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What a rotten ol’ day. That’ll teach me/us for looking forward to it so much. Tis football, I guess. As soon as your head starts teetering towards the clouds, it brings you crashing back to earth with a big bang … one that draws every last breath out of you and leaves you struggling for air. That was literally me yesterday walking back to the car… and it wasn’t just because of the heat, the very long walk, because I had to walk behind a bloke with “No boats” on the back of his City shirt or because I’d just discovered that my Twitter had been hacked, and I’m now, apparently, rolling in it because of my succes in the crypo world. Go me! If you need any tips on how to make millions via cryptocurrency, apparently, I’m your man (I’m really not, as anyone who knows me will testify). But, no, none of that was the cause of my discomfort. That was mainly borne of the actions (or non-actions) of Mr Tim Robinson and his lino, who offered up the type of incompetent officialdom that we’d have had a right old moan about back in the day when I was playing at pyramid level 11 with Wenhaston. As regular MFW will know, I’m desperately keen for MFW to not become a platform to regularly launch into officials as 1) it is a difficult job, and 2) they, like players, and like us, are prone to human error. It’s normal But I’m going to make the exception here because, if nothing else, my view of said incident was nigh on perfect. From my vantage point in the middle of the lower tier of the River End, I could not only see Master Heggebo double-fist the ball into the net, but I could also hear that unmistakable sound. Those few seconds that followed were filled only with a stunned silence. How could something so obvious to 4000 River-Enders not be spotted by the only two people that mattered? Now Jose Cordoba and Harry Darling know how Terry Butcher and Terry Fenwick felt. That feeling of helplessness, of knowing that something so clear and obvious to so many has been missed, and the sense of injustice that accompanies it. Eugh. For balance, I’d quite like to follow this with, ‘but that’s not the reason City didn’t take anything from the game’. But it was. Despite it being a slightly sub-par City performance, West Brom looked toothless and ineffective going forward, and Vlad could, quite honestly, have had a cuppa and sat there in his carpet slippers for the most part. Until that goal. But, hey, all the teeth-grinding in the world isn’t going to change it, and the records will forever show, Saturday, 15 August, 2026: Norwich City 1, West Bromwich Albion 2. No asterisk. And we have had these go in our favour. Jovon Makama got the final touch with his hand when he scored the winner at home vs Southampton last December, and that USA bloke we had up front crossed the ball from beyond the by-line for Borja Sainz to score when we beat Derby away in 2024-25. So yeah, have a whinge (tick), and move on (tick). It was a City performance that was good enough to have won the game, but it was also a City performance that was not prime Clement-ball. They, understandably so, are yet to hit their straps in the way they did in that sensational run-in of last season. That sweet spot is a few games away, I suspect, but when they hit it… Yesterday, there were too many six out of ten performances – almost across the board in truth – with only Andre Brooks hitting the 7s and nudging into the 8s. Early days, but he already looks like a very good signing. Oh to have someone of similar tenaciousness and power on the opposite flank to fill the Ali Ahmed void. Poor old, Paris. The left wing is definitely not his favourite stomping ground, and neither is it the place where Clement gets the best out of him. Those dancing feet need to be deployed centrally, but that’s not to say he didn’t give his all yesterday. He did. It just didn’t work. I’m sure the search for a left-sided Andre Brooks is ongoing. Let’s hope they land one; otherwise, there’s going to be a lot of disappointed Canaries. Then there was Mo. The wrong day to have an off day. But he’s a goalscorer, and that’s what goalscorers do. And he’s still very much a work-in-progress. While they’re clearly well into the ‘Making the ball stick back-to-goal’ chapter – he did it quite well yesterday, to be fair – they’re yet to open the first page on ‘Use your left foot with comfort.’ It’s painful at times, and if we can spot it, you can be sure Championship analysts will too. But I’m sure that work will bear fruit before long. Team Clement doesn’t do weaknesses. And there are one or two whose all-round influence is so great that when they’re not quite on it, neither is the team. I give you Pelle Mattsson. So brilliant was he in the second half of last season, it’s easy to take him for granted, but yesterday was a reminder. He is human. Like the rest, he’ll improve in the coming weeks as their match sharpness is honed. And they’re not far off. They’re also fit … unlike last summer, there has been no Costa del Colney vibe around the place. That is very clear. So, yeah, bit of a disappointment, a bit of a sh1tter, but with 45 games still to go, there’s time to make up for the three that got away yesterday. All will be fine. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m just off to make my next crypto million 🙂 OTBC.