. Really? It appeared so, afterall, after you lose once, it’s easy to lose again and again and a sickly spiral begins to unfold, wrapping your team up and dragging them down.

 

Not a chance of that tonight!

 

As I watched the warm-up, the laughing and joking, Chris Martin’s deadly finishing in the warm-up, John Ruddy and Declan Rudd making some terrific saves, my eyes set upon the golden trio in a passing drill. Wes, Chrissy and Holty were together, passing, taking my back to the good old days of last season. Oh, how we need those three to be on form this year. Then they disappeared, our heroes, down the tunnel, receiving the final words from Mr. Lambert, putting on that magical yellow and green strip, ready for action! The Carrow Road carpet awaited, the tension built until the dulcet tones of Blur blasted out and the teams trundled out of the tunnel, ready for action. On The Ball City roared out, despite the limited crowd, we took our seats…expectant…

 

FIRST HALF: City looked much brighter compared to Friday’s performance. There was a real eagerness to get about Gillingham and gain the ascendancy. The Canaries won a free-kick early on as Wes Hoolahan was fouled, twenty yards from goal after a typical mazy run. David Fox stepped up and took it quickly, playing in Wes. Though, a certain Mr. D’Urso pulled it back and staggeringly booked Fox for taking the kick to quickly. It’s fair to say he wasn’t attempting to build bridges with the Carrow Road faithful. From the resulting kick, Fox smacked the foot of the near post. City continued to rule possession in the midfield and were definitely on the upper hand, but when Michael Nelson slipped inside the area, Chris Palmer was in for the Gills, he smashed into the far corner leaving Ruddy no chance. Norwich City 0-1 Gillingham. Certain cries of, ‘Here We Go Again’ echoed around, I was rather embarrassed as a yelled out COME ON CITY, clapping my hands together, I was the only one…

            With limited sights of goal to follow for City, they were in debt to the crossbar to stop them going two behind. The rather large Adebayo Akinfenwa rose well to smash a header goalwards from a free-kick, though it crashed against the underside of the bar and fell the right side of the line from City’s point of view. It seemed to be the kick up behind the Canaries needed and driven forward by skipper Grant Holt, they grabbed an equalizer. Holt’s neat lob over the top found Chris Martin clean through on goal, he took and touch and volleyed past Alan Julian, for the net to bulge. The relief was obvious! Norwich City 1-1 Gillingham. It was just six minutes later before the Canaries were celebrating once more! It was a class goal of fantastic flowing football, Korey Smith played in Russell Martin down the wing who swung a neat cross towards Grant Holt. Holt directed his header into the far corner leaving Julian no chance! City nearly got a third as half-time drew in. Lappin was brought down just outside the box, Chris Martin stepped up and curled a fantastic free-kick towards goal, only to be denied by the cross-bar. A first-half that had thrown up all manners of entertainment had one last slice to come as Payne burst through firing a shot towards the far corner. Ruddy, who I had, had doubts about rose superbly to palm away from goal. Akinfenwa seemed to have an easy task to header into an unguarded net though it fell wide. It would have been harsh on Ruddy if his save had been for nothing. Mr. D’Urso blew the half-time whistle and City walked off to deserved applause. It had been an encouraging first-half with City growing in confidence throughout.

 

Phew! What a half, it had thrown up all manner of events. It was pleasing to see Holty back on form and Super Chrissy back amongst the goals. I felt that Mr. Ruddy had done himself a very large favour with a cracking save, not only would it breed new confidence into us fans, but, for the lad himself it would renew his self-belief after a shaky start last time out. A talking point for myself and my travelling entourage at half-time was the bizarre run-up from keeper Alan Julian, his arms seemed to flail around like the wings of a headless chicken! Just how bizarre was it?!

 

SECOND HALF: There was little time to wait until the Carrow Road faithful were on their feet celebrating a third as Grant Holt capped a superb move with a terrific finish. Hoolahan picked out Korey Smith well. The youngster then marched on, to deliver a cracking ball into the box for Holt to hammer into the roof of the net, leaving Julian no chance! Norwich City 3-1 Gillingham! Just how good was it to have our Captain back?! Two goals and an assist! Fair enough we had been playing Gillingham though he certainly was looking back to his best! Chris Martin was just crowded out by the Gills defence as a rampant City searched for a fourth. Confidence looked to be breeding through our side and it was making all the difference. Holt wasn’t to get his hattrick as just past the hour he was replaced by Oli Johnson. Though, Captain fantastic got a superb reception has he left the pitch and it was well deserved. City seemed to go off the boil slightly and were in debt to Ruddy for keeping the score 3-1. Rooney’s bobbling half-volley was saved well by Ruddy who showed neat reactions, keeping the ball out. He certainly was making my confidence grow in him and I am sure the other 13,000 fans were beginning to feel the same. Chris Martin had a chance to grab his second as he smashed another superb free-kick at goal, only for Julian to fly high to claw it away. Chrissy was to get his second deep into injury time. Oli showed a good hustling, bustling, Cody McDonald type effort to win the ball from Gills defenders. Though, he couldn’t quite get it under control and Chrissy stole in to stride past Julian before stroking the ball in from a tight angle. Carra stood once more, roaring with approval! Norwich City 4-1 Gillingham!

 

SUPERMARKET MAN OF THE MATCH, GRANT HOLT: After going a goal down, Holty pushed forward his troops, providing an assist and two cracking goals as he played a major role in getting the Canaries through to round two. Although just on for an hour, the difference he made was clear to see and here’s hoping he keeps it up!

[Lincs CR 0]

I''ll pretend it says "Carling Cup 1st Round" ;) Other than that, nice read mate :)

[Supermarket Prodigy 0]

Ooops! Getting a little ahead of myself there! Haha.

SP

[Lurd 0]

Bit of a cheese fest if I''m honest.

[Legend Iwan 30]

Following on from Larry, the problem you have is as well as all the offical round-ups of the match, on this message board Ricardo also does one. Due to it normally always being spot on (as well as having a few laughs) you are ''competing'' with him as for an audience - which isn''t going to be easy. It will take time.

[Supermarket Prodigy 0]

I understand where you''re coming from. I''m trying to capture a different style, that, by my own admission is far from where I want it to be at present. Ricardo''s reports are terrific! I''m going to give it a go this season as well as providing monthly blogs on our progress and I''ll see where it takes me.

All this feedback is appreciated!

Cheers

SP

[When Saturday Comes 0]

Why are you trying to turn match reports into a creative narrative?

Stick to what you''re good at, which is assessing the game etc.

[Supermarket Prodigy 0]

From now on I will do. I tried something different and to be frank they''re becoming difficult to write and obviously do not really have a place on here! But, it was worth an experiement. Swansea game will be a basic analysis without any of the cheesy creative pieces in between.

SP

[When Saturday Comes 0]

[quote user="Supermarket Prodigy"]

From now on I will do. I tried something different and to be frank they''re becoming difficult to write and obviously do not really have a place on here! But, it was worth an experiement. Swansea game will be a basic analysis without any of the cheesy creative pieces in between.

SP

[/quote]

I completely agree with you - I''m sure lots of people will like this style, but I personally don''t think it works for football, unless you''re writing for a teenage audience.

Although, I could be wrong.

[Supermarket Prodigy 0]

[quote user="When Saturday Comes"][quote user="Supermarket Prodigy"]

From now on I will do. I tried something different and to be frank they''re becoming difficult to write and obviously do not really have a place on here! But, it was worth an experiement. Swansea game will be a basic analysis without any of the cheesy creative pieces in between.

SP

[/quote]

I completely agree with you - I''m sure lots of people will like this style, but I personally don''t think it works for football, unless you''re writing for a teenage audience.

Although, I could be wrong.

[/quote]

I''ve read a couple of my reports now and I think I am gradually getting further away from how I started, in the sense they''re getting a little cheesier each time! Each time I write them I do feel I want to do more analysis but I don''t want to leave you lot with tonnes to read! Looking at it, sacrificing the creative stuff will make way for a better in-depth review, which I am capable off! ;)

SP

[Bobert 0]

[quote user="When Saturday Comes"][quote user="Supermarket Prodigy"]

From now on I will do. I tried something different and to be frank they''re becoming difficult to write and obviously do not really have a place on here! But, it was worth an experiement. Swansea game will be a basic analysis without any of the cheesy creative pieces in between.

SP

[/quote]

I completely agree with you - I''m sure lots of people will like this style, but I personally don''t think it works for football, unless you''re writing for a teenage audience.

Although, I could be wrong.

[/quote]

Yes its a very old fashioned style of writng. In my youth 60 years ago there  was a magazine called "Boys Own Paper" that used to write in this style. I won a book prize for writng about "the joys of cycling against the wind" so you will get the idea. All gung ho and lets beat the Germans sort of thing.

 Writing is much shorter, blunter and more pithy these days. The style of the "Sun" gets the message across using Germanic single syllable words like ball, run, kick, jump, goal. The paper is said to have a reading age of 10 years and its reward is to have the biggest daily circulation in the world.