In the normal scheme of things, when you go to Carrow Road in the Championship, you are going to one of the teams up near the top of the division who will be challenging for promotion. Norwich have always been one of the yo-yo teams before Leicester on ourselves got in on the act but they are parachute payment free now and having made a succession of bad decisions over the past couple of seasons are languishing in 23rd place, even lower than Portsmouth. Yes, even Pompey fans will be wanting us to win today.

It was widely breaking news in the media that one of Saints or Norwich would appoint Russell Martin after dispensing with the manager that they started this season with, but in the event, Norwich replaced the pretty hopeless Liam Manning, with Philippe Clement, last seen not being great as manager of Rangers in Scotland… which brings us back round to Russell Martin again. Russell is of course a club legend at Norwich having played over 450 times for them and I’m sure that opportunity to manage the Canaries will come around again.

Clement has had a very slight new manager bounce since he came into Norwich. They are no longer losing every single home game, which is something that Manning achieved but make no mistake, they are still pretty ropey and in desperate trouble and the midweek draw they got at Bramall Lane against Sheffield United, is seen as one of their best results of the season.

On paper, their standout players are Josh Sergeant up front and Kenny McLean in midfield. McLean was last seen scoring from 50 yards for Scotland as they qualified for the World Cup and Josh Sergeant was last seen getting knocked unconscious and concussion protocols mean he won’t be a threat this afternoon. In fact, it turns out the McLean is also injured so he might not make it either.

As discussed, Norwich didn’t appoint Russell Martin and nor did Saints. We of course appointed Tonda Eckert and have won six games out of seven and we surely have eyes on seven wins out of eight and climbing further up the league from the ninth place that we currently inhabit. We are however, going to have to do it without Tom Fellows, who picked up a bit of a groin injury against West Brom. The obvious replacement is Wee Man and I’m sure that he’ll be given the nod, despite not setting the world alight in any of his recent substitute appearances. Tonda could spring a surprise and play Jay Robinson there, who when you think about it, is probably the most like for like replacement. I guess the question is whether his defensive work would be seen as being good enough for starting a game at essentially right wing back. Another Tonda option could be to draft in whoever is right win back frome the Under 21s.

The last time we played a game without one of our four main attacking threats was at Millwall when Scienza was missing, and we really didn’t do very well in an attacking sense, so with Fellows missing today, we can’t afford for the same to happen. We have of course played Norwich at Carrow Road once this season ready and that resulted in a very comfortable 3-0 win in the Carabao Cup, before we got fucked over in the rigged draw for the next round. That win at Norwich was mostly memorable for an amazing strike from Kuryu Matsuki, who you feel could be offering a little bit more from the bench than some of the players who have been coming on at the end of games recently. Talking of cup draws, we pulled out an away tie at Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup 3rd Round, so not too much to complain about there.

If we are serious this season, and both Tonda Eckert and Johannes Spors have said that we are – then we have to win this one. Let’s hope it’s Norwich who do a Russell Martin tribute and give the ball away lots in their own half. Team news seen Captian Jack return instead of Josh Q but Tom Fellows is out and is replace by the ‘safe’ choice of Wee Man.

Away we go within the first couple of minutes, Scienza is chopped down on the edge of the box and it’s he and Ryan Manning standing over the ball. Scienza takes it and it’s over the wall past the keeper and bounces down violently off the crossbar and bounces high in the air as Flynn Downes runs in and he tries to head it down and back across the keeper but instead, manages only heading it straight at the keeper who saves comfortably.

Saints are looking very sharp and win a corner in the sixth minute when Armstrong‘s cross is cleared behind. In comes the kick from Scienza and there’s absolute carnage in the box with everybody taking a swing at it until Nathan Wood gets a decent contact and everyone has their arms is in the air celebrating a goal, as it goes inches past the far post.

Norwich are being very aggressive with their pressing as well as their tackling and THB fucks around with a ball for a little bit too long in the right back area and gets dispossessed and when the cross only comes over, it bypasses Baz about 3three yards out and Captain Jack sticks out of foot and is quite fortunate that the ball loops up and goes over the bar when it really should’ve gone in his own net.

The next time THB gets the ball however, he does what he does best at and splits the lines with a pass into midfield and Jander takes it on the burst and gets absolutely wiped out but the ball runs free on the advantage to Azaz who puts Scienza through on the left and he shoots wide, but Darling’s challenge is so late it just absolutely wipes him out and the ref gives a penalty. Darling, is having a go at Scienza because he fucking knows that he’s taken him out and various other Norwich players and fans are all going mental because …. they’re fucking twats. Scienza had technically got his shot away but that really doesn’t matter you inbread fuckwits. No booking for Darling, just one for the assault on Jander on the half way line.

After a delay to allow everyone in Norwich to grow a brain cell, up steps Armstrong and… piss poor penalty pushed away by Kovacevic with ease. Arma went the same side as always, but didn’t get it high enough, or wide enough.

Norwich are attempting to ramp up the atmosphere now and from the next time Scienza gets the ball, Fisher goes straight through the back of him and doesn’t get booked and then Darling gets involved again and has a kick at him on the ground. The referee doing absolutely fuck all here. He’s getting the decisions right but then not doing anything about it and basically encouraging Norwich to kick us off the park.

Though Saints are having the majority of the game at the moment in an attacking sense, we are still too easy to play through when we give the ball away or if we don’t make it stick up front and a McLean and Schwartau combine easily to send Makama in on the left-hand side, but he lashes wildly over the bar.

Half time and it’s going to have to be a better second half performance than of late. It’s not been bad but we’ve missed chances, with the penalty of course being the main one. Norwich don’t appear to have much quality up front but there’s always that worry that we’re just not tight enough at the back.

The second half starts with Norwich winning a corner on the right, which gets driven into the box and headed out and Scienza get a boot to it and sends it up in the Norfolk air, high above our penalty area, which doesn’t help anyone and back it comes. Manning goes in for a header with 0% intent and the ball gets played wide to the area he has just vacated. Fisher puts the ball in low which may or may not be what he intended and Makama gets in front of the dozing Wood to knock it into the net from about 5 yards. Fuck sake.

Saints appear to wake up with the goal conceded and put Norwich under a bit of pressure in their left back area and it’s all pretty untidy as they attempt to clear it and it goes high in the air. Manning miscontrols it but it bounces off of Makama and back to Manning on his left foot and he decides “fuck it why not” and has a dig from 25 yards and fuck me, it’s gone straight through the goalkeeper at the near post. 1-1. Have that you dirty bastards.

It’s now an end to end battle and back come Norwich with a corner which we manage to clear to the edge of the box before Norwich work it back out to the left and with no pressure on the cross again, we once more struggle to clear it but back out to the Norwich left it goes and Wright hoists it back in to the far post and Darling, who of course should not be on the pitch, gets up above THB and heads it down and Makama comes in behind the once again sleeping Wood, and it ends up in the net with Baz flailing around on the ground in the 6 yard box. That looked fucking weird… oh hang on, he’s properly slapped that into the net with his hand. Fuck sake and the referee lineman have missed it… cunts everywhere

Jander and Wee Man off. Wee Man reverses off the pitch and Bragg and Welington come on, which means an out and out left back at right wing back. We somewhat cluelessly try and get back into it from the next attack but totally fail to leave the back door shut and we have an extraordinary break by Norwich with every single player in a red and white within 40 yards of the Norwich goal. Winger Forsun is away but to be fair to the often highlighted defensive malaise of Manning, he gets back brilliantly to hold it up and thoughor ball gets slid across our 6 yard box again, no one is there to get the final touch.

Makama, then skips past both Wood and THB and barrels into the box before colliding with THB and Macondes puts the ball in the neck, but the ref is given a free kick for a foul on THB and we probably got away with one a little bit there. I can see why he’s given it but there really isnt a lot in it.

It looks like Tonda is changing in the formation when he takes Stephens off, but he isn’t because Jay Robinson has gone to right wing back and Wellington has gone to left centre back. Azaz has been replaced with Archer and Romeu has come on for Flynn Downes. We’re not getting back into this however and nothing changes. The only sub who makes a mark is Romeu and that’s because he’s slow and gives fouls away.

Saints are overcommitting now and Norwich have another break with Marcondes picking up the ball. and running to the edge of the box before hitting what should be a harmless effort at the goal, but this is Baz in goal and he makes an almighty fuck up of trying to gather it and spoons. It back out for Makama whose effort is unbelievably saved by the flailing Saints keeper, but this time at least, the linesman is watching and gives it offside. Maybe Makama should have slapped it in again.

The referee eventually blows the final whistle but to be honest the team had mentally blown the final whistle 20 minutes ago because from that point there was no way we were going to score again. Norwich worked harder in the second half than we did and they found a way to go forward and causes problems, whereas we did nothing at the other end.

There are a few things to complain about of course, the main one obviously being Makama slapping the winning goal into the net and the ref and lino not seeing it. So the cross comes in, Darling who should not have been on the pitch, pushes down on THB which is why his arm goes up on the air, the head down flicks off the hand from point blank range with him not looking at it and drops to Makama, who goes to kick it, misses it and slaps it in with his hand on the follow through accidentally. He doesn’t mean it, but the bottom line is that the ball doesn’t go in the net without the hand. In amongst all this, Nathan Wood is completely unaware of what’s going on around him and the ball has been knocked in the net from within the 6 yard box and our goalkeeper is nowhere. There would be a hell of a lot to unpack for VAR and we’d still be in Norwich now with all that going on, so overall, I’ll swallow the fact that it went in off his hand to avoid having to think about VAR in the Championship.

DId I mention the player who shouldn’t have been on the pitch? Well, the referee allowed Norwich to kick Scienza of the park from first minute to last with the first booking for doing so coming in the 87th minute. McLean and Mattsen had a job to do to be midfield enforcers and you’re always going to have to put in challenges in that position, but how the two of them didn’t get booked in that first half is completely beyond me. Fisher at right back was directly up against Scienza and he got his booking in the 87th minute. The red card should have gone to massive donkey Harry Darling, who didn’t get booked for the scything tackle to give the penalty away, and followed that up with standing on Scienza’s ribs when he was on the ground after being brought down deliberately from behind by Fisher. No yellow card at all even. My theory on that is that the Norwich fans cluelessly ramping up the complaints over the blatant penalty we got given, caused the referee James Bell to draw the line. He gave the correct decisions in the main but then bottled giving cards out.

Getting kicked about and referees doing nothing, happens in the Championship however, and we have to be better than that and we should’ve been today, but we suffered massively from having one of our attacking players not available, like we did against Millwall. You could tell from the first couple of minutes that it wasn’t going to work as well today with Ryan Fraser taking Fellow’s place. I understand not playing Robinson there from a defensive point of view but we lost so much from an attacking sense that maybe it would have been worth the risk to bank on us outscoring Norwich.

We struggled today because we only really had three attacking players on the pitch whereas with Fellows we have four, so generally there was one less person to pass to ahead of the ball and that is why we ended up going sideways and backwards a lot. When we’re still first started playing the three at the back formation, we often complained that we wanted to play 4-2-3-1 to give us four players in attacking positions, but we have got round this by Fellows playing so far forward and us skewing the team around to cover. Today it just wasn’t there and we seemed to be lacking options.

It also seems that unless we are scoring goals, we are gonna struggle to win games because we are going to struggle not to concede. When we defend we are basically playing a 5-2-3 formation so the midfield is stretched and too easy to pass through. Somehow, despite have 5 players strung across the back, we don’t get wide enough to block any crosses and when the crosses come in, the defenders don’t dominate as they should and the keeper commands nothing. Another two goals today, finished within the goalkeepers six yard box and another easy chance coughed up by dropping a simple shot. Daydreaming ballwatching defenders are not helping either of course.

Arma and penalties. Not great is it? Three misses out of four apparently, having misadvisedly done one of those videos for the media where he talked everyone through his penalty technique. Not great that. Talkign of media – Norwich social media is hilarious – the mental gymnastics being done to justify the handball goal. What goes around …

Bollocks, we move on. Work to do at both ends of the pitch with the worrying thing being that if we don’t create lots of chances and don’t score, we are incapable of keeping a clean sheet. It was amusing to me that Ryan Manning was the player pointing this out in post match interviews when our wing backs neither stop crosses coming in, nor help the two central midfielders. Our next chance to put it right is agsint runaway league leaders Coventry, who are next up next at St Mary’s.

Up the Fuckin’ Saints