Went to Carrow Road tonight to see the EDS, hopeful that they would repeat last seasons success when they ran out comfortable 3:0 winners.
Alas it wasn't to be. Having watched the teams walk out on to the pitch my 6 year old decided he needed the toilet, and as we returned to the stand the cheers from the majority of the 7,000 strong crowd told me that the home team had scored with just a minute gone. Josh Murphy (a player who featured prominently in their FA Youth cup winning side a couple of years ago and now a regular in the first team squad) had apparently put Norwich ahead.
So a disasterous start, but the blues got over it quickly and were soon in the ascendancy. Barkers threat down the left was clear and Norwich struggled to deal with him, unsure whether when in possession he would cut inside or use his pace on the outside.
It was therefore no surprise that Barker assisted in City's deserved equaliser on 22 mins, his perfectly weighted pass found Pozo's well timed run inside the box, with the latter steering the ball low past the despairing dive of goalkeeper Rudd and into the bottom right corner.
City began to dominate with Baker continuing to terrorise Norwich down their right, (City's left) and it was following another burst of pace into the Norwich box which saw him pushed to the floor, the referee didn't hesitate in awarding a spot kick to the blues. Sadly Pozo's penalty was saved by Rudd, something that was to be pivotal in terms of the direction of the game and crucially the outcome of the match.
The blues looked disorganised at times in defence and Norwich created several opportunities from wide areas which they didn't take. Norwich very nearly retook the lead right at the start of the second half when Josh Murphy's pace down the City right proved telling and he went close with a shot across the face of Gunn's goal . Norwich's side carried a greater physical prescence, which began to tell as the home side became more dominant, creating and squandering several chances, Gunn was also called upon to make a couple of point blank saves. Gunn looked confident and commanding for the most part and looks a decent keeper.
As the half wore on and despite several close calls, it was the visitors who came closest to a second goal late on when Nitcham hit a thunderbolt from distance that came back off the woodwork, but it was Norwich who took the spoils with a couple of minutes remaining when Loza fired in from close range after a telling break and low cross from the other Murphy down City's right side.
Gunn and Barker were the outstanding performers for the blues on the night. We showed some good touches in the middle of the park at times but were also guilty of being wasteful in posession. At the back we struggled a bit largely down to the sheer physicality of the Norwich side - they had some big bastards out there, and this was a significant factor.
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