The biggest highs I’ve felt supporting this club haven’t been in Premier League games. But I accept it’s each to their own.
I saw it if you swapped the players and it was Samir fouling Pukki who fell down like Samir did, I'd have been livid for a penalty to have been given.
9 times out of ten we dont lose that game 3-0. That we have the ability to flounce into these results consistenly is the problem. Confidence? Ability? Truat in each other? Self belief? Fragility? Sulkiness? Or all of the above.
Like singing songs about the manager being sacked and thanking the owner whilst getting railed at home by Norwich? The 1881 really are a gift.
They'll do all they can to help us stay up, until we go on a bad run with the new coach and they start telling him he's getting sacked in the morning.
Apparently they provided the fireworks to ‘fire up’ the team against Norwich. Well, I say ‘they’. Came out of their budget I’m sure. Would have made more sense to give everyone cheap scarves no? Put one on every chair. Ask us to wave them all the time? I guess that’s not going to get the retweets.
Too little too late, where was this impetus at the start of the season? I do like Roy but he's concentrated far too much on running the bunker than improving the atmosphere of late. I know it's not just on him for the atmosphere but the 1881 only have a few members that try to get songs going.
Maybe not, but I'd bet they were games of huge significance in terms of striving for or achieving promotion to the Premier League rather than joyous mid-table wins over Reading or Coventry in the Championship. If we decide that operating at the highest possible level is not the aspiration, then the game loses meaning. The idea that the Championship is better only exists because the prize at the end of a successful season is promotion. Otherwise, as I said before, we may as well decline promotion.
I presume you mean he didn't have a meaningful save to make as according to the stats he did have four to make - but I don't remember us ever really testing him.
But the stats show (at least partially) what happened on the pitch no? I’ll agree that we didn’t play well and didn’t deserve to win, but I also think it’s clear that in this one game we didn’t deserve to lose 3-0. Norwich were crap as well.
How dare you forget that slow-motion fadeaway header from an early corner that Samir looped gently into the arms of their keeper?
'And we will do all we can to help that it stays that way' So, that's the square root of fucck all, then.
I’ll tell you what else shows me what happened on the pitch? My eyes. If people want to daydream about the manner and size of the defeat, that’s down to them. Sounds like some are still in denial but that’s up to them. Losing 3-0 at home and still labelling the other team as ‘crap’ is why many feel the penny will never drop for some.
Maybe they’ll have another banner designed by their mate that has no relevance to the team or the town. Or maybe they’ll post another tweet saying the club is ‘crumbling’ only to bottle it and delete it when they realise the hand that feeds you might not taste too good.
It's very, very hard to spin a 0-3 home defeat to a team that had previously scored only 3 away goals all season as anything other than diabolical. Yes, we had more possession in the first half. Yes, Norwich created barely any more clear-cut chances than we did over the 90 minutes, but they stuck the ball in our net three times and we offered all the aggression of a day-old kitten. Had Joao Pedro squared it to King in the first half we may well have gone 1-0 up and then we could have said it was a deserved half-time lead. Perhaps then we'd have gone on to win the game but it's all ifs, buts and maybes because the second half was one of the least coherent and most jelly-bellied performances I can remember. Stacks of sideways passing going nowhere and doing nothing. All our play was laid out right in front of Norwich's (admittedly well-drilled) defence and midfield so they could easily see and anticipate what we were doing. As a result we barely laid a gentle paw on them all match. I completely get that the professionals within the game use statistics in their debrief and planning but for supporters who want to see their team try to win a football match Friday was desperately, desperately lacking anything to latch onto. We weren't unlucky, or narrowly edged out of it, or unfortunate that the score looked worse than the balance of play deserved. We were absolutely abject. Completely unable to create chances despite having most of the ball for 25 minutes at the end of the first half. Spectators for most of the second half and then, when the goals started going in, we defaulted to the arm-waving, finger-pointing blame game. There's very little evidence there's a team there, just 11 randoms who've been chucked a shirt.
I was in two minds about Norwich's tactics when they had the man advantage, as towards the end of the game they played like they were the team with a man down, but then I thought this was actually quite smart, because they made the extra man count in defence and a result we barely threatened for all the possession we had in their half.
Gosh, I'm sure we all wish we were as clever as you. I think, however, that VOR was merely attempting to add to the debate; there is nothing in his post to suggest it is a cover-up for the truth. I was at the match; I saw how ghastly it was. However, Norwich were also poor and unambitious and gave me the impression they could hardly believe their rub of the green.
Indeed, this was part of Graham Taylor's football philosophy: Football games are there to be won, not to be a vehicle for demonstrating circus tricks or management fashion-one-upmanship.
Kabasele was one of those to blame for the second. Slow to get out following our clearance and played everyone onside. Half a second quicker and Norwich can't play the ball down the line.
Yep. It’s obvious. We never get those decisions go our way. Massive foul at Arsenal on Sarr, goal stands. Foul on Samir on Friday goal stands. But a Chelsea player getting a nothing touch in the back then dives and of course goal is disallowed. Big club bias rears it’s head again.
Just funny that the referee gives it, so it’s not enough for VAR to overrule. Referee doesn’t give it, so it’s not enough for VAR to overrule. Mike Riley needs a slap.
