There hasn’t been much to shout about in the past few months for Norwich City fans but this past week has been much better. Reminiscing with friends about winning at Wigan was superb – I had almost forgotten what it felt like to win. The fact that we can also feel confident that Neil Adams can change things up going into this weekend’s Huddersfield game is also another fantastic feeling. Grant Holt returning to his home is the last ingredient in the beautiful cake that this coming weekend creates.
Last weekend at Wigan was far from a classic but it was 3 points, and I would have bit your hand off if you offered me that score line at the start. I’m a fairly old fashioned football fan and would rather a win instead of good performance and coming away without 3 points. Last weekend really was last gasp for Neil Adams, the fans opinion was pretty conclusive and that opinion was ‘he’s simply not got it’.
If I was manager for the Wigan game it looks like I would have got things very wrong indeed, I would have certainly dropped Ruddy, kept Turner in there and made Redmond the main man. None of that happened but it worked for Adams, credit where credit is due – Adams got pretty much everything right last week. We all know that we didn’t play pretty football but things changed and that along with the three points was the most pleasing thing for me.
John Ruddy is part of the foundations at Carrow Road now but this season I have not been convinced at all with his performances, he would have been warming the bench against Wigan if I was in charge. Adams clearly knows all about man management though, Ruddy was low on confidence but somehow came up with a clean sheet and an incredible triple save late on to win us the game. Neil Adams may not have much experience when it comes to managing a first team but with the fantastic work he carried out in the youth teams it seems his man management Is top notch – vital for any manager.
That win now takes us just 2 points from the play offs which is incredible really considering our dreary recent form, it proves just how quickly things can change in this fantastic league.
Let’s talk about this week’s opponents, Huddersfield Town. They started the season very poorly but under new manager Chris Powell they have improved hugely and are now playing some attractive football. Despite their improvement they still have only been able to muster up 3 wins in 10 including a very impressive 2-1 win over Brentford last week in which they played superbly well. Grant Holt, James Vaughan and Jacob Butterfield are all ex-canaries that may be haunting us this weekend if the likes of Sean Scannell and Tommy Smith provide the goods for them.
One of the most heard phrases I have heard this week from the Norwich City camp is ‘papering over the cracks’, that’s exactly what we don’t want that Wigan win to turn into. We all thought that the Bolton game was a catalyst for a change in form but it sadly never turned out that way, now we have the chance to solidify some confidence in both Adams and promotion. I genuinely feel that last week was a pivotal moment in our season and events could have turned out much differently if we lost that game. That wasn’t the case though and it felt Adams learnt a lot, and so did the players. It seemed we learnt how to win, rather than how to perform well and then tell the press how we were ‘unlucky not to get a result’.
All of the above tied in with the chance that Hoolahan, Odidja-Ofoe and Bennett could all be back in contention makes things look so much better and that light at the end of the tunnel has had a surge of power.
Finally, I really do hope that Grant Holt gets the reception he deserves; I myself welcome him back with open arms and will remember everything he done for us. To me Grant Holt will always be in the foundations of this club. The memories live on.
My preferred starting lineup:
