Not exactly one of those matches that make you sit bolt upright in bed with anticipation, Norwich away loomed large over my Monday morning. At least it gave us a chance to give the fringe players a chance to make a point and hopefully put a few goals past them and give a nice little confidence boost for Stoke.

The trip down is always an arduous one never mind when there’s seven lads crammed into a car that barely falls into the category of a seven-seater. Those daft seats that fold out in the boot that lock and then proceed to crush you legs were the ones to be missed, so of course I invariably ended up in one of them. I should have watched this on the telly!

After a few cans the mood swiftly began to take a positive turn and talk of 3-0 wins were rife, under our car roof anyway. But we expected a weakened side so defeat was always in the back of our minds too (when isn’t it with the lads). Finally after what seemed a leg breaking eternity we arrived at the ground and found the closest pub. I must say it was one of the nicest places I’ve been to and I had a lovely pint of the local bitter, but I can’t remember what the place was called or what the beer was either. Don’t know what went on there.

After a couple pints of the black stuff to finish off we made our way into the ground, just catching the kick off. We lined up quite strongly with Gordon in goal, Edwards, McCartney, Da Silva, Noz at the back, Leadbitter, Henderson, Reid and Tainio in the middle with Jones and Campbell up front. Only two of these lads played in the Blackburn game and it was good to see that we are getting a little more strength in depth with this basically being our second string side.

Norwich started well and we looked like being under the cosh in the first half but even though they had the lion’s share of the initial possession they never threatened with it until it was too late. We looked sharp when we had the ball and this paid off as Tainio was put through beautifully by Jones to slot the ball home just before the half hour. Then Campbell hit a shot on the volley that would have been goal of the season so far if it hadn’t had crashed off the bar. But the game was over ten minutes later really as Reid got a brace. First with a sublime chip and the second was a neat finish from close range after a brilliant passing Sunderland move.

The second half tailed off towards the end, after The Canaries got one back and four minutes later they scored us an own goal to really finish off the match. Then Norwich had a player sent off for hoying Campbell as far as he could into the path of Ben Anlwick, who got himself injured in the process and had to go off with Campbell. They’d run out of subs so had to put a dwarf in goal and the game petered out after that. So the long shitty journey home awaited us, albeit a lot more worthwhile after that excellent performance.

Final Score: 4-1

Man of the Match: Even though Reidy put his shots away well it has to be Jones who worked hard and set up two goals…

Jonothan Scollen

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