I often question why I dedicate my life to football, my friends and family constantly remind me ways in which I could spend my money and time more wisely. I don’t think I ever made a conscious decision to follow football, I just happened to be hit by football fever and have never been able to shake it off.
Over the Christmas break me and my family went on a holiday, I decided to ban myself from the internet and of course this was refreshing and peaceful but I couldn’t help thinking about Norwich on the days they were playing, or the days leading up to games – it was horrible not knowing what was going on. I did get to read a fantastic book though, it was Fever Pitch written by the wonderfully talented Nick Hornby. In this book Hornby describes the brain of a football fan and the little things that keep us ticking over. One of the quotes in the book will stick with me forever.
“Few of us have chosen our clubs, they have simply been presented to us; and so as they slip from Second Division to the Third, or sell their best players, or buy players who you know can’t play, or bash the ball for the seven hundredth time towards a nine foot centre-forward, we simply curse, go home, worry for a fortnight and then come back to suffer all over again.”
I have often sat on a Saturday evening over the past few seasons questioning why I waste my time, money and sanity on Norwich but you will always find me returning to Carrow Road, it’s a strange relationship that gives so little, but when it does it’s the best feeling imaginable.
Now I have gone over some thoughts that often run through my head let’s get onto this weekend’s game against Birmingham.
Last weekend’s game was a complete horror show in all departments, it made me wonder what exactly is wrong with us to constantly take one step forward and two steps back. The thing that made me most angry though was the excuses – the constant flow of excuses that have spewed out of the club this season. There are only so many times you can blame the referee or the woodwork, sometimes you have to look at the fundamental issues.
I’m not going to go into Steven Whittaker’s inclusion or Kyle Lafferty’s clumsy style but I’m going out there and saying these players need a real kick up the ass.
None of us really knew much about Alex Neil when he come into the club but it made for good reading as it seemed we had finally found a man who isn’t here to make friends and can get the best out of his players.
His first game in charge was a hugely satisfying one seeing us come from behind to beat top of the league Bournemouth which was followed up by maximum points against Cardiff.
Despite winning that game against Cardiff the problems that we have seen too often in the past few seasons crept in and we were once again crippled by a lack of concentration and defensive vulnerabilities.
Alex Neil is here to try and turn around what has been a below average season, the game against Brentford would have been a massive slap round the face to show him the problems we have on our hands.
I would love to say exactly what it wrong with this team but I can’t, I genuinely don’t know where our problems lay tactically, the only real summary I can come to is the fact we went down far too easily against Brentford and if we want any chance of going up, there needs to be a real attitude shift to try and get some fighting spirit back.
Birmingham started the season poorly but have hit some fine form under manager Gary Rowett. We’ve seen what they are all about earlier in the season with the quick feet of Demarai Grey and power of Clayton Donaldson combining to cause teams real problems.
I fully expect us to go to Birmingham and put a real performance in, that’s the least us fans deserve for the drab we encountered against Brentford which I watched through my tear filled eyes. I don’t expect us to win as lowering my expectations means I won’t be as disappointed if we don’t win, but on paper a win should be a certainty. We all know ‘on paper’ is a risky road to go down though.
This preview may seem pretty damn jumbled and doesn’t go with the typical preview template we like to use here at TCC, that’s because my Norwich City fan brain is jumbled at the moment, I don’t know what to expect or what I want anymore, maybe this weekend will help to un- jumble it.
Preferred Team:
Finally I’m going to predict a 1-1 draw, I simply don’t have the optimistic energy to predict a win this week, I Just hope this weekend gives me some of that, I am craving it.
OTBC.
