Back from the game... Rhodes, Rhodes will tear you apart again

This was a night when Norwich went 4-1 up, and finally won through to the next round of the cup. Those two moments of joy were nearly divided by allowing the Adams Family to give us a right old fright!

This was a game where we controlled most of the play and looked a class above but somehow still managed to keep us all fretting up until the last minute. Rhodes was the standout, turning back time and displaying all the skill and experience to net a lovely hat trick, which should have been four but for an phantom handball given by the ref when he’d clearly “Pukki-ed” it off the centre of his chest.

Norwich came out in positive style and were rewarded after twelve minutes when good work by Thompson initially, provided Bundia the chance to cross the ball low across goal and Rhodes bundled the ball in at the far post looking for all the world as if he was trying to emulate Teemu’s last goal, but the ball was only a foot off the ground!

Two minutes later and Vrancic found Rhodes on the edge of the Wycombe box and he curled a delightful strike into the top of the net making it seem like it was going to be a comfortable night. Wycombe then got one back from a corner when Godfrey managed to head the ball onto his own bar whilst getting kicked in the face and the rebound fell to a blue shirt who drove it home. City’s third goal, from a Bundia corner, found Super Tommy Trybull slipping his marker to head home from six yards out.

Rhodes netted again just before the break only for the mysterious “hand” (another Adams Family reference) to intervene!

Second half we again started brightly with Srbeny clean through only to hit the bar. Never mind, Bundia set up Rhodes again for his hat trick just six minutes in... and Bundia’s hat trick of assists! 4-1 and game over... not! A poor pass out by McGovern was intercepted which ended in a soft penalty when Zimmerman tried to make a recovering tackle, 4-2 with half an hour to play!

The enigma which is Ade Akinfenwa then made a larger than life appearance as a sub for Wycombe. Here is a man who makes Xherdan Shaqiri look like a catwalk model and lumbers around like I used to in the last years of playing but is somehow very effective. Cue this man mountain making our defence struggle as the Chairboys just wouldn’t sit down. Their tails were up and it was all route one. Inevitably it was Akinfenwa who brought down a ball in the box to set up their third and set up a very tense last fifteen minutes.

We managed to see the game out with Klose and Stiepermann helping to shore things up from off the bench and Rhodes at his masterful best near the corner flags to help run the clock down.

Much will be made of defensive frailties but this was a much changed back four. Passlack did ok at RB but Pinto was ar LB out of position and Godfrey is still making the transition to CB. Skip over that and focus on the fact that we probably should have scored six or more goals in a game which was potentially an “along came Norwich” banana skin.

Farke got the tactics right, not the usual passing game, more focused on quick ball forward and playing quite narrow. Srbeny played the Stiepermann role but whilst he did fine, you really could see how much Stiepermann brings to that position... as it wasn’t there. Thompson did okay, worked hard without tearing up too many trees and McGovern made three or four cracking saves.

Crowd were great, 1,400 City fans made a good noise throughout. Must give a shout to Wycombe though, the Adams Family put on a great fanzone outside with a marquee, bar and BBQ... plus the FA Cup, or a replica at least, on display.

Good night out, we’re in the 5th round again, and a relatively early night for me!

On The Ball City Wrathers 💛💚

Posted By: Worthing Yellow, Sep 26, 01:25:36