The linesman who originally flagged Gary Hooper offside leading up to his goal set the strange feeling around Carrow Road for what was a dark day for Norwich City. Celebrating the goal we scored somehow felt wrong; perhaps because I always thought we would throw the lead away. Of course we did throw it away, and in a fashion even Sunday League teams would be disappointed with – comical defending from two corners meant 19 year old Jake Cooper bagged a brace and gave Reading the easiest 3 points they will get all season. The overwhelming question is: where did it all turn sour?
The performance was lacklustre at best and the atmosphere was once again dead, but what happened after the game showed the horrible place we are now in as a club. Fans lost their cool with chief executive David McNally (Video), and players seemed to escape out of whatever door was closest – Steven Whitaker left from a fire exit and avoided fans before driving away. Furthermore when your most professional players start to argue with fans on Twitter there really are problems.
Where did this uncontrollable spiral of negativity start then? Personally I feel it’s the gradual decline of Norwich City; two years ago we were sitting happily mid table of the Premier League, now we’re 11th in the Championship with relegation form. The season started so well with optimism of promotion flowing through the blood of the 26,000 Norwich fans that pay their money to watch their beloved football team week in week out. Now most fans are wanting Adams out and turning against both players and board members.
There hasn’t really been a snapping point in the season where you look and think – that’s where it all went wrong. Middlesbrough away was of course a disgraceful performance but nobody really expected us to get much there. I put our current form down to the home games earlier in the season where we should have collected 3 points and come away with draws. Rotherham, Bournemouth, Birmingham, Leeds – the list goes on. These are games that if you want to achieve promotion you have to be winning and the performances were marginally worse than they should have been. When you start going on a run without winning these draws turn into losses, the games against Nottingham Forest and Fulham are perfect examples. We didn’t play bad in these games, but when the momentum has gone, it’s awfully difficult to get out of a rot.
We now find ourselves in a position that we really didn’t want to get into. Our club legend/manager is under huge scrutiny and the man that has done so much for the club, David McNally is under serious pressure after news come out of him taking a £365,000 bonus for helping us to relegation last season. Our talented set of players are also woefully under performing. What can we do to try and save our season and is it even possible anymore?
Our next 2 games are Wigan and Derby – both away from home. Wigan are in a horrible run of form like ourselves and also have a board under a lot of pressure thanks to owner Dave Whelan’s racist remarks over the past few weeks – remarks that he refuses to apologise for. It’s going to be a tough game for sure but it’s certainly winnable. If there was ever a game for a fan base to get behind a team it’s now. I understand the pure frustration from some fans but when it gets to Saturday, put all this behind you and truly get behind them players. Win that game and there is some light at the end of the tunnel but cracks can’t be papered over, that’s what happened when we faced Bolton.
We then travel to Derby County who have been the team to beat this season, and Leeds managed exactly that on Saturday. Derby currently sit at the top of the table with the likes of Chris Martin and Jordan Ibe really doing the business for them, if the Norwich City players and fans want it as much as we all say we do, going to Derby should not be feared. Win that and we are right back in the mix.
Of course winning both of these games would be a miraculous turnaround but I wouldn’t put it past us to do exactly that, we are Norwich City at the end of the day and anything is possible.
OTBC.
