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Glenn Roeder had said he wanted to grab the game by the scruff of the neck straight from the kick off. We obviously didn't listen and 1 minute and 1 second after the kick off we were 1 nil down. Harley was caught out trying to play offside and the resulting cross was poorly cleared by Unsworth to Huckerby who crossed low for an unmarked Dublin to score from close range.
Time for an immediate response from the Clarets but it just didn't happen and it took 10 more minutes before Lafferty managed a weak shot on goal. Our 4-5-1 formation was clearly not working; Lafferty was isolated, no one was taking responsibility for playing on the left hand side of midfield, and our central defenders were relying on Alexander to win the ball in the air.
A stoppage for a head injury to Jensen gave Coyle an opportunity to assess and re-organise but he didn't. Meanwhile master technician, Roeder didn't notice how much space on the left Huckerby had and fortunately moved him to play on the right.
There was still no sign of us giving everything we've got and our overcrowded central midfield were being over run by Norwich who were faster and more mobile. Still it was only one nil. Gudjonsson went close with an excellent long range effort before giving a string of free kicks away on the edge of our box from which Norwich failed to worry Jensen.
Alexander was booked for a crude challenge and Blake was booked for crude comments as Half Time came and referee Booth felt the need for some admin. Now was an opportunity for Coyle to breathe some life into the side, give them more width and remind them that this was a game they must win. This is where Coyle fails to impress, we often need to be able to change our style and tactics but seldom can we produce any kind of change. OK they're not his players but he should be able to produce a side better drilled than this.
As a Football Club, Norwich get a lot of simple things right. Their stadium looks like we want ours to eventually look like, with integral hotel and business facilities. Thanks to Delia their catering offers more choice than anywhere else, Away fans are housed in a harmless open corner of the ground where they can't generate a lot of noise, even their toilets are well equipped with useful things like hot water, soap, mirrors etc. Shame they get the pre-match announcements and goal music so dreadfully wrong.
The second half brought no Burnley substitutions but Blake was moved to partner Lafferty up front and McCann was given the left midfield berth, not that any of this made much difference as Norwich were comfortably running midfield and carving our defence open at will. They missed time and time again though and although we could have been three nil down, we were still in it. A couple of times we got down the right hand side in good positions only for Alexander to cross wastefully. Lafferty got on the end of a long ball and was through on goal with only the goalkeeper to beat but his shot went wide. This was our best opportunity of the game.
Blake kept creating but at times it looked like this group of players had never practised together, it was disjointed and passionless. McCann was replaced by Cole, Gudjonsson, who was awful during the second half, was replaced by Mahon and Blake made way for Akinbiyi. This didn't make any significant change to the play although Akinbiyi at least dragged a few defenders around to make space for the others and Mahon looked like he should have been playing from the start.
Alexander continued to be unable to cross the ball, I've never seen a player play so badly week in, week out and still keep his place in the side, he broke up more of our attacks than he did theirs. A few minutes from the end, a Norwich attack that started in their own penalty area ended in a good last-ditch tackle by Unsworth but the ball broke to Evans who easily beat Alexander and Jensen and scored in the far corner to add a nice symmetry to the timing of the Norwich goals for the 24000 attending.
Man of the Match? Nobody stood out, I'd give it to Blake but frankly no one deserved it. This was as a dismal display, no spark, no fight, no spirit, no must win attitude, no belief, no guile, no creativity, no well-worked moves from the training ground, no shape, no pattern, no urgency not even a lucky break.
Season over.
