Norwich 2 – 2 Southampton; The ACN Review

Random Star Performer

Blindingly obvious choice but I can see no further than Whitts. He’d probably have been about tenth choice for me but he stepped up and hit the spot kick with a coolness and conviction that was more akin to Adams than Sutch.

With an assist for the late equaliser too it was a good day for him. Often unfairly maligned, Whittaker provided a timely reminder that despite a lack of recent action, he’s more than capable when and if called upon – even if the suspicion remains that he’s better going forward than actually defending. Oh, and don’t play him in midfield Alex. Ever.

Moment of the match

Long term I have to hope that this choice doesn’t have a detrimental impact on us given that an extra fixture will hardly be welcomed, but, the late equaliser.

I was delighted that Naismith scored it; he’s a really clever player. His movement creates space and opportunities for his colleagues and problems for the opposition. Supposing he is still here after the window, I still think he can make a big difference.

Levelling the game late on gave it a real “cup tie” feel as well as maintaining some positive momentum. With one or two exceptions it appears that belief is returning to our players; perhaps this season isn’t a write off after all but it’s still baby steps for now.

Biggest positive to take

Still being in the cup. A third round exit still looks likely but we scored a couple of goals and were fully committed right to the end. It was almost as if we cared about the tournament; no, I don’t believe it either but on a day when Whittaker scores a penalty anything seems possible.

Weekly whinge

Despite it being a decent game and satisfactory result, there could be a few.

McGovern in the sticks could give a dog kittens, Alex Tettey would have struggled to pass wind and the sight of a hobbling Timm Klose got me all annoyed that we’d risked him.

Ultimately though the biggest whinge has to be the attendance.

Much has been made of the lb25 ticket price. Admittedly, I thought and said all along that I didn’t think charging the equivalent to a Category C league match was out of the way. However, with the Barclay population decimated and the Snake Pit having less snakes than Ireland, people clearly made a choice.

I’m sure that the price was a factor in many staying away but it also provided a smokescreen for those that wouldn’t have gone if it had been lb10. We’ve been on a horrible run and there’s a lot of disillusionment and apathy around. Had we been in good form then there’d have been more bums on seats but after seeing us get 12,479, the club must feel they’ve got it wrong.

As I mentioned earlier, the price thing dominated the attendance discussions and also gave Alex Neil a convenient dumping ground. When asked about the attendance he immediately spoke about the lb25 price tag. Fair enough, but I still strongly suspect the 14,000 missing fans were as much to do with us being crap for weeks as about tickets being a fiver more expensive than last year, it’d have been interesting to have heard Alex’s response to that.

Whatever folks’ reasons, this was something else that gave fans a reason to berate our Chief Executive. Jez Moxey has so far provided fans of this club with an over-rehearsed speech at the AGM, a carefully measured and strangely edited in-house interview and now this ticketing policy. It’s safe to say that he hasn’t endeared himself to fans. Of course, he isn’t here to be popular and it IS early days to judge him. If what we’ve seen so far is a sign of things to come though, the grumbles will get louder. Meanwhile, the stock of David McNally has reached a new high despite him doing nothing. Another example of The Lafferty Effect.

Atmosphere rating

Weird.

Swathes of empty seats and the traditionally “loud” areas virtually empty, it started with a real pre-season feel to it. That said, the game itself was a decent enough battle and by the end it had reached a level of fairly animated, indeed, after we equalised the roar to spur us on to find a winner was quite surprising. Definitely not an intimidating cauldron of noise though. More a milk pan of murmurings.

Referee watch

Gets five points straight away because he gave us a penalty. To be fair though it was so blatant that Mr Magoo would have spotted it. Strange he didn’t book the keeper for the challenge though as anywhere else on the field that is going to get you carded. He could have booked him for handling outside the area too. Yep, I’m not having it. He could have sent their keeper off so he gets the five points for the penalty and nothing else. 5/10

Summary

Southampton caused us problems and had some decent spells of possession but we competed all over the pitch and deserved our draw.

The Klose injury is a concern, Cameron Jerome continues to lack confidence – surely he should have been all over that penalty? – and Alex Tettey would have had issues passing flour through a sieve. Ruddy has no worries on the selection front while Pritchard flits in and out of games too much to really influence them.

However, we didn’t lose, the team were cheered from the pitch and we’re still in the cup after playing Premier League opposition.

If you’d told me any of that was going to be true of today a few weeks ago, I’d have laughed at you.

The rebuild continues. OTBC