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Wolves 1 Norwich 0 01/05/2002 |
| Match
Report |
| Report by Fat Stat After the mad last half an hour at Norwich this match had the ugly look of inevitability about it. Never before had a team overcome two goal deficit in a play-off. In circumstances similar to these Wolves had fought valiantly and failed to claw back a similar deficit against Palace in the 1996-1997 season. Coupled with our appalling record against the country bumpkins this season and it wasn't looking good. I suppose we ought to be glad that they played the Liquidator, but it smacked of too little too late. Wolves' management been out fought in the psychological wars this season, and this small token did not do much to redress the balance. After Smegson's use of the Battle of Bramall Lane to foster a "no-one likes us" attitude amongst his Sunday League clodders, Norwich manager Nigel Worthington used similar tactics, plus the added clever edge of getting the ref on his side before the match started. He said that Wolves we be too physical and that his players would "need protecting" by a strong referee. The object was obviously to get a foul for his side every time they were tackled and it certainly worked. No one will convince me that Worthington didn't instruct his players to dive every time any Wolves player came close. And tyhe ref fell for it issuing cards to Wolves, and fouls to Norwich. Lescott and Blake only had to breath somewhere near a Norwich forward and it was a foul, whereas Blake and Sturridge we getting kicked, climbed over and roughed up without a sign of movement from the ref. I'm not into all this Jones bashing, but I think his comments about the ref in the first play-off game cannot have helped the ref to look at his well. Besides the ridiculous imbalance in cards and fouls the ref also denied us two or three penalties (two hand balls and a blatant trip on Miller late on). Butler was booked for - as far as I could tell - being punched by one of their players. Having said that the ref didn't lose this two leg tie, the third killer goal at Norwich did. That and some excellent saves from their goalie. On 10 minutes a poor Newton cross bobbled up off a defender a gave Blake an opportunity. His header was strong and well directed, but the goalie stretched and slapped it away and then recovered to scoop H rebound clear of the in-rushing Cooper. Coupled with that he made to other very good saves from long-range shots from Rae and Cooper. It was fast and furious stuff, and Wolves weren't playing too bad. Trouble was Norwich were up for it and were passing the ball around well. We didn't seem to have any cutting edge, and we really lacked any crosses into the box. I think that Cooper is a very good player, but he has a tendency to come inside too much. Unless it was a deliberate ploy to get Mo Mo on the outside. If it was it didn't really work except for one exchange of passes - vintage early season - saw Cooper play Camara into the box. He laid the ball slightly behind Sturridge who none the less managed to lay the ball back to Rae who unfortunately fluffed his shot. Half time 0-0. I'm afraid that the emotion of the moment got to me and I don't remember too much of the second half. I remember that Roberts' first action was to foul Butler and get away with it. I remember Blake being wrestled to the ground and no foul given. I remember loads of times when Norwich players dived and got fouls. I also remember that Roberts' missed a golden opportunity from a brilliant cross when Norwich broke. The highlight of the half was a brilliant goal from Cooper. On 77 minutes a poor cross from Camara was knocked clear and it fell to Cooper who took one touch and then sent an absolutely unstoppable shot into the goalkeeper's top right hand corner of the net. An absolute screamer that deserved a different setting. Norwich continued diving and started time wasting but to be honest appeared pretty safe. Except for the one last moment of agony. A brilliant cross from Kennedy (his only contribution to the match) saw Butler in acres of space, but his header was woefully wide. Then it was all over and there was only an empty numbness. My anger was all about Sunday, and all about the last half hour. Jones will have to find what went wrong, in what must be one of the most spectacular collapses in form in recent history. I have a strong suspicion that the real problem was a poorly fought PR/psychological war which gave impetus to our opponents and drained the self-belief from our team. But the real problem for me is that I will never believe that we can ever be promoted again. This relationship only ends with pain................. |
| Norwich Home - play-offs: Match Statistics | Back to the top |
Goals:
Wolves: Cooper (77 min),
Norwich:
Best Player:Cooper (3 votes)
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| Average player ratings are taken from a number of newspapers, magazines and web-sites ...more.... |
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