Bristol City (h); The Review

Random star performer

It would be easy to pick McLean for dusting himself down from last week’s penalty miss and coming up with two strikes which oozed class, the first on his weaker foot after an excellent team move, the winner a volley of pinpoint accuracy to put City in front for the first time in the contest.

It would also be easy to single out Onel Hernandez, whose decision making left a bit to be desired, yet he proved a constant threat and was the outlet City turned to most when the ball was turned over. The Cuban’s speed and desire saw many an attack gather pace.

If only for sheer bloody-mindedness though, let’s hear it for Christoph Zimmermann. The skipper put in a towering second half display, all while battling through injury. Timm Klose was hotter than the surface of the sun after being sent out for warm up after warm up, in anticipation of Zimmermann’s imminent withdrawal. This man battles on through though, and he went on to win his own personal duel against the physical threat of Diedhiou, who departed with his tail between his sizeable legs as the visitors attempted to turn the game back in their favour.

Moment of the match

Not really an in-game moment, but the scenes of celebration post match spoke of the squad’s understanding that this was one of the more difficult tests they were going to face between now and the end of the campaign. Krul’s turn and shriek towards the Barclay as the final whistle blew, McLean lapping up the praise, Godfrey being Godfrey, then Farke showing way more emotion than we’d seen previously – it was clear he enjoyed this one. This was a huge win, and they knew it.

Farke watch

Aside from the now customary oles, Farke proved his tactical prowess again, as McLean revealed in his post match interview. The Scot was asked to play in a slightly deeper ball playing role after half time and to offer Trybull a little more protection so O’Dowda wasn’t afforded the freedom of Carrow Road again. The additional shield provided a more solid platform from which to build attacks – a small tweak in the system was all that was required to swing the balance back City’s way.

Also, kudos to Farke for keeping the fact Pukki had the shits during the week under his hat until after the game. He was right to think this could have boosted the visitors psychologically. The thought of Teemu running at you in full flow is now more than enough to keep a Championship defender up at night and was a tool that needed to be used, regardless of whether the Immodium had started working before kick off.

Biggest positive to take

The sight of Moritz Leitner, Grant Hanley, Jordan Rhodes, Mario Vrancic and Timm Klose occupying a substitutes’ bench in the second tier of English football is frankly ridiculous. Yet their replacements’ form has made them undroppable.

With this lot waiting in the wings and nearly a clean bill of health at Colney, City are fantastically placed for the run-in. Quite how you start to reintegrate this abundance of talent back into the first team is a problem for another day, but it’s a fun problem to have.

Weekend whinge

‘Foul him, just take him down, stop the momentum, don’t let them get back in front…ah fuck.’ Just some of my internal monologue as O’Dowda ghosted past yellow shirt after yellow shirt, before finishing well past a despairing Tim Krul. It shouldn’t have happened, we should be cuter than that. A tactical foul or just slightly better concentration levels would have seen City at least level at the break, giving themselves much less of a mountain to climb. Luckily Farke sent out the sherpas after the interval and City were back at the summit.

Atmosphere rating

Na, na na na na, na na na na na na na na na naaaaa ………KENNY MCLEAN!

Sometimes the best Barclay anthems are complex, most times they’re extremely simplistic. This one was definitely the latter, and it kept the volume levels at optimum throughout the second 45.

Before that, the Barclay looked spectacular in the sun, a second outing for the Justin Fashanu banner on the week which would have been his 58th birthday seemed only right and the flags extended across the stand once more. What struck us this week though was the willingness of more and more people to get involved with the collection and placement of the flags prior to the game. Thank you to everyone who got chipped in.

One sour note was increasing reports of people leaving the ground with flags and when challenged stating something along the lines of ‘well they were left on our seats so they’re ours now’. Maybe just bring them back for Swansea, yeah? They’re for everyone.

Summary

An entertaining affair that at times became end to end but always felt like Norwich had the additional quality to eventually prevail. If performances remain at this level and brain farts can be eradicated, there is nothing to fear from now until Villa Park. It’d be nice if two of WBA, Leeds and Sheffield United could just start imploding soon though, just to keep the blood pressure in check.