My Blog

	2 – 2
Date: 07/04/2012		Venue: Carrow Road
Attendance: 26,554		Referee: Andre Marriner

With apologies to Stevie Smith, Norwich are not limping but stumbling over the safety line – but the fact that they are doing so so early in the season can only be a very good thing for the all round health for the club.  That they are struggling now is much more down to fitness more than anything else, and I am sure that the backroom staff will work on that over the summer.

I haven’t blogged on the last two games, so a quick recap is in order.  23rd March (my 42nd birthday) I gave my ticket to Keith to take Micah and they saw a comfortable 2-0 win for Norwich with Holt scoring a sublime goal.  Then the week after they went away to Fulham in a game I watched on Footie First.  They gave themselves a mountain to climb by conceding 2 goals in the first 15 minutes.  The fact that they almost scaled that mountain, pulling one back and giving Fulham a hell of a scare in the last ten minutes was their season in a microcosm.  Plenty of endeavour and some pleasing football but very much the architect of their own misfortunes.

And so to Everton.  Riding in on the crest of a wave.  A week away from an FA Cup semi final against Liverpool and also ahead of their great city rivals for the first time in ages.  They dominated Norwich for the first twenty minutes and it was no surprise when they scored first, and followed up with an even better chance a minute later which Ruddy was extremely pleased to see scuffed into the path of his despairing dive.  Norwich, with Howson up front alongside Holt, were showing very little until suddenly Drury was given the freedom of the left ring, pushing unchallenged towards the area before rolling the ball to Hoolahan who again passed to Howson who was unmarked six yards out in front of an open goal.  Even my granny wouldn’t have missed and she’s been dead a decade.

Second half, Norwich came out with more purpose but again conceded a goal, this time in rather strange circumstances.  An Everton player fell on the ball and it got trapped between his legs.  Norwich players stopped, expecting a free kick which wasn’t given.  They then stared kicking at the prone player before the ball broke free kindly on the edge of the box.  Hoolahan tried to get to it only to have the referee block him off.  Norwich players again stopped, and protested freeing Everton to score an easy goal.  The Norwich complaints carried on long and loud but in all honestly they weren’t justified.

Lambert finally changed things.  He brought Howson back into midfield where he started to boss things, and moved Hoolahan inside from the left wing where he was busy but ineffective.  Wilbraham came on to partner Holt after his goal as a sub last week.

Things immediately improved and I have no doubt that if they had been like this from the start they would have won.  They started to play some of the best football of the season and deservedly drew level again when Holt finished off a rebound from a Wilbraham shot.

Norwich were dead on their feet at the end – for the last ten minutes some of them looked like they were on the verge of heart attacks.  But they held on.

Are they safe?  Not mathematically, and I would be happier with 42.  But if they go down from here they would probably be the most unfortunate team in premiership history.