NCFC 25/26 • Leicester City (H)

Coming off the back of a 1-1 draw midweek against Sheffield Wednesday who are absolutely on their arse, only a win would give Liam Manning even a glimmer of hope of staying beyond the international break. Leicester are also not doing great and their fans want changes as the club as much as we do, so if we couldn't beat either of these crisis clubs then we may as well get relegated now.

We managed to make it through the first half playing half decently, and the fabled half time team talk didn't result in an immediate goal. In fact, we actually took the lead on 62 minutes with a strike from Kvistgaarden. The crowd erupted and there was a sense of relief and optimism that maybe we were going to win a game of association football at Carrow Road. For the first time really all season, the team were being roared on with not long left to to. There were chants of "you're not fit to wear the shirt" and "sack the board" coming from the away fans instead of the home fans for a change.

Was this the moment our luck would turn?

Alas, it was not.

Ten minutes after scoring Kvistgaarden was taken off - post match content I've consumed this could have been anything from easing him back in after injury to not wanting to risk another, and that he maybe did look a bit tired, but we conceded just 3 minutes later. Instantly the crowd dropped and the boos and anti-Knapper chants started.

On 81 minutes Schwartau came off and Manning went back to a back 5, a formation he's been criticised for all season, and ten minutes later we conceded the second. Another complete capitulation from a game we really could and should have won. Cue more booing and protests outside the director's entrance after the game.

I actually stayed sat in my seat for a few moments after this one. I was surprisingly angry after the Hull game and just felt defeated after this one. What a season to start going, right?

Not long after the game, and a rather awkward post match press conference, the inevitable happened and Liam Manning was sacked, becoming the shortest lived and arguably one of if not the worst manager in the club's history.

It's hard to say it was entirely his fault, but enough of it was. This game felt fully on him - we were a goal up and on the ascendency, the crowd were fully behind the players, and the tactical changes lost us the game. It was so baffling to some that there's been suggestions he threw the game on purpose to just put him self put of his misery. I believe he did try his best and does care about the club, but the results speak for themselves - eight (8) home defeats in a row in all competitions with seven (7) consecutive home defeats in the league (apparently only the third time in the entire history of the football league that's happened and first ever in the second tier), a first loss in the derby for 16 years, and a measly 9 points out of a possible 45. Without a change we'd be in League One by Christmas. Change had to be made, and made urgently. The post match press conferences always felt downbeat and repetitive, with "it's one of those" being a personal favourite catchphrase of mine (that even the Along Come Norwich match review featured in the image), talking about behaviours and "getting the basics right", he'd been blaming his players (some of which I'm sure is valid but not all of it), but when Paddy from the PinkUn asked pointedly if it was maybe time to walk away and Liam snapped back asking for a bit of respect, it was clear the entire situation was unsalvageable. The man looked exhausted and defeated and with everything else he's personally been through, it was time to call it a day.

Part of the problem I feel is that too much changed. By having a new manager and such a large squad overhaul, it's difficult to know what the problem is when you've changed both sides of the equation. There's arguments to be made the club should never have sacked Johannes Hoff Thorup when they did. He was only in his mid-thirties so not very experienced, Norwich was only his second managerial appointment having come from the Danish top division (which with all due respect is hardly a European powerhouse) and by definition his first in England in a very difficult league to get out of. While top 6 was the aim and the apparent lack of understanding that was the case contributed to his sacking (I can only imagine he meant he didn't know it was the expectation in year one of a three year plan as surely it'd always be the implied expectation), but he had Sargent out for half the season and Sainz suspended for a number of games before his form dropped off, so I don't think 13th place was necessarily a sackable offence given all these circumstances. There certainly weren't unanimous calls for him to go like there were with Manning, and even some surprise at the sacking, which suggests it maybe wasn't entirely necessary. If you actually look at the results from 2024/25, they were all over the place and there was no real run of form of any kind, good or bad, until the tail end of the season. As discussed by Paddy in the PinkUn pod after the Hull game, I feel that if he had been backed in the same way (not necessarily the same 12 players, but 12 players or equivalent spend), it would be hard to make the argument we'd have been in quite this position. And if the form hadn't improved, there would at least have been a clear reference point to last season and he would have been sacked much earlier into the season than Manning was.

I'm going to miss the next game against Oxford as I'll be at Stamford Bridge watching Chelsea play Barcelona in the Champions League, so will miss the inevitable first home win, and may also miss the QPR game. But hopefully this sorry period will now come to and end, we can try and starve off relegation, and maybe aim for the dizzying heights of 13th which was considered such a failure last season. What a difference a year can make.