Having beaten Derby convincingly and drawn at Everton in recent years, a visit to another Premiership ground was not likely to faze us, and our trip to Norwich on Tuesday by no means ended in embarrassment. After such a long and arduous journey, it was slightly disappointing not to see a Rovers goal and the occasion finished on a sour note when Steve Elliott was booked twice within a couple of minutes at the end. Ian Atkins sent a defensive team out at Carrow Road with four defenders, a packed midfield and only one man up front in Junior Agogo. After a run of recent games where teams have shut up shop on Rovers to dreary effect, perhaps the manager wanted to see what it was like to employ those tactics himself, and it nearly worked too. Agogo was perhaps the best choice for the lone striker's role on the night, as only he possesses the kind of flair and ability in the squad that might have turned the game like Nathan Ellington did at Derby. Despite sniffing a few openings, it was a tough night ploughing a lone furrow and he could have done with a bit more support. Everyone was expecting the attack-minded Craig Disley to be handed his first start in the quarters, yet there was no room for him even with five employed across the middle and instead there was a debut for forgotten man Jon Beswetherick on the left. The flooded midfield at Norwich was in complete contrast to the line-up against Lincoln at the Mem last Saturday, when central pair Paul Trollope and James Hunt found themselves stretched in a 5-2-3 system. In a bid to get around the Imps' predictable aerial assault, Atkins went with three front men again as he did in the Shrewsbury game but unfortunately the lack of bodies in midfield meant that the strikers failed to see much of the ball, to the extent that Agogo was running around taking throw-ins just to get involved near the end. Lincoln's team must have lined up with an average height of about 6'3" with the gangliest of all, Ben Futcher (6'7") trotting up into the box every time the visitors gained possession. John Anderson's cunning ploy of issuing a transfer request saw him plunged straight back into the team and he did well alongside Edwards and Elliott to keep the giants at bay. It was certainly not pretty to watch and the only players to rise above (metaphorically speaking) the mediocrity were wide men Ali Gibb and Robbie Ryan, probably because they weren't involved in all the head-tennis that was going on all afternoon. After the result at Norwich, we have now gone five games without a win and only scored in one of those. The rotation of different players starting matches might be required to keep everyone quiet but perhaps Atkins needs to settle on a formation and a strike partnership for a run of games just to see if our goal tally improves. © Chris Chappell - Friday 24th September 2004 Back to Index