Pre-season Friendlies

Pre-season matches have given the squad a good run out and the Norwich game was probably our best chance to settle some scores from last season.  In the event a draw was a fair result by all accounts and we even held the lead at one point.  Pre-season friendlies aren’t a good guide to the form we can expect for the rest of the year.  George has been putting out up to 22 different players in most games and although we have had a good set of results the opposition until now has been relatively lightweight.  The best indicator is that we have a large squad and appear to have some options for every position.  Only time will tell.

I wasn’t there myself but a friend sneaked an aerial view of the game at Carrow Road from a room at the Holiday Inn hotel situated at the same site.  Hence the two  pictures that accompany this post.  I have some larger versions if you think you were one of the Col U fans in the pictures.

First Visit

I visited the new stadium for the first time this week and I have to say it gave me a chill to stand in the players’ tunnel and see our new home up close.   Layer Road it is not.   But that’s history (one we can be proud of) and we also have a new skipper (Captain Coyne) and reinforcements in each row of the line-up. With all the comings and goings during the close season we could be forgiven for thinking it might be a new team out there. I certainly hope so in terms of on-the-field performances, but in reality we can expect to see a familiar line up.

Some encouraging pre-season performances so far and I’m really glad we’ve got our first loss under our belt.  Several people have told me it would be a bad omen to go into the season with an unbeaten record.  The most important thing is that the boss has had a chance to look at several combinations of players and has a squad with plenty of options.

Monday night sees our first European encounter at Cuckoo Farm.  Our opponents are Athletic Club Bilbao, formerly known as Atlético Bilbao and they play in the Spanish First Division (La Liga) alongside some lesser known teams called Barcelona and Real Madrid.  It will be an awesome occasion, and they have also had a good set of results in their pre-season preparations.

Well, one thing for certain is that this season will be full of ‘firsts‘, and I hope to add my share of these in this blog as the season progresses.  I’d be happy to receive comments pointing out any I’ve missed, no matter how obscure, but I must draw the line at things like ‘the first time I used the loos in the new ground’, or ‘my first hot dog’.  Now, I wonder what the first song to be chanted at the new stadium will be?

Welcome to Cuckoo Farm

Welcome to the first entry of my new blog. Last season it was the Final Layer, so this time it has to be the First Cuckoo. I hope you see the play on words here. But first, I guess I have to start with an apology to the club – I won’t be referring to the new stadium by its commercial sponsored name. I’m sticking with Cuckoo Farm as that’s how I want to think of it. We’ll lay our eggs (score goals) in other birds’ nests (in the other team’s net). So that’s a bit of natural history too (check it out at Wikipedia). Another natural history feature of the new stadium is the old oak tree.