August 9th • 1/46 • 1-2 (L)
Norwich have had a pretty busy summer - a new manager, and a ton of new players. Mathias Kvistgaarden looks like a shrewd signing (I'm looking forward to his first backflip in front of the Barclay), and Mirko Topić with his biceps the size of watermelons is probably going to find himself on the receiving end of a GBH charge by the end of the season. The squad needed investment and on the face of it, it's been a decent window.
The atmosphere at Carrow Road felt like the first day back at school with everybody pumped to get going, and the sun was shining. The teams walked out to a mashup of Fuckin' in the Bushes by Oasis and Delia Smith's legendary "where are you, let's be havin' you" speech, which I have to say works incredibly well.
In terms of what I expected a game against Millwall to be like, it pretty much delivered - the entire front of Sargent's shirt was ripped off about three minutes into the game without so much as a yellow, players were being pulled to the floor and elbows were flying into faces, along with general shithousery and time wasting that one would expect from a Millwall side.
For the first 20-25 mins we seemed decent, and should have made more of some chances and promising forward play. Before half time we began to crumble again, and it felt a lot like last season. Going in at half time 0-0 felt like a bit of a relief.
Millwall's first was well worked, and our reply in the shape of Sargent blocking the keeper's clearance was the sort of fluke that reflected what it felt we deserved - not much. It felt like we were going to hold out for a 1-1 draw until some errors at the back and our new keeper rushing out gave them their second, and probably balanced out the fact they'd managed to miss a sitter of an open goal.
I've seen a lot of negativity online since after a lot of optimism going into the game, and personally I think it's a bit premature. Let's look at other results on opening day for a second.
Ipsw*ch have come back down to the second tier with a bundle of Premier League money, players and experience, and are widely touted to go straight back up, and yet needed a very soft 95th minute penalty to rescue a point against a newly promoted Birmingham side. So they didn't exactly make much of a statement to the league upon their return.
Then we have Sheffield United, who finished 3rd last season on 92 points and lost the playoff final - a successful season by most teams' standards despite the obvious failure to get promoted. They're also widely touted to be at least top 6 this season, and are the best team from last season still in the division. And yet they fell to a 4-1 home defeat to none other than Liam Manning's former club Bristol City. But have Sheffield United suddenly become dogshit over the summer? I highly doubt it.
So then we come back to Norwich against Millwall. It wasn't an amazing performance, but we didn't exactly get played off the field either. Both teams had 15 shots and 3 on target, and we had more possession, more passes, and a higher pass accuracy. Considering we have a new manager, half a new starting 11, and players that have known each other for five minutes, I don't think it was too bad against a very cohesive Millwall side that is largely unchanged from last season where they finished 8th and were only 2 points off the playoffs.
Tomorrow we're away at Watford in the League Cup, and while a lot of fans and clubs alike don't really seem to give a shit about this competition, it will give the squad a bit more of a chance to gel. Hopefully we get a win and can have a bit of a cup run to build some confidence.