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Norwich v PNE: Minute By Minute

Posted on: Sat 08 Nov 2008

Norwich v PNE
Carrow Road
Coca-Cola Championship
Saturday 8th November, 3pm kick-off

Final Score: Norwich 2 PNE 2 (Lita 14, Kennedy 63; Brown 2, Mellor 81)

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90+3: It's all over. North End will be wishing the game could go on for longer but they must settle for a point and now look forward to next weekend's big match down the road at Bloomfield Road.

90+2 min: Hang on a minute he might have just levelled it up by giving the most ridiculous free-kick to Norwich. It would be laughable if it wasn't in such a dangerous position. Bell steps up again and swings it towards goal but this time the PNE defence stand firm.

90+1 min: The enters what will be three minutes of injury time. It appears that Roeder's pre-match comments about the referee might go against him, Norwich are deep in PNE territory and he gives a foul throw against them! The Canaries fans are not amused.

89 min: The ball comes in from the corner. Again plenty of bodies in there, Billy Jones this time with a header, it looks goalbound but Marshall does well to save.

88 min: It's all North End. The Norwich crowd have gone deathly silent, you can smell the fear. PNE pile forward, the ball comes into the box, it's a mass of bodies, the ball comes out to Sedgwick, he dances past his marker, it's on his left foot, good save from Marshall turns it away for a corner.

85 min: Real nailbiting stuff here now. North End are desperate, they can smell blood and are going for the jugular. Chaplow picks the pockets of Otsemobor in the far corner and he's through on the angle, this looks like the chance... the ball across goal... Mellor is waiting... but he's inches short of tapping it in.

81 min: Goal!!! North End make their numerical advantage count almost immediately. Chaplow slots the ball across Neil Mellor's body, the former Liverpool man has the legs on his marker Kennedy, turns him and hits an arrow of a shot straight into the back of the net. Textbook stuff from North End.

80 min: Controversy but hope for North End. Darrell Russell sent off for shoving Ross Wallace in the face. It looks pretty tight on the former Stoke man, but rules are rules and you can't raise your hands or you face the consequences. The second time he's been sent-off against PNE in his career.

78 min: North End are turning the screw but they just can't get the ball to drop for them in the box. Chris Brown gets his head onto a Billy Jones cross, the ball goes up in the air, Chaplow arrives late but is just beaten to the ball by the flying fists of David Marshall.

77 min: The clock ticks away and Leroy Lita isn't helping as he blasts the ball over the bar after being flagged offside, the ref gives him a yellow card.

75 min: A change for Norwich. Lee Croft comes off and Matty Pattison comes on, quite possibly the reddest hair in the world, unless the contrast on the tv in front of me is all wrong?!?

74 min: North End are having a really good spell. The North End fans tucked up in the far corner probably aren't aware of how much field position Alan Irvine's men are having. They had more corners in the last five minutes than they've had in the rest of the entire match.

73 min: Wallace swings one in, the unmistakable head of big Wayne Brown is the only one who rises for the ball with Norwich keeper David Marshall, but the ball flies off his bald dome and over the bar.

72 min: Chaplow's energy in the middle of the park looks to be giving North End a real lift. He's buzzing around the pitch.

69 min: Otsemobor looks like the fastest thing since Carl Lewis as Norwich launch a threatening counter-attack. He bursts onto a Croft pass into the box and there's nobody who can get anywhere near him. The former Crewe player's square ball isn't equal to his pace and the move breaks down.

65 min: Double substitution for North End. Chaplow and Sedgwick are sent on to try and get PNE back into the match, Nicholson and St. Ledger depart. Wallace goes right-wing, Sedgwick to the left, Jones is back at full-back and Chaplow in the centre of the park.

63 min: Goal for Norwich!!! Bell again with another really dangerous cross, this time from a free-kick. It's to the back post and John Kennedy is there to poke home. Oh the ironies, he should have been a North End player!

61 min: Norwich launch a counter-attack through Lita and though the Norwich striker can't find any support in attack he finds Bell on the left and the former Luton man delivers a great cross into the mixer and Lonergan is forced into evasive action.

60 min: Mellor comes on for Stephen Elliott, a like-for-like swap which shouldn't upset the balance too much.

59 min: David Bell has been a danger all game for Norwich, skipping in from the left-flank and this time he does that and unleashes a shot with his right boot, Lonergan does really well to save the dangerous shot.

56 min:Not too much action to report but the Lilywhites are about to make a substitution. Neil Mellor looks stripped and ready to go.

54 min: Big crowd here this afternoon. 23,255, the usual chants of 'what's it like to see a crowd' from the Norwich fans, the old ones are the best.

49 min: Possibly the flakiest Cornish pasty in the world. My desk currently resembles an explosion in a Greggs factory. Neither side has got to grips with the first half at the moment.

46 min: We are underway again let's hope for another early PNE goal.

1608: No changes at the break but a fantastic Cornish pasty to get stuck into.

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45+5: Talking of menaces, Jamie Cureton has been a right menace to PNE defence's in recent seasons. He's now on the pitch as Sibierski's dive caused enough damage to see him subbed off.

45+4: Norwich are looking dangerous as the half nears it's climax. They seem to be getting plenty of crosses in and Lita is proving to be a right little menace.

45+2: Lita attempts a spectacular overhead kick. Thankfully it doesn't come off, if it had then we'd have been undone by yet another goal of the season contender.

45+1: Five minutes worth of added time here. Mainly due to a couple of Norwich injuries. You'll have to wait a bit to get your half-time brew.

42 min: The game's gone a bit scrappy. North End look to be slowly working their way back into things in terms of possession.

37 min: The boy Lita has a certain spring in his step today. He's winning headers and everything! One of his headers starts an attack which Lita finishes when he gets wide and sends a ball across the face of goal, Davidson is forced to deflect the ball away for a corner, across the face of goal.

34 min: Sibierski is down injured. The replays show that there was minimal contact with Chris Brown and that he was probably looking for a foul, it looks to me that the former Man City man has been injured trying to pull off a spectacular dive.

30 min: The Canaries should have been ahead! Chelsea loanee Ryan Bertrand cuts in from the left-flank and once in the box lets one go with what we can only assume is his swinger, his right boot, it beats Lonergan and crashes off the underside of the crossbar, straight into the path of Lee Croft who is following up. Croft has little time to compose himself though and his gilt-edged opportunity is volleyed back across the face of goal, much to the relief of North End.

28 min: Andy Lonergan does what he does best. A fantastic point-blank save from Leroy Lita as the former Reading man gets goal side, eight yards out, Lonergan was out quick, made himself big and blocked the goalbound shot with his arm.

26 min: The game's gone a bit quiet but Norwich are dominating field position. The Canaries fans chirp up with a real strong handball shout as Otsemobor swings a cross in and McKenna blocks it. Might have been given in front of the Kop or the Stretford End but not in front of The Norwich and Peterborough Stand.

20 min: Norwich's goal has given them a little belief and the so-called Snake Pit chimes into life. It's nice to know you're here!

18 min: Wallace with a volley! It's a top effort, but unfortunately Marshall is perfectly placed to gather the ball in his breadbasket. It came after Brown and Elliott had caused aerial problems for the Norwich defence.

14 min: Goal!!! Norwich are back in it. Lita, one of the shortest men on the pitch, rises above everyone else to power a header beyond Andy Lonergan. There's a few recriminating glances amongst the PNE back-four but it's a goal regardless. North End's bright start is cancelled out.

13 min: Norwich have a moment. Lita is at the heart of it and a challenge on him falls at the feet of Lee Croft who sends a dangerous ball in, Wayne Brown puts his body on the line with a challenge that sends it away for a corner.

10 min: The Norwich defence are at sixes and sevens (what does that mean?). Elliott chases down what looks like a lost cause, Marshall comes out to sweep up and blasts the ball into the backside of Doherty. Fortunately for the Canaries the ball bounces to a Norwich man, otherwise Elliott would have had an open goal.

8 min: An injury and the stretcher is on for a Norwich man. The Canaries physio signals that Dejan Stefanovic will not be playing any further part in this match by doing that little agadoo hand signal. Gary Doherty comes on to replace the injured man at centre-half.

5 min: Brown is a man on fire! He sets up Stephen Elliott for a shot, good control on the flank and a simple pass into the path of the Irishman. Elliott could have passed to Nicholson but opted to shoot himself, Marshall saved well.

2 min: Goal!!!! What a start for the North End!!! And guess who has got the goal!!! Chris Brown, the legend that is. Go on my son. You must be loving this!!! It came from a Paul McKenna ball into the box, Barry Nicholson was lurking but he was too short to get a head on the ball, Otsemobor and Marshall the keeper got themselves in all sorts of trouble, Nicholson almost toe-poked it over the line but Chris Brown arrived to smash the ball home. Back of the net!!!

1 min: Underway here. Took me a bit surprise as the music was still blasting out. My stopwatch is five seconds out, nightmare!

1501: North End win the toss and strike the first psychological blow in turning the two teams around so that the Canaries are facing in the wrong direction, you get my drift?

1459: So I'm back. The teams are out and we are all set to go. There's a purple and yellow cat out on the pitch. Absolutely no idea what it's doing out there. It's a mascot but I thought they were the Canaries! The PA Guy has just introduced us the Norwich crowd and I'm sure that he said one of their stands is called the Snake Pit??? This gets more and more bizarre.

1432: Right I'm off to do the build-up show on Whites World, join me there or come back in about twenty minutes.

1430: I know I'm not the tallest for my age but there seems to be some sort of conspiracy against me here. Once again I'm sat behind the tallest man in the press-box which means that I'll have to stand-up to view anything on the near touchline.

1428: Music fans might be interested to know that Pendulum are currently blasting out across Carrow Road. Which way will the pendulum be swinging this afternoon?

1421: So the two changes then. McEveley had no chance of playing as he's back with Derby but Jon Parkin must make do with a place on the bench as Chris Brown comes in to face his former club. Good to see Chaplow available if needed on the bench, let's just hope he doesn't pull a hammy in the warm-up again!

1419: Right on cue and the North End team are out onto the pitch to do their warm-up. The stadium DJ decides that this is the time to put 'Here Come The Girls' by the Sugababes on, very devious indeed!

Norwich: Marshall, Otsemobor, Kennedy, Stefanovic, Croft, Clingan, Sibierski, Bell, Russell, Bertrand, Lita. Subs: Cureton, Doherty, Hoolahan, Lupoli, Pattison.
PNE: Lonergan, St. Ledger, Mawene, Brown, Davidson, Nicholson, McKenna, Jones, Wallace, Brown, Elliott. Subs: C Neal, Parkin, Sedgwick, Mellor, Chaplow

1410: I've been told by a member of the press corp to mention Andy Rhodes' leg-wear which looks like a pair a tights. It's not tights, I can assure you, it'a not tights, its this skinwear that all the players seem to like wearing these days. Is there a nip in the air?

1408: Not too many North End fans here at the moment and looking at the segregation netting they are not expecting too many. At the moment I can count them, There's 21 fans and seven stewards.

1405: Don't forget we'll have full match commentary from 2.30pm with Jonathan Breeze the commentator assisted by none other than Steve Cowell of Shameless fame!

1404: The pitch by the way looks in absolute tip-top condition. They had a couple of schoolboy games on it about an hour ago and the ball was pinging about.

1402: The players were out earlier and now the goalkeepers are stripped and ready to go. Coach Andy Rhodes wins a quick-fire round of the cross-bar challenge, smashing the woodwork with his first effort.

1349: Interesting little titbit in the official Norwich match programme. An interview with David Healy, former player at both clubs, he reckons he'd like to make a return to Deepdale! He says: "Since I left Preston I have been back there and some of the fans gave me a bit of stick as an ex-player. I'd love to go back again and let them know how I hold the club in such high regard. Preston gave me some of the best times of may career and before I finish I would like the chance to say thank you."

1341: As the musical backdrop of Beyonce and at the risk of sounding a bit tedious here are a few Norwich facts*. During the 11th century Norwich became the countries second largest city behind London. In 1096, Herbert de Losinga, the Bishop of Thetford, began construction of Norwich Cathedral. The Norwich Canary was first introduced into England by Flemish refugees fleeing from Spanish persecution in the 1500s. They brought with them not only advanced techniques in textile working but also their pet canaries, which they began to breed locally. So there you go. (*These 'facts' supplied by wickipedia so they might be absolute tosh).

1333: I'll have the official team news as and when I get it. It's a bit of a conundrum this week as there are so many potential options, might be just best to wait and see rather than having a guess-up, so long as Benson and Hedges aren't in the side.

1329: Oh right we have a football match to talk about. The team have arrived, they're out on the pitch doing whatever it is they do when they go for the pre-match 'look at the grass'. So far I've spotted a Wallace, a Davidson, a Sedgwick, a Parkin, a St. Ledger, Chris Brown (who is chatting with some of his former team-mates) and a 'Pobby', 'Pobby' is the office term for the video analysist, though he has various other nicknames, the safest of which I can use is the rather obvious 'Prozone'.

1328: So with Partridge in mind I want your emails. The address is above and if you send plenty in I can use the classic quote 'We've got so much chat, I'm going to have to get my ice pick out and scale the north face of Chat-mandu!'

1323: It took us just short of three and a half hours to get here from Preston. Mainly because General Manager Ben Rhodes was driving like Lewis Hamilton with Timo Glock his his sights but also because the M6 and A11 were rather traffic free. I tried to persuade our navigator to take a detour to Swaffham but he wasn't having it.

1318: So here we are. Norfolk, the turkeys are getting a bit of a sweat on round these parts as Bernard Matthews sharpens his knives in readyness for the festive period. Delia's steak and kidney has been suitably snaffled by your dedicated media man and there are sure to be plenty of Alan Partridge references as we are in his territory. The football comes later but we will bring you the full build-up.