2007/08 Review: August – featuring Preston, Barnet, Southampton, Hull City and Rochdale

The 2007/08 season kicked-off with a 0-0 draw away to Preston North End on 11^th August, and approximately ten seconds of coverage on ITV1’s The Championship the following morning.

Most were agreed that Preston, who had narrowly missed out on the play-offs the previous season, would be there or thereabouts come the end of the season so a goalless draw at Deepdale was far from a good result.

Three days later League Two side Barnet were welcomed to Carrow Road in the first round of the Carling Cup. Five goals in the first half an hour gave the Canaries the dream start, but after switching off in the second half Barnet managed to reduce the deficit to 5-2.

Next up were Southampton when Jamie Cureton’s brace giving the Canaries a 2-1 win over George Burley’s Saints in Youssef Safri’s first game back at Carrow Road, and that was followed a week later by City’s first defeat of the season – 2-1 at the KC Stadium against Hull.

The last game of the month was the Carling Cup Second Round game at Spotland against League Two Rochdale.

Glenn Murray struck after nine minutes for the hosts who dominated for long periods with Ian Murray given a particularly torrid time at left-back, but Dion Dublin grabbed an equaliser four minutes in to the second half, and the visitors managed to squeeze through on penalties to setup a plum tie at Premier League Manchester City in the next round.

Monthly Stats

Games played – 5.

Won – 3.

Lost – 1.

Drawn – 1.

Goals Scored – 9.

Goals Conceded – 6.

Win % – 60%.

Position after last league game – 15^th.

Monthly verdict

Not a bad start, but little did we know what was to follow…

Check back tomorrow for the review of September, featuring Cardiff, Palace, Charlton, Wolves, Man City and Sheffield Wednesday.

See you in a week

I’m off to Corfu for a week tonight, so if you email me and don’t get a reply for a while then that’ll be why.

I’ve had at least one post per day since January, and it would seem a shame to let something like a holiday get in the way of that so I’ve got a few posts all scheduled to go whilst I am away.

That said I think I’ve probably spent a little too much time chasing that “several posts a day” thing lately which has resulted in me writing probably too many non-Norwich things. Some good, but some cack in other words.

It’s all a learning curve as they say so please bear with me whilst I try and get the balance right. Less is more methinks. And no more polls. Polls are a stupid idea.

See you next week.

Burnley linked with Rusty, but who is Richard Offiong?

Burnley have been linked with a £500,000 move for Darel Russell on the Clarets Mad website.

The site also claims that the Clarets face competition from Charlton and Palace for Rusty’s services.

The 27-year old midfielder only returned to Carrow Road from Stoke a year ago and reportedly signed a three-year deal at the time, so bearing in mind the massive re-building job already in progress it would probably be a surprise if Glenn Roeder was let Russell – who played 42 times last season him – leave.

I think the Russell/Fotheringham partnership proved the most successful in middle of the park last season, and even though he was left out a few times towards the end of the season I just can’t see him leaving.

Meanwhile Hamilton Academical striker Richard Offiong is the latest to have his name mentioned with a move to Carrow Road.

The 24-year old striker started his career at Newcastle (although before we all jump to conclusions he had left before Roeder and Lee Clark returned to the club) but has since been around the houses with Darlington, Motherwell, York City (all on loan when he was at St James Park), Istanbulspor, Patro Maasmechelen, Chunnam Dragons and Doncaster Rovers before ending up in Scotland, where he has scored 37 goals in 69 games for Hamilton (God bless Wikipedia).