Why I won't be joining the march

Whilst I would like Nigel Worthington to depart our football club as soon as possible I won't be joining the march on Saturday. One reason is that not being a pimply teenager desperate to get my picture on "Look East" I really wouldn't fit in. But mainly it is because the behaviour of the "Worthy out" mob is really no more rational than the "keep the faithers'". The latter refuse to offer any sensible explanation as to why the manager should stay, the former's view of the state of the football club is driven by the last result. Bad result at Palace - PROTEST! Good results ( albeit from patchy performances) against Leeds and Sheffield - NO PROTEST! Bad result at Burnley - PROTEST!

All very odd really because even when we were picking up those 7 points the same old problems were there for all to see. Players playing (struggling) out of position, our only tactic hoofing the ball towards a forward who left the club 2 years ago, no encouragement of youth, the transfer merry go-round spinning as merrily as ever, and so on and so on. No doubt a one goal defeat against Leicester and the clamour will increase, a one goal win and all will go silent until after the thrashing at Preston. But win lose or draw on Saturday it's all irrelevant - the truth is that with the current manager pursuing his current policies we are likelier to go down next season than up.

Please note: any protesters wearing nurses' uniforms should be singled out for special abuse.

Doherty speaks

Gary Doherty tells the EDP: “Bearing in mind the sort of form we had been in.................................. we should have come away with all three points".

Er Gary - the sort of form we had been in was "no away wins this year" so actually if we had come away with three points it would have been a huge shock.

And another thing “The lack of consistency this season has been very disappointing,” said the big defender. Actually we have been very consistent Gary. Week after week of poor performances punctuated by the occasional bright spot (Southampton, Sheffield United, about 35 minutes at Leeds). We aren't an inconsistent but good side, we are a poor side which very occasionally comes up against a team whose style of play suits us.

(nb: as far as I know the "Doc" is not a nurse so I can get away with posting this)

Good old-fashioned common sense (part 2)

We are often told that Norwich City have "limited resources". So having lavished in excess of three million pounds of our money on goal-machine Rob Earnshaw we might have expected our tactics to be altered to accomodate his playing style.
Not so. In our "must-win" game at Burnley Earnshaw (102 league goals in 233 appearances) was dropped so that we could accomodate elderly left-back Simon Charlton (5 goals in 476 appearances) in midfield. With tactics like that how on earth did we manage to lose to a side with no wins in their previous 6 games, and no goals in their previous 4?

Good old-fashioned common sense. You really can't beat it.

Please note that this post should not in any way be construed as an attack on the nursing profession.

The board

So after the Leeds game it was Munby glad-handing the fans on the way out. Last night it was Michael looking glum sending us on our way. What chance it's Barry Skipper's turn next? Only in our dreams I'm afraid.

Please note that this post should not in any way be construed as an attack on the nursing profession.

You are the manager

So then. Two goals down in a game we had to win to keep our slim play-off hopes alive what do you do?

a) Go for broke - throw the Doc forward (after all he's the ideal target for our hoof ball tactics) and go three at the back? Or
b) Nothing. Just cower at the back of the dugout and settle for 0-2?

Unsurprisingly we went for option b. Still, look on the bright side, Burnely is a nice trip out and we'll be back next year.

Please note that this post should not in any way be construed as an attack on the nursing profession.