[theo_luddite]

Canary Wharfe (or something like that)
By the Warm Glow of Deliah's Ovens
Bernard Matthews Way
On the Inner Ring Road
They've built an Outer one now too
Norwich
Norfolk 'n' Good
NR1 1JE


Kick-off 15:00 UK Time
Saturday 23/12/23

Merry Christmas to all our readers and contributors.



All the best to you and yours, no matter who you support. We're (nearly) all footie fans on here at the end of the day.

The last away day of the year. Hell, is it really 12 months since the last one already?
If you ain't got your shopping finished yet this is probably the day to do it. Often the lowest attendances of the season are the Saturday afore Christmas, with Boxing Day games against local rivals helping to swell the coffers, but with next to no public transport available, that doesn't work out too well either these days.

After all, who the hell fancies a trip to the back end of beyond when there's mince pies, grans favourite sherry and beers to be had?
Mulled wine you say? Why does anyone do that to otherwise perfectly drinkable wine?

On the tellybox

Not showing anywhere at the moment other than iFollow

Pies, pees and pints..

In addition to Deliah's Delicious Warm and Crusty Floury Baps, very nice with a bacon or sausage filling (so I'm told), anything else you might want to know about is in this 'ere link, but be warned, the last update on this site might have been a while back.
https://footballgroundguide.com/leagues/...-city.html

What's not to like? There's even an invite to buy tickets for the Madrid derby, in, er, 2018
I understand wider parking bays are available for tractors and combines if they 'appen to be your vehicles of choice.
If you're pootling down from the Norfolk Broads in your Hoseasons Luxury Motor Yachty thingy, moorings at reasonable rates are available, but they might be in Great Yarmouth.



Latest news

I might be abandoning this section for future threads  - we're still getting ready to play at Millwall according to our local "paper" as I draft this. News might have been scarce before, but when you're relying on "The Yorksha Post", a selection of "national papers", or worse still the club's own sparse website for club news, it's not long before despair sets in.

There's a sale on in the Club Shop. Hell, it's like DFS in there. I know there are some other blogs and podcasts out there, but it shouldn't be this hard to get club news.

The General has a new mural in his honour on Leeds Road, and unlike some "murials" from the deep and distant past, it doesn't feature 3 ducks flying up each other's backsides. Well, not yet. Where's Banksy when you need him?



https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AzT5pruwnbg/S...w+Year.jpg

Town's match at QPR has been moved to 1:30pm on Sunday 28th January for the tellybox.

SPOTY also went all Pete Tong right from the off on Tuesday night. What happened to Sunday nights?
Apart from MOTD, a few FA Cup matches and two weeks of tennis, what the hell in the name of UK sport do the BBC actually broadcast these days?
Well done to all that won, and Mary Earps certainly showed off her fine pair/pair/personality in that nearly there dress. (I nearly said pair of grundies, that was close. )

The European Court of Justice has ruled that UEFA anf FIFA were out of order in not allowing the Super League to be formed under current EU Rules. They didn't rule on was what the fans thought of it. The 6 English teams involved are (so far) standing by UEFA, who they weren't standing by before. Maybe they heard their fans for once?

If you want to read the rest of the bollocks there's a long report here. It is Christmas and after Boxing Day you've got until Friday before you've anything else to do that mattters.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/202...ifa-eu-law

Toys and rattles seem to be coming out of prams all over the place, not least the "business" that was behind organising this in the first place.

Don't tell your other half I said that. In some cases your other half might have read that before you did.

Out Injured/Suspended/Isolating

Another concussion in the Millwall game means Lee Nicholls will sit this one out again.

Back training but not oven ready/Back in the frame

Jackson and Hudlin are back training, both may be in the squad on Saturday.

Last time out

Instead of conceding in the last seconds of the game, our most typical game plan, Town scored one in the last seconds at Miiiwwwaaawww. Further more, we scored from a penalty.
I'd almost forgotten what one of those was, particularly when it comes to awarding us one. Snoots reckons our previous one was against Luton last season and I've no reason to argue with that. Pretty sure I heard The Hairdresser claim we didn't get one at all last season during the Brizzle match. Well, we didn't at home.



I also seem to recall us missing at least 4 one season, not too long ago, so maybe that's why the 3 blind mice and their mate with the subs board stopped awarding them to us?

The good news is our joint leading scorer is now a forward, alongside our er, prolific (?) centre back. They've both got 5. OG is still our 4th highest scorer on 2.

For Norwich on the other hand, you may have noticed former Town manager, Wagbo is in charge at The Budgie Cage these days. They drew 2:2 down the road at Ipswich in The Old Farm Derby last weekend.



Defensively I think we're a bit tighter than when they spanked us 0:4 at ours earlier in the season, but I'm not convinced we're any more prolific up front yet.

On Monday night, Wayne's World 11 came 2nd again at home to The Foxes, but that probably wasn't as much of a surprise as the fact they've finally replaced all the crumbling concrete in the stands, so The Kop and The Tilton are both fully open again. Hope they used something stronger than Cadbury's Flakes this time.

Down amongst the dead men, Wendies came back late to beat QPR 2:1 and keep our backsides above the trap door. Rotherham lost again, but at Plymouth, meaning they moved a bit further out of our reach.



Music

Happy Birthday Keef, 80 this week. How?



He's not quite 80 in this one.



It's 50 years since Slade released their annual pension plan, 'Merry Xmas Every Body'. The same week, a bunch of Brummies called Wizzard and led by Roy Wood also released 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day'. Think you might have heard them both by now unless you've been living in a cave for the past 50 years, so I'll pass on both.

BBC Brummy TV broadcast a "session with all 4 original members of Slade" on Tuesday evening. They claimed to have 'brought them back together.' Considering Dave Hill is the only one still touring under the band name, which could have been a bit of a bun fight, but, while 3 of them were in the studio, none were in at the same time, and the 4th was on a Zoom link from home. So much for the morning headlines of having them all in for a friendly Christmas chat and a brew then.

Slow news day on the BBC News/BBC 1 Channel on Friday morning so they played an edited version of it all so everyone could watch.

That said, Noddy says he still gets asked to shout this one out by Big Ears and maybe PC Plod, Bob the Builder and a few others when he's shopping at Merry Hell or in The (mostly empty these days) Saddler Centre. It's all a bit Mickey Mouse to me. Not sure he even lives round these Black Country parts anymore if I'm honest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlS5mslpQlI

None of them has owt to do with Norwich or Norfolk in general but this lad does.

Roger Meddows Taylor, OBE, is an English musician, songwriter and singer from Norfolk, who you may have come across as the lead percussion playing thingummy jobby artist for this quiet little band.



Fun fact 1: Roger actually turned down the offer to be the drummer in Genesis ... wonder how that all worked out?

Fun fact 2: Noddy and Freddie were 'quite well acquainted' and Noddy told Freddie that Queen would never amount to much.
Right up there with the forecast of the Record Company Executive that turned down The Beatles I suppose.

Myleen Klass was born down the road from Norwich in Great Yarmouth. I was fortunate enough to be in Canada when the Girlband/Boyband thing took off in the UK in the late 90's/early 00's so I can't recall a bloody thing that her or the band she was in (I'd need to Google that, never mind the songs) ever released, much to your relief no doubt. So I'll leave a space or two in the vids I'm allowed to post for the pressers if that's OK with you?



The Sack Race

Good will to all men? Tisn't the season to be jolly for coaches and managers it would appear this week.
More sackings than sacks that Santa drops down the country's chimneys.

After Alex Neil got canned at Stoke on 10th December (tsk, tsk, fancy losing at home to Wendies), Matt Gray got his Christmas Cards at Sutton on the 19th.

The Tricky Trees are employing a new head arborist too, ex Wolves manager Captain Nemo, er, Nuno Espírito Santo Claus, meaning Gollum will get to spend some quality time in Middle Earth with his family over the next week or two.

Moving back in through the ever-revolving doors, Michael Beale, formerly of QPR and Rangers FC has left his cafe in Walford and jumped into the hot seat in Blunderland. What, oh, so he's another Beale then? Who? Oh, Ian? Sorry !!

Then just when you thought the madness had calmed down, Plymouth coach Steven Schumacher jumps on a Cross Country train to Smoke-on-Stench, leaving Plymouth looking to find another new coach too. Matt Gray was at Sutton for 4 years and change, Gollum at Forest for just over 2 and Schumacher for 2 at Plymouth. Long-service awards all round.

Come 'ere - there's more. Eco-friendly, but apparently not very coach friendly Forest Green Rovers also pulled the firing pin on Wednesday as Dave Horseman found a P45 in his Christmas stocking. It's only a few weeks since they had the first woman coach in charge of an EFL team, even if temporary. Maybe they should have stuck with who they knew? Troy Deeney has stepped up from player/coach to full time coach to try and keep them in the EFL. Could be interesting with his ego.

Tables, Form & Roller coaster

After a bright start, including that big win at ours, they were 2nd after 4 games, but then the wheels wobbled and the plumage moulted somewhat. Norwich spiralled down to 17th after 14/15 games including losing 4 on the bounce but have since recovered to climb back to 11th after only losing 1 in 7 games.

Town on the other hand are harder to beat than we were in a lot of games but then we still fall apart in others. We've only won 1 and only lost 2 in the last 8. 1:1 seems to be our current stock in trade. We've gone from 9 points behind the top 6 to 14 behind in a few games. Not that we're every likely to bother them this season, unless Gollum fancies trying to work miracles on about 10% of the budget he had at Forest. We were in the bottom 3 for a while on Saturday until QPR reverted to form at Wendies.



Norwich have won all 5 home games against otherwise bottom 8 clubs so far.





Innies and Outies

Like many that get relegated, Norwich palmed off many of their higher earners (if only we'd known you could do that?) and then spent a few quid on a new face or two (we always knew how to do that).



Who's banging 'em in

Rowe scores every other game on average so I'm expecting almost everyone to pick him for Snoots' prediction league.



They can't all lose

Down amongst the dead men, Stoke are home to Millwall, Rotherham go to Leicester, Wendies are home to Cardiff, QPR home to Sarfamton, Plymouth play Wayne's World 11. In the other end of the Football Universe, L666s are at home to Ipswich on Friday.



We've played 'em before

Draws lead by a nose from Norwich wins in this one. Would anyone be very surprised by another draw?
Our last win at theirs was 1-2 in December 2016 with a pair from Kachunga, though Norwich equalised his first goal (5 mins) a minute later. The less said about our subsequent visit the better (7-0), though we only lost 2-1 last season.



Next up?

Boxing Day's bumper boxing match is at home to Blackburn, followed by Boro at home next Friday. Last bus from the Bus Station leaves around the time the ref blows his final whistle on the 26th. That's if there's one going anywhere near where you live.

They are both slightly more consistent than us, but only slightly. Who knows which version of which teams will turn up for these games?
Battered and booed off the pitch or wonderful and win? Probably just dull again and winter draws on.

Pressers

Headley's half of a Half-Hour - Live from Railway Cuttings, East Cheam and Moore's Mumbles - Exciting as ever.

Headley comes in at around 01:30, Moore at around 24:00



The View from the Top Perch in the Canary Cage.
Well, it beats the sandpaper in the bottom.



Terrace Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFSzg6xti3s

Courtesy of The PinkUn

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one theo.

We had a visit at work this morning from a very famous local artist. The Burley Banksy.

He's had a load of Dirty Leeds mugs made. Says he can't keep up with the demand.

[theo_luddite]

Selling mugs to mugs? Well I never.

[jjamez]

Are we praying for a Christmas miracle?

[theo_luddite]

Haven't noticed any bright new stars in the sky to the east of the West Midlands to be honest.

Then again, it's been cloudy and raining most nights.

I haven't noticed too many bright young stars coming off our bench and scoring hat-tricks either jjamez.

We could indeed be looking for a mirror call. That would at least help us reflect on our year ....

OK, OK, I know where my coat is.

[theo_luddite]

That spanking we got at the other end of the A62 a few weeks back seems to have been put into some perspective today.
I didn't think Ipswich were that great at ours to be honest but they've otherwise put a string of impressive results together.
Basing your opinion of how good/bad a team is on one performance isn't reliable but I'm sure Rotherham were also pleased with the point they took off them and they only won 0-1 at Wendies.

---

Line ups



Darren Moore has made 2 changes to his Town side this afternoon, with both Chris Maxwell and Ben Jackson returning to the team!

Hudlin and Diarra return. Nicholls (concussion protocol), Ward (achilles) and Edwards (personal reasons) miss out.

[Lord Snooty]

Can we officially nickname Danny Ward as "Sicknote" yet?

[theo_luddite]

I thought he always was

---

Here we go again. Guess who just unplugged themselves?

What is it with Radio Local and iFollow? The "other side" seems to keep it's feed flowing

---

Well it's working again for now until the current £1 runs out of the meter. Nathan Clarke sitting in for The Hairdresser. He must have a full salon today.

[Lord Snooty]

Sounds like another boring first half.

[theo_luddite]

I'll take boring first half's way from home. I'll take boring 2nd half's away from home if we get something out of it at the end of the game.

For all the fact that we 'seemed to play better football' under Wagbo, a lot of it was possession in our own half and then 5 minutes every so often of trying to get something. When his gegenpressing broke down it broke down big time. See Fulham, Spurs and a few others for evidence.

I'd like to see something interesting to watch at ours though.

Oh! That £1 has run out again. Whip round in the press-box anyone?