Jason Shackell back at Carrow Road

Well if nothing else, the return of Jason Shackell to Norwich on loan from Wolves until the end of the season will keep the block who sits behind me quiet as he has moaned since September about why he was let go.

For me the problem is that Shackell is inconsistent, is a very poor distributor of the ball and since the Premiership season where he played against Manchester United and marked Rooney out of the game, I cannot remember him have a good game.

I certainly wish him luck on his return and in many ways it is the perfect signing as at least he knows the team, he knows the training ground, and he knows about relegation fights.

Andy D'Urso - History of bad decisions against one team - Norwich City

I wrote a few days ago about the dreadful refereeing of the Norwich vs Bristol City match, a game where not only was a Norwich player sent off when the video evidence shows he played the ball, not only was a penalty given which was not a penalty, but one of the clearest penalties you are likely to ever see was not awarded for Norwich.


You might imagine this was a one off bad game, but actually it isn't.

Last year Andy D'Urso, the ref for the match last weekend, was by strange coincidence the the same referee who awarded Bristol City a free kick in the final minute of the game which Bristol scored from. The only problem was that he seemed to be the only person in the ground who thought it was a Bristol City free kick whilst fans, managers, players and video evidence showed it was Bristol City player who handballed it, not a Norwich player. So last like weekend, Mr D'Urso effectively awarded the game to Bristol City.

This is not the only occasion though that D'Urso showed such poor judgement against Norwich as I wrote about him before on my other blog.

The question is when one referee shows what appears to me to be consistent and almost pre meditated bias in his decisions against one team, why do the Football League allow him to referee that team's games ?

Andy D'Arsole

What an unmittigated disaster of a referee Andy D'Urso is.

In the whole of the 90 minutes he managed to miss 3 handballs by Bristol City, with one in the first half seeing the Bristol defender virtually catch the ball, then he sends od Gary Docherty and gives a penalty which replays now show Docherty kicking the ball, and then to make matters worse, he misses one of the clearest penalties you will ever see when Adam Drury was shoved over in the second half.

It was not just that he was unable to get the big decisions right. It seemed that anyone could hang on to anyone elses shirt at any point in the game and it was never a foul, with Bristol City taking full advantage by holding Carl Cort at every opportunity.

The chant 2-1 to the referee was really not far wrong.

Stop passing the buck

I was disappointed today with the lack of bottle amongst certain players, more than I was with Marshall's dreadful goal kick which led to Bristol City's second goal or with Docherty over his sending off.

When I write about taking responsibility, I mean that certain players were too keen to pass the ball back to the keeper or play pretty keep ball games in our own half of the pitch rather than hoofing the ball clear and for once trying to play the game in the other team's half of the pitch. time and again defenders and midfielders took the easy option when not even under pressure and decided to pass the ball back to the keeper rather than looking for a forward pass.

I will write more on this later, when I am less tired, and will also add my thoughts on the ref (who was awful), but I am too tired.

Bottle and fighting spirit

What a tremendous result for Norwich, drawing 3-3 away from home against league leaders Wolves.

To come back twice from a goal down against a team like Wolves says much for the spirit Bryan Gunn is starting to get in to the club.

Although the Southampton result last week was something of disappointment, four games and not a single defeat is a great start.