NCFC 25/26 • Queens Park Rangers (H)

Someone alert Reuters - Norwich City Football Club have won a game of association football at Carrow Road in the 2025/26 Championship season.

I missed Philippe Clement's first home game against Oxford midweek as I was at Stamford Bridge watching Chelsea pump Barcelona 3-0 in the Champions League. It was pretty gutting to see that the 1-0 lead was lost in the 95th minute, but with the result today it's points from both home games with the new gaffer, which are the first points at home all season. It may be early, but it's the much needed progress we were hoping would come.

We took the lead after 9 minutes. We'd been playing well and things felt positive. There were celebrations, excitement, hope.

Well, for all of two minutes until we conceded.

I looked around at the people behind me and just shared a look of "here we go again". It was only a matter of time before we conceded again. And that's what I'm sure everyone was thinking. But... it didn't happen.

We continued playing well. We were pushing forward. Crosses were flying in, and corners were actually beating the first man for a change and making it into the 6 yard box. We were having shots that needed to be saved. And the result was not one, but two (2) goals. One of them was an own goal but who gives a fuck. We went in at half time 3-1 up, and the players walked off to well earned applause rather than booing. What was this strange sensation of feeling optimistic about winning a game?

Now the problem was our fabled second half drop off. But again, it didn't come. I mean sure, we sat back and tried to see the game out, which is something we'd failed to do far too many times this season, but it wasn't the drop off we'd been used to seeing. We had several chances and we even thought we'd got the fourth of the night before it was ruled out for offside. QPR had a long spell of pressure where it felt like they were going to not only score, but equalise and take the game away from us. But once again, it didn't happen. We held on, and saw the game out for three points. This wasn't a lucky win, it was fully deserved.

There's a lot to be optimistic about here. If we continue to play like this, I think avoiding relegation is very realistic. That's still an insane situation to even have to contemplate, but we are where we are. It's a shame we didn't have this type of performance a month sooner.

My only real complaint is that they didn't play the Let's Be Havin' You/Fuckin' in the Bushes mashup intro before the players walked out. Hopefully this is rectified for the game against Southampton in two weeks.