25 August 2008
Signs of encouragement

STEVE GEDGE

Well, it was nice to hear that it was the opposition supporters booing this time.

In common with plenty of other City fans I didn't go on Saturday.

I sensed that with no Welsh striker to call upon now the odds weren't great on Norwich repeating their triumphs of both last season and May 2006.

Even the historical aspect of this fixture - maybe the Canaries' last away league fixture at which you could stand until the likes of Peterborough get promoted to the Championship - wasn't enough to drag me all the way along the M4 over a bank-holiday weekend on the only day I wasn't working.

No, following the Milton Keynes debacle, if the City players can choose which away games they are going to turn up for then so can I.

And for the first 70 minutes tuning into Radio Norfolk on Saturday it sounded as if I had made the right decision.

Even listening to someone else's commentary it all sounded so depressingly familiar.

The needlessly-conceded early goal, the frittered-away chance to get back into the game, that sinking feeling suffered when a second opposition goal appears to have put the match out of reach… all the constituent parts of following Norwich on their travels regularly since the start of the 2005/6 season were there.

But then… cue a few moments of going Lupo loony nuts.

Given the way the past thee years at Carrow Road have gone you're not likely to get too carried away by the closing stages at Ninian Park, cue those old jokes about having more false dawns than a French and Saunders lookalike contest.

But after a run of one draw and eight defeats since City's last away success, at Ninian Park some six and a half months ago, it's a start.

It's certainly more encouraging to draw at Cardiff than pick up a point at home to Blackpool.

If you can battle back from the brink of certain defeat there's some spirit in this squad.

We just need to see it rather more often.

Maybe we aren't guaranteed to win against Birmingham on Saturday, but surely we're not going to have a repeat of three years ago when it took until the seventh fixture to secure the first victory of the season?

By the time the Plymouth away and QPR home fixtures roll around you'd like to hope that the likes of Lupoli, Kennedy and Stefanovic are not just match fit but 'match aware' in terms of being a lot more comfortable with and knowledgeable of their new team-mates.

Plus there's still the introduction of David Bell to look forward to.

No, City might only be 18th in the table, but it isn't a time to panic.

It might have a time to get rather frustrated at 4.28pm on Saturday, but there is the small matter of another 43 matches remaining this season.

But those first 76 minutes at Ninian Park did provide some food for thought.

For starters, cut out conceding the penalties each week to stop the mountain to be faced becoming more Everest-like.

And Jamie Cureton's spot-kick miss does highlight one brushed-under-the-carpet facet of modern life at Carrow Road - the complete lack of reserve-team football.

If City's No 10 is going to rebuild his confidence - and, let's face it, if a proven striker can't even find the target from the penalty spot it must be totally shattered - how is he going to manage it at Colney?

If you accept that he's maybe fallen out of contention for the available starting places this weekend, all he can do now is wait for someone to fail.

Unless international breaks are going to be filled with lots of training-ground friendlies it's hard to see how he's going to become a lot sharper in front of goal.

One thing I will be interested to see this Saturday is the level of the away support.

Birmingham's last visit to Carrow Road - at a time when they were in contention for the Championship title, let's not forget - drew a grand total of 626 away fans.

Okay, it was a midweek fixture, but Hull and Watford also came here on a Tuesday night last season and brought considerably more.

Scunthorpe also had to visit Carrow Road in midweek, but, pro rata, their following of 549 was much more impressive.

In an age when you are coming across more and more Premier League, rather than football, fans in this country, there are certain clubs who you suspect have to rely on such selective supporters, and, unfortunately for them, Birmingham are such an outfit.

Stoke are another. (Not to mention being the second poorest supported visitors to Norwich last season.) You look at Saturday's attendance at the Britannia Stadium and wonder where they all were last season and whether a few of them needed directions to get to the ground.