The Opposition View

Following yesterday's narrow defeat to Norwich City, here are some views on the game from the Canaries manager Paul Lambert and a few of their fans.


Speaking to his clubs' official website, Lambert was full of praise for the Chairboys' keeper, saying: "Scott Shearer was excellent, some of the saves he made were terrific but we kept on going and deservedly won the game."

"I knew if we kept on going something had to give."

"The players have been colossal and I can't compliment them enough. That never say die attitude has been there in abundance since I've been here, backed by a tremendous following which kept us going. Without those people this place would be empty," said Lambert.



The Norwich fans were relieved to have finally beaten Shearer and had mixed feelings about other aspects of their trip to Wycombe.

The following extracts are taken from Vital Norwich, Wrath of the Barclay and the The pink'un.


On the game itself.....


Rat Pack wrote:
'The game was all Norwich and we were clearly the stronger side for ninety minutes. Wycombe had two good chances, one hit the post and stayed out somehow, while the other was a free header. Hoolahan was superb from the 1st min to the 90th - totally awesome. The ref on the other hand was totally shocking and I would say the worst I have seen all season. He gave everything to Wycombe. Their keeper kept the score down and was man of the match.'


Graham Humphrey wrote:
'The difference in class was embarrassing at times but it had 'one of those days' written all over it until their shot hit the post.'


Tim Allman wrote:
'Very pleased with our performance today, especially in the second half where we dominated apart from when they broke up the pitch and hit the post. Wycombe were lucky all game with the woodwork, the keeper, a force field and divine intervention keeping the ball out of their net. The first half was not quite the same, with us having plenty of possession but overcomplicating matters in the final third and if Wycombe had been able to shoot straight it might have been a different story. But they couldn`t and we were the better team by miles for almost all of the game.'


Hooleyfan wrote:
'Their keeper Shearer had an amazing game. Lambert appreciated his effort and after coming over to our support at the end of the game, he went to shake Shearer's hand, which was a nice touch and might indicate his interest in him.'


seby1991 wrote:
'First half we were pretty sloppy but we really turned on the style second half and if it wasn't for their keeper we probably could have got about five.'


Jonah3000 wrote:
'First half was pretty even, in fact I'd say we were pretty poor and kept giving the ball away. Second half attacking towards the city fans was a different story. I don't think we would have won without Hoolahan though.'


On other matters.....


pieman63 wrote:
'The half time penalty competition and the reaction of the Norwich fans showed all that's best about football.'


Norwich wrote:
'Parking was absolutely terrible! Got there at quarter past two and couldn't find anywhere within three miles! Had to sprint all the way through the woods and down lots of estates! Got there at 3:03 and then they wouldn't let us in until 3:10 for safety reasons as they had let fans sit anywhere rather than their allocated seats!!'


snowman wrote:
'There seemed to be a lot of City fans who had tickets but nowhere to sit.'


Black creosote wrote:
'Delayed by the slow Park-n-Ride, turned up at 3.00pm and was locked out of the ground. It was by some distance the most poorly organised match I've ever been to. Wycombe Wanderers are inept, dishonest, rude and unpleasant. I hope they swiftly vanish back to non-league.'


smith must score wrote:
'I thought the whole day was good. Wycombe fans and every official connected with the club seemed relaxed and this must have been one of the friendliest away games I've ever been to when there's been something at stake.'


Off the ball Phil wrote:
'It was ticket only in the home end and you had to have bought a ticket from them before or they wouldn't sell you one, even with a relatively local post code they wouldn't let us have a ticket in case we were City fans.'


Drayton green wrote:
'What is wrong with these clubs. Why don't they just allocate another half stand for our supporters. Don't they want the money? Surely another 1,000 away fans would not affect the result !!'


Swanny wrote:
They're a nice enough club, but I was talking to a couple of lads from Surrey and Wycombe refused to sell them tickets. Their own side's match had been called off so they'd driven up just to watch a game but were not 'local enough' to have seats in the home end. Now I could understand if the game was close to a sell out or if they'd claimed to be from Norwich (they had proof of address) but the game was 2k under capacity in the home end, so not allowing two neutrals in for the crime of not being from High Wycombe was ridiculous.'


Next Game: Leeds United v Wycombe Wanderers - 9th Jan - 3.00pm

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