Norwich City vs Stoke City e-Football Preview

Article by e-Norwich Correspondent Colin Rowe

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A must win home game faces the Canary’s this Saturday, following the devastating and incomprehensible 4-1 mauling at the hands of former manager Paul Lambert’s Aston Villa.

This weekend’s opponents, Stoke City, sit two places and two points ahead of Norwich in the table and there are more than a few crumbs of comfort for Chris Hughton, the Norwich players and the Y’Army faithful.

Firstly, the reverse fixture at the end of September saw Norwich pick up their first win of the season courtesy of a great up-tempo performance and a quintessential daisy-cutter of a half volley from Jonny Howson.

Secondly, Stoke have the joint worst away record in the Premiership, gaining just six points on their travels this season, a record only equalled by Cardiff. Even Norwich, a side not known under Hughton for promising away form, picked up eight.

Thirdly, Norwich have kept four clean sheets in a row at Carrow Road, although the mystery of why the defence cannot continue this form on their travels still bemuses many Canary fans.

Lastly, for all the criticism, which can rightly or wrongly be levelled at him, Hughton does have a habit of being able to win when he has to and this is as close to a must win game as Norwich will see during the season run-in.

If there is one benefit of a poor-season it is many Norwich players did not feature heavily during the oddly-timed mid-week international friendlies, although the same can be said of Stoke.

John Ruddy warmed the bench for England against Denmark, because it was clearly vital for Roy Hodgson to take another look at Joe Hart, while Russell Martin played a full game in Scotland’s 1-0 win over Poland.

Steven Whittaker was an unused substitute for Scotland and Robert Snodgrass withdrew from the squad during the week.

Anthony Pilkington and Wes Hoolahan both featured in the Republic of Ireland's 2-1 loss against Serbia.

In Scandinavia, Alex Tettey was a second half substitute for Norway during a 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic and Johan Elmander played 45 minutes for Sweden in a 2-1 defeat against Turkey.

The only notable success for Norwich players was Nathan Redmond scoring the only goal in England’s under 21 win over Wales.

Again, there is good and bad news on the injury front.

Snodgrass and Ricky van Wolfwinkel both trained on Thursday and are expected to be in contention for Saturday and there are no injury worries for those returning from international commitments, but Leroy Fer is looking increasingly like a long-term absentee, while Jonas Gutierrez and Michael Turner will return to training next week.

A win over the Potters will see Norwich leapfrog them in the table and could see the Yellows rise as high as twelfth and break the psychological 30 point barrier.

Ignoring the latter home games versus Liverpool and Arsenal, City have just three games left at Carrow Road and the prevailing opinion is Norwich will have to win all of them to give themselves a decent chance of survival.

Expect to see a Norwich side taken off the leash this weekend, with a return of the football seen against Tottenham and in the opening period at Aston Villa.

Fer’s absence last weekend saw a return to the starting XI for Hoolahan, who repaid the faith with an uncelebrated goal, which you can read into what you like, but with Howson also back to full fitness there is a chance Hoolahan will see his services no longer required again.

Many Norwich fans would love to see Hoolahan continue in the same role this weekend and his attacking credentials could see Hughton again turn his eyes to the Irishman for a game Norwich need to dominate up front.

With the other injuries in midfield, it could be the ever-present Bradley Johnson who drops out so both Howson and Hoolahan can start the game.

Hooper replaced the injured van Wolfwinkel and it is a 50-50 call about who gets the nod up front.

While the former Celtic man has scored more goals, the misfiring Dutchman did have a good game against Spurs, despite not finding the net.

Predicted Line-Up: Ruddy, Martin, Yobo, Bassong, Tettey, Howson, Hoolahan, Snodgrass, Redmond, van Wolfswinkel

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