Blues suffered their first league defeat of the season at Carrow Road on Wednesday night, but this was certainly one of those journeys home wondering quite how we'd managed to leave with nothing.
For large spells, Blues were more than a match for Norwich. We started brightly, created chances and looked the more threatening of the two sides early on. Jay Stansfield tested the Norwich keeper and we were getting ourselves into some really promising positions.
Then came the first big talking point.
Liam Millar looked to have given Blues the lead midway through the first half, finishing at the back post and sending the travelling Bluenoses into celebration. Only for the flag to go up for offside.
It was incredibly tight.
Replays certainly didn't do much to convince anyone of the decision and Chris Davies revealed afterwards that he'd been told Millar was actually onside.
That's football without VAR in the Championship, unfortunately, but it was a massive moment in the game.
Instead of being 1–0 up, five minutes later we were 1–0 down.
Oscar Schwartau was given too much room outside the box and, to be fair to him, produced an absolute rocket. James Beadle had very little chance with it and suddenly, completely against the flow of how the opening stages had gone, Norwich had the advantage.
That setback seemed to knock us.
For the next 10–15 minutes we became far too open and Norwich punished us again. Andre Brooks found space down their right before picking out Papa Diallo, who was left with far too much room to make it 2–0.
And that's probably where the frustration comes from.
For most of the first half, there really wasn't much between the teams. In fact, we'd arguably had the better of it. But Championship football can be brutal and a short spell where we lost our shape left us with a mountain to climb.
Blues came back out knowing the next goal was absolutely crucial.
After a slightly scrappy opening to the second half, we finally got the goal our performance deserved.
Millar, who caused Norwich problems throughout the night, created it, finding space on the left before putting the ball across goal for Carlos Vicente to finish from close range.
2–1. Game on.
From there you could sense that an equaliser was there for us. Blues pushed forward, the travelling support found its voice again and Norwich suddenly looked far less comfortable than they had at 2–0.
But we just couldn't find that final touch.
The big chance came late on.
Stansfield released Vicente and suddenly he was through with the opportunity to complete the comeback. It's the sort of chance you desperately want to see buried, but his effort went wide.
Heads in hands in the away end.
At the other end, Beadle made some important saves to keep us alive as Norwich threatened on the break, but despite a late push and seven corners across the night, we couldn't force the equaliser.
Full-time: Norwich 2–1 Blues.
The frustrating thing is that this wasn't a performance where we were comfortably second best. The numbers back that up too: Norwich edged possession 51–49 and had 15 attempts to our 14, while Blues actually had more efforts from inside the penalty area and won seven corners.
We created enough to take something home. The officials will inevitably dominate some of the conversation and it's difficult to ignore the Millar decision when it potentially changes the entire complexion of the game.
Chris Davies was clearly furious afterwards, saying he couldn't remember feeling as disappointed with the officials during his time in charge.
But he also acknowledged something equally important: we have to take responsibility for what happened immediately afterwards.
That's probably the fairest assessment.
We can feel hard done by, because we were.
But we also switched off for a spell, conceded two goals and then failed to take the chances that could have rescued us.
The positives? We kept going. We didn't collapse at 2–0.
Vicente got another goal, Millar was heavily involved in our best attacking moments and even when things weren't going our way, we continued to create.
It's our first league defeat of the season. It was always going to come eventually.
And if we're going to lose games, you'd much rather come away thinking "how haven't we got something there?" than feeling like we've been completely outclassed.
The Championship will punish you for small margins.
Wednesday night was a pretty good example of that.
Plenty to improve on, plenty to be frustrated about but absolutely no reason to panic.
We go again.
Keep Right On. 💙
For large spells, Blues were more than a match for Norwich. We started brightly, created chances and looked the more threatening of the two sides early on. Jay Stansfield tested the Norwich keeper and we were getting ourselves into some really promising positions.
Then came the first big talking point.
Liam Millar looked to have given Blues the lead midway through the first half, finishing at the back post and sending the travelling Bluenoses into celebration. Only for the flag to go up for offside.
It was incredibly tight.
Replays certainly didn't do much to convince anyone of the decision and Chris Davies revealed afterwards that he'd been told Millar was actually onside.
That's football without VAR in the Championship, unfortunately, but it was a massive moment in the game.
Instead of being 1–0 up, five minutes later we were 1–0 down.
Oscar Schwartau was given too much room outside the box and, to be fair to him, produced an absolute rocket. James Beadle had very little chance with it and suddenly, completely against the flow of how the opening stages had gone, Norwich had the advantage.
That setback seemed to knock us.
For the next 10–15 minutes we became far too open and Norwich punished us again. Andre Brooks found space down their right before picking out Papa Diallo, who was left with far too much room to make it 2–0.
And that's probably where the frustration comes from.
For most of the first half, there really wasn't much between the teams. In fact, we'd arguably had the better of it. But Championship football can be brutal and a short spell where we lost our shape left us with a mountain to climb.
Blues came back out knowing the next goal was absolutely crucial.
After a slightly scrappy opening to the second half, we finally got the goal our performance deserved.
Millar, who caused Norwich problems throughout the night, created it, finding space on the left before putting the ball across goal for Carlos Vicente to finish from close range.
2–1. Game on.
From there you could sense that an equaliser was there for us. Blues pushed forward, the travelling support found its voice again and Norwich suddenly looked far less comfortable than they had at 2–0.
But we just couldn't find that final touch.
The big chance came late on.
Stansfield released Vicente and suddenly he was through with the opportunity to complete the comeback. It's the sort of chance you desperately want to see buried, but his effort went wide.
Heads in hands in the away end.
At the other end, Beadle made some important saves to keep us alive as Norwich threatened on the break, but despite a late push and seven corners across the night, we couldn't force the equaliser.
Full-time: Norwich 2–1 Blues.
The frustrating thing is that this wasn't a performance where we were comfortably second best. The numbers back that up too: Norwich edged possession 51–49 and had 15 attempts to our 14, while Blues actually had more efforts from inside the penalty area and won seven corners.
We created enough to take something home. The officials will inevitably dominate some of the conversation and it's difficult to ignore the Millar decision when it potentially changes the entire complexion of the game.
Chris Davies was clearly furious afterwards, saying he couldn't remember feeling as disappointed with the officials during his time in charge.
But he also acknowledged something equally important: we have to take responsibility for what happened immediately afterwards.
That's probably the fairest assessment.
We can feel hard done by, because we were.
But we also switched off for a spell, conceded two goals and then failed to take the chances that could have rescued us.
The positives? We kept going. We didn't collapse at 2–0.
Vicente got another goal, Millar was heavily involved in our best attacking moments and even when things weren't going our way, we continued to create.
It's our first league defeat of the season. It was always going to come eventually.
And if we're going to lose games, you'd much rather come away thinking "how haven't we got something there?" than feeling like we've been completely outclassed.
The Championship will punish you for small margins.
Wednesday night was a pretty good example of that.
Plenty to improve on, plenty to be frustrated about but absolutely no reason to panic.
We go again.
Keep Right On. 💙
