Two steps forward, one step back

In spite of the optimism expressed on these pages last week, it was always asking an incredible amount of a side placed eighteenth in the Championship to travel to the home of the Champions on Saturday and get a result. But what happened at Stamford Bridge wasn't really about the outcome of the match at all: it was about 6300 supporters, who have endured so much dross over the last season and a half, having the chance to rediscover and show to all quarters their tremendous sense of pride in their club.

And that, most certainly, was achieved: the players did all that could have been asked of them and more, to the point where Norwich City were the better side for much of the first half, could and really should have taken the lead, and kept hustling and harrying their famous opponents even as Chelsea gradually pulled away from them. The eventual scoreline of 4-0 was, as Jose Mourinho himself admitted, desperately harsh: a consequence of the Canaries continuing to attack and go for it in the closing stages of the contest, rather than sit back and treat a two-goal defeat as a moral victory. Tired minds, as Peter Grant rightly acknowledged, contributed to the pair of injury-time goals which gave the score a highly deceptive gloss: but the rousing reception the team received as the final whistle was blown was entirely merited. It was, in many ways, a thoroughly enjoyable and encouraging day.

But on Tuesday night, it was back to reality, as Norwich fell to an all-too-predictable 2-1 reverse at Deepdale, so sinking back towards trouble. With Darren Huckerby and Dickson Etuhu suspended, Youssef Safri crying off, and David Marshall out for at least six weeks after his desperately unlucky injury on the disgrace of a pitch at Stamford Bridge, most supporters could only really envisage defeat against Preston's promotion hopefuls; and that Dion Dublin, the club's talisman, hobbled off early on only made the outcome all the more likely.

That said, Grant too greatly contributed to the defeat: his bizarre decision to start Gary Doherty in midfield instead of Andy Hughes, retained at right back ahead of Jurgen Colin, was curious enough; but his inexplicable switch of the promising Chris Martin out wide following Dublin's injury, and introduction of the pathetic Peter Thorne, rather than the obvious move of bringing Colin on, moving Hughes into the middle, so allowing Simon Lappin to continue his encouraging start to his time at the club from the left wing, was arguably the decisive moment of the match. Preston scored twice; and by the time Grant admitted his mistake, and took the laughable Thorne back off again, the damage had already been done.

Many supporters have chosen to focus on the positives engendered by City's rousing second half fightback, which could easily have mustered a point; but it is hardly a case of 20-20 hindsight to question why the manager, who has a difficult enough job in the first place given the desperately thin squad he has to work with, made things even harder for himself by playing people out of position. Understandably, following Hughes' remarkable, man-of-the-match display (from a Canary point of view) on Saturday, Grant clearly wanted to give him a chance to make the right back berth his own; but Colin has been one of Norwich's better performers this season, was very unfortunate to be omitted from the line-up against Chelsea, and his continued absence throughout a game crying out for the balance he could have provided (and especially the steel Hughes could have brought to the midfield) can only suggest something must have gone on behind the scenes. Oddly, no local reporter appears to have questioned the manager on what, exactly, Colin is supposed to have done wrong - but if he is being punished for something, it backfired completely during the first half in Lancashire.

In mitigation, it must be remembered that Grant himself is on a steep learning curve. In his short time at the helm, he has already demonstrated qualities of honesty and occasional daring: and this observer's sense is that he has a deep, instinctive understanding regarding the tradition and uniqueness of the club. Moreover, it is hardly his fault that, for example, the absence of decent cover for Robert Earnshaw has necessitated him playing Huckerby in a central attacking position, where he is invariably shackled, rather than out wide or in a roaming role between midfield and attack, which would offer far more space, not to mention angles from which he could cut in, run at defenders and do what he does best; and that, with only one quality central defender (namely, Jason Shackell) on the club's books, he has been forced to deploy Dublin at the back, rather than up front, which the ageless wonder would surely prefer.

But the mistakes made on Tuesday night were glaringly obvious, and entirely avoidable: indeed, one would hope that Grant's new assistant, Jim Duffy, would have had the gumption to point them out before they were made (though a glance at Duffy's miserable record in management perhaps suggests otherwise). Moreover, Grant's risible post-match comments in which he declared that his team had 'battered' Preston didn't just miss the point, and suggest he was trying to deflect attention away from a defeat which had largely been his responsibility: they harked back to an ignominious former City manager, whose continual attempts to insult the intelligence of the supporters attracted scorn from all quarters (except, of course, from those who had foolishly given him the job in the first place). One hopes and trusts that parallels between the present incumbent and the appalling Bryan Hamilton cannot be made at any future point, however well or badly things may ultimately turn out.

All of which leaves Norwich once again anxiously peering over their shoulders, and facing a hugely important trio of matches immediately ahead. Given all Coventry City's recent woes, their visit to Carrow Road this Saturday had seemed likely to represent a home banker: but all that changed when Iain Dowie, who for all his troubled experiences at Charlton, remains one of the country's finest young managers, was appointed as Micky Adams' successor. Now, the match seems balanced on a knife-edge, and this writer can only see a point being garnered: not least because Andy Marshall, Coventry's goalkeeper, and who is as much a hate figure for Canaries' supporters as Paul Ince is to West Ham fans or Sol Campbell is to Tottenham followers, has held an apparent Indian sign over Norwich ever since his acrimonious departure south of the border, to say nothing of his subsequent bad mouthing in the Suffolk press of the club which had given him his chance in professional football, and whose fans had just voted him their Player of the Year, in Summer 2001.

And if victory against the Sky Blues, and long overdue moral justice against Marshall, is not forthcoming, that will only increase the pressure for the crunch, dangerous trips to Kenilworth Road and Oakwell over the following week. Anything less than five points out of the next nine will leave Norwich mired deep in trouble; and while this correspondent still cannot foresee them finishing any lower than eighteenth, and a finishing total of anything less than 52 points, it is up to Grant's men to turn the promise exhibited at times over recent weeks into tangible results. City battled gamely and hauled themselves over the line against Blackpool, were immensely unfortunate against Wolves, came back deservedly against Leeds, maintained their spirit in a vastly improved second half at Preston, and could hold their heads up high after their display at Stamford Bridge: but the perception of things gradually starting to improve now must be vindicated by the accumulation of points.

In spite of the club's continued misfortune with injuries, and especially the many errors made by the board before the manager's arrival, the fact remains that, at a time when the Canaries are extraordinarily continuing to attract the second-highest crowds in the division, they are nonetheless still on course for their lowest finish in 47 years: a state of affairs both deeply embarrassing and totally unacceptable. The next few fixtures offer Grant's team the opportunity to ease away from such ignominy, and build on the sense of a brighter future ahead which was so tangible at Chelsea last weekend: seize it, they must.