It was a very miserable Saturday afternoon, my walk from the pub to the ground left me completely drenched. I was then pleased by the news that Jim Brennan was surprisingly named amongst the substitutes and I was looking forward to seeing him in action.
I think the team was as expected. Mulryne came in for an out of sorts Francis; the rest of the team was unchanged following the dire performance on Tuesday against Coventry.
We started very brightly looking extremely fired up to get back to winning ways. The first 20 minutes were pretty scrappy, with McVeigh having a half chance saved by Crewe keeper Clayton Ince.
Huckerby was left fuming after he was denied a penalty on 21 minutes. The Manchester City striker was clipped by Foster, and despite Huckerby's claims, the referee decided the incident occurred outside the area.
Huckerby was tearing Foster to shreds, this time beating his man, before whipping in a low cross where he found McVeigh who could only snatch at the ball placing it wide.
Clayton Ince made a superb one handed save to stop Peter Crouch's header in the 33rd minute. I felt that it was only a matter of time before we capitalised on all the possession and chances we were having.
This proved to be the case, when Norwich took the lead on 39 minutes through Darren Huckerby. The ball fell to Hucks in the area and he produced a good right-footed strike from 12 yards out to score his 1st goal in 9 games. This was the most I had celebrated a goal in a while, as I was delighted that Huckerby had finally scored. Seeing his passionate celebration made me even more excited.
At the break I was slightly fearful of an action replay of the Coventry game, where we had led 1-0 at the break. Although we had looked far more convincing in the opening 45 minutes of this encounter.
Norwich looked fairly comfortable in the first part of the second half. Chances fell to Huckerby, Crouch and McVeigh. I was desperate for us to score a second goal to clinch the game as at 1-0 Crewe were always well and truly in the game.
Jim Brennan replaced Paul McVeigh on 66 minutes and his long awaited Norwich City debut was greeted with great delight by the Carrow Road crowd. During his 25 minutes on the pitch he showed glimmers of what he can do, with a couple of decent crosses as well as a left footed volley, which shaved the post.
Ryan Jarvis replaced Ian Henderson on 83 minutes and looked very lively indeed. His good run and shot nearly doubled City's lead.
Huckerby had a chance to do just that on 88 minutes. He was sent clear through on goal, only for his disappointing effort to go curling over the cross bar. In the 2 minutes of injury time Crewe had two corners but they failed to threaten as Norwich held on for the 1-0 victory.
So relief all round, as The Fortress lives on. A much better performance than that against Coventry. Looks like the so-called 'Christmas blip' hasn't come early after all. This was also the first victory since I've started writing for the site, so I'm glad our dip in form wasn't down to me.
On the ball..........
Keep The Faith.