What a difference a break makes...

[Warren Hill 0]

What a difference a break makes. Just 18 days ago, Grant Holt missed a penalty. Patience ran out. Our hero, our talisman, the player that media darling Gareth Bale was visibly afraid of, was finished.

 

His weight and fitness were out of control, his mind was elsewhere, age had caught up with him.

 

For some this was all too easy to latch onto, having predicted his demise every season since League 1. For others it seemed ludicrous. Ludicrous that such a player could come in for such criticism, ludicrous that his professionalism be called into question, ludicrous that Chris Hughton would continue to play someone with these apparent problems.

 

But Hughton himself wasn’t immune, our negative play, lack of goals, reluctance to make changes during the game as well as his apparent love affair with Holt were all levelled as reasons for our demise.

 

All sorts of things were being bandied around; usually level headed fans were calling for the axe to fall, “told-you-sos” and “ne’er-do-wells” were pouring out of the woodwork, Ipswich fans raised their head above the parapet, sensing the unease, praying for trouble in paradise, anything to distract them from their season long battle against the drop.

 

Battle lines were drawn, fans encamped on either side. QPR were going to finish above us, Villa and Wigan were hitting form “at the right time” on one side while in the opposite trench fans pointed to the gap in points, the number of games left, the number of clubs between ourselves and 18th place and the fact that when these teams play each other, they can’t both win.

 

Impasse.

 

Neither camp surrendering an inch. For every hand-wringing reference to 1995, or the Coventry City debacle of 1985 was a seemingly reasoned pointer to the fact that we are comfortably on target to stay up, that we’re still picking up points.

 

The 95ers were convinced that peoples viewpoint would change after we’d played Sunderland away. “WE WILL LOSE TO SUNDERLAND” screamed the opening post on the Pink’Un messageboard. Of course we didn’t lose; a spirited 1-1 draw when we were still the better side with 10 men, irrespective of the fact that they appeared to have 12. Questionable decisions aside, we had picked up a plucky point having played for an hour a man down. Holt had missed out, we’d played with spirit and determination. Equally as important though was the point that we had picked up.

 

If the green shoots of belief were starting to emerge after the Sunderland result then what happened next seems to have acted as a hydroponics kit. 22nd March, Norwich City agreed to sign Ricky van Wolfswinkel. And with one fell swoop the gloom lifted, a bit like on Wednesday afternoon when that yellow thing that has been missing from the sky this spring finally managed to give itself an outing. Some of those calling for “Head of Hootun” to be served up on a ceremonial platter were suddenly enamoured with our club once again.

 

Now, I’m not for a moment suggesting that we have a united fanbase, singing from one hymn sheet.

 

Although much like United’s fanbase, we have plenty of folk to call on in Yarmouth and the only time we all sing from one hymn sheet is after someone has paid a couple of hundred quid to bark “Kick it off” into a microphone on match day, but that’s another discussion entirely..

 

No, we are still not mathematically safe. Grant Holt’s knockers (ahem) are easy enough to locate and what will we do with the Wolf if we go down?

 

But let’s not shy away from the fact that this is a massive statement by NCFC. We are tantalisingly close to securing our status (we WON’T go down) and we’ve hammered out a message to our fans, players and our peers. Norwich City are showing intent. Norwich City are showing ambition. Norwich City are telling everyone that we belong on this platform. I’m sure everybody would have loved RVW to have joined in January but while that battle was lost, we won the war. The Wolf says that we’ve promised further attacking investment, McNally has said we’ll be VERY busy in the summer transfer window and while the 95ers won’t dare mention “SAFE” until it is a mathematical certainty as confirmed by Rachel Riley, it’s pretty clear that the board believe, even if they don’t.

[crabbycanary 2]

Rousing Warren, rousing

(No, there isn''t a missing ''a'' meant to be there)

[lappinitup 629]

Obvious binner is obvious!

[Mister Chops 7]

[quote user="Warren Hill"]Battle lines were drawn, fans encamped on either side. QPR were going to

finish above us, Villa and Wigan were hitting form “at the right time”

on one side while in the opposite trench fans pointed to the gap in

points, the number of games left, the number of clubs between ourselves

and 18th place and the fact that when these teams play each other, they

can’t both win.

 

Impasse. 

[/quote]I enjoyed reading this a lot.I have selected the part above as the part I would disagree with.  The number of people saying that QPR would finish above us would not constitute a "battle".  I''m not even convinced people who said QPR would finish above us are fans, or even sane.

[PurpleCanary 6,381]

Nice to see the word "hydroponics" making a rare (first even?) appearance here.

[Splendid Rush 8]

Excellent post. Why do you have only 100 odd when some trolls on here have thousands?

[lappinitup 629]

I can''t let this very engaging post drop down the front page boy. I''m sure the people who wanted "Hootun out" now realise he''s the best man for the job. I didn''t see anyone propose an alternative and anyway, he''s still in his honeymoon period. Another shrewd signing by next Wed and he''ll set up for life. [;)][:D]

[Alan_Grey 0]

[quote user="Splendid Rush"]Excellent post. Why do you have only 100 odd when some trolls on here have thousands?[/quote]

Because there is always less to say that''s sensible than there is complete tripe. Youtube comments and BBC story comments rely on this principle.

[Zak Van Burger 0]

[quote user="lappinitup"] I''m sure the people who wanted "Hootun out" now realise he''s the best man for the job. I didn''t see anyone propose an alternative [/quote]Now that''s not entirely true Lapps, there was one old dodderer who used to post on this site kept putting Holloway forward as a replacement for Hughton. Apparently Holloway could have got us playing good attacking football we''d score three goals every week in response to the oppositions four and the subsequent relegation would have been a small price to pay for 90 minutes a week of pure entertainment and some comedy interviews. [:S]Still.... lovin'' the original post!! [Y]