The fact that Norwich were the last team to beat Sunderland says 2 things. Firstly the fixture lists are all to cock with having to play the same team twice so quickly and secondly and most importantly, we’re on a nice unbeaten run and looking a decent-ish team. A least hard to beat. So after successive away games in which 4 points were gained it was important not to throw the advantage away in this game or next weeks game against Luton.
And after another win, onward we stroll. The game wasn’t pretty and followed similar performances against Southampton, Colchester and Wolves. Two very evenly matched sides, both with aspirations to break into the top six and both with good players (for this division). The result – a fairly turgid game with no real flow. It has to be said the way we play has something to do with this. While, since the introduction of 4-5-1 has resulted in improved results (and maybe performances overall) it’s still a negative setup particularly at home. Murphy once again was playing up front, Elliott on the right with 3 in the middle. It ensures we don’t concede ground easily and generally keep hold of the ball well but when we attack it’s slowed down by sheer lack of numbers of front. If we’ve been defending, for example, the ball breaks up field to one of the flanks and Murphy wins the ball then theirs no-one within 30 yards of the box. Murphy has to check back, play slows down, their players flood back, the move breaks down and everyone gets annoyed.
When it works is when we win the ball in midfield, move forward from their, stretch the play with the wide men then we have all kinds of options. That didn’t happen enough today. Wallace had plenty of the ball in the first half and got in a few nice crosses but Dion Dublin just won everything that came in at head height in the box.
Not one for ‘conditions’ being an excuse usually, I do concede however that the pitch was pretty poor today and the wind made it difficult to control the ball at times. Norwich were equally culpable at giving the ball away in as bizarre circumstances as we were.
Half time and I was fairly content, regardless of the average fare on show. 0-0 at half time is a good score in any game and at home you’ll always have the impetus to come forward more. Second half started brightly, Elliott used the ball well (he always does), Leadbitter got forward in support more and Miller and Kavangh were more dominant in midfield.
It was still attritional stuff though, Norwich never threatened but they never looked like conceding neither then with 15 minutes left Elliott fed a ball to Murphy on the edge of the box, with his back to goal he turned and shot low to the keepers right, into the bottom corner. It was a fine finish and says a lot about Murphy. He frustrates when he’s up front as he’s less of a ‘in your face’ striker like Chris Brown so maybe gets a bit of stick for not going for every challenge but he’s got talent, no doubt.
After the goal it was the usual stuff, our confidence grew for a short while, they threw men forward and left spaces at the back. They never looked like scoring and we could have had 3 more on the break. I’m normally fairly nervous when in the final minutes protecting a single goal lead but I never though we’d concede. Perhaps it’s growing confidence in our team, maybe its credit to Caldwell and Collins. Maybe it’s just because Norwich were crap.
After the game there were faint mutterings of automatic promotion with Preston, Derby, Cardiff and others failing to win and while every teams pretty close on points, were still in the bottom half of the table. We’ve got a lot of games between now and the New Year. We could be in a very good position come January, a key time when we’ll know, short term anyway, how strong Quinn and Keanes intentions are of getting back in the Premiership as soon as possible
Mon of the match – Stephen Elliott
Report by marcopaul