football rambles

 This turned out to be a fairly entertaining game, but mainly due to the second half rather than the very scrappy first half.  Recently  Blackburn have been edging closer to the relegation zone and Norwich have picked up some form to escape from it. The result today saw the Canaries climb further away from it and Rovers  confounded to the relegation places. Both sides cancelled each other out in the first half with the best chance falling to Norwich when Hayden Carter came to the rescue for Rovers, heading the ball off the line and over after Ali Ahmed had set up Jacob Wright. In general, the Canaries had a lot more of the ball than Rovers but neither team made much use of it. Ex-Norwich player, Todd Cantwell tried to make some things happen for Rovers, but much to the joy of the home fans he was tackled every time he got the ball. The only chance that they created at all in the half was when Sondre Tronstad skied the ball over.  The second half saw Norwich come...

 On Saturday we went to see Championship Norwich take on Premiership Brighton in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup and it was a very one sided affair with the Premier League running out 4-0 winners. Norwich had very few chances and the game was settled by four Brighton goals after a barrage of pressure from them. Two goals towards the end of the first half from Georginio Rutter were added to in the second half by Julio Encisco and Solly March to give the Seagulls a comfortable victory.

 Last year St. Pauli came for a rare visit to the United Kingdom when they visited Dunfermline and we made the effort to go up there and cheer on the lads in brown. Therefore, it was a bit of s surprise that they were back so soon and this time we didn't have to trek across country but go relatively just down the road to Norwich. Meet ups with the St. Pauli crew are always and adventure and a good laugh, so it was great that it was also topped off by a dominant performance.  There was some early pressure from Norwich, but they were pretty much overwhelmed by St. Pauli. Captain Jackson Irvine put the visitors ahead on 18n minutes when he headed home from a corner. 10 minutes later it was 2-0, as a defensive error allowed Gilavogui to double the lead and before halftime the damage was complete when Eggestein added a third. Both teams made a lot of changes at halftime and St. Pauli were found to be lacking when they let Rowe in to make it 3-1 at the start of the half. However, th...

 Football continued on Tuesday night with a friendly between Cambridge and Norwich on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK.  Despite the melting temperatures both teams put on a good show and started with strong teams. Cambridge were for the first half surprisingly the stronger team and well deserved the goal that Sam Smith scored just before the break.   The second half started off with Cambridge looking to cement their lead before virtually changing the team on the hour mark. This change seemed to underline one of the struggles that the Us had in League One that season and that's a good 12 or 13 players, but no real depth. After the changes the game changed completely and Norwich made the most of it with Gibbs scoring on 61 minutes and Hugill on 68 and 80. Still a useful run out for the team and good that the game actually went ahead.

 Due to a number of reasons, I haven't really made as much of my Aston Villa membership this season as I probably should have. That said a game on Saturday at 3 o'clock has been pretty rare and this was in fact the last fixture of the season at that time. Thankfully, Villa won against the bottom dwellers of the premier League. Last time we went Villa lost to Watford who were also propping up the table. The win saw the Canaries relegated and cemented Villa in an unspectacular mid-table position. The performance wasn't 100% convincing. Villa were the better team, but there was still a lack of fluidity and coherence that has to be worked. However, a win is a win and the game was settled by a goal from Ollie Watkins just before half time and a goal from Danny Ings with one just before full time.  Positives from the match are clearly both Watkins and Ings doing what they are supposed to do and Ings also assisting the Watkins' goal is clearly something that finally shows that...

Last time we were in the Aviva Community Stand. For the game against Fulham we were opposite in the Barclay. Here are a few photos from way before the game kicked off.

After 5 years of being in East Anglia and never making the trip to Carrow Road, mainly due to ticket availability and prices I have now been there twice in the last month. The FA Cup offered us the chance to snap up cheap tickets and meant that we would be able to make it to a game at a time of year when the local clubs struggle to get anything put on. The opponents were Fulham and although both teams rang the changes for a game that both probably could have done without there was still a lot of quality on show. The game started off promising enough with the Canaries peppering the Fulham goal with Martin Olsson and David Fox causing Fulham all sorts of problems on the wing, especially the hapless Zverotic who was getting in all sorts of problems. Elmander and Josh Murphy, on his full debut for the club, came close but Norwich weren't causing enough problems in the box. Record signing Ricky Van Wolfswinkel was back in the team after a 3 month lay off and the Canaries will be ho...

It had been a long time since I last went to Carrow Road, in fact it was that long ago most of the ground was standing when I last went. Then it was turn up on the day, but nowadays getting in the ground is a bit more complicated, so when I saw an offer for the Swansea game I thought that I would give it a go. I was quite impressed with the ground and the game was entertaining enough. Most people probably thought that Swansea would be groggy after their exertions in Europe on Thursday, but it was Norwich who looked more sleepy at the start. On 12 minutes Sebastian Bassong was caught napping by Nathan Dyer who lashed on to a half chance to put the visitors 1-0 up. 2 minutes later Norwich could have got on to level terms if the referee had been more sympathetic when Leroy Fer's header hit Angel Rangel on the arm, but the official wasn't interested. Up until the half hour mark Norwich continued to push for the equaliser, and Gary Hooper seemed to be in most of the thick of ...

December usually turns into a barren month for me in terms of football, even though there seems to be loads of it on. So the chance of a double header at the weekend was too much to pass up on. The weekend started off with a trip to see Ely City Reserves take on Great Paxton and then it was up to the dizzy heights of the Premier League on Sunday when we went to see Norwich take on Swansea.

We went to Villa Park for Sean's birthday and like last year the game was marred by Villa having to play a large part of the match with 10 men after Joe Bennett was sent off for a second bookable offence. A lot of pundits who probably watch about 3 minutes of highlights of the games have been knocking Villa, yes you Alan Hansen, and the worst Premier League start by the club ever is raising a few eyebrows. Paul Lambert has remained upbeat, although on the face of it there doesn't seem much to be upbeat about. That said I still think that some positives can be taken from the game, which ended in a 1-1 draw and that's not just me wearing claret and blue tinted glasses, things are definitely not as bas as under Mc.Leish last season or as depressing as the final days of Deadly Doug and David O'Leary. Villa played well in the first half and although Norwich were still in the game and threatening at half time, the stats show that Villa dominated and created a lot more th...