Last night was there for the taking...

[H4H 0]

I honestly left St Marys feeling frustrated and disappointed last night, there has been a lot of talk of how we haven’t won away this season and how we are not scoring enough goals. Well last night was the perfect game to turn that around, especially in the second half.

 

Southampton were poor, the worst team we have played this season. The Second half was scrappy, I had to keep reminding myself that this was the Premier league, because it had a real Championship feel to it. However, it was clear to see that we had the quality to win that game, we were stronger in defence and dominated the midfield, but we were crying out for some pace down the wings and for some attacking/positive substitutions from CH.

 

Yesterday I read an article headlined ‘Hughton looking for first Premier League away win’... Well we are never going to win away if you we don’t go looking for the win. The last 30 mins had a real ‘happy with the point’ feel to it, which for me shows a lack of ambition in the managements decision making.

 

I don’t think any fan would have begrudged CH if he had brought on Elliot Bennett and Simone Jackson for the final 20 last night. Taking off Holt for Morison was a nothing substitution, if anyone was going to nick us a winner last night it was Holty, and even tho I didn’t agree with him dropping the Capt. armband on the ground and heading down the tunnel, I did understand his frustration, as always he put in a serious shift, his goals will come. 

 

I couldn’t help but think that Lambert would have won us that game last night, however with Lambert we wouldn’t be on a 7 game unbeaten run, which when you think about it, is mighty impressive!

 

Onwards and upwards with another point to the ‘magic 40’... The elusive away win will come, but let’s go to Swansea and WBA with a positive mentality that we can come back with all 3 points!

 

OTBC

[Vazzza 62]

Agreed 100%. Somebody does need to let Hughton know that he is allowed to make different subs. Every game its Morrison for Holt at about 80mins, then Howson for Hoolahan and Bennett for Snodders (or a combination of those 3 on and off for eachother anyway, with maybe having 2 upfront for 5 minutes). In the second half last night we were great for the first 20mins. Then things went flat and S''hampton managed to get back on top of the game. To me, that is the point you need to make changes to take hold of the game again. Whats the point in waiting for 80mins to do like for like, unless you are happy with a point.

I''ve got to say, I am happy with that point and am not too worried about our "first away win", if we keep drawing away and win some home games then we''ll be safe well before the end of the season.

[cityislife 0]

Same old story. Why not David Fox(i know he wasnt on the bench) for B.Johnson pushing tettey forward for the last 10-15 mins? Other option are needed. In the southampton last third they were dreadful. Shuld have been 3 points.

[paul moy 235]

I would have liked to have had the pace of Bennett on much earlier, perhaps with Jackson and we could well have won the game, but who can really argue if we keep picking up enough points to survive. It''s difficult to criticise a manager who has given us a long unbeaten run.  Hopefully he will take more risks and go for wins as we get nearer to survival.  

[Yellow Shirt 17]

Hughton is doing an OK job. at the start of the season I wanted him gone ASAP, that was the wrong reaction, but for the last few weeks I have started to feel very uneasy with the way we are set up, the lack of ability to change personnel or tactics and how poorly many players are playing.Pilks- looks lost.Holt- looks like a grumpy big kid without a bean of finesse... charging around, usually out of position.Hoolahan- looks like a skillful little kid playing against grown ups... nice touch, then just eased off the ball while he looks to see who he can pass it to.Snodgrass- slow, falls over A LOT, average delivery, no threat, bags of confidence very little ability.Fine... these are all points about how they are playing right now not their true ability, we have seen better from them all- but why are they starting week in week out and being allowed to carry no threat?If I were a decent striker I would not want to sign for Norwich City... there are no chances to convert, the manager is stuck on 1 up front and that guy is the captain.Hughton is setting up to draw games and nick the occasional 1-0 win. If we draw every game we would more than likely go down so how can anyone justify that way of playing?The back 7 look ok to me now- so can someone PLEASE work with the attack? Can we see EB get a game? When will we see Jackson again?Why not try playing as a 4-2-4 seeing as we have a 4-2 that is working and a 4 that seems confused and fragmented.Do we need an attack coach? Probably do don''t we? Fine- get one in we are not on any back room staff limit are we?I admitted I was wrong about Hughton... I''m now doubting myself about that.

[Canary_on_the Trent 0]

I too left the ground feeling frustrated.

We started the game too deep & went behind, we then pushed up & dominated the game. For 20mins in the 2nd half there was only 1 winner but we then sat back in the final 15mins & took the point. Game was crying out for the introduction of Bennett but no idea why the substitution never materialised. If we''re not going to try to win games against struggling sides when we''re on top when will we?

[Canary7 0]

I disagree , if their keeper wasn''t so s*** then we probably would have gone on to lose by more as they would have came out 2nd half all guns blazing. Both teams were poor last night and they probably think the same about us that we are one of the worse teams they have played. I for one think we will both be fighting relegation come end of season, but if we don''t turn draws into wins we could be in serious trouble as southampton I fear have too much going forward so they will probably win enough games. They had an off day last night they absoloutely tore Newcastle a new one , something we need to start doing in our home games when we play lesser teams

[ellis206 0]

[quote user="Canary7"]I disagree , if their keeper wasn''t so s*** then we probably would have gone on to lose by more as they would have came out 2nd half all guns blazing. Both teams were poor last night and they probably think the same about us that we are one of the worse teams they have played. I for one think we will both be fighting relegation come end of season, but if we don''t turn draws into wins we could be in serious trouble as southampton I fear have too much going forward so they will probably win enough games. They had an off day last night they absoloutely tore Newcastle a new one , something we need to start doing in our home games when we play lesser teams[/quote]

Or they would have come out second half nervous???? If we had a capable referee they wouldn''t have scored at all and we should of had a penalty....... Your basically implying that if Southampton didn''t have an "off day" they would have battered us because they battered Newcastle, the same Newcastle who are below us in the table and are in terrible form??? Some people are never happy......

[AJ 1,218]

I have to agree, apart from the fluke goal we scored, we hardly looked like scoring. Albeit, neither did Southampton. In all, it was a pretty poor game, but I agree, those 20 minutes in the second half where we totally dominated, we needed to score a goal and got no where even close to doing so.

After that, it was crying out for a substitution. Pilks had been poor, and Snoddy was scaring the hell out of them when we ran at them. Why not bring on Benno? Get those crosses in? Why not switch to two up front and go for the win?

We NEED to be beating the teams around us. I don''t care if Southampton had won two in a row previously, we are unbeaten in 7! We were the better side, and there''s no doubt we should have gone for three points. Disappointed, but at the same time pleased to come away with a point. When at times it looked like we would get nothing. Not at the races last night, and I agree, sat far, far too deep at times. And we can''t play on the counter when we keep aimlessly clearing it to no-one!

[King Klose 0]

Thank god no one on here is the manager.

[AJ 1,218]

Also, I''ve seen it a few times, never a penalty

[nutty nigel 7,509]

The OP sums it up. Southampton looked poor. After all the fear of their attacking threat they looked poor and Bunn had little to do. Thing is, what he doesn''t say is that we made them look poor. The team and how they played, expecially when we didn''t have the ball, reduced Southampton to what we saw last night. With it working so well why would Hughton make substitutions? On Saturday when we were losing 1-0 we ended the game with three strikers on the pitch and got a late point. Last night we held on to our point. If Hughton had finished the game with 3 strikers on the pitch and we''d lost 2-1 it would not have been just one point dropped. It would have brought Southampton 3 points closer to us.

 

 

[SwindonCanary 455]

Eek ! only 4 points from the relegation position, a nice win against Sunderland and everything will be alright in the world. 

[Beefy is a legend 224]

There seem to be quite a few on here who can''t wait to really get stuck into Hughton, if it wasn''t for that pesky unbeaten run....

[a1canary 0]

Absolutely right Nutty - as ever. Well, not quite ever, often!  That is, we make other teams sh*t. It is absolutely NOT a coincidence that when we played Arsenal, all anyone said was how poor they were. United, "off colour" "not firing" were terms used for their performance. Tottenham, not great, Stoke - truly hideous. Southampton and Everton also pretty poor despite showing glimmers of their previous attacking prowess. Trouble is, once we''ve expended our energies ''neutering'' the opposition, we''ve not got a great deal to offer ourselves. Like i''ve said before, this means BORING games and a season of being last on MoTD except when we pull off a one nil vs one of the top 5.

This is the key to Hughton''s Norwich, the total antithesis of Lambert''s Norwich and we''ve got to get used to it folks because unfortunately it''s pretty damn boring. In many ways, we''re the new Stoke with a bit lest of the unashamedly route one box bombardment as the principle - indeed only - attacking tactic. But we all know staying up is the only priority this year and that we have to do it in whatever way works.

This doesn''t mean we can''t do better in attack and i agree with other comment above that our forward 4 - currently pilks, snodds, wes and holty just isn''t quite working at the moment and in fact is less than the sum of its parts i think you could say at the mo.

[Gingerpele 0]

a1, we do have a great deal to offer.

We had plenty of opportunity going forward. Our lack of goals has nothing to do with our ability to neutralise the other team. We had I think 3, maybe 4 FKs in the first half from similar positions to the one Southampton scored from, similar position to the ones we scored against Stoke and Everton, all were terrible. No reason why, they were just not good balls into the box. Pilkington and Snodgrass can do better than that.

Holt was unlucky with his header. Snodgrass had the ball in the box and pulled it back, but not quite to Holt. Snoddy and Pilks both nearly got a shot off only to be stopped by a last second tackle to knock the ball out for a corner. Corners from which we only looked dangerous once or twice, because of the quality of the ball. When we put a good ball into the box we always look like we could score, Holts header. There were other opportunities when we had the ball in good areas, Hoolahan, Snod and Pilks weren''t on form.

I think freshen it up a little in the attacking four next game, I don''t want to say this, but maybe even drop Holt. It could give him the motivation he needs to get back in the goals again. With Snod and Pilks failing to deliver a consistent performance lately, surely Bennett deserves a go, he never did anything to get dropped anyway, Snod just had a good game in the cup. A couple changes could be just what we need, to turn these good opportunities into great opportunities and score a couple rather than one...

[Beefy is a legend 224]

As long as we stay up then I, and Hughton I very much suspect, won''t be overly concerned at when we appear on MOTD. We were on star billing when we got battered by Liverpool...

Anyway, we''ll be given star billing on Sunday whatever happens ;)

[a1canary 0]

You misunderstand me GP. We went through this on the scoring vs not conceding post! I mean we don''t offer a lot going forward the way the team is currently set up. You can not deny that - we are the lowest scoring team in the league.

Our lack of goals is to do with the way we are set up, not the ability of our forward players which we saw last year. I agree we have missed some chances but you seem to be mistaking missed chances for attacking prowess. Every team misses chances - every fan of every team will tell you "if we''d taken this chance or that chance...." But they didn''t so a missed chance is irrelevant - there''s no league table for chances. All that counts is when you take them so you should really cancel them all out and just look at goals scored because goals scored are an indication of chances created. We created more chances under Lambert because we attacked more, hence we scored more. But we also left ourselves open for opposition teams to create and take chances agaisnt us.

We do have a lot to offer going forward if we set up in an attacking sense. But CH doesn''t want to take that route. Don''t mistake this for saying that we can''t score more playing this way. Undoubtedly we can, but even if we took some of the chances we''ve had over the games, we would still be one of the lowest scoring teams, albeit higher up the league, and i hope we can do that as the season progresses. But you just can''t expect us to have the same attacking prowess we had last season when we''re set up the way we are under CH. That would mean being rock solid AND having one of the most potent attacks outside the top 5, and that''s not going to happen. Not this season anyway, but we can dream i guess!