[themaclad]

Norwich City
Carrow Road 11/2/2025 2000 hrs

There is nothing like an 11 hour round trip in the middle of February, luckily enough the journey there will be done in the light, the journey back will no boubt find every B road in the country, means Wednesday will be a write off.

www.canaries.co.uk/
MANAGER



LAST TIME OUT





FORM GUIDE

CANARIES 9 PNE 11

HOT OR WHAT



The Spitting Spaniard is back after a 6 game ban

Things to look out for in Norwich

It is 30 years since a sinkhole swallowed a bus in Norwich city centre.

It happened after a medieval chalk mine collapsed under Earlham Road on 3 March 1988, taking with it the number 26 bus.

The bus driver led passengers to safety.



Apparently Ripon is the sink hole capital of Britain, one was found at the Emerates Stadium in London last week the entire Manchester City side was found to be in it

Other Champo stuff

[themaclad]

The Fitness Test

Jack Whatmough and Lewis Gibson were forced off through injury in the weekend’s FA Cup victory over Wycombe Wanderers and will both be assessed ahead of this one.

Speaking after that game, Paul Heckingbottom was hopeful Emil Riis and Will Keane would be back available for the trip to Carrow Road after both missing the fourth round tie.

Ben Whiteman, Jordan Storey and Robbie Brady all remain sidelined.

The Canaries


Norwich City enter the final third of the campaign with cautious optimism, sitting just two points outside of the top six.

Johannes Hoff Thorup’s side are the division’s second-highest scorers, with most of those goals coming at home. The Canaries have netted 37 of their 50 goals at Carrow Road, having scored three or more times on six occasions on home turf.

Borja Sainz has been the key source of goals this season, with 16 to his name, and he’ll be back for Tuesday’s game after serving a six-match suspension.

The Officials

Referee: Gavin Ward
Assistant Referees: Lee Venamore and Daniel Leach
Fourth Official: Lewis Smith

Gavin Ward will be the man in the middle for this fixture.

He’s officiated North End plenty of times over the years, with the most recent occasion being the goalless draw against Burnley at Turf Moor.

So far this season, Ward has taken charge of 20 matches, showing 87 yellow cards and six reds.

MACS VIEW
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Luckily this is the last of the massive away journeys, can only estimate what god foresaken time I will get back at, the thrill of it all

[themaclad]

Norwich City 0 Preston North End 1 Osmajic



Attendance: 25,910 (252 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr G Ward.

Should have won by more had the chances only down side on the night the possible broken leg for Holmes after a slighttly iffy tackle by Duffy. Another major plus that the last massive away day/night has been completed.
A journey down completed with little fuss although completed in slate grey dreary skies, arrived 150 minutes before kick off which gives you an awful lot of time not to do things at night in Norwich.
Gibson was fit Porteous started and midfield looked a little thread bare, but neednot have worried. City suffered a blow when McLean went down ill 20 minutes before kick off, Wright made his first start.
Led after five minutes, City dicking around at the back which is the modern way these days cleared the ball to Sainz who promptly lost it to Porteous, they wanted a fould not given ball arrived at the feet of the King of Denmark, Mads held off a couple of players ball to Os one up, not the cleanest strike but in it went.
Next talking point Duffy's tackle from behind ,ref played on but didn't show a card interesting considering some of the pap decisions we have had recently.
Fairly comfortable as City's build up was way to slow and we coped easily with it, they had a couple of chances Slimane's shot easily saved by Woodman, City claimed a penalty when the ball hit KKH's hand but would have been harsh if given but mind you the decisions given at Deadwood recently nothing would have surprised me if he had given it.
Missed two very scoreable chances Ledson should have hit the target form 12 yards and Os should have buried one after got work by KKH but hitting into the hotel was the wrong option.
Second period yes we did to defend well at the end had a bit of luck but was deserved again had a couple of good chances KKH and Lindsay.
Five points off the playoffs personal ambition finish above the chicken farmers from Blackburn.


City Gaffer

Norwich City head coach said his side found it difficult to find their rhythm as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Preston North End.

Milutin Osmajić scored the only goal of the game as Preston finished as 1-0 winners at Carrow Road in the Sky Bet Championship.

"It's as we expected," the head coach said. "We knew they were coming with a lot of physicality. We knew we had to find our rhythm and passing in the game very quick to stay out of too many duels, but we didn't manage to do that.

"It's a game where they are probably a little bit more on top and they had a game like they really wanted it to be. We have the opposite, we try to get it to be our game again and we didn't succeed. It was difficult for us to find the rhythm out there.

"The average age of our team today was 23-something, that's one of the reasons for the form. Many guys out there, it's fair to say it's the first time they've faced a game like this where it's so physical and with so many tackles.

"That's a part of it. Of course, some of it is that we're still a new group where we have to bring them together. That will come with ups and downs and that will be the same with the rest of the season as well.

"We still think and we still believe we're a good team, we need to reach our standards to the rhythm and the flow. In a position where we need to get to our standards, as all the games in the Championship will be difficult."

HECK

Paul Heckingbottom felt North End were brilliant “to a man” in the 1-0 away victory over Norwich City.

PNE left Carrow Road with all three points thanks to Milutin Osmajić’s opener just five minutes into the Sky Bet Championship game.

The Lilywhites then had big chances to extend their lead, while at the other end the hosts were limited to very little.


Hecky said: “The performance was excellent from start to finish. Not many teams come and win here and that shows.

“We had to be good at a lot of things. To win here you've got to be really good without the ball, and to a man they were, and then I felt we were better than Norwich with the ball and that's why we created the better chances.

“If you’re coming here and you've won and your only criticism is that you could have and should have won by more then it shows how well you've played.”

The opener inside the first five minutes put PNE in a great position to build on, with Mads Frøkjær doing brilliantly to set up Osmajić, who finished well for his 12th of the season.


The boss was then pleased to see his side retain control for almost the entirety of the game and also restrict one of the division’s top-scoring teams to just one shot on target.

Hecky said: “It was a really good start, but there was no lull in the performance. Even when Norwich had moments where they moved the ball really well, we stood up to it.

“Probably in the first half, their most dangerous moments were when we just got little bits wrong. We were aggressive, we left little gaps, but we could have still dealt with it.

“But then second half, they had the ball in front of us a lot more and never really penetrated us in behind, which was great. Then as the game wore on, we got more and more control with the ball and had the best chance of the game then in the second half as well.”

Despite the match being selected for Sky Sports coverage and the long midweek journey, more than 250 PNE fans were in attendance at Carrow Road and enjoyed celebrating with their team after full-time.

Hecky said: “I didn't get to celebrate with them at Watford so I made sure I went over to see them today because it's great. I enjoyed that.

“Me and Ledo (Ryan Ledson) were the last two over there and he said, ‘How good is that?’ I followed my team everywhere and always loved football matches and going to watch my team, but I wouldn't have made many journeys as long as this. It shows the dedication and we appreciate the support.”