Small club with a small club mentality put in their place

I know a few Colchester fans, and I had always liked the club, the good family reputation that goes with the club and the town of Colchester too. This week, however, my attitude towards the club has changed somewhat.

Whilst I can understand them feeling aggrieved at the loss of Paul Lambert to Norwich at the start of the season, the pathetic statement emanating from the Colchester board have shown them to be very small minded. Comments that they would rather see empty seats than sell them to Norwich fans, banning people from Norfolk from buying tickets for the match, taking back tickets from those who had already bought them and a series of other puerile actions and comments do nothing for their reputation.

A Colchester fan was sat near me in the Norwich home terracing for the first day of the season 7-1 Colchester win. He suffered no hassle, was not ejected fromthe ground, and Norwich fans showed a degree of maturity sadly missing from Colchester in recent days.

I love the way that Colchester justified their actions by stating that they had sold all their tickets to Colchester fans so that was one of the reasons they would not sell them to Norwich fans. Of course they ignore the fact that several hudnred seats today in the home terracing will have had Suffolk, Essex and London based Norwich fans sat in them.

So to the game. Five nil to Norwich and Norwich missed a penalty too. Norwich's silence on the way that Colchester behaved this week was the right decision. Let the football do the talking, and it did.

A  team with a small club mentality is likely to remain a small club. That's a shame as the decent Colchester fans I know deserve better.

Questions over tactics

Whilst the first half yesterday against Oldham was a delight, with Norwich dominant and Oldham not even having a shot on target, it was disappointing to see Lambert fail to reorganise in any logical way following Oldham's change of tactics.

It was clear that Oldham had the best of the last half an hour of the game, and but for two great saves from Fraser Forster, the result would have been very different. Yet, Lambert brought on a winger up front and succeeded only in confusing the team and we looked totally disjointed.

A good win yes, but as I wrote before after the Leeds game, for me there remain questions about Lambert's decision making.

Vs Leeds United - First questions about the manager

Let's not blame the keeper for the loss today at Leeds. For me there were the first real question marks over Paul Lambert's decision making.

With 75 minutes gone, Darryl Russell should have been sent off. After already being on a yellow card stupidly gained for a pointless lunge, Russell spent the last 15 minutes carrying a passenger in midfield who could not make a challenge because he knew the next foul he did would be punished with a red card. What was the result of this ? A total lack of bite in the midfield and 15 minutes of hanging on which led to the Leeds goal.

The Sky commentators were raving about the Leeds sub ignoring the fact that in effect Norwich were playing with 10 men.

What did Lambert do ? Stood their with his collar up whilst three midfielders sat on the bench until the dying seconds.

I know the keeper will take the blame, but Lambert needs put his hands up and accept he got it wrong.

P.S. And let's also not get carried away. Leeds United are far from being a great side. If only every Norwich player except Holt didn't need at least two touches before shooting, the game would have been well won before the 92nd minute.

PPS. And less than 20,000 fans at Elland Road. A pathetic attendance. I wonder how many glory hunters will turn up if they go up ?

Quel surprise

Walking up the stairs today entering Carrow Road someone said to me "Have you seen the team ?". When he explained who was in, who was out, I was seriously worried. Well, thank goodness I was wrong.

Otsemebor looked good, scored a goal, stopped dawdling and played well. Curetone looked good, slim, and much more mobile whilst the whole team looked solid. Yes, there is room for improvement in central defence with the new partnership needing time to bed in, but overall Norwich look full of goals and with quality crosses from McVeigh and marticularly Lappin, who was outstanding, Grant Hoult is guaranteed to add to his five already this year.

Overall, a big well done and a big surpise.

Excelent article on BBC website about Norwich and lambert

This is a great article about the current situation at Norwich. Well worth a read.