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Into the Lion's Den D2 2017-18

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    It's 'Let's get stuffed on Sky' night at Loftus Road. Fulham are doing the honours which makes it doubly likely.

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      As expected 0–1 HT. Through a freak og by Robinson. The universe is unfolding as expected.

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        And 1–2 it is. So goes our unbeaten home record.

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          Originally posted by longeared, on 2nd August View Post
          Have a feeling that at some point this campaign I'll end up typing something along the lines of "in retrospect we should have got rid of Carlos last summer".
          In retrospect we should have got rid of Carlos last summer.

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            Good gravy Sunderland are a bad team. Unfortunately we're not a whole let better and will always find a way to let even the worst side into the game. So two points lost after twelve shots on goal at the Stadium of Blight.

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              Well, a woo and a hoo for that. Eight years undefeated in the derby and counting, and Norwich into the playoff places on the back of four consecutive away wins. The pace in the team certainly seems to work better away from Carrow Road, where we end up dominating possession but not being able often to break teams down very well.

              Fatal error from Town in failing to spot Maddison had stopped his run - the whole Ipswich back four carried on moving back in line with the ball, leaving Maddison unmarked on the edge of the box to curl the winning goal in.

              There was a fair element of luck - McGoldrick should have taken at least one chance, and Waghorn's chip was excellent but just off target - but Norwich just had that little bit of ruthlessness where it mattered.

              Another stat - Wes Hoolahan wasn't in the Norwich squad for the defeat in April 09, but has now played in ten East Anglian Derbies, with a W7 D3 L0 record.

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                The turnaround since the thrashings at the beginning of the season have been astonishing. Not only nine unbeaten but six clean sheets and just three goals conceded in that run too. Our bubble could burst at the Emirates tomorrow, and it may be false optimism, but there's a genuine feeling among Norwich fans that we could actually get something there.

                There's a heck of a long way to go overall. Plenty of tough games are on the way, but my feeling was that as long as we're making progress in a hugely transitional season (which it looks as if we are) then anything beyond that is a bonus.

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                  Another frustrating draw at home to Sunderland, this time caused by calamitous defending in the first half. I think Sunderland have enough quality to survive but they were rattled by our comeback and by the end they were fortunate to get a point.

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                    I appear to have woken up in some kind of bizarre nightmare universe in which Sheffield United are top of the league

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                      They deserved to win last night, if only because they wore their proper kit and the Leeds goalie had spurious blue shorts.

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                        I'm just hoping that some top flight team comes along to poach this Gene Wilder bloke. He's clearly one of the best managers in the country.

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                          ABL - Anyone But Leeds. I assume Sheff U no longer play the hoofball of their late 80s incarnation?

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                            Apparently not, attacking exciting football by most accounts. We'll find out on Tuesday.

                            Amazingly, after drawing with most of the bottom teams in the division, we won our first match in seven by beating Wolves who'd only lost once so far. Sadly I slept through it as I'm nursing yet another class cold.

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                              United's surprise ascent to the top of the division certainly isn't helping things across the city. We yet again failed to beat one of the division's lesser sides today. Same old failings, too slow, too predictable, too rigid, too easy to play against, no sign of the manager being willing or able to change things tactically. Carlos blamed "Lady Luck" and said it was a "different type of boos" from when we lost at Bolton (Bolton!) the other week.

                              The chairman has been shown up lately to be even more clueless. A bit of a tipping point was reached this week when he disgracefully bullied a fan at the supporters steering group (which in itself is clearly in existence to give his decisions a veneer of respectability). He has no ideas how to run the club now that his recruitment strategy of chucking money at experienced players has been shown up to be seriously flawed. We still don't know who even identifies and signs the players except that it's not Carlos. The home shirts finally went on sale on Monday, reduced from £59 to £49 until the end of November as an apology for the delivery delay. The chairman surrounds himself with yes men, he needs someone with contacts and a working knowledge of the system. We had Adam Pearson early on in his reign but he chose to leave after two months and go and work for Cellino instead.

                              It's all rank incompetence rather than malevolence but the direction of travel is a serious concern. Without serious strategic change there is no chance of us going up this year and if we have to sell key players to meet FFP in the summer then there's every chance we could be relegated next season.

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                                Another fine performance at Preston. Still only 18th in the table but unbeaten in the last 7 and moving in the right direction. Remarkably, Brentford have had 29 more shots than the next best in the league and they’re just a joy to watch.

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                                  Originally posted by longeared View Post
                                  It's all rank incompetence rather than malevolence but the direction of travel is a serious concern.
                                  That sounds tragically familiar.

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                                    Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                    ABL - Anyone But Leeds. I assume Sheff U no longer play the hoofball of their late 80s incarnation?
                                    I can't say much about their style of football, but the atmosphere at Bramall Lane when we won there recently was like a return to the 1970s. Bottles were thrown at Angus Gunn, Norwich fans were attacked and hospitalised (unprovoked) plus it was a pretty tetchy game to boot.

                                    Chris Wilder is obviously a good manager, but does he have a reputation as being an insufferable prick? After being red carded for kicking and smashing water bottles over Daniel Farke, his press conference was an unnecessary tirade which launched into the Norwich boss, players, coach driver (yes, really) and the officials. If he's trying to be Warnock Mk II then he's doing alright.

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                                      On a separate note, it looked as if tiredness, sloppy defending and a poor decision all contributed to our defeat against a well organised Derby yesterday. Despite our improvement since August, we just can't carry the good form into our home games. Wolves are here next on Tuesday, so no let up for our flagging and injury hit side.

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                                        Originally posted by Arturo View Post
                                        I can't say much about their style of football, but the atmosphere at Bramall Lane when we won there recently was like a return to the 1970s. Bottles were thrown at Angus Gunn, Norwich fans were attacked and hospitalised (unprovoked) plus it was a pretty tetchy game to boot.
                                        Given what happened when we played them at the Riverside, it would appear that Sheffield United still have some proper dickheads among their supporters.

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                                          There are of course also a significant number of people who are happy about having Ched Evans back on the books.

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                                            Originally posted by Arturo View Post
                                            I can't say much about their style of football, but the atmosphere at Bramall Lane when we won there recently was like a return to the 1970s. Bottles were thrown at Angus Gunn, Norwich fans were attacked and hospitalised (unprovoked) plus it was a pretty tetchy game to boot.

                                            Chris Wilder is obviously a good manager, but does he have a reputation as being an insufferable prick? After being red carded for kicking and smashing water bottles over Daniel Farke, his press conference was an unnecessary tirade which launched into the Norwich boss, players, coach driver (yes, really) and the officials. If he's trying to be Warnock Mk II then he's doing alright.
                                            Chris Wilder does have a reputation as an insufferable prick, yes. On Oxford messageboards where he managed for several years he's known as "chippy"

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                                              'We yet again failed to beat one of the division's lesser sides today.'

                                              Ooh, I remembering that for when we finally beat you longeared... in about 2034.

                                              I didn't go because of the price, but it sounds like we were poor. Carlos is sounding increasingly desperate in post match interviews though.

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                                                Haha, this is better everyone is bitching about the Blades again, I was getting quite disconcerted by the gushing praise we've been receiving recently.

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                                                  Well that was nice (though not for GHE I understand). Beating the top two teams in the division within four days of each other is a huge, and much needed, boost after a crappy week.

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                                                    Ipswich's record against other sides in the top 15:
                                                    Code:
                                                    P W D L  F  A Pts
                                                    7 0 0 7  5 15   0
                                                    Ipswich's record against the bottom 9:
                                                    Code:
                                                    P W D L  F  A Pts 
                                                    7 7 0 0 18  7  21
                                                    And in many of those wins, Town have been very fortunate - at Barnsley and Millwall and at home to Brentford, for example. They are routinely outplayed, are apparently trying to play better football but are blatantly failing and just feel like a directionless mess. At Burton on Saturday, McCarthy fielded four strikers; at Cardiff last night, he fielded one. We've lost seven of the last ten and the 21 points fortuitously accrued so far are going to be crucial in the fight against relegation.

                                                    And yet, a faint whiff of positivity lingers, with a number of academy players having made an impression this season. 13 were involved in the team that gave Frank de Boer his only victory as Palace manager, and it was pleasing to see 17-year-old Tristan Nydam and 18-year-old Flynn Downes together in central midfield for a while in the derby the other week. I mean, neither of them look to be especially good, but you've got to clutch at these straws, haven't you?

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