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A side packed with experience (the oldest average age in the division) should
be doing a lot better than it is and that’s always dangerous times for any
manager, including the dour Mr Wagner. When
we played them at St Mary‘s earlier on in the season, the main man was Jonathan
Rowe who has electric pace, good dribbling and is very direct. He would be a
dream signing for us in this transfer window but I assume Norwich would want
more money than we are prepared to spend right now. Also in the Norwich ranks
is big ugly brute of a centre forward Ashley Barnes, still sporting his face
that looks like a bulldog licking piss off a stinging nettle. The goalkeeper of
course is Angus Gunn, now fully recovered from the somewhat abrupt ending of
his time with Saints, mainly caused by the fall out from the 9-0 defeat to
Leicester. Great days.
Russell Martin is of course returning to the club where he had his best times
as a player, appearing in a couple of Premier League relegation campaigns at a
time when Norwich consistently yo-yoed between the Premier League and the
league that they are in now. Having dispatched Swansea 5-0 a couple of weeks
ago, Martin will no doubt be looking to leave another set of his former
supporters feeling miserable.
Team news and it’s slightly weird. Players who played well against Plymouth
have been left out, in the shape of Charly Alcaraz and Che Adams and in their
place, Jack Stephens has been shoehorned into right back which means KWP
playing on the right wing with Adam Armstrong as the central striker. Not sure about that I have to say. Surely playing Stephens at right back and KWP on
the wing means that you are simply playing two players of position. Another surprise is that Flynn Downes is back,
having missed the last game with another illness - maybe he's been on the raw chicken liver again. Rumour has it that he’s wearing a club
branded adult nappy in case he over-stretches and goes full Gary Lineker World
Cup 1990 versus Ireland.
It’s also apparent from the kick-off that Norwich are adopting what looks like a ten at the back formation. It’s actually 5-4-1 but they are all on top of eachother. Saints have an early sniff with Ryan Manning chucking a cross into the box which Joe Aribo doesn’t seem to fully commit to and heads well wide. Another ball into the box it’s knocked back by Adam Armstrong and Stuart Armstrong smashes it so far over the bar that the ball probably landed in Ipswich.
Two consecutive corners from opposite sides from Manning, both find their way towards Jan Bednarek. The first one sees him miss a header and then THB’s shot is deflected for the second corner which finds Bednarek at the back post and after his first shot is blocked, he shanks the second one wide.
Norwich‘s first attack unsurprisingly comes down the Manning Chasm, which has made an appearance with Manning hiding behind Bednarek. Stacey’s cross is headed down by Hwang and the flag is up and everyone stops, before Sara sticks in the net off of the far post.
Sam Edozie then nicks the ball off of Rowe and takes on Stacey on the left, who absolutely trashes him, studs up on his standing leg and full weight sliding along the ground whilst standing on his ankle. Fucking disgraceful challenge which Darren England must have seen because he gives the foul and then decides it’s only a yellow card. You can tell that Edozie is fucked however, and he won’t be coming back.
The free kick comes in and headed by THB but straight at Gunn. Edozie limps back on after a few minutes but he’s clearly fucked and off he goes and has to be replaced with Ryan Fraser. Nice one Jack Stacey, nice one Darren England. Absolute arseholes.
Norwich actually attack and win a free kick in the middle of the park and a decent set piece move finds McCallum out on the left and his volleyed cross causes a bit of grief in a penalty area but the ball eventually goes out for a goal kick and Hwang and THB challenge.
It’s a momentary respite for the Norwich back ten however and they are all back in place as Saints build again with Manning playing a low cross into the box, flicked by Adam Armstrong and The Cornish Cafu has lumbered up from the back and sidefoots a shot from the edge of the box onto the angle of post and bar. Unlucky and half-time.
I know it’s their prerogative to play that way if they want to, but I find it hard to believe that Norwich are going to sit in this ‘back ten’ formation for the whole of the second half. It is up to us to find a little bit more urgency and quality in attacking areas however. For me, the absence of Che Adams has been clearly felt…. and he is on at half-time with Bednarek going off, presumably injured, meaning that Stephens reverts to centre back and KWP is now in his correct position.
Che is playing with a bit of confidence and like Arma did against Plymouth, he goes for the 45 yard lob and gets Angus Gunn panicking, but it drops a few yards wide. We are soon back to 85% possession territory against the back ten, with Fraser getting away down the left, not getting crippled by Stacey and getting a cross into the back post and Aribo again doesn’t seem to really commit to the header and it slides off its head and wide.
More decent play down the lift which ends in a shot from KWP but of course, he’s trying to get the ball through ten players and it’s blocked yet again. Che Adams has obviously got the bug for shooting from distance today and it takes aim from the best part of 40 yards and absolutely smashes it but unfortunately it straight at the goalkeeper again.
The Attack versus Defence training drill continues as Aribo chips a ball into
the box which is completed for by Adam Armstrong and it eventually bounces back
to Flynn Downes on the edge of the box who slashes
it just wide.
Once again down the right and Aribo plays KWP in and he megs McLean and fires
it across and Hanley totally fucks up on the goal line because he’s a clumsy
bastard and Adam Armstrong is stood behind him, Johnny on the spot, to knock it
into the empty net from about 6 inches out. No more than we deserved. Flynn
Downes joined in with the celebrations and fortunately, didn’t over stretch.
We now have to look after the ball and not get caught on the break but our next attack is curtailed with a trampoline touch by Adams which sends Rowe running away up the pitch. Norwich really only have one player and all we have to do is stop him picking up the ball and running at us but we don’t, and he finds Sargent who in turn find Sainz on the left two hits into the side netting. It’s a warning however.
Fraser gives the ball away and once again we are allowing Rowe to run us and he takes a return pass before slipping it through for Sargent, who passes it through KWP‘s legs and then in off the post. It’s a great finish to be fair and totally fucking undeserved but there you go. KWP should have got closer to him but then, we caused our own problems by allowing Rowe to run.
Unbelievably, Norwich now think they can win it and a cross in from McCallum causes all sorts of problems and Sainz effort is saved by Baz before bouncing wide off the Norwich winger.
With six minutes to go Smallbone and Charles come on for a Aribo, who is off to Africa, and Downes who is off to the toilet. That really isn’t going to change anything going forward and it takes until the 90th minute to get Charlie Alcaraz on, replacing Stuart Armstrong who has been disappointing today and probably has been on the pitch half an hour too long.
Immediately Alcaraz makes a difference and knocks a ball through to Adam Armstrong who just has Gunn to beat from the edge of the box but in typical fashion, he’s just smashes it straight at him. Saints are still doing a majority of the attacking and the game ends in typical fashion as Rowe hacks down KWP in full flight on the right wing and rather than make an actual fucking decision, the referee decides to end the game. Fucking arsehole.
I’m finding it really hard not to get a severe case of sour grapes after that one. Norwich set up like they were about to play prime Barcelona and managed to sneak a point out of it. Lucky bastards. I have to admire David Wagner in some ways because the set up like that at home and make it like a training exercise attack versus defence, takes some bollocks and he would’ve got absolutely murdered for it if Norwich hadn’t of got the breakaway goal and the point at the end. It’s hard to believe that a team with pretensions of being in the Premier League next year, in a home game, played for a 0-0 draw from the outset with ten men behind the ball at all times. I can understand it from Plymouth during the week because they are solely about staying up this year but to set up like that at home is fucking embarrassing and it’s really annoying that he got what he wanted with that approach. The Norwich fans are going to be conflicted about this game – pleased with the point but somewhat disappointed by the shit football and I don’t think it will do much for Wagner’s long term employment prospects in East Anglia.
So, it’s another game on the unbeaten run and a point away from home. Dropping points in this manner is disappointing against incredibly limited and unambitious opponents but no damage done as such because Ipswich didn’t manage to win. Though we played pretty well, being critical, we are our own worst enemies though and our lack of quality in the final third came home to roost, never more apparent than Adam Armstrong with his glorious chance to win it in the last couple of minutes when he could’ve put it in either of the fucking great spaces either side of Angus Gunn but instead of that, drilled it straight down his throat.
Let’s talk about Darren England the referee. Arsehole. I’d love to know why Jack Stacey was not sent off for the dreadful tackle on Sam Edozie, which led to him being substituted and reappearing on the sideline in the second half in a protective boot. In the first half, Norwich were leaving a foot in all over the place and they hundred percent have a right to do that but Darren England basically just let them get away with it. The former Premier League referee was a joke today, he really was. Off the top of my head there was
Our goal came from a lovely bit of play on the right wing by KWP, after he had been reverted to his proper position right back and a really good bit of anticipation by Adam Armstrong to know when the ball was going to drop. We were given a warning just before Norwich‘s goal of Jonathan Rowe running from deep with the ball but we allowed him to do it again and he teed up Sargent for the equaliser. To be fair, it was a really good finish.
I don’t feel that Russell Martin had a particularly great day with the Stephens right back issue and it took far too long to get Charly Alcaraz onto the pitch in place of Stuart Armstrong who had his worst game for quite a long time. You could argue that Charly did more in five minutes today, than Stu did in ninety. Che Adams would’ve been much better in the central role than Adam Armstrong after having had a good game against Plymouth on Wednesday. Yes, we got that in the second half but could have done with it in the first. An early goal today would have made things so much easier and Wagner would have had to come up with something other than ten at the back. It’s a compliment I suppose. Yep, still pissed off that he got a point out of it.
Onwards and a small break in the league program as it’s FA Cup 3rd Round time next week against Walsall. Joe Aribo now departs for the AFCON with Nigeria and I’m assuming there will be a raft of other changes against the League 2 side, maybe an appearance for Tyler Dibling and Sam Amo-Ameyaw and Flynn Downes can have a good old rest on the toilet.
18 games unbeaten and up the fucking Saints.
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