James Garner from ManUtd has been rumoured should we need to replace Skipp. He's been on loan at Forest and is their highest rated player at 7.03, which is something in a struggling team. He's also scored 3 goals.
Neat summary from Mick Dennis Mick Dennis @MickDennisReal Farkeball, a short thread: When #ncfc kicked off in 05, you could see players who’d won tier two in 04 but been relegated straight away facing up to the Championship slog again so soon and thinking: “Not again!” (more ...) This time, the single season in the Prem included pandemic & Lockdown and then the crushing misery of losing every game after the restart: a relegation spiral of despair. (more ...) There were less than 6 weeks before the new season kicked off; it would be more relentless than ever. Yet, somehow, Daniel Farke lifted his team to produce football the division has seldom (ever?) seen before: a style relying on belief. I’m not sure I’ve seen a greater feat. Danny Sharratt Replying to @MickDennisReal Exceptional. Would love to shake him and Stuart Webber by the hand and thank them. I would enjoy watching Norwich even if I didn't support, in the same way I like to watch Man City now or Arsenal under Wenger. An awesome achievement. Also, thanks Delia and MWJ
Not all that revealing, but here's Spurs' Academy Director on Skipp's future: “Who knows what will happen next season for him. He has a decision to make. I mean he signed a long-term contract with Spurs before he left. But he has gone there, he has been exposed to senior football and learning what it means to win football matches. And he has taken to it ever so well.”
Saw this earlier, with the headline "Head of academy coaching at Spurs opens up on future of Oliver Skipp" What a load of bullscheisse, it tells up zilch - he's only met OS about twice, ffs!
The words 'scraping, bottom and barrel' come to mind but at least it may reveal that no final decision has been made. PS: Welcome back Cromer.
I think it's time to stop talking about promotion and begin to discuss how many points we are going to win the league by. In fact a bit like the Prediction League.
The figures up to date. Home:- P 20...W13...D 6...L 1...Goals for 34...against 10...Clean sheets 11. Away :- P 21...W 14...D 3...L 4...Goals for 31...against 18...Clean sheets 7. I believe we are now only 1 clean sheet away from equalling our seasons record for clean sheets, so two more for a new outright record. As long as we concede no more than 7 goals in our final 5 matches we will set a new low goals conceded record. I am confident that we will set a new high points accrued record with 5 games left. After the defensive frailty of last season the turn around is remarkable. Is our 14 wins away from home the best we have ever achieved? Still trolling the archives to find out on this fact.
It would be better to make a separate thread for everyone to predict our final points total before the Bournemouth game and then whatever other predictions you want to include.
Norwich 5 games left to play and we're on 90 points, having averaged well over 2 points per game (2 points per game + 8, or 2.19/game if you prefer). Perhaps not surprisingly we weren’t able to replicate our fantastic performance against Huddersfield when we played Derby. With Derby being the only team that have beat us at Carrow Road this season, it was good to beat them at their place, particularly as the winning goal came from a Dowell free kick. Omobadmidele did well again, playing his part in us keeping yet another clean sheet. Although we still mathematically need 2 more points to guarantee promotion, it would take a miracle for us not to go up now. We still can’t be anywhere near as confident of winning the title, although with each game that passess this seems to become more likely. The title is still ours to lose, but you never know with Norwich. Currently we are 24 points above Reading in 7th place, 2nd in form table with 14 points from the last 6 games and on a 13 game unbeaten run (during which we’ve only conceded 5 goals). Whilst at times we have not always been clinical enough in front of goal our defensive record is impressive, we have only concede 6 goals in the league since Christmas. We are still in the running to break a couple of club records. Most wins in a season, currently 29 (League 1 - 2009/10) / Most league points, Currently 95 (League 1 - 2009/10). Our next game is home to Bournemouth next Saturday in the late game, KO 8pm. Watford, Bournemouth, Brentford play before that game and Swansea play twice, so it is possible that we could be promoted before we next kick a ball in the league. Bournemouth, who play Huddersfield on Tuesday, are 3rd in the form table with 13 points from the last 6 and narrowly beat us 1 – 0 early on in the season. Our 4 remaining games after Bournemouth are Watford (H), QPR (A), Reading (H) & Barnsley (A). I can see both QPR & Reading having nothing to play for by the time we play them and hopefully by the Barnsley game they will be fully focused on the playoffs rather than the game against us. Watford remain 8 points behind us with 82 points and are still the only team that have any chance of finishing above us. As well as being 2nd in the league they are top of the form table with 16 points from the last 6. They comfortably beat Reading 2 – 0 on Friday, a game Reading really need to win to stay in the top 6. Watford are next away to Luton next Saturday, 3pm KO Luton are 10th in the form table with 9 from the last 6 and sit comfortably mid table in 13th. I would expect Watford to win this game, which potentially set up their following game against us as a title deciding game. Their following games are Milwall (H), Brentford (A) & Swansea (H). In addition to us there is potential for them to drop points in the Brentford & Swansea games. Brentford have 73 points and a game in hand. They turned their recent run of draws around with a convincing 5 nil win over Preston. They are currently 6th in the form table with 10 points from the last 6. They play Milwall, who are 5th in the form table with 12 points from the last 6, on Saturday, 3pm KO. Should Brentford fail to win this game, we are promoted. Their following games are Cardiff (H), Bournemouth (A), Rotherham (H), Watford (H) & Bristol City (A). From our point of view, it would be great if they went into the Watford game still needing a win. Swansea are in 4th with 72 points and reversed their 4 game losing streak with a 3 nil win against Milwall, a result that almost certainly ends any hopes Milwall may have had of sneaking into a playoff place. Swansea are 19th in the form table with 6 points from the last 6 games, however they do have a game in hand. Swansea still have a game in hand a position the will be rectified this week when they play Sheffield Weds (A) on Tuesday, KO 6pm and Wycombe (H) on Saturday, KO 3pm. Their following games are QPR (H), Reading (A), Derby (H) & Watford (A). Like Brentford it would be great for us if they went into the Watford game needing to get something to maintain a play-off place. Barnsley remain in 5th with 71 points and boosted their playoff hopes with a decent 2 nil win against Middlesbrough. They are 4th in the form table with 13 points from the last 6. They have what on paper looks like a comfortable run of games before they play us in our last game of the season, other than us all their games are against teams that are in nor around the relegation, so there is potential for them to drop some points. I suspect by the time they play us their playoff place will be assured, hopefully the title will also be ours before the game. Their remaining games are Coventry (A), Huddersfield (A), Rotherham (A), Preston (A) & Us (H). Bournemouth leapfrog Reading into a playoff place with 68 points, as a result of their 4 – 1 win over Coventry. Bournemouth are 3rd in the form table with 13 points from the last 6 and play Huddersfield (17th in form table with 7 from the last 6) on Tuesday, KO 5.30pm before their game against us next Saturday. Their remaining games are Milwall (A), Brentford (H) Wycombe (A) & Stoke (H). Other than us and Brentford it looks like they have a relatively comfortable run in. Hopefully we can beat them and put more pressure on them to get something from the Brentford game, although I expect we will be promoted by then.
Mystery: we struggle to a 1 - 1 draw against PNE away but Brentford put 5 passed them away on Saturday. What did they do that we didn’t?
Well PNE beat Swansea after us, so it's probably either the fact that on their day anyone can beat anyone/ the new manager bounce has gone. Or the fact we had a rookie backline and most of our players had played in internationals about 48 hours earlier and then needed to travel.
On the other side of the coin Brentford could only draw 1 - 1 with Huddersfield on the 3rd of April but we beat them 7 nil on the 6th. What did we do that they didn't.
And Brentford lost 2-4 at home to Preston earlier in the season. I go for the any team on their day theory. We just seem to manage it slightly more often than the others.
Found the answer to our away victory record. it WAS 13 from the AN promotion juggernaut, so 14, with 2 more possible, is a new record. And so it goes on. And our points gained on the road is currently 45, which equals our previous best.
Jacob Murphy scores for NUFC and Lewis is on the bench. Do I sense that former NCFC players are not making it big time at Newcastle.?