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00:00:01
"Pity the poor people" ACN Pod 93
46 Plays2 years ago
ClarebearThomas joins PuntNParsley to chat Palace & City, a bit of drumming and a whole bunch of hope. Which yes, we know, is what kills you.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Recent Match Recap
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome to the Long Come Knowledge podcast. Crikey, what a cracking point against Crystal Palace. Claire is with us. It's just me and John and Claire talking you through what we thought about the game and looking ahead to an easy game on Saturday. Claire, you put out a tweet with your thoughts. Would you want to just summarise them? Because I thought you made, you captured what I thought about the game pretty well.
Mila Roshika's Impact on the Game
00:00:47
Speaker
Yeah, firstly, I put Mila Roshika. He gets us off our seats, which I absolutely love. I think it feels like it's been a while since we've had a player that has that ability. And it took a while to get going this season. And obviously, he's had his injury problems. He's come back, and he's going all guns. I love it. I absolutely love it. Every time he gets the ball, you can feel the excitement in the crowd. And he definitely did that last night, certainly for the first 50 minutes, probably. He tailed off towards the end of the game.
00:01:17
Speaker
That first 20 minutes he was pretty unplayable. I thought it's just a shame team who didn't get a couple more goals from the crosses, but he was brilliant. So I loved that.
Angus Gunn's Key Contributions
00:01:31
Speaker
Angus Gunn, I thought was superb. I think he was man of the match for quite a lot of people.
00:01:36
Speaker
And I think he just reminded everybody that he's actually is a really decent keeper. I think he's had quite a lot of unfair stick recently coming in in those games over Christmas when he was game rusty as well. And then having the team in front of him that was barely championship level alone, Premier League, and obviously conceded quite a lot of goals, but they weren't all his fault, obviously. And then yesterday pulled out some outstanding saves. And, you know, he is a great keeper. We're lucky to have him as our number two, I think. So I was really pleased for him
Max Ahrens' Performance and Team Challenges
00:02:07
Speaker
Max Ahrens was brilliant, only a couple of errors. I don't think the goal was his fault. I think that was more Plaheta not closing Zaha down. But the penalty obviously wasn't great, but he got off the hook with that one. And other than that, I thought he was really, really good, had a great game against a very tough opponent in Zaha.
00:02:29
Speaker
And Josh Sargent we definitely miss his energy, his work great. I don't think the header had his best game and Josh Sargent was definitely missed yesterday so I can't wait for him to come back. Matthias Norman the same, I really want him back in the midfield fully fit and going again.
Game Analysis and Team Determination
00:02:47
Speaker
Instead of Kenny I think he's just got that class about him.
00:02:50
Speaker
And it was a bloody hard fought point that we definitely wouldn't have got a month ago, maybe even a few weeks ago. I think it's just testament to where we are now, the determination and the fight we've got in the team, even though it wasn't anywhere near our best performance. So all around, I wasn't too disheartened that we got a point. It could have got more if we put a couple of those chances away in the first half, but I'm happy with the point. Didn't they do well?
00:03:18
Speaker
I mean, putting all of that in one tweet is amazing. You really stretch the character limit. So, Punt, how much of that do you heartily endorse and agree with? Yeah, pretty much all of it. I mean, I wasn't fortunate enough to attend the match last night because my eldest daughter quite selfishly has football training on a Wednesday night and I didn't feel that I could deprive her of that just because I wanted to job off to the football. But I did manage to catch
00:03:44
Speaker
a very elongated highlights package which was about 30 minutes. So I think I've probably seen all of the best bits and based on what Claire said and based on me listening a little bit on the Schneider to Chris Goran whilst football training was going on, I think it's probably a really accurate summary of where we were at. I think the only thing that I'd
Physicality Against Crystal Palace
00:04:04
Speaker
maybe want to add to it is and it kind of feeds into Claire's point about we wouldn't have got this point a month ago. I think Norwich have become a more robust team, a more physically robust team and a team that can compete a bit more with with the likes of Crystal Palace and
00:04:22
Speaker
That surprised me because there was a couple of times, especially where Les Malou and even Grant Hanley kind of bounced off some of their players purely because they're just big and physical and absolute athletes coupled with the fact that they can play a little bit of football as well.
00:04:38
Speaker
But in the main we stood up to them and I think that's going to be really important with the tests to come especially against say like a man city or a Liverpool and I'm not expecting any points but I would expect us to try and offer something because they are all big and strong but they can all play wonderful football as well. So I think there's a lot to like at the moment.
00:04:58
Speaker
There's a lot to like because it just feels like actually as a front three, front four maybe that we're starting to form, we look like not necessarily that we've got loads of goals in us, but we're starting to score in games and we'd struggled with that before. And Pookie's goal is fortuitous in a lot of ways. It's kind of bounced in and I'm not sure we quite meant to put it exactly where it went.
00:05:21
Speaker
But actually, if you look at Rashidza's purpose with his run and then to get it into the box, but Adam Ida, I think, hasn't had enough credit for that assist because he's so aware of where Puke is. And Woody's been able to do that, say maybe three, four weeks ago when he was just coming into the side. So there's lots of positive signs that the front three or four are starting to learn to play together. And we've still got Josh Sargent to come back. And as Claire said, we really missed him.
00:05:49
Speaker
just his absolute work great and Poeta, it's really interesting actually with Poeta that he started and it's really interesting that, I forget his name is it, John Roe isn't it, that came on towards the end. Because where does that leave the likes of Kieran Dale and Christos Scholes? Is it clear that Dean Smith perhaps doesn't fancy them because they're both players that I think of
00:06:17
Speaker
I've got a lot of talent and can add things going forward so yeah I'm really interested to see that he's now bringing an academy product through head of players that we spent quite a bit of money on but no all positive for me.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, I agreed with everything you said, Claire.
Kenny McLean's Midfield Role
00:06:33
Speaker
I was surprised at the smattering of discontent with regards to a couple of different elements, and I really wanted to touch on them. The first one is Kenny McLean.
00:06:49
Speaker
who I think I've mentioned on previous podcasts, my confusion around quite how much criticism and quite how popular it seems to be to lay the misfortunes and the shortcomings of an entire midfield at his feet in exactly the same way as it was never all Billy's fault. It certainly has never been all Kenny's fault. I thought it was excellent last night. I thought he and PLM
00:07:14
Speaker
really handled that physical side of Palace Well. And whilst I don't think he is as accomplished as a defensive midfielder as Norman, if and when Norman is fit, I thought he played really well. And yes, there were several occasions where the ball ended up in a turnover possession just after Kenny had it. But several times last night, I really think Kenny amongst others
00:07:42
Speaker
in a Norwich shirt were really unlucky. The number of times last night that a ball would prattle off the back heel or just one stud of a trailing leg of a Palace player and then fall perfectly to their colleague, as opposed to bouncing into Norwich's favour, I don't think we got the rub of the green. And that did play into why the possession stats were so bad, especially second half. So I am a big fan of Kenny. I do see a lot of what he does off the ball that others maybe don't appreciate.
00:08:11
Speaker
And I think he made a really good impact last night, and the fact that Smith took PLM off may be to do with the art that she'd covered, but clearly Smith didn't think that Kenny was causing his massive problems, or it would have been him that was hooked rather than PLM. I think with Kenny, I think Smith and also Farkas employed this tactic from time to time as well. I think the way in which Dean Smith wants, not necessarily wants to play, but feels he has to play out of necessity is
00:08:36
Speaker
that Norwich need an outball and Kenny's decent in the air. And I think that's probably the only reason that he's kind of getting ahead of, you know, or not getting hooked. Because, you know, I think you're right. I don't think he is the absolute root of all Norwich City's problems, nor was Billy Gilmore, but they both contributed to it. And I can't see that
00:08:56
Speaker
that Norwich, I think, I can't remember who tweeted it last night, but someone had put that actually, you know, the midfield combination probably shouldn't include... It was Dan. Yeah, Dan Brigham, actually. Yeah, you're right, Claire, thank you. And I thought he was bang on the money that I just don't see that Norwich is most effective partnership.
00:09:13
Speaker
includes either of them, but equally, you know, they're not terrible players. I just don't think they're quite the players that we need for the battles that we have to come. Kenny's kind of all right at everything and not brilliant at anything. And I think Billy Gilmore is very good at some things that we don't necessarily need. And actually, you know, I'd have probably rather had someone like Lucas Rupp on there because I just think he's
00:09:40
Speaker
his anticipation is massively underrated and his energy is massively underrated and I think maybe when we were getting overrun a little bit in the second half we could have done with his legs. I think Billy came on probably ahead of Norman Unrup who would have been better to come on at that point but probably because he's ahead in terms of fitness.
00:10:01
Speaker
which is a shame because I think he didn't really have that much of an impact when he did come on. Whereas I think like you said, Rupp definitely would have got stuck in a bit more ethic and Norman's just quality. So I think once he is fit, he's definitely going to be the sort of first midfielder on the team sheet again. But I just don't think Billy had
Defensive Strategies Under Dean Smith
00:10:22
Speaker
much of an impact when he did come on, unfortunately.
00:10:26
Speaker
If anything, I think it was the opposite. I think we looked worse with him. Positionally, I'm not sure what the instruction was to him as he crossed the white line, but he seemed to go sort of wandering and kept getting caught in no man's land between a press and between sitting back. And the last eight, nine minutes of the game were really disjointed because I thought, and I said it to the time, it was my friend Kerry, he was with me for the game last night.
00:10:54
Speaker
that I thought Vieira's substitutions, whilst logical in terms of adding the, I mean, look at the bench. I mean, this is why we should be grateful for appointing his palace. Look what he had to call on. And he kind of went almost four to four for those last seven, eight minutes to find the winner. And they immediately stopped becoming an attacking threat. I was on the edge of my seat, you know, with nerves for
00:11:19
Speaker
for between 65 and 75 minutes. And then Vieira made those attacking substitutions and I sort of sat back after that because they no longer were able to thread the ball through and create pressure on us. I'm delighted when they took the Ladezi off on the right hand side because I thought he was an absolute threat throughout. And I guess that Vieira twisted to try and go for the game and I really don't think tactically that worked.
00:11:43
Speaker
And my, I go back to what, you know, Dan Sweet, I don't agree that one of the best outcomes, you know, one of the best outcomes doesn't include Kenny. I think Kenny and Norman are clearly our best two if they're both fit and firing. I think work rate wise, only Rup is close to Kenny. And in terms of effort and doing it for the show, I think it's important to have that through line of someone that's been there and thereabouts in the, in the kind of rise to where we are now.
00:12:11
Speaker
And I do think that, so that's the one thing I wanted to kind of stick up for Kenny. And I really think that it's, you know, people saying, oh, I'm not even good enough for the championship or I'll keep him fit for when we go down to the championship. I don't think that's right. He's a good Premier League squad player. I appreciate that.
Enhancing Stadium Atmosphere
00:12:27
Speaker
Yes, we might look to upgrade in that position. If we were to stay up, that would make sense. But I really don't think that it's some of the, like it's one of those things where, and you know, Rupp had this a while ago as well.
00:12:40
Speaker
there seems to be kind of trends around, you know, who the current whipping boy is. And Kenny's one of the ones that I really don't understand as much as some of the other ones have happened. And the other thing I wanted to pull up was on the in terms of defensive things I saw was kind of about the quality or the kind of style. And so Dean Smith didn't choose a single one of these players.
00:13:03
Speaker
And, you know, he hasn't, he's had a window come and go where, you know, he's had to trot out the line of all well injured players returning. That's like new signings for us. You know, so for him and his coaching set up to have put the resilience and the discipline and the reduction of naive mistakes, how much of an impact he's made with the same squad of players, none of whom he chose. And I think he's, he's fantastic. And you made the point.
00:13:32
Speaker
punt just now about what if that's what he is, that's not the style he feels he has to play, that's the style he thinks is important for him to play.
00:13:42
Speaker
He's doing what he can with the tools he's got and he needs to make it hard to beat. And of course, we don't want 18% possession in 45 minutes of football. But as Claire said in her tweet, and as I saw a few other people, my mate Nick made a really good point about it as well. Three, four months ago, maybe even five, six weeks ago, Norwich City Football Club lose a game where there was a 45 minute stretch where we have 18% possession.
00:14:12
Speaker
we this is not a team under Farka at any point that has conceded that much possession and that little impact in the game and conceded they would have conceded more than a goal and a penalty like a penalty could have could have gone in and we could have lost the game but realistically it was only a worldy
00:14:31
Speaker
from Sahar, who could have been closed down a bit faster to start with. But it took something of that calibre to beat Norwich, or rather to get them back on level terms. And that was what then put us even more in the back foot.
00:14:48
Speaker
It was an absorbing game, wasn't it? Because we had something to lose for 90 minutes, basically. We were in a position of, oh, please don't give it away. And then there were little pockets of noise. But I think it's, at the moment, we're at an interesting point of the season where we never thought we would be three months ago in that there is a legitimate
00:15:16
Speaker
relegation battle on, rather than how respectful can we be or how much pride can we save as we go down. Now we are within touching distance of three teams above us, with another couple looking over their shoulder.
00:15:35
Speaker
you think well actually, if you look at the fixtures and the way things roll out, if we could get a bit of momentum in a game and sustain it, I do think the place would have been jumping because
00:15:49
Speaker
When the noise came, and there was a good volley of honourable city after the Palace goal, and when the noise came, it was after, like you said earlier in the pod, the busting runs of Mirot Roshitsa and also some great held-up play from Ida, which was right down in front of me. He is a proper centre forward.
00:16:13
Speaker
they are a right pair of centre backs to be up again. In fact, their whole back line are huge. And he was being buffeted and shoved and hassled, and he brought the ball down, held the ball up, got it out to the byline and won a... Sorry, got it out to the touchline, sorry, and got a throw out of it with three palace players trying to shove him over. And that kind of got the stand on their feet, and that got it going...
00:16:42
Speaker
With Dean Smith's style, he has decided to try and make us hard to beat and try and make us impactful on the break. So when we do break, we do tend to break quite quickly. We look for that forward ball, whether it was Norman before the injury, McLean last night, Billy when he's on the pitch.
00:17:01
Speaker
We try and play that ball in behind, we try and play that ball onto the last shoulder. I saw PLM with the ball in midfield in the second half, shortly before he went off, kind of doing a quick point to Rasheetsa to say, go on, go, I'm going to ping one. And that was when I think his lack of puff really showed up because he'd got round the back of
00:17:21
Speaker
the defender and I don't think he, I don't think he then needed another burst to kind of cut back inside and move on and I just don't think he was there in his legs, I think he was knackered, but that's clearly attacked if I wasn't, but the downside of getting the ball forward quickly, the downside of attacking quickly is if it doesn't come off, if that
00:17:42
Speaker
initial slightly longer ball doesn't get into feet and is intercepted, it means you have surrendered possession ever so quickly. And I think that is also something that the crowd are almost adjusting to. We are used to, there's been a turnover in defence, it will probably be a minute and a half until we cross the halfway line. This is gonna go from right back to goalkeeper to centre back to right back to left back to centre back a few times under farc ball before we even look to try and advance until there's definitely something to slot through the lines.
00:18:12
Speaker
So maybe there's the fact that as a crowd we have to get used to the fact that if you play it forward more quickly, you are going to give the ball away more often because not 100% of those through balls are going to be on the money. Or do you think that's nonsense, John?
00:18:29
Speaker
No, I think that's absolutely fair. I think just coming back to your earlier point about lack of atmosphere and the crowd not getting up for it, I think there's a percentage of people in the Barclay that would have probably said, look, if we'd have been allowed a drum in the lower end of the Barclay last night and I realised this isn't for everyone, then that might have been the call to arms for people to go, oh shit, you know what, we need to do something, we need to get behind the boys and I'm going to sing in time with this drum because
00:18:56
Speaker
It just felt like, and this is only me watching the highlights, it just felt like we were waiting for it to happen again. We were waiting for the inevitable to happen, for Palace to kind of equalise and
00:19:11
Speaker
I don't know for me it feels like this i said it before it's a symbiotic relationship the crowd and the players and we need to kind of be in sync with each other and it shouldn't just be the players that having to get the crowd up for it should be there the crowd again the players up for it and it felt like we had a.
00:19:28
Speaker
apart to play last night and we could have maybe been a bit more of an active participant. But I fully get it, you know, kind of the nerves were going around, as Claire said, you know, we scored too early and we had to cling to something. And when I kept looking at the table live, it was just like, actually, if we hold on to this, we've drawn Everton into it. If we hold on to this, we're four points behind Brentford, you know, with a game in hand and we've still got them to play at home. If we hold on to this, you know, we're only a few points behind Palace, behind
00:19:56
Speaker
I think it was Southampton and then they went and beat Spurs, you know, there's lots of other teams that suddenly you just think, well, they're gettable, you know, we can catch them. And I don't know, you know, so maybe the fact that we didn't get those two points and people knew that we were holding on to something played into it as well. Yeah, the drama is interesting because we're getting and we're getting grief for being, you know, the
00:20:21
Speaker
I say we, because I haven't actually come out in favor of a drum personally. ACN are getting grief, and it's now the latest sort of stick to hit our lot with, which is if you're a pro drum, then that means you're some sort of idiot. And also, I think there's a lot of, well, it's a good idea, but I don't want it near me. What do you think is the realistic, what do you think are the realistic pros and cons of having a drum at Carrow Road, John?
00:20:49
Speaker
I think we've probably talked about it on this pod before. I think there's two main things which really make a drum or could make a drum massively impactful at Coward Road. And I think the first is that you've got pockets of, well, the snake pit and probably three or four pockets of fans in the Barkley sing all at different paces.
00:21:10
Speaker
and a drum immediately addresses that issue and brings everyone into line in that respect. But the second is, as I've just alluded to, it's a call to arms. I don't want a drum that relentlessly is just pumping out noise for 90 minutes and it's a bit more like maybe say a Bundesliga atmosphere where it is just a wall of noise for the whole game. I don't think English football is like that but where a drum
00:21:39
Speaker
can have that impact is to say to people or to electroshock people into life and say do you know what let's get behind the boys or let's just sing together because actually that might be a bit more of an enjoyable experience than sitting on our hands and just just watching this football and I think
00:21:54
Speaker
I don't know, it seems to have really worked at away games and everyone that we've spoken to that's been at these last few away games where there has been a drum has really enjoyed it. I think that having spoken to the lad, the drummer, he comes across as a really nice lad who just is really passionate about trying to inject some kind of atmosphere.
00:22:16
Speaker
into away games and subsequently now at Cara Road, and actually they've been really respectful of people as well. They've asked people around them, you know, look, do you mind the drum being here? I think when people have put up protests, they've then spoken to stewards to kind of get them rehomed in other seats as well. So I think that the group, the support group that are doing it, and let's be clear, it isn't along come Norwich or Barclay and Norwich, but we'll
00:22:39
Speaker
will happily try and assist these guys wherever we can because I'm fully behind what they're trying to do. But they seem to be respectful and learning lessons and understanding that they've got a place, but actually it might be a bit of a delicate balancing act to get this accepted into Carrow Road. And it is at the moment. Talks are ongoing with the club.
00:23:04
Speaker
I think there's lots of people at the club that are up for it. I think there's maybe a few people at the club that might have some reservations and we're going to have to overcome that. But I think it feeds into a wider piece of work that needs to be done at Carrow Road to continue to embellish and to improve the atmosphere because
00:23:25
Speaker
It was really easy under Farka. It was really easy because the football everyone could buy into and everyone's felt united and actually we weren't there for project restart. We weren't there necessarily when it started to go tits up a lot of the time.
00:23:43
Speaker
But we were there when it was really good under Daniel Farka during 2018 and 19. So we kind of knew what that collective experience felt like. We don't know what that feels like under Dean Smith and it is a different brand of football and it feels different and new.
00:23:58
Speaker
And actually so why can't a drum be a part of that? Why can't a drum supplement the atmosphere? So now I'm bang up for it, I will, pardon the pun, and I will do everything I can to hopefully see if we can get it in for a trial game at Carrow Road or help the people that are doing it to get it in for a trial game at Carrow Road.
00:24:18
Speaker
Last thing on the atmosphere side of things, I think a lot of the people who were there last night were also rusty themselves. I certainly was. I had to not go to the Everton game. So therefore, as a result, through basically scheduling of the fixtures, I haven't been at Carrow Road for weeks and weeks and weeks. That was the first time I've been there, because that was only the second time we could have seen Norwich at home in 2022.
00:24:47
Speaker
So the previous opportunity I had to go was effectively Boxing Day. That was the last time that there was a home game that wasn't evident. So that was part of it as well. You're around people that you haven't necessarily been around for a long time. And I think the drums should definitely be tried in home games.
Trialing Drums for Better Engagement
00:25:11
Speaker
The important thing is it needs to be the right game where it's chosen.
00:25:15
Speaker
Yeah, I completely agree with that. I think last night might have been that game and it might have been an opportunity. Whereas Man City, where actually we're not going to see a lot of the ball. Well, we think we're not going to see a lot of the ball and actually we might go and
00:25:28
Speaker
haven't it happens but say we go and lose you know three four five nil you know if that game is then subsequently associated with the the trial drum game then you know it's it's possibly you know kind of being gonna be an ill-fated decision so yeah i think you're right timing is is really really important yes and then and then open mind as well i mean i like so much that they are really careful about um
00:25:51
Speaker
They are really careful about when not upsetting big sections of fan base. Let's also have it right that they're currently trying to sell season tickets at 7% increase. So they don't necessarily want to give people who are in the decision making mold of can I afford that increase when the cost of everything is going up so much. Do they really want to risk annoying a block of people who are now near a drum?
00:26:16
Speaker
But this is the tricky thing, I think, with this, because I think there's a lot of people that go to away games regularly who were absolutely skeptical about a drum being taken in the away end, who have had their opinions completely turned around. And that's why I think a trial game, a trial set of games, whatever it might want to be, is really important and then evaluate it. Whereas I think the club might have got it the wrong way around at the moment and said, oh, we're going to need to do a consultation pick, because that's where the club are at the moment. They want to do a consultation piece, I think, on it.
00:26:46
Speaker
I just think just try it for a couple of games, just see how it works and then do your consultation because then you kind of know how it feels in the stadium. But look, we'll see. I'm sure there's plenty of discussions to be had. But as I say, we're fully behind it. We know that our colleagues at Barkley and Norwich are fully behind it. And we know there's lots of people at the club that are starting to come around to seeing the benefits of it. So, yeah, fingers crossed we see it soon.
00:27:11
Speaker
maybe Brentford, which is obviously far away. Yes, that's early March, isn't it? Yes, far and off away in terms of getting some season tickets sold. And then a couple of, you know, one, take the Chelsea game off and then come back for the, you know, for the next kind of winnable home game of Burnley after that. So effectively,
00:27:29
Speaker
you say right we're gonna we're gonna try it in in march we're gonna try it we'll just do it in the first game in march the first game of april when they should be winnable games
Pre-Match Discussion: Manchester City
00:27:37
Speaker
that we need to be up for because they are six pointers um and then effectively maybe do your consultation after that because how can you consult on fans and say do you reckon this thing that you have never experienced in your life is going to be a good thing or not
00:27:49
Speaker
Obviously you can ask the away fans that, but currently you're basically saying, this thing that you have got absolutely no personal experience of because it's never happened at Carroll Road, do you reckon that that would ruin your matchday experience? It's not like it's going to physically harm anyone to try it. And so yeah, I think give it a go on those two games and then try it out. But the club's going to do what the club's going to do. The club's going to club.
00:28:15
Speaker
Claire, I know you're not the biggest drum fan in the world. Do you want to just make a bit of a case for the defence in terms of why maybe a drum isn't the way forward at Cairo?
00:28:26
Speaker
I just think I'd pity the poor people that sit near to it who wouldn't have a choice in the matter and probably couldn't hear themselves think. I do agree that at a distance it can help improve the atmosphere but I'm concerned about where the drum would be sighted and I presume it would be somewhere near to where I sit in the upper barkley or the snake pit area.
00:28:50
Speaker
The plan is it for it to be directly in the seat behind you. That's the plan. In the upper part for me, that's quite interesting. It's not about atmosphere, it's about annoying you. It's purely about annoying you. That's the only reason for doing it. Oh, it would annoy the people around me a hell of a lot more and then I'd have to listen to their moaning about it, you know. So that's another reason why I don't want it because I'm pretty sure my parents would hate it and everyone of their age around me would hate it.
00:29:17
Speaker
I don't know I guess yeah a trial would be okay but it's just then if it's there to stay and it's just what about if it was trialed and the atmosphere was electric and it was all brilliant
00:29:30
Speaker
I don't know, I just still believe that the atmosphere is generating... What if it makes everything in your life better? I'm not sure.
00:29:48
Speaker
It won't. I just think, I prefer the atmosphere just to be generated by what is going on in the pitch. And I know that that isn't easy and it doesn't work very well with us anyway. I just feel like it's an organic thing rather than something that you can force. I don't know. I'm not convinced. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's see if it gets here. You don't say. Thanks for adding that on. We wouldn't have known where you stood on it otherwise.
00:30:18
Speaker
talking about it being difficult to generate an atmosphere about what's going on on the pitch. On Saturday, we are playing Manchester City, who we have a long-come nourished at Carrow Road several times recently, which
00:30:33
Speaker
You know, one side of things, you go, right, well, it's a tricky place for them to come. Other side, you go, well, are we going to go along, come and knowledge them again? So we're going to keep it relatively succinct because between you and me, listener, it has been a little bit of a SH1T show in terms of trying to record this podcast.
00:30:49
Speaker
So we'll keep this relatively short and succinct. I want a typical ACM prediction of the score, the scorer, and one memorable moment that's going to happen in the
Norwich vs. Manchester City Predictions
00:31:00
Speaker
match. And I'm going to give you the first go, John. So I normally come to you last on this, but I want your prediction first. Prediction, a Norwich scorer, and memorable moment.
00:31:09
Speaker
a Norwich scorer is quite optimistic. I think we will lose 4-1, but I think we will take the lead in the fifth minute. And I think the person that's going to score that goal will be Milo Rashidza with an absolute thunderbolt. If I keep saying it on this podcast, then he will score an absolute thunderbolt one day. Okay. And what's the memorable moment going to be? Is it going to be that thunderbolt?
00:31:33
Speaker
It might be, yeah, or it might be if we get our way, the flags being relocated in a different part of the ground where you might not necessarily expect them. Watch this space. Okay then, so Claire, come on, give us your score.
00:31:50
Speaker
I was actually going to say 4-1 as well, but I didn't think that we would score first. I thought it might be some sort of consolation goal late on, and that Adam Eda would score it with a ridiculous long run from the other side of the pitch on a counter attack, and then he'd just smash it in the goal, and that would be the memorable moment. But the rest of it would be backs against the wall, and yeah, 4-1 for me as well.
00:32:17
Speaker
I'm going to predict a 2-2 draw with Norwich going into a 2-0 lead and being in Dreamland can't believe this is happening again.
00:32:33
Speaker
it getting back to 2-2 after about 80 minutes and then an unbelievably squeaky squeaky bum time scared last 14 minutes with probably eight minutes added so maybe 18 minutes can be eight minutes at a time and somehow we managed to pull out a draw and my memorable moment is that a member of the of the coaching team but not pep will be sent to the stands showing a red card by the ref because
00:33:00
Speaker
as part of us getting to 2-0, something, a series of awful referring to mistakes are going to have to come in our favour in order for that to happen. And that's going to wind up someone, not Pep, because he's too much of a gentleman, but someone else on the coaching staff is going to be sent to the stands. So that's pretty specific. Very specific. I mean, obviously, I'm expecting to see his 5-0, but my prediction is 2-2 and those things I said. So look, who knows what's going to happen is football. And we have actually done it before. It wouldn't actually be different now.
00:33:28
Speaker
We're more resilient and we're better at defending now than we were last time we actually beat these guys. And they are 12 points. Who knows, Leicester may be getting a draw tonight. They'd then be 11 points clear, but they're going to be at least nine points clear when they rock up. Maybe they slightly do the unprofessional Manchester City thing and they slightly take their eyes off the ball.
00:33:48
Speaker
and don't quite bring their A-game because they don't think they're going to need to. You never know. Maybe Pep doesn't respect Dean as much as he respected Daniel, and he doesn't quite get a game up for it. That could happen. So I will cling on to that 1% chance. Thank you, Claire, for joining us, then leaving, and then joining us again, then leaving. But all of that will be edited out. John, thank you for stoically putting up with Claire coming and going. Cheers. And to you, the listener, I hope you really, really enjoy Saturday evening.
00:34:18
Speaker
however many goals there are and whichever of the yellow and green nets they go in. Mind how you go.