The Norwich away, match thread

[twilight]

Has Lennon made any post match interview...anyone oblige? I'd love to hear it. Spearing was the telling substitution imo at half time. The midfield department is a very important one. It's the engine room....and i'm afraid the engine room last night stuttered badly, Lennon I think was as much peed off with our captain than anything. Spearing for me was cupable for not covering his area correctly, you're not telling me that he thinks Trotter is a good substitution for Spearing Looked to me that he had had enough of Spearing and rightly so, he was crap. (As was Beckford by the way and he also substituted him, which beckford wasn't happy about)

[Jugs]

Yeah. He isn't happy. Set pieces were 'atrocious.' Clayton 'should have scored.' We had no physicality, were second best but were decent going forward at times.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Hmm. Good morning: now get out of the hotel bed, the honeymoon's over. Several things last night were Freedman-bad.

Worst was the shape, or lack thereof. What was it even supposed to be? NL complains that we've got 564 central midfielders but that's no reason to try to fit them all into a formation. In the first half we seemed to be playing 4-1-4-1 in which the midfield '4' were far to frequently and easily bypassed by a simple five-yard diagonal, like passing the ball through shirts on a washing line. NL tried to change it mid-half - furious gesticulations and all - but we spent a lot of time chasing shadows.

Then Spearing went off, apparently replaced by Trotter, although I kept forgetting we had him. If this was a ballsy tactical decision, it ballsed up: without Spearing we lost all structure. If it was injury, I hope he's back for Tuesday.

Not that Spearing was excellent in the first half, far too frequently misplacing passes – as they almost all did, to a shocking extent - and (as Pru says) passing on defensive duties to non-existent team-mates. Danns was occasionally there but while he's an honest hard-worker (with decent qualities around the box) I don't think he has the nous to play in the 2 of a 4-2-3-1. Chungy looks interested but needs help. Mavies still looks like the only central midfielder capable of making things happen. Pratley is another honest trier but it takes a leap of faith to imagine him getting a goal or an assist.

Beckford I've tried to like, and still don't hate, but his time is up. I was surprised when NL opted to replace him with Clayton, who made an excellent run but badly shanked his shot and didn't do a lot thereafter; Cravies is again limited but willing and, as some have said, if you're only going to play one up top he has to make things happen somehow, through inspiration or perspiration. The Canaries centre-backs had too easy a night.

The defenders... Good to see Threlkeld in there, and he looked unfazed, but then again he's hardly a tweenie - he's 21 in three months. Like many, some of his passing was awry, and it was partly his fault that Mills nearly handed Norwich a(nother) first-half goal by losing possession in the area: Threlkeld had split so far wide that Mills couldn't actually see him for the striker. Again, like many on the team all night, in that instance he wasn't making himself easily available for the pass, as you simply have to do if you want to have possession. The nadir of this was the throw-in - the throw-in! - that AW mentions: everybody trying to look busy but hiding 20 yards from the ball. It was amazing how many times this happened in central midfield, where half our team was, often hiding behind each other in a parcel of space you could cover with a picnic blanket.

Mills is what he is, which is not as good as he thinks he is, but a rugged defender who'll win headers at either end. Dervite looks better on the ball but, as noted, got bullied out of it for the second goal (a little nudge from Jerome's right forearm as they jumped). Ream is another honest trier but he's not *really* a left-back, is he? Not that Moxey necessarily is, but given our lack of wide midfielders we really need to make the numbers and width up with full-backs comfortable on the ball beyond the halfway line. (On that note, it's interesting to hear Kellett doing well at Plymouth... meanwhile, where's Tierney?)

We have to play much better than this, not just against promotion-chasers but generally. It seemed to me that after a very promising first 10 minutes from us, Norwich simply got tighter, stopped us passing... and won the game. It felt like we didn't have a Plan B: rightly or wrongly, Freedman would have been crucified for not trying 4-4-2 until the 85th minute; I also agreed with the commentators wondering why we didn't gamble a centre-back forward for the last few minutes. Lennon's game management seemed to fail him last night, and I hope he's learning fast, because there's lots and lots for us to do.

[twilight]

On the subject of Tierney, there's rumours of him needing another op and he is considering retirement. How true this is I don't know?

[Jugs]

Good post DSB.

The commentator seemed to think Spearing had picked up a knock in the first half.

[Tombwfc]

Far too easy to beat (now lost every single away game bar Birmingham) and in desperate need of some reinforcements.

That's got to be it for Beckford. I wish him no ill and his issues are not a lack of effort or heart or desire. He's just not good enough. Both Dougie and Lennon have spoken about him as a potential 20-goal-a-season man, but he's never done that at this level anywhere else, so why is he going to start now?

Craig Davies has a similar goalscoring record and, despite the fact that ultimately I don't think he's good enough either, he is at least a presence up there. When Beckford isn't scoring (and given he's going at 1 in 6 for us, that's quite often) we're down to 10 men.

A striker and a winger please.

[Riviman]

Would have liked to see Vella come on for Spearing rather than Trotter, in fact I'd rather see any other of the subs on rather than Trotter, even Paddy Kenny !

[Sponge]

Good post DSB.

The commentator seemed to think Spearing had picked up a knock in the first half.

Lennon, via the BWFC Twitter: "The decision to take Jay Spearing off was tactical. It's my job to make decisions to change games."

Well, it certainly changed the game...

[Jugs]

It was a strange one because we weren't that bad in the first half.

Certainly not so bad as to warrant bringing Trotter on.

[Lord Kangana]

I'm not expecting miracles, as it may take time to unlearn some of the bizarre tactics and formations of the previous regime.


I'm not sure, though, if time is a commodity we have an abundant supply of right now. Survival is looking like the most realistic target we can aim for. And I for one feel we'll be having the debate about players like Trotter in League One if we persist with them.

[jaffka]

We got beat by the better team. He wasn't happy with it, which is great.

We already look a better team than before.

Lennon is a winner it will come good.

[SmokinFrazier]

We got beat by the better team. He wasn't happy with it, which is great.

We already look a better team than before.

Lennon is a winner it will come good.

Yeah, I think a bit too much focus has been on us rather than them. They're a good team, packed with quality players and we were away, still low on confidence, and lost 2-1. Both goals we conceded are easily fixable and we can be better going forward too, so whilst a loss is frustrating, it's not like we were hammered against a poor team. There was still enough there to make me think we're going in the right direction, so whilst I'm disappointed we didn't get a point, I'm not particularly worried for the long term either.

[CAPSLOCK]

On the subject of Tierney, there's rumours of him needing another op and he is considering retirement. How true this is I don't know?

somebody askwed where tierney is?

He's in the pub supping too much and his retirement will be announced once his insurance payout is agreed

[Lord Kangana]

F*cking hell, have we pissed some Gypsies off in the last few years or something?

[a1]

there'll be a [new] film like the wicker man or summat , but instead of rural scots and/or some Hungarian gypsy making up a curse, it'll be some nimby h-towner burning pieces of the "planning permission warnings" pages of the BEN while muttering swearwords.

the allardyce years will be retconned to fit the storyline

[Prufrock]

We got beat by the better team. He wasn't happy with it, which is great.

We already look a better team than before.

Lennon is a winner it will come good.

Yeah, I think a bit too much focus has been on us rather than them. They're a good team, packed with quality players and we were away, still low on confidence, and lost 2-1. Both goals we conceded are easily fixable and we can be better going forward too, so whilst a loss is frustrating, it's not like we were hammered against a poor team. There was still enough there to make me think we're going in the right direction, so whilst I'm disappointed we didn't get a point, I'm not particularly worried for the long term either.

They are a good side, but we got bullied by Cameron Jerome who is a unit, but gash. That's not good enough.

[bobo the clown]

Suspect Lennin learnt a thing or two on Friday.

He knows thatcwe can be rolled over. That our defence has a mistake in it. That captain Speariing has bad days. That Trotter has bad years not a footballer. That Pratley and Danns aren't proper wide men. That he has more to do than talk some of them up.

He seems like a quick study. Let's hope he is. If Trotter starts on Tuesday I'll be extremely worried.

[Hoboh]

Suspect Lennin learnt a thing or two on Friday.

He knows thatcwe can be rolled over. That our defence has a mistake in it. That captain Speariing has bad days. That Trotter has bad years not a footballer. That Pratley and Danns aren't proper wide men. That he has more to do than talk some of them up.

He seems like a quick study. Let's hope he is. If Trotter starts on Tuesday I'll be extremely worried.

Even worse Becky!

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Suspect Lennin learnt a thing or two on Friday.

He knows thatcwe can be rolled over. That our defence has a mistake in it. That captain Speariing has bad days. That Trotter has bad years not a footballer. That Pratley and Danns aren't proper wide men. That he has more to do than talk some of them up.

He seems like a quick study. Let's hope he is. If Trotter starts on Tuesday I'll be extremely worried.

Seems to me that Lennon is giving players a chance. For some this means redemption, others fixing a target to their arse. I would hope Beckford has had his chance now, but we may have a few more games with Trotter yet. As frustrating as it must be to watch, I'd rather his approach of giving a few games to prove oneself, rather than Dougie's give them random 5 minutes here and there and announce them not ready/not good enough.

[wonka]

I agree with AT. Lennon said that the slate would be wiped clean, everybody would be given a chance. And that's exactly what he's doing. Lennon was never going to drop players on the basis of watching a few DVDs so let's leave him to it.

Beckford has had his chance, but he hasn't impressed. Same with Trotter and Pratley.