For me Saturday brought many reasons to be cheerful and cheerful I was. Indeed the squad and their media commitments seemed to be full of relief. For some, however, they were prepared to look hard for the rain clouds that created the rainbow.
Some have urged caution to the optimism and I am in agreement with this. One loss against Wolves did not make us terrible and one win against Watford does not make us promotion certainties. It has rightly been pointed out that against ten men this helped show us in favourable light, that our real problems are away from home and that Watford seemingly had mentally capitulated in some respects. Broadly would not disagree with this other than to say you can only beat what is in front of you. Indeed I am can remember plenty of times we have toiled against ten men with little success, nothing like the confident play we saw on Saturday. I agree with those who are happy but are not letting themselves get carried away.
There is an entirely different set of people who are still fuming over anything they can think of. Not many, we hear the odd ones at Carrow Road and we spot some of them online (as an aside you need to get following the PinkunMeltdown account on Twitter). Everyone was/ is entitled to their view and ultimately they may well prove to be right that we are headed towards doom. But why surround yourself with this bitterness constantly? There are things not right with the club but we won, surely that kind of thing cheers you, if only for a while? Also if you truly believe this doom scenario will happen then just wait until we lose, you will probably find lots of people to agree with.
I would also like to comfort those who felt following the win the news that Fer and Surman were likely off marred what should have been a joyous evening. Leroy was always in the unlikely to stay camp and Surman wants to play games and this he is far from guaranteed with us. We do also need to shift our wage profile from a Premier League one to a top end Championship one. Whilst we would all like us to retain top players we would do so risking perhaps the one really lasting legacy of our Premier League stay, that we are finally external debt free. This is a very unsexy thing, not the sort of thing for fans to get excited over but it is a gift that will keep giving year after year as we do not enter into debt repayments. Ultimately we should have more funds for the squad over a longer period. I don’t think the board will let us sacrifice this for a gamble at the top flight this year.
All this could seem like positive tripe come the end of the season, here’s hoping not.
Watford elbowed aside
Turning to the game itself I have to say I am relieved that we managed to get such a performance in early in the season. This should help us start to clear that relegation feeling and push forward. Things may well have been favourable for us but we carried it off with a swagger. It is the manner of the victory that will help the confidence of the team too.
Ultimately it felt like a non-contest for swathes of the game. The thought crossed my mind that Watford had given up hope for phases of the game but equally we played in a way that stopped them believing. They are considered a serious shout for the playoffs this year and they are well backed in their new guise as Udinese B. Even down to 10 they did represent a test to be overcome.
Man of the match? You could choose from Hoolahan, Lafferty, Johnson or Tettey for me. My pick would be Lafferty, a very disciplined wing performance with some flashes of brilliance. He gave us real balance and made us a threat down both flanks, important against ten men. He looks like he could be a gem. It might help that from a far he looks like Grant Holt’s after photo.