Closing in on the Premiership. Bring Wilson back?

It’s the old cliché, but a week is really a long time in football. Last week I wrote about how City’s chances of remaining in the top two looked under threat as we were without a win in five games and the teams around us were closing in, particularly Hull City, who have been in fantastic form in recent weeks. But seven days after our dismal performance and result against Cardiff, we now sit proudly again at the top of the league with just five games to go. But I suppose that’s what football is all about.

Going into the Norwich match on Saturday, we had only managed three goals from our last five games and I suspected if we were going to beat Glen Roeder’s team, we would have to keep a clean sheet. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop Darren Huckerby cancelling out Dele Adebola’s close range finish on 70 minutes and we looked almost certain to end the game having collected only one point. To be fair to Norwich, they had plenty of chances in the second half to win the game, and will count themselves unlucky not to score a second goal.

But what a finish we had. Steve Brooker, making his ‘home debut’ for a second time after a disastrous 14 months of persistent injuries, pops up in the box to head the ball into the net in the 93rd minute, and it could prove to be his most important goal in a City shirt.
After five games without a win Gary Johnson decided to reshuffle his starting eleven with regulars like Marvin Elliot and Ivan Sproule making way for Cole Skuse and Scott Murray, who have both waited patiently all season for their chance. Lee Trundle and Darren Byfield also found themselves out of the squad, having to watch the game from the stands. Gary, explaining his selection at the end of the game, said he felt after the Cardiff game that he had too many players in the squad who hadn’t been with him last season. If we had lost, his thinking would have come back to haunt him, but in the end it worked out well.

Elliot, although one of our players of the season, has looked tired in recent games and was in need of a rest. Similarly, Sproule hasn’t set us alight in recent matches and with Brian Wilson failing to fulfil the right wing role it was good to see Scott put on the shirt again. As Gary said, his starting eleven only contained two players who had not been part of the promotion season last year, with McIndoe and Adebola starting, although McIndoe has already played under Gary at Yeovil and knows what Johnson expects of him.

The inclusion of Skuse received a mixed reaction from myself – I was pleased Elliot was being rested, but am not the biggest fan of Skuse. But to be fair to him he played very well, getting better as the match wore on and made some important tackles. He also won the Man of the Match award, so I must be wrong about him!

Now things are looking very exciting with City at the top of the league with just five games to go, and we are on course to achieve something none of us dreamed of at the start of the season. Yet some people are never satisfied, as I found out on Saturday, with one so-called ‘supporter’ wishing we still had Danny Wilson as manager because we ‘played better football under him’. If that were the case, we would be still languishing in the third tier of English football. It’s funny how you only hear these ‘fans’ when they are moaning. Yet when a the team have a good shot or defend well, it likely to go unnoticed and when we score, they seem to act as if they have been encouraging the team all along. But I guess that’s football.

ANDY DAVIES