Eight to go. Harry Gregory looks forward to today’s Easter Monday home clash with Norwich City.
Travelling back from Bristol, the annoyance comes through like a delayed hangover. The re-launch of a promotion bid on Good Friday misfired and became a sobering ninety minutes. The post-mortem in the Bristol boozers was simply a single question. ‘Have we fucked it?’ Universal agreement, including omni-positive Jordan from the BSLB pod.
As often occurs in post-match drinking, you want to avoid talking about the match and change subject, but it always comes around. Second pint. ‘What was Hamza doing?’ Fourth pint. ‘I could have done better with those chances.’ Sixth pint. ‘Lincoln away next season be good’.
The mood prevalent in the away end at full time was befitting of the weather which set against the final minutes. Very dark clouds, hailstones, and heavy showers. Stormy. There were scenes like Craven Cottage last season. Supporters stood open armed to the players and others more forthright. Some of the players notably looked surprised. James Justin to his credit fronted up. The manifestation of relationship between fans and club was here to see. The trust has gone for a lot of supporters. As David Bevan’s article said last week, what should have been a unified force has become another piece of armoury against the custodians of this club.
Football fans just want something to believe in. That felt like it was being fostered back in September. Enzo Maresca and his squad expertly dismissed Southampton and Norwich City away from home over a few days. The most impressive part was the rotated nature of the starting eleven at Carrow Road. Starts for Yunus Akgun and Cesare Casadei.
Now the very lack of rotation has proved our demise. Examples on Friday include just two substitutions from an available five and Wilfred Ndidi, after an injury lay-off and two international games, playing a full 90. The wingers appear undroppable despite the other option, Wanya Marcal, excelling in his last appearance against Bournemouth. Only strikers have some form of pattern where the minutes are shared out. We are unsure given no pre-match press conference of the team news; you would think the same as Good Friday on availability, but Conor Coady’s wife has given birth, so you would assume he’s out.
The Canaries were expected to be towards the playoffs. They originally started well buoyed by the performances of Jonathan Rowe and Gabriel Sara. After the good start, injuries caught up with them and fans expected their season to fizzle out. David Wagner even had calls to depart with the lack of progress. However, the 2024 table has them 3rd. They have lost just once in ten league games. The emergence at Christmas of Borja Sainz and the return of striker Josh Sargent have been at the centre of this resurgence.
They also have a superb knack of scoring absolute screamers. Stereotypically by one of their South American players. A tactical dilemma is occurring here alongside the lack of time between games. Borja Sainz is highly effective in the transition off the left wing. The exact area we leave exposed by the inverted right-back trick. Enzo has counter-acted this previously by putting Ricardo at left-back and Justin plays at right-back, Ricardo still inverting from the opposite side.
Norwich on Friday left space behind their back four as well and they were fortunate not to concede more than once to Plymouth. However, the forever question remains – does a team alter their style to counteract Leicester? Even more when the turnaround is so short to do proper tactical training ground sessions.
If Friday felt big, we somehow ended up with damage limitation as rivals failed to take advantage. It remains in the hands of Leicester City and the fixtures over Easter Monday are all intriguing. The broadcasters rub their hands with glee at the storytelling they can give with this. With ourselves kicking at lunch, Ipswich once again kick-off at 5.30 but face Southampton at home who are nearing last-chance territory for automatic promotion. While Leeds at Elland Road face Hull City who’ve proven tricky opponents for the top four in the evening fixture.
It feels particularly beautiful and so very much part of being a football fan that your Easter weekend is going to be bookended by two Leicester City games. Their ability to set up the rest of your working weekend is mad. While almost hilarious that it dictates our moods so much.
