Norwich City Fan View: Championship play-offs look like a pip dream for the Canaries

Norwich City’s recent recovery under Alex Neil came to an abrupt end on Saturday afternoon as they fell to a 2-1 defeat at relegation-threatened Burton Albion. After a run of six games without defeat, it looked like City were well-positioned to launch a pursuit for the play-offs but, on the back of yet another set-back, is a top six finish now nothing more than a pipe-dream for Neil’s men?

For me, yes – it would take a miraculous turn of events, and form, for Norwich to reach the play-offs. On paper, a seven point gap with 39 still to play for is not insurmountable. When you also take into account that our two main rivals for the top six, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds, are playing each other next weekend – meaning at least one of them will drop points – and that we have both of them still to play, it looks unlikely but not impossible. The issue, however, is nothing to do with the points gap – if we were consistently playing well then that would take care of itself – the issue lies with ourselves and our inability to compete away from home.

Saturday’s defeat at Burton represented our third humbling in a matter of months against struggling opposition who could only dream of having a tenth of the resources that Alex Neil has had at his disposal; opposition who have compiled whole squads for less than we have spent on any number of individual players.

Despite going into the trip to Burton on the back of a good spell of form, with performances against the likes of Barnsley and Rotherham still lingering in the memory I was not confident. 3 of the 6 unbeaten games saw us in our, to coin a cricket phrase, “flat-track bully” mode, wherein we comprehensively defeated three mediocre teams on home turf. This is something that we were capable of even when we were in our dire spell of form and thus it told us very little as to whether we had truly ‘turned a corner’. 1 of the other 3 was Tuesday’s draw against Newcastle in which we were outclassed and lucky to hang on to a point, whilst the draw at Wigan the week previous was disappointing and once more illustrated our fragility against struggling, battling, sides. The only game of the 6 which could have been used as evidence to suggest an upturn in fortunes was the win at Cardiff – our first away win since October – but even in that we were reliant on an in-form John Ruddy and the victory was by no means convincing. So, whilst some Norwich fans may have thought all was rosy again and were beginning to plan their trips to Wembley, I was still somewhat reserved. For me, the true litmus test would be whether we could come away from Burton with three points – as we know, we failed to even manage a point let alone three and as a result we are back to square one.

To have any realistic chance of breaking into the top six we will have to go away to both Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds, and win. When you consider that we have only won four away games all season (all against struggling opposition: Blackburn, Wolves, Forest and Cardiff), to expect us to be able to overturn two quality and consistent sides on their own patch is nothing short of delusional – it simply will not happen. This City side have proven time and time again that when they are faced with any sort of physical or mental challenge, they are unable to cope. If we can’t cope with the likes of Barnsley, Rotherham and Burton then the prospects of us being able to come away from Hillsborough and Elland Road with anything other than a thrashing are little more than zero. For all of our individual quality, as a side we are timid, weak and fragile and this will ultimately prove our downfall.
There is still a lot football to be played and in theory anything could still happen, but, for me, with my yellow and green tinted glasses placed firmly on the floor, our play-off hopes died alongside our feeble display at Burton on Saturday afternoon.