Opinion: No room for nerves ahead of St Andrew's showdown
Matthew Soakell, North East Canary
I’m not going to mention too many previous failures - final day or play-off related - other than to say that I remember that 6-0 pummelling at Fulham as being one of the flattest I’ve ever felt after a football match. I’m confident something like that won’t happen this weekend and it’s with heads held high and a swagger of confidence that Norwich City’s players, coaching staff and fans alike should head to Birmingham this weekend for the final game of the Championship season.
Okay, so it very likely won’t be our final game of the season, given the very strong likelihood that we’ll make 5th or 6th place, but before we even think about who we might be playing when our season extends, we have the small hurdle of a side battling relegation to overcome - or at least not mess up.
The Canaries haven’t lost to Birmingham City since 2016, with a total of 11 matches played in this time. With an inferior points tally and goal difference to Plymouth, who’re one place above them in the table, the Blues will be bang up for Saturday’s game, however now isn’t the time to worry about the opposition. David Wagner’s men must focus on themselves, play their own game and quickly quieten the home crowd. This isn’t exactly a side in form that we’re up against; Birmingham have only managed to produce back-to-back draws against Huddersfield and already relegated Rotherham in their last two games and without wanting to be disrespectful to Gary Rowett’s side, it’s a game we should be winning.
So let’s go to St Andrew's loud, proud and fully expectant. Let’s break our own back-to-back draw streak and go into the play-offs with some momentum and put fear into whoever it is we end up playing before a ball is even kicked.
On the ball, City!
