Norwich City

Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 3 Norwich City 0 and eight miles high

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This is where Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. When, rarely, Pete is absent or delayed, a supersub does it for him and the seven-word verdict is preceded by an asterisk. Pete’s full analysis of the game will usually appear within a day or two.

Tonight was easy. Campbell scored a belter – great stuff, Fraizer, keep on making us believe the strikerless transfer window didn’t matter – and Sess and a Bardlsey-assisted own goal saw off Norwich City and took us, M Salut thinks as he writes, to eighth top. A grand place to be and – sorry, Steve – unthinkable two months or so ago. Just back from seeing Sunderland the play in Paris so Martin’s Musings may have to wait …

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The Norwich Who are You?: ‘my soft spot for Sunderland’

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Norwich, like Swansea, have impressed most neutrals with their progress so far in the Premier. Indeed, they did better than us in the FA Cup at the weekend. Robin Sainty*, chairman of the Independent Norwich City Supporters’ Club, would have settled for just staying up. Here, ahead of tomorrow’s Sunderland v City game, is his look at Bruce and O’Neill, both closely associated with both clubs, our own poor display at Carrow Road this season and that cup final …

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Salut!’s week: special Norwich, West Brom and Charlie Hurley edition

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The best of Salut! Sunderland‘s week – and often enough the worst – is summarised in this slot provided M Salut finds time do it. After what happened at Norwich, and in matters legal, it took one Baggie’s pre-match Q&A and another’s Charlie Hurley poem to make him find time this week …

Today, with all the stormwater that has swept under the bridge, a comprehensive review of what we’ve covered would be just too depressing.

If you want to read what Pete Sixsmith made of Norfolk before the match at Canary Road, that’s fine. Click here – Pete’s spirits were high at that point.

If you want to know what he thought of our performance, you must root around the site for yourselves. It would not be kind to post the link here, even though the piece was, as usual, well-written, intelligently argued and, in the circumstances, restrained.

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Soapbox: knocked about in Norwich, a Russian proverb for Bruce

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If you have come here looking for rays of hope, an upbeat prediction of brighter times ahead, turn away now. After watching the team that destroyed Stoke fail with a whimper at Carrow Road, Pete Sixsmith despairs of our version of Premier League football …

Our last three away games have been against clubs who have recently been playing in the third tier of English football. We have failed to win any of them.

All three (Swansea, Brighton and Norwich) are managed by bright, imaginative young managers who clearly think very deeply about the game and get the maximum out of relatively limited players.

If we look at last night’s game ( and believe me, I don’t want to see any of it ever again|), we had a fluid and flexible Norwich City, managed by the up and coming Paul Lambert, against a plodding and predictable Sunderland side, managed by Steve Bruce, a man who may well be heading for a lengthy spell on the golf course.

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Bruce’s Banter: but was it just possession we surrendered, Steve?

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Crisis, what crisis? That was the question after Stoke. But one game on, we’re back to where we were, unable to muster a proper fight against a promoted team and probably fortunate to be beaten only 2-1. It felt like a wretched, wholesale surrender. Against this unattractive backdrop, Steve Bruce had to come up with something for his post-match e-mail …

Dear Colin,

We didn’t play well enough. We played well for the first 10 minutes or so, but the night was littered with mistakes.

We surrendered possession too easily and gave the ball back to them too quickly for me.

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Soapbox: how the Norwich build-up included a 5-0 away win

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With abject apologies to those who followed the link earlier and reached a dead end – we are still trying to work out who to blame. This is the Pete Sixsmith travelogue-cum-match preview. Lots about Norfolk, and a little about football, as Pete attempts to make all working people envious of his mixture of football, travel, culture and, um, the Barron Knights in a prelude to Sunderland’s return tonight to Premier League action …

Maybe I have already mentioned this, but I am no longer “at work”.

Forgive me for repeating it, but it does give ample opportunity for watching football, including tonight’s clash at Carrow Road.

Not for me a whole day on a coach, arriving back bleary-eyed and dry-mouthed and off to work a couple of hours later. Instead, I set off on Saturday for a short break in a county that I thoroughly enjoyed on my last visit two years ago and which seems to improve with time.

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Salut! Sunderlands week: stuffing Stoke, cheering up Reidy, facing Norwich

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The long break between games made it a quietish week, but there is still plenty to look back on if you missed a daily dose of Salut! Sunderland …

It was good to have an upbeat Bruce’s Banter, the e-mail Steve Bruce sends out after each game. Click here to see what he had to say about the 4-0 win against Stoke City. He mentioned some big individual performances but stopped short of naming names.

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Norwich City ‘Who are You?’: Delia’s roast spuds, Tierney’s theatrics

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That's our Julian in the middle
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Norwich City v Sunderland: we’ve waited long enough for a return to this as a top-flight league game. Julian Canham* is old enough to have attended to Friendly Final – the Milk Cup decider between two teams already or just about (see first comment) relegated – and recalls us getting revenge in the 1992 FA Cup semi at Hillsborough. He can’t make the Carrow Road game but has plenty of thoughts on the two clubs, Delia Smith, Steve Bruce and football generally …

Salut! Sunderland: Back in the Premier but, until last weekend’s fine win at Bolton, hovering just above the bottom three. More or less as expected or are you playing better football than the earlier results implied?

We are playing quite well, and playing good football but punished for every mistake. After the brilliant results for both Norwich & Sunderland last weekend, I am as confident as I can be that we will both be climbing the table sooner rather than later.

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