Canary fans reward for their ten-hour round trip to the West Country this afternoon was a largely uninspired 2-1 defeat by Conference standard Exeter City in City s first pre-season outing of the summer. In fairness, it looked exactly that. A first outing of the summer as the Championship side stumbled out of the blocks against their Blue Square Premier hosts by conceding two goals within the space of three, awful minutes that Luke Chadwick s 30th reply only partially made amends for.
A first sighting of Norwich s new-look strike force of Jamie Cureton and David Strihavka probably provided the highlight for the 250-odd Canary fans who had made the long haul down to the South-West this afternoon. As boss Peter Grant revealed in midweek, neither of the two new goalkeepers - David Marshall and Matt Gilks - travelled; nor did Frenchman Julien Brellier or right-back Jon Otsemobor. All of which ensured that there were some usual suspects lining up at a sun-bathed St James Park this afternoon, all led out by Jason Shackell who sported the skipper s armband for the afternoon with Adam Drury sat, for now, among the substitutes in the stands.
So there was Andy Hughes at right-back; Rob Eagle at left-back; Michael Spillane and Gary Doherty in centre-midfield with Chadwick adding the width on the left, Lee Croft on the right. Dion Dublin partnered Shackell at centre-half. Darren Huckerby and Dickson Etuhu were back in Norfolk along with Simon Lappin and Mark Fotheringham; Joe Lewis was back in goal - and ahead, therefore, of Paul Gallacher.
If, that is, anyone wished to use today s summer opener as a chance to gauge which way the manager s mind was working. Into a complete fury, one would suspect, given what followed in the first 11 minutes. Joe Lewis had already needed to produce a big, left-handed flick up and away to safety as Jamie Mackie found himself all alone and unmarked in the inside right channel after some classic, static summer defending by the City back four.
If the 20-year-old keeper s reactions had spared the odd blush or two, it wasn t long before it was red faces all round as the Grecians slipped into a 2-0 lead within the space of three, comical minutes. Eagle and Shackell set the tone by colliding together on the left-hand touchline and enabling Mackie to hurry on into the City box and send a neat, little shot inside Lewis right-hand post as Dublin dived forlornly across his path. Canary fans reward for their ten-hour round trip to the West Country this afternoon was a largely uninspired 2-1 defeat by Conference standard Exeter City in City s first pre-season outing of the summer.
News RSS