FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.40: NORWICH AWAY

NORWICH CITY 1 OXFORD UNITED 1

Football is THE sport as far as I’m concerned. Always has been ever since I first discovered it and always will be. Played some local football at a very low level and now play a lot of walking football. But where most of my time has gone sports wise is following OUFC up and down the country over many decades.

This doesn’t mean I’ve got no time for rugby, cricket and athletics. They’ve all brought enjoyment too but almost exclusively sat in front of a TV screen. Football is different. I watch way too much on Sky, but as far as Oxford United is concerned I have to be there don’t I? The matchday experience can’t be replicated in my own home, no way. I remember the hollowness of the Football League experience in Covid restricted times.

Back in the day I used to be into motor sport more than I am now. I no longer have any interest. I used to go Silverstone and Brands Hatch. I witnessed a British driver by the name of Hill. His name wasn’t Damon but Graham, his dad. That’s how long ago. After a while I got to thinking. From any vantage point you can only see a very small portion of the track. The cars whizz by then you have to wait a minute and a half or whatever to see the same car flash by in a blur again. Fleetingly exciting perhaps but any genuine overtaking action is way more likely than not to take place out of sight. Sat at home in front of a screen none of the drama would be missed – and it would be free.

Now just suppose I try and apply the same logic to attending a football match which is being screened live – and so many of them are these days. The only Oxford United ones that are not are 3 o’clock kick-offs on a Saturday and we know how rare they now are.

In a stand you only get one view of the action. Trying to work out what is actually happening at the other end of the pitch can largely be guess work. Sat at home you’ll get close ups, numerous camera angles and instant replays. None of this “who scored?”

But as has been said over and over for most who follow their team away from home it’s all about so much more than the 90+ minutes of football. It’s about a day out with your mates. Arriving early, having a little poke about, visiting a pub or two, drinking different beers, chatting to the locals, swapping football stories, getting the vibe of the place. That all helps with the build-up and anticipation.

Take that away and what are you left with?

So onto my experiences on Friday afternoon through to a bit past the early hours of Saturday morning.

All the people I usually travel with were staying in Norwich overnight with family. I couldn’t persuade Mrs FV to do the same. This actually turned out to be a good thing because she’s had a cold which she can’t shake off and it came back with a vengeance. I seem to have got away with a much milder version but was left with the dilemma of how to get to Carrow Road. Train travel was impossible. I thought of driving but reasoned I’d be knackered driving back. Stopping away for one night? I’d left it late so hotel prices looked expensive. Then on Thursday afternoon I had the bright idea of seeing if there were any spaces left on the LRC coach. I’d not joined the travel club but use the coaches about once every two years. It provides a great service for some and is a helpful backstop of last resort for others.

I rang the ticket office, yes there were spaces available. I opted to get on at the Kassam not Thornhill p&r. What time was it leaving I asked. “2:45”.

I gave myself good time to drive to the ground which was just as well because I nearly missed the bus. In fact I was actually two minutes late. If they’d left bang on time I would have been left behind. It was quarter to three at Thornhill. Lesson – always check and double check.

No matter, I was on board and had the luxury of a double seat. Some I know who were driving themselves said you don’t want to be going M25 way, particularly on a Friday afternoon. We went on the M25. Stop start. Once on the M11, problems on there too. Then we stopped for a half hour break. I’d planned to have a pint in the Rose which welcomes friendly away fans and is about half a mile from the ground. Very slow progress told me that was a no go long before we got to Norwich. On the bright side we drove up to the stadium at 7:25 so no rush to get in for the start. And we drove some more and kept going despite there being a sizeable car park at the ground. The designated parking was in Lower Clarence Road. This was about half a mile away. Bear in mind that some on the coaches aren’t the most mobile it was a bit of a rush to get there. I moved pretty quickly and got in with 10 minutes to spare.

Afterwards I was one of the first back on the coach. We waited. Then we moved. Forwards a few yards, then stopped. There was no traffic blocking the way. Off again to the end of Lower Clarence Road where we stopped again. Now a couple more passengers climbed on board. We eventually pulled away just gone 22:30. Something about police and waiting for the traffic to clear. Returning, the M25 way obviously wasn’t as challenging and the toilet break at the services was only for 15 minutes.

It was 02:50 a.m. when I walked through my front door. I’d been away for 15 hours and 10 minutes and all I’d done was watch a football match. If I’d watched it on Sky I would have spent a couple of hours in front of the screen so would have ended up 13 hours better off. And that’s not to mention the cost of ticket and travel, at a rough estimate sixty quid.

A few days earlier a mate had posed the question, how long can we keep doing this? Traipsing up and down the country watching every OUFC game, or as near as damn it. The older one gets driving long distances becomes more challenging. Public transport often isn’t an option with kick off times to suit the television audience and not the loyal legacy fans. Driving home say 150 miles late at night when tiredness can creep in and motorway closures for repairs, meaning diversions are fairly frequent, is not in the least appealing.

More days like Friday and I’ll be a step nearer to becoming an armchair fan on occasion. I doubt any Plymouth fan will read this but if they do I can hear them now. Wimp, we get this every away game and often a lot worse.

Best get on to what I went for, all I went for. The match.

By the time I walked into the stand it was pretty crowded. No chance of finding my allotted seat. Given the timing of it all and the TV coverage the turnout of 1025 Yellows was a fantastic following and the noisy support given to the team throughout could hardly have been bettered. Loved the often constant “Yellow and Blue Army” even though we were in purple and Norwich were in yellow and green. There’s something unifying about away support when it’s done in the right way. We see that with frequent visitors to the Kassam.

If I had to sum up the game in a few words it would be that it looked like a League One side digging in and putting on a superb resilient battling display to deservedly take a point from a side not quite good enough to make the top six.

When I heard the starting XI and saw it included Alex Matos I thought this is going to be defensive. The formation with Hidde ter Avest and Przemyslaw Placheta deployed as wing backs confirmed this even further for me. But perhaps it was a master plan to somehow hit the opposition on the break. Or more sensibly the likeliest way of getting a point.

Recently I’ve been quite critical of Mark Harris, Matt Phillips and Matos whilst singing the praises of Placheta and Ole Romeny. Here this was flipped on its head.

Harris was way better than Romeny. Placheta looked ill-suited to the role he was being asked to play and being so much deeper never posed the speedy attacking threat we’ve seen over the last few games. No partnership with Romeny in this one. Phillips much more looked the wing back part, getting in some great tackles and Matos really got stuck in too.

We had a chance to score within the first 30 seconds. I’d not settled into the game and had to shake my head to work out what was going on. We pounced on a City defender as they tried to play it around in their own area. Romeny’s shot though was easily saved by debutant Vicente Reyes.

That was a third of our total shots all evening and 50% of those on target. Norwich had 15 shots with six on target. They dominated the ball with 77.2% possession. They made 756 passes to our 227. Their passing accuracy was 90%, ours 65%. For all their passes though they only made 187 that were forward. I think this frustrates the home fans. They did make 129 successful passes in the final third. We only made 23. They won 12 corners to our one and had 29 touches in our box. We only had nine in theirs. Anyone who watched the game will not be surprised by these stats.

Going behind in just the fifth minute I feared the worst. It came from very good incisive football from Norwich. One and two touch football. Championship football. The ball was played inside Placheta to Kellen Fisher whose first time low cross was met by the on-rushing Josh Sargent who converted expertly. They’d got through us so easily it was a worry. Had PP, not a natural defender, set his body right to be able to turn and go with Fisher? Or was it just one of those things where it is so hard to defend against?

Heads didn’t drop on the pitch or in the stands. That was a massive positive.

Centre-back Ciaron Brown got a cross in that neither Harris nor Romeny could get on the end of. Was the ball attacked with total conviction and belief? Would a top striker have converted?

But we were level 13 minutes later. I’ve been highlighting the fact that given the armoury we have at our disposal our best chance of scoring is from set pieces with the big guys sent up. I should really have mentioned Will Vaulks’s long throws alongside free-kicks and corners. They’re just as dangerous. It’s a percentage game. Most Championship defenders struggle with it all.

Here Elliott Moore and Michal Helik were in close proximity of each other but were tightly marked. A player cannot be off-side directly from a throw but once a team-mate has touched the ball the normal laws apply once more. No Oxford player got a touch. Jack Stacey headed the ball on to team-mate Anis Ben Slimane’s back and it fell nicely for Harris who swivelled to finish from point blank range.

There was another Vaulks throw that the Canaries had great trouble dealing with, then not long after we nearly went behind again with Sargent once more finding the back of our net. They’d got through us with not much difficulty once more but this was marginally off-side. An excellent and correct call from the assistant.

In the second half it was very much a game of attack against defence. Moore slid in to prevent an almost certain Borja Sainz goal. Many will disagree but I think he’s the best centre half we’ve got.

There were blocks aplenty from our defence but we were never able to set up a break away. Losing possession when we did have the ball didn’t help.

Jamie Cumming did really well to tip over a powerful drive from Ante Crnac and later spread himself as top keepers do to prevent Sainz scoring after sub Sam Long had been taken out of the game by a pass as easily as PP had been when we conceded.

So 1-1 it was and a point in the bank towards safety.

Other results as far as we’re concerned were a mixed bag. Derby won their first game of 2025 beating Blackburn Rovers to climb off the bottom of the table. Not totally surprising, Rovers have not been in the best of form and have had a manager leave because he was unhappy. Plymouth got dicked 3-0 at home by Wednesday. Beating Brentford and Liverpool is one thing, the harsh reality of the long slog to pick up enough league points for survival is another. Wayne Rooney set the standards that now look like they are being run with. Two points from the last five games for Argyle. Good for us. Burnley don’t let goals in and now have started scoring quite a few too. Four at home to Luton without reply meaning the Hatters drop back to the bottom of the table. Six points from 14 games takes some explaining for a team that was in the Premier League last season. We’re still just above Cardiff, Stoke and Hull. The Bluebirds, as expected, lost at Sunderland but apparently gave a good account of themselves. I celebrated in front of the TV when Coventry got their 90+7 minute winner at home to Stoke. Hull got a good point at Bristol City in a display that would appear similar to ours at Norwich only much more extreme. They only had 21.3% possession and took just seven touches in the Bristol box. The home side by contrast had 65 touches in the Tigers box. Outrageous.

Our next opponent of course are those Tigers. The MKM Stadium is 160 miles away from my abode. Will I be there? Of course I bloody will. Being picked up at 2:30 and already looking forward to a pint or two. That will help ease me in to what will be, as ever, a very tense old night. If we lose they go above us. They’ve won two and drawn two of their last five games and only let in two. I can feel the tension already.

By the time we head north we’ll know the outcome of Cardiff v Luton and Derby v Coventry on Tuesday night. We’re currently seven points above the drop zone. That could be reduced to four which would ramp up the pressure even more. So come on the teams in blue.