Grinding Out Results 27th FEBRUARY 2010

GRINDING OUT RESULTS

If you could encapsulate the wisdom of all the great football managers (Bill Nicholson, Harry Catterick, Bill Shankly, Alf Ramsey, Brian Clough,Sir Alex Chewing-Gum) into one deeply instructive aphorism it might well be ‘grinding out results is how league titles are won’. We’ve all heard it said by players, managers and pundits alike and it’s one of the oldest clichés in the game. Even your average Sunday League manager can adopt an air of authority in the pub after ‘The King’s Arms’ have just scrapped their way to a hard-earned result against ‘The Admiral Nelson’, lean back against the bar and knowingly cite this nugget of wisdom, perhaps adding for good measure, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint’.  

Unlike many football clichés (‘I’m over the moon’, ‘He played his socks off’, ‘He always gives 110 per cent’, ‘He’s got a good engine’, ) this one (like ‘Andy D’Urso’s a crap ref’) happens to be right.

Recent results against Walsall, Hartlepool, Brighton, Southend and Oldham, punctuated by a home defeat to Southampton have seen the Canaries performing below the levels that they had reached at various times earlier in the season, but still seen them consolidate their position at the top of the table.

St. Paul Lambert has recently expressed some dismay at the fact that some Norwich fans have been complaining that the performances have not been great, and I think The Special One has a valid reason for holding that view. Quite simply it’s time for us to get real. We have come from the doldrums to a position where we are winning more often than not. In fact we are winning very often and losing rarely.

 No team can win every game. No team can play well every game. But this Norwich City team has produced the most consistent form we have seen for years and when Oli Johnson headed that winner against Southend it showed yet again that they do not drop their heads when things are against them. I cannot remember any Norwich side coming back from behind so frequently. To put it another way, this team knows how to win.

This might just be the quality which proves crucial in the final analysis of the League 1 title race this year. Another well-known truth is that all teams will have a little crisis or two. Leeds certainly know all about this after the last two seasons. So do Charlton after their recent run of form. Colchester have regrouped again (though they lost today) but were struggling for form a month ago. Swindon are enjoying their best run for some time but are still some way back. What St. Paul has done is guide our side through a sticky patch whilst still picking up wins and that, I think, is a priceless managerial strength.

Many amateurs have put forward their reasons for our recent inability to hit the heights of previous weeks; ‘opponents have rumbled the diamond’, ‘Grant Holt’s suspension upset the balance of the team’, ‘now that Chrissy Martin has a new contract, he’s stopped trying’, ‘the young players are tired’.

Now I am an amateur, too, but I can recognise a pile of manure when I see it, and that’s what those observations are. The fact is we have out-performed the other teams in the division in almost all respects for the past five months. During that time we have had injuries and suspensions, players have had ‘hot streaks’ and periods where they have been below their best, some opponents have simply tried to stop us playing, others have ‘had a go’, the manager has changed the system, made substitutions, brought some players in and let others go, some officials’ decisions have gone our way, others have not. In other words we have endured the ups and downs of a big part of a league season and we have kept going, kept picking up plenty of points, home and away, on good pitches and bad.

In any sport, whether a team game or an individual one, it is when the pressure grows that winners are identified. Thus the next month or so will, of course, define not just our season but that of every club at the top or bottom of any league. Who can hold their nerve when it really matters? Who will produce a big performance on a big day? After some of our recent last day efforts (Fulham, Charlton) we Canaries’ fans recognise the importance of that! However, let’s also recognise that we go into this crucial period at the top.

That’s no accident.