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Reply | The Barry Bannan Master Class Match Thread
at 10:57 5 Jan 2026
Had no time to give my usual kneejerk reaction to the game after yesterday and in hindsight it was probably a good thing.
Walked away from LR yesterday obviously happy with the 3 points but scratching my head about such a strange atmosphere, and such a strange performance against an understandably terrible opponent on an absolute disgrace of a pitch .
No doubt in my mind the pitch is impacting on injuries although Burrells could well be overuse.
But I’ll be stunned if there isn’t an emergency meeting this morning about how on Earth our pitch has declined since December 20th.
A lot of people online apparently saying the old groundsman had just been sacked. Not true . He left a couple of years ago now .
But ultimately it was about as bad a football match as you could imagine which in a way serves Sky right . The biggest thing to take from was we now can’t go to West Ham with our strongest team . Whether we would have anyway is another argument but that’s now off the table anyway.
Midway through that second half I just got the sense that some of our players didn’t fancy it one bit and it annoyed me . However , we won , convincingly in the end .
If we had gone for them like we did Leicester then we could have had an absolute hatful and they would have folded badly but they grew in confidence the more we f*cked about .
Pleased for Kolli. And pleased for Sam Field too. The ideal game for him to come on and put out fires with somewhat ease. |
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Reply | Darts
at 11:07 4 Jan 2026
Agree that the other players need to raise their game , more mentally than the numbers . Van Veen averaged 101 or something which wins most matches .
He was just ground down by Littlers power scoring and in the end he starts to lose hope .
The semi final Van Veen v Anderson was one of the best I’ve ever seen . |
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Reply | Rock and Roll - AC/DC - You never lose it !!!
at 09:27 4 Jan 2026
Seen a lot of criticism of AC/DC in the last year.
Seems to be a bit of a trend .
We have no context about this clip at all .
When you get to their age , certain members need breaks in the set .
Why do you think the drum / guitar solo exists?
They play for way over 2 hours , could be a guitar change , equipment malfunction , band member needing a comfort break or them just p*ssing about for 2 minutes …they have earned that right for touring for over 50 years .
One of the greatest bands to ever walk this Earth .
Should they call it a day , probably .
But they know nothing else , and if people are still willing to pay ridiculous prices to see them then why should they stop.
They will if no one buys tickets . But people do . |
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Reply | Insert paragraph about Barry Bannan – Preview
at 09:16 4 Jan 2026
Blunt but very funny piece . Cheers Clive
This paragraph below just had me belly laughing
On the tram back from Hillsborough this year a jolly local got in my ear about it. Sound, knowledgeable, a good guy who just loved his club and enjoyed chatting about the sport with fellow travelling sufferers. I love meeting people like that, it’s one of the best bits of actually travelling to the games because you learn so much about the mood and culture of other clubs. “’Appen most teams come here put a man on him specially like, but you lot never do.” Ha ha ha. Yeh. I took him outside and beat him to death with his match programme before chucking the pasty corpse under the steel wheels at Netherthorpe Road, but he made a valid point, bless him. RIP.
It’s funny because it’s so obviously and amazingly true .
It’s like not one of managers / coaches / players in the last 15 years have ever heard of him.
As I said in another thread, I’m not sure will be able to accept it today if we see the same thing .
As you say, all starting to ‘wear a bit thin ‘ now |
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Reply | Nightmare start to the New Year as Norwich beat QPR again - Report
at 14:07 3 Jan 2026
Great report . Agree with every word.
Looking to tomorrow , if we have to sit watch another QPR side let Goblin Bannon stroll around and dictate another match between the two sides I might just bloody explode .
Every QPR fan either at the game or not will know what he will do so if we allow him the freedom of H&F yet again then I might not be responsible for my actions.
Oh and does anybody know where Ilias is, what his injury even is and when he will be back?
We really fooled Norwich didn’t we in not saying anything about his whereabouts.
I do know this . He and his family were supposed to be at the game Thursday. He and they were not .
Edit.- Just seen there is a match thread for tomorrow . Apologies [Post edited 3 Jan 14:35]
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Reply | Paul Smyth - Social Media Abuse
at 13:30 3 Jan 2026
Hmmm. Agreed.
The ‘Last Christmas’ renditions seemed quite well organised for an ‘off the cuff’ chant didn’t it ?
Anyone heard it since the Leicester game ?
Might have been sung at Pompey but I didn’t hear it .
Certainly didn’t hear it on Thursday, [Post edited 3 Jan 13:51]
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Reply | Paul Smyth - Social Media Abuse
at 19:08 2 Jan 2026
Point taken Numpty.
Wasn’t said or meant to offend anyone especially in a thread like this obviously . |
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Reply | Kone
at 19:07 2 Jan 2026
You make some great points .
“ What needs to happen is Varane and Madsen need to own that middle more, which will draw players away from the wings and allow our wingers to get into the game.”
Only slight thing is the above , where it’s very difficult to own anything when you are almost always outnumbered.
As I’ve said previously and apologies for boring folk on here , but surely the formation has to change. If for no other reason to catch people out for a week or 2 ala Charlton earlier in the season.
We let McLean completely run the game yesterday and my fear for Sunday is Barry Basstard Bannan yet again !!! [Post edited 2 Jan 19:14]
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Reply | Paul Smyth - Social Media Abuse
at 15:32 2 Jan 2026
Sometimes you’re just left speechless .
That person verbally attacking Smyth is clearly mentally ill.
So is the waste of skin sending crap like that to Clive .
Just beyond belief [Post edited 2 Jan 15:37]
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Reply | Gaffer on today's defeat
at 13:05 2 Jan 2026
Yeah fair points.
But I did say sporadically didn’t I?
Watford, Coventry, Derby come to mind early on . All horrendous when we so good at Wrexham , for example . That’s more my point . |
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Reply | Gaffer on today's defeat
at 10:28 2 Jan 2026
Lots of good points and sense in that post .
But what I find tiresome is the constant (not by you in particular Dave) from some about fans ‘bedwetting’ or ‘shitting the bed’ after being critical of a poor performance or 3 .
Hate those terms and are used by most fans (again not you in particular Dave as I know you can be critical of the club and team as anyone ) who don’t want to hear criticism in any way of the club or head coach or CEO .
It’s just being a football fan isn’t it ?
You celebrate when you win and moan and dissect when you lose .
The bottom line is we have been horrendous since that Leicester game and sporadically mostly away from from home since August.
The OP is good as the players do have to take some blame and stand up now.
But Stéphan has been very poor too on more than one occasion .
I think fans are entitled to a gripe after yesterday . I didn’t see anyone call for him to be sacked or any stuff over the top like that , not on here anyway . I don’t do social media but that’s a madhouse anyway .
The players and the head coach and his staff have to take a long hard look at the last 3 matches and come out swinging on Sunday .
But I fear more excuses about workload, the pitch, mentality , tiredness etc etc |
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Reply | Kone
at 09:42 2 Jan 2026
Excellent debate actually .
I totally understand the premise of ‘why on Earth would you drop Burrell?’
On the face of it, it doesn’t make much sense .
However , as I mentioned in another thread , we’ve been found out and at some point now the system surely has to change . Maybe not for Sunday as there is no time on the training pitch .
But at some point it has to . Kone looked at his best when played as the main striker with someone else (Vale at the time ) in and around him . However we need someone who can also drop into the midfield and be the extra man as we are constantly outnumbered in there . Chair perhaps ? Where he is , is another matter.
Kone much more than Burrell would suit that .
I do agree that would be harsh on Burrell but he is now running on empty and it really shows. Without his pace and press he is very ordinary …At this time .
He will improve and become a better player of course.
At the moment you now have both of them looking tired and a bit short of confidence (not just them, everybody really) . But I agree with Westbourne that if we changed system and played Kone where he should be played and has he was played to great success albeit at a lower level then he potentially could have a higher ceiling but he is just a passenger as it stands right now .
Listen, if you said who has been the better signing so far , Burrell wins hands down, so again, the thought of changing things seems a bit nonsensical.
But it’s about the system moreso the player .
As I say , it’s a good debate with no real right or wrong .However, JS seems so entrenched in this system I think it’s also an irrelevant discussion. |
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Reply | Our Pitch
at 09:17 2 Jan 2026
In the last month or so there has been 3 separate day long treatments to the pitch …with GARLIC SPRAY!
No, it’s not a wind up and I’ll let someone else google to see if it’s even a ‘thing’, other than warning off Vampires (insert gag here)
But instead of helping in whatever way needed , it appears to be killing it . Like we are spraying it with a weed killer or something . |
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Reply | Norwich Reflection
at 23:36 1 Jan 2026
Yes , I’m afraid you are right .
We look out of ideas and out of gas .
JS seems entrenched in this 442 because it worked for a while but how many times does he have to sit and watch our 2 in midfield struggle because they are outnumbered? Our 2 ‘wide’ men with no space, our second striker , Kone today , Field (!!!!!) on Monday be a passenger for 90 mins.
At some stage you have to do something else or it’s lunacy .
He has eroded some credit after the West Brom fiasco but we would have let it slide if we had won today . Or Maybe not even win, maybe just look vaguely look footballers ?
We must be the only football team on the planet to wallop a team 4-1 and then every squad member seems to lose confidence and belief from it . Bonkers!
They should have been absolutely buzzing and chomping at the bit since that game but they couldn’t have looked more opposite .
Back to the club DNA, the ‘standards’, the mentality of this team ….and the team 1 year, 3 years, 5 years , 10 years ago .
We say it often , but there is something not quite right at this football club.
Just a side note which I think I’ll be on my own mostly but I want to point it out .
Romarn Burrell has been great …..for what he is .
He has a tremendous attitude and work ethic and gets us up the pitch with his press .
He has a knack of being in the right place at the right time for his 7 or 8 tap ins this season. That’s not a criticism . Many strikers come here and are still looking for the ‘right place /right time’ see Dykes etc.
But .
His last 3 appearances he’s looked shot. Like when Armstrong used to tear around chasing the ball until someone told him to stop wasting energy .
His press has stopped . He can’t do it . He has barely got into a sprint since we played Leicester.
And if he can’t do that then he is a very average footballer….at this time .
Now he is young with time on his side still, with lots to learn and it’s a big step up , for him
and Kone. But his all round game , with the ball is pretty poor at the moment .
My overall point being that it’s now a bit unfair to really rely on Romarn to carry our attacking threat on his own. He’s been flogged to death and is now a passenger along with Kone which is another problem JS has created .
These are potentially good players but they are league one players stepping up and they have really looked like it recently .
JS must now think about changing our system because hoof ball over the top for someone who can’t get up to a sprint is going to see us in a relegation battle pretty quickly .
Oh and if i read one more thread about “will Chair get into this team?”, I’ll scream .
If anything was clear today , it was that he is still by far and away our most creative, industrious and available player when teams are as stubborn as Norwich were today .
Our 4 wingers were garbage today . All of them [Post edited 1 Jan 23:40]
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