NORWICH 0 CITY 0
I arrived at Carrow Road really excited about seeing Ollie’s new look City, but rather anxious about how Norwich would respond to their shock exit by Bury in the Cup mid-week. How right I was to be concerned….
Unfortunately City had to make changes with Kisnorbo suspended and Clemence injured. N’Gotty and Wesolowski replaced them. Zsolt Laczko, our surprise package of the Coventry match, played despite an injury doubt.
Norwich came off the blocks quickly and bombarded City with constant good crosses from the wings. Croft, in particular, gave young Joe Mattock a difficult time but he stuck to his task gamely. During this period of pressure, which lasted the whole half, City had no option but to defend desperately at times, and were lucky when Dublin’s header came off the crossbar from a corner.
City had only a few long range shots to offer. As tackles slid in it got quite feisty and I could see that we would be lucky to have 11 men on the pitch at the end. 0-0 was a good result at half time considering the pounding we had taken.
Ollie brought on Hayles for Laczko at the start of the second half. Neither Bori nor Lacczko had been able to get into the game. It was a good move and immediately the game became more even. We held the ball well with Matt Oakley becoming more creative.
We started to break quickly with Hayles looking lively. Chambers came on for Mattock and this stopped most of the threat from Croft. Hayles hit the post from a good Hume cross and even had a poke past the goalie cleared off the line….
Norwich got second wind about 10 minutes from time and upped the pressure, without creating clear chances. I would have put my mortgage on City conceding a goal in the last minute – when you are a City fan you’ve all seen it so many times it seems inevitable. Dion Dublin rose for a right wing cross and, with Alnwick beaten at full stretch, the ball bounced off the post and was cleared!
The whistle blew and we had gained a really hard earned point with a defiant display against a good Norwich side with 23.500 fans cheering them on.
This match was very different from the win against Coventry but there were still some important pointers for the future:
· An away point at Norwich would normally be good. Unfortunately most of the bottom teams are playing well too and picked up points.
Ipswich target McAuley leading his team to shut out the tractor boys near neighbours ‘Picture courtesy of Raymonds/lcfc.com’
· City never folded and everyone gave his all. McAuley was captain fantastic for the day and played his heart out. I cannot see how we can allow him to be sold to Ipswich. N’Gotty looked really solid too.
· Howard got into the game more in the second half and was a good target man.
· The two wingers were perhaps an extravagance for this match that did not work. However, I for one though would always support Ollie’s policy for endeavouring to play attacking football rather than Megson’s risk avoidance tactics which were sterile and not worth travelling from Suffolk to watch.
We need to win against Palace in the next match and I hope that all the injuries will be cleared so that we can have some continuity for the team and see how they are progressing. Palace will no doubt play a pressing game but I think we can do it if we can get good crosses into Howard and play to feet.
I would just really love it, really love it, if we could get one over Neil Warnock…..
Leicester: Alnwick, Stearman, N'Gotty, McAuley, Mattock (James Chambers 54), Laczko (Hayles 46), Oakley, Wesolowski, Bori (King 83), Hume, Howard. Subs Not Used: Henderson, Fryatt.
Booked: Stearman, Alnwick, Wesolowski.
Norwich: Marshall, Otsemobor, Shackell, Doherty, Camara, Croft, Fotheringham, Russell, Bertrand, Dublin, Evans (Cureton 75). Subs Not Used: Gilks, Pattison, Spillane, Martin.
Booked: Russell, Fotheringham.
Att: 25,462 Ref: Tony Bates (Staffordshire).
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation