Sunday 26 April 2015

Too little too late for the canaries

"Doing things the hard way since 1902". That will be a slogan many Norwich fans may agree with if you shouted this out in the city centre in Norwich. Relegation from the Premier League last season with a team which was MORE than good enough to stay up, but with a manager who didn't know the idea of 'attack' in football, was just one example last season of Norwich "doing things the hard way". 

Despite relegation, the dismissal of a woeful manager in Hughton and the resilience of the club to hold on to most of their players from the premier league, meant that every Norwich fan had plenty of reason to feel optimistic for a swift return to the premier league. However, Norwich once again have done things the hard way. Appointing a manager who clearly wasn't confident enough to take on such a role has cost the canaries dearly. The lost points under Neil Adams has proved too much for the canaries to scrape back despite the miracle work of the newly appointed and very impressive manager Alex Neil. 

Yesterday's game against Rotherham, who are struggling for their championship survival, should have been a straight forward three points for the canaries to take them back to second in the championship. However, Lewis Grabban deciding to punch a player in the stomach and get himself sent off had Norwich fans in the stands thinking 'here we go again'. 

With the playoffs looking likely and having probably the strongest squad out of the playoff teams, will the next month of fixtures be straight forward, or will he canaries decide to "do things the hard way"? Whatever happens, you have to admit, no championship club striving for the Premier League has done anything 'easy' this season. Apart from the fans of these clubs, nobody will complain about that will they?!