Norwich (a) - League - 17th April 2004

[Andy]

By reading saddler on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 04:08 pm: Edit

Ouch 0-2 never good come on Merson get yourself on

By reading saddler on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 04:35 pm: Edit

3-0 does a 5-0 thumpng sound right

By hullsaddler on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 04:35 pm: Edit

0-4.At least gillingham are losing.

By ken on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 04:38 pm: Edit

Gills run in : Wimbledon A , Coventry H , Stoke A , glad they are losing but can see plenty of points from the above

Burnley 2 down!! Who have they got in their last 4??

By techno on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 04:48 pm: Edit

5-0 fudge ell

By Paul Russell on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 05:16 pm: Edit

Silver lining corner. Just checked the BBC Text Commentary statistics,and, having counted efforts on goal by both sides [including the goals]Norwich had 21 and Walsall 15. More efforts on goal than the last 5 games put together. Against far and away the best side in the division. Are we really down yet? I look forward to the comments of those fans who were there...

By Padstow on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 05:29 pm: Edit

Ken, dont assume GFC will beat Wimbledon.

By ken on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 05:47 pm: Edit

aint assumed nothing , but think theres a damn good chance

By SheffieldSaddler on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 05:52 pm: Edit

ken - Wimbledon are actually playing well at the moment? They have had some decent results and gave Sheffield United a fright last Saturday. They have won today, beat Wigan away in recent weeks. Only just lost to Sunderland, Millwall and Ipswich by the odd goal. They can beat Gillingham I have no doubt about that.

By Giza on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 06:50 pm: Edit

So much for attacking football!! Wrong team to try that against. That 5 - 0 could haunt us in the remaining games. Goal difference and all.

By ken on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 07:04 pm: Edit

Wimbledon have picked up slightly yes , but W2 D4 L15 as a home record, roared on by over 2,000 doesnt really fill me with confidence that they can beat a Gillingham team scrapping like mad.

I hope your optimism is justified, i'm praying it is

By Jorge14 on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 09:27 pm: Edit

It was promising believe it or not...

We attacked, we looked decent going forward, Jorge is a new position in midfield, my man of the match, and McSporran looked dangerous when he used his pace. He looked weak though.

Osborn had a BETTER game, but no where near his best. Burley was anonymous, Emblen was skipper and battled his heart out.

Carbon and the returning Ritchie were fairly solid, however, when Merse told everyone to come and applaud the fans at the end, both Ritchie and Walker (who was injured for the best part of an hour) walked straight off the pitch.

A word to the fans today. A big following, not too many regulars, but a fairly vocal day out. Nice to have a bit of respect between fans as well. Walsall fans gave standing ovations to McKenzie and Svenson...Norwich fans clapped Walsall fans out of the stadium at the end.

A bit of a mystery to end with...Alan "Smudger" Smith came out of the away end toilet when we were leaving at the end...why? Was he "dogging"?

By Bristol Saddler on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 09:27 pm: Edit

Giza!

So what you are saying is that we should have played 5-5-0 in an attempt to try and keep the score down to say 2-0, just in case it comes down to goal difference!

Rather than try an attacking/positive line up which gives the players/the fans/the club a boost, a positive outlook for Saturday's key game against Sheff Utd! Because Giza as most people on here are saying we need 4 to 6 points to stay up and that involves scoring, sommat we aint doing!

By rakette on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 09:47 pm: Edit

been 2 the game and although the scorline looks awful at least we can say we ATTACKED!!! im sorry but 4 any1 that actually thinks aranalde is worthy of putting on that walsall shirt is a fool. week in week out he is appauling. one of the worst full backs (with dreadful hair) we have ever had! we should swap him 4 a straw donkey

By culley on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 09:59 pm: Edit

i totally agree rakette!! he's been a problem all season how can steve madeley in last weeks sporting star describe his form as being impressive is beyond me. i thought full backs should be able 2 tackle, win the ball and when possible cross the ball without hitting the opposing player! surely darren wrack or mark wright could do a better job.

By rakette on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 10:03 pm: Edit

Anyway, about norwich. definately the best team in the league this season home and away. enough said.

UP THE SADDLERS!!!

By cheese bag on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 10:24 pm: Edit

Forget today.... Norwich are different class, we actually ATTACKED today and Mcsporren could have nabbed a couple on a different day. Good support dancing even when Norwick scored thier forth and fifth goals to the music ;0

BTW Pies were nice, todays Delia speciality creamy cheese and button mushroom with garlic!!!!

They even served Smirnoff ice!!!!

By John Bonds Ghost on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 11:08 pm: Edit

Good luck for the rest of the season lads. You caught us on a good day - hope you enjoyed your day in Norwich

By Spellchecker on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 11:18 pm: Edit

Am I the only one who can spell 'definitely'?

By Dave Roe on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 11:27 pm: Edit

definately defanitely definitley definitely not

By The saw us on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 02:45 am: Edit

Seams like it.

By Esso on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 08:11 am: Edit

Noticed Ritchie was in the team!!!! Puts a different slant on the 'Blame Bonser for not playing Ritchie' saga. Makes you wonder who it was who stopped him playing

By rakette on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 10:16 am: Edit

If we are going to stay up we have to put yesterdays result behind us and accept that norwich were excellent.

I am very happy that ritchie has been aloud to play as I feel he has been outstanding for us all season

We have to attack against sheffield as well. Its what we want to see and because of colin lee's tactics this season where we have done quite well in the 1st half and then he must just tell them "right lads lets sit back and give them a massive chance of scoring!!"

In the summer we desperately need a striker!

By Neil Ravenscroft on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 10:21 am: Edit

The only slant it puts on the Ritchie incident is the one quite a few people said all along. Wait until his ban is over and see what happens. The answer? He's straight back. Bonsor stopped him playing until he knew how long the ban was going to be (probably quite rightly), but, stupidly, didn't discuss it with Lee first. That's what soured relations and helped the events of last week along. Ritchie's agent probably kicked up such a fuss to try and embarrass the club into giving the player maximum backing in the hearing. Too much jumping to conclusions been going on.

By SheffieldSaddler on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 01:30 pm: Edit

Esso - What you trying to say by "Makes you wonder who it was who stopped him playing". It was NOT CL thats a FACT. So who else could it f*cking be for gods sake? Only 1 other person it could be as far as I know.
Seems to me that fans like you will just continue to make swipes at CL even when he has gone in such circumstances created from the board.
Will you and other people be the new "Tony Blair" of Walsall FC? i.e lets blame the last person who was managing the club/country for the next 7 years?

By wfc_2uk on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 03:01 pm: Edit

I woke up yesterday morning very tired (due to two hours sleep for work reasons) and worried. As i left carrow road I felt alot more optimistic and positive. We didnt deserve to lose 5-0, but as merse said we had more shots in one game than we probably did in 4 months! If colin was in charge today we would of lost 10.
The Norwich fans were outstanding, the atmosphere was exceptional and its only fair that they will be watching premier footie next season compared to those ar$eholes that will be watching div 1 footie at the Molineaux.
Aanyway onto yesterdays match, I thought everyone could be proud with themselves apart from darren Lazy who was at fault for three of the goals, Lee Badbuy who endlessly ran away from the ball and Craig Barely (touches the ball).
I have to admit when we were losing 3-0 and Gillingham and Derby were winning I had a little tear cause I thought that was it.
WE HAVE GOT TO RAISE BESCOT NEXT WEEK FOR THE BIGGEST GAME FOR ALMOST A YEAR! IVE WROTE TO THE CLUB TO TRY AND IMPROVE THE BUILD UP FOR NEXT WEEKS GAME.
If we fail to get a result we are doomed, come on get every man you know to turn up next week so we can make the 12th man (just like Norwich did yesterday).
COME ON LADS!

By Stopping up? on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 03:14 pm: Edit

If CL had been in charge, we would have lost 2 or 3 nil and had 1 or 2 shots.

I'm a bit worried about Merson's 'gung ho' tactics, though. They might work for Melchester, but for Walsall?

By ken on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 03:24 pm: Edit

Stopping Up ? - we need a bit of gung ho as we need points now , to get points we need goals. Better to go down fighting surely ?

By Bristol 'Optimistic' Saddler on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 05:34 pm: Edit

Stopping Up - It may have escaped you attention but we need 4 to 6 points to stay up and that involves scoring goals! Even if we need just 3 points, can you honestly say we can keep 3 clean sheets!

Pray for the results to go our way mid-week and then McSporran, Fryatt and Merse to score Saturday!

By popperpancake on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 07:51 pm: Edit

Anyone wanna tell me what formation we played? I assumed we played with a back 3 when i read the team , but someone told me we played 442? Massive game next week, i reckon it's gonna go to the wire. Shitting myself.

By Magic Man Fan on Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 07:58 pm: Edit

Much much better in my opinion and I'm obviously not alone in my thoughts. We will stay up if we can put on similar displays in remaining games.

Plenty of shots, changes made early which might have given us a chance.

Norwich are an excellent side in this division. I hope they get the Championship ahead of Albion because unlike Albion their football is a joy to watch. So I am being extremely critical when I have any issues but they are that Huckerby embarrassed Bazeley (expected) and that Merse didn't start himself (unexpected). We still didn't hold the ball up enough when around their box.

By PGtips on Monday, April 19, 2004 - 12:24 am: Edit

Didn't go but nearly fell off my chair when I saw we had 15 attempts at goal. Merson comes across as a decent bloke, doing his best in an impossible situation. Had to laugh at his quotes in the mercury where he claimed he did not sleep on Fri night as he lay there mulling over 28 different team selections.

Our goal difference is now shot to pieces and there are few (if any) likely permutations of results that will keep us up. BUT I think it is going to be fun for the next few games.

No way in the world would CL have started this fixture with Jorge, McSporran and Bradbury. It would have been a defensive 4-5-1 with one long range shot over the bar and a 2-0 loss. I don't honestly think merson has a clue what he is doing but he might just serve up something like entertainment. I'm already looking forward to Saturday even though there is every chance we will take another pasting.

A novice manager with a rag bag side of misfits, on short contracts, who have no idea where they will be playing in a few weeks time - up against far better prepared and organised sides. This is what its all about at Walsall.

By :o) off the ncfc site on Monday, April 19, 2004 - 03:37 pm: Edit

Have to say that we (I'm a City fan) did outplay you and reading your comments it seems that you know the weak links in your defence. To be fair we forced the midfield back with Osborn having to cover the full back nearly all the game.
Emblem was class (and that comes from a City fan who thought he was our biggest ever waste of money) and really ran himself into the ground.
I fear you will go down as the only worse team ( Gillingham) has got a better run in.
Well done for joining in the carnival spirit and having fun - you've got to be the best fans in that part of the country!!
Final point Merson warmed up with just one other player whilst the others did their warm-up exercises - why? is he a loner all the time or was he just keeping out of it till the final briefing?

By toni banks on Monday, April 19, 2004 - 06:25 pm: Edit

i liked mersons gung ho approach..hopefully against a different team( next week) it might work...the carnival atmosphere was nice.....it's good to dance when you're losing 5-0......norwich fans were great...wish we had the support .still the few of us who were there enjoyed it...or do i speak for myself....apart from losing of course.....

By SheffieldSaddler on Monday, April 19, 2004 - 06:47 pm: Edit

Well I am pleased everyone is being so positive even after a 5-0 defeat.
How things change, a few weeks ago people were complaining when we only got a draw against play off hopefuls Millwall.
Football is a strange game, and the fans even stranger.

By Freddy H on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 01:41 am: Edit

Hello, I am a Norwich fan and was very pleased with our performance on Saturday, probably our best of the season. However your boys caused us lots of problems at the back and Green had to make 4 saves when it was 1-0, and another 3 during the second half. Then there were a few more attempts that were off target. Emblem ran his socks off, he never looked that good for us. Jorge and Jermaine looked handy also. Merson can still be a big influence over the last few games. But I have to say your defence were very poor.

Don't give up on them though, there was a great atmosphere and even at the opposite end we could hear your supporters singing, they were a credit to your club. The Norwich fans used to really moan and whinge, we started to get behind them on our run to Cardiff two seasons ago and it just snowballed from there. My message is keep singing and supporting even when the chips are down. I am sure that if you create that many chances you will easily stay in Div one, good luck, see you in a couple of seasons!

Dont give up on the team,

By Cynical Message Reader on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 08:58 am: Edit

Good to see you are on first name terms with our players. Live in the West Mids by any chance?

By steelmass on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 03:43 pm: Edit

dont think they see much of ivlisation intersting pies tho but for the place match get as many saddlers down to the smoke