Alex Neil moves one game closer to the sack following Derby defeat

Alex Neil edged one game closer to the sack on Saturday afternoon as his Norwich City side suffered their fifth straight league defeat at the hands of Derby County. A solitary second-half strike from ex-Canary Bradley Johnson was enough to consign his former club to another defeat - a defeat which sees City fall out of the top six for the first time this season.

Once more, Neil made changes. Cameron Jerome - who was bizarrely dropped for last weekend’s trip to QPR - came back in for Nelson Oliveira, whilst Wes Hoolahan returned and Yousouff Mulumbu was given a rare start. Somewhat bewilderingly, the centre-back pairing of Ryan Bennett and Sebastien Bassong was kept the same and the only change that was made to the back four that was so badly exposed at QPR was an enforced one, with Robbie Brady dropping back into left-back to fill in for the suspended Martin Olsson.

In fairness, we started quite well. In a role reversal to last weekend at Loftus Road, we began on the front-foot and managed to frustrate both Derby and their home supporters. The greater mobility offered by Mulumbu as opposed to Graham Dorrans in the middle of the park meant that we looked far more solid and, as such, we were able to restrict Derby to very few clear-cut chances. Unfortunately, however, whilst we had successfully nullified Derby’s threat, the own threat that we carried going forward was similarly minimal, with a rather hopeful long-range effort from Hoolahan being as close as we got. Nonetheless, we managed to get through to half-time unscathed, and, if anything, had been the better side which was a huge improvement on recent weeks, at least.

When you aren’t offering anything going forward and you have a notoriously fragile defence, however, the outcome is inevitable. When Neil was forced into bringing on Kyle Lafferty for the injured Cameron Jerome at half-time, we immediately lost any sort of offensive focal point and, as a result, Derby were invited onto us. With a defence consisting of Ryan Bennett and Sebastien Bassong, there is only so long that we can withstand any form of pressure and, as such, it came as a surprise to no-one when Derby took the lead in the 65th minute. With both holding midfielders nowhere to be seen, and Wes Hoolahan making a very poor effort of tracking back, Will Hughes was allowed to carry the ball at will through our own half before a combination of Bassong and Bennett managed to thwart him. Typically, even when the pair manage to do something good it ends badly - as Bennett’s tackle put the ball perfectly in the path of Bradley Johnson to strike home from outside of the box.

Of course, the game was always destined to be decided by a Bradley Johnson goal - the player that played such a crucial role in our promotion two seasons ago only to be sold by Neil after just three weeks of the Premier League season. He may not be the most gifted footballer, but what he lacks in talent, he more than makes up for in spirit, fight and sheer determination. In the pre-match press conference, Neil, when questioned about the sale of Johnson, said that in Robbie Brady we upgraded with a “younger, fitter and quicker” player. Maybe so, Alex, but in this division ability alone is not enough. At the moment, far too many of our players are “all ability” (although you wouldn’t know it), with very, very little passion - and that is exactly why we have lost five games in a row.

The end for Alex Neil is surely only a matter of time now. Whether it be this week, next week, or the week after, his time has come. Next weekend sees Brentford visit Carrow Road and the Bees are in similarly poor form, having lost their last three league games. You can only expect that a defeat at home to Brentford will surely signal the end for Neil, but even if we somehow scrape victory it is difficult to see it as doing anything but delaying the inevitable.