After what has seemed like an eternity, Norwich regained a place in the play-offs having been on the brink for the last couple of months. A fine 2-0 victory against Wolves thanks to a thumping Bradley Johnson header and Lewis Grabban’s tap in, coupled with an eyebrow-raising 3-0 win for Charlton over Brentford has lifted us into 6th position and just a mere 6 points off the top.
There were an array of positives to be taken from Carrow Road, not least the fact that Norwich have won five out of seven since Alex Neil has taken charge. The manner of the victory against Wolves was perhaps the most pleasing element, besides the three points. The atmosphere was the best it had been since our first season back in the top flight; Alex Neil is helping steer us in the right direction and it’s nice to see fans fully getting behind him and the players now.
Another pleasing aspect is Neil seems to be getting the message across to the players of having the right balance of attack and defence. Where we made such mistakes against Cardiff and Charlton of letting them back in the game, we didn’t let Wolves within an inch of taking anything out of this game. If anything, I was more impressed with the manner of victory over Wolves than the home wins against Millwall and Huddersfield because the whole team collectively did their jobs well. We have three in-form strikers now battling for a place in the side and the midfielders are chipping in with their fair share of goals. The biggest plus for me though was our defence; we have got some much needed stability in the last few matches and unsurprisingly this has resulted in three clean sheets out of the last four games – minus a mad ten crazy minutes at the Valley and it would’ve been four out of four. Martin and Bassong seem to have a struck a really good partnership in the heart of defence. Even Steven Whittaker – who has been a scapegoat for a lot of Norwich fans this season – has really improved since the Brentford game; personally I thought he was our man of the match away at Birmingham where he kept Damarai Gray (a £5million pound target for Bournemouth in January) quiet throughout.
The big difference I felt between Norwich and Wolves though was Alexander Tettey. He was simply superb. He orchestrated the midfield brilliantly with an unerring ease: the Norwegian kept Kevin McDonald and Jack Price in check with effective passing and equally impressive tackles. The prime example being in the first half when he made a brilliant turn that took three Wolves players completely out of the game – the move didn’t come to anything but it highlighted to me his dominance in the game. The biggest compliment that could be given to Tettey, though, was Kenny Jackett’s decision at half time to bring Nouha Dicko off for Dave Edwards in the hope they could gain some control in midfield and stifle Alex’s control on the match. However, it had very little impact on proceedings.
Recent news had circled Alex Tettey’s knee injury suggesting that he can’t play three games in a week and this could be a real disadvantage to Norwich’s promotion push. I feel Alex Tettey is one of our better players who has profited this season from being allowed more license to attack and dictate the play, which in the Premiership is far more difficult to accomplish. His absence – along with Jonny Howson’s against Brentford – made it brutally clear we can ill afford to have them missing towards the end of the season.
Finally, after such a brilliant win, we still have to navigate three crunch games ahead. The first being Watford away who have got the same issues City have faced this season, attacking flair mixed with frailty at the back. When we have faced the bigger sides we have tended to step up, so hopefully we can do it again this weekend. A win would see everything start to fall into place; fingers crossed.
