Isn't this what it's supposed to be like?
OK I’m not
claiming to be the only one who’s noticed it. In fact everyone’s been talking
about it. Just how ‘together’ as a bunch are the current Norwich City team? When
the dressing room camaraderie actually becomes palpable, when we in the stands
can see it, can actually feel it, what a massive positive force it can prove to
be.
At Leicester
last night we saw one of the most memorable away performances for a long time.
Others will report of the game itself – Wes’s brilliance, Wilbrahimovic’s first
goal, Crofty’s energy, Foxy’s passing, Wardy and Zak’s aerial domination etc –
but what will stay with me is the positive energy being generated by St. Paul
and his men.
Wilbrahimovic
has been waiting for that goal. He’s come close a few times, even in the last
seconds against Preston, and it must
have been weighing on his mind. How good for him, then, not only to break his
duck but to see the enthusiasm with which his team mates celebrated his
success. Even after the final whistle he was being congratulated by those who
had been on the bench. That’s what makes dressing rooms tick.
And Leon
Barnett has been out since his hamstring injury against Reading. Yet when Holty
smashed home the penalty last night the team goal celebration, though not
original, was a tribute to Barnett’s recently born offspring. He has not been
forgotten. He’s still part of things.
It is
possible, too, for us to feel part of it all. Maybe the instant nature of
communication today helps – we quickly hear interviews with manager and players
for example- but I, and I have heard other fans say this, can never recall a
time supporting City when I have felt quite so much that this is my team. I have written before about
how our captain seems like one of us, an ‘ordinary hero’ and if he has the same
effect on his team as he seems to have on the fans then I can understand why
they are so motivated. The players need us to support them and they seem to
want us to be part of things. Their goal celebrations, their energy, their
responses to our support both on and off the pitch suggest a togetherness with
us which is genuine. It is hard (and painful) to remember now Glenn Roeder’s
alarming verbal assault on a fan at a formal meeting, his superior ‘detachment’
born of a completely different attitude to the fans from the one which Paul
Lambert has generated.
At Leicester
last night City fans enjoyed themselves. Perhaps forgetting the pressures of
work, financial stresses, health worries or any of the other day-to-day issues
which might touch our lives negatively we not only saw but almost became part
of a great away performance. We cannot play for Norwich City, though there won’t
be many of us who have not, at one time or another, dreamed of pulling on the
yellow shirt, but we can sing, clap and roar our support for the team. We can
urge them on with our energy to go a bit further, run that little harder and
put in that extra tackle. The consequent performance on the field and the ‘feelgood
factor’ off it, possibly explain just why we bother. We are football supporters
for nights like last night. We put up with the bad times for exactly nights
like Leicester and seasons like this.
Paul Lambert
has consistently spoken of the importance of the fans. He then talks of the
players. The fact that there is now a perceived relationship between the two is
proving crucial at this critical time of the season. Our lives are being
enhanced by their performances and their football is being powered by our
support.
Isn’t this what it’s supposed to be like?
