Hemsworth will be fuming. Bin juice Norwood with a goal and player of the match, Scarlett was absolutely anonymous and infact, had a free header in first half which he didn't even get on target! Wonder what hes thinking now haha.
I think he's been an absolute excellent acquisition. Him and cole are certainly on the same wavelength. Hes strong, very quick, team player, and an absolute bargain for a freebie. That bin juice comment is exactly where it should be. In the bin, with the bin juice it was referred to as.
A certain Philip, Barnsley ‘fan’ residing in Hemsworth, derided the signing of James Norwood in the summer; referring to him as bin juice and asserting that Portsmouth’s signing of Dane Scarlett would prove to be much better - and we showed no ambition, or words to that effect. A fair few of us argued otherwise - Norwood is proving to be the shrewd bit of business I predicted he might be.
His reason as to why Scarlett would be better is because he came from Tottenham's academy & Norwood has never been at an academy - don't forget the most important point Troff!!
Dane Scarlett got ironic cheers when the board went up for him to come off. Intact apart from the goal it was the biggest Pompey cheer of the night.
Since the turn of the year, Norwood has been immense for us. Never expected him to miss his chance tonight. Unselfish for Devante’s goal too. I hope we get a contract extension sorted.
I was very sceptical about the signing of Norwood. I knew he could score goals, albeit mostly at a lower level, but I didn't think he was much of a player. He also had injury issues and ,allegedly, disciplinary issues. For the first month we got exactly what I expected: he was unfit, he looked like he could barely play and he capped it off by lashing out with his elbow, twice, on a young lad in the Lincoln match. Duff rightly criticised him after that game and dropped him from the starting line up at Wednesday. But Duff gave him another chance and brought him on with 15 minutes to go. With his first touch, Norwood scored one of the best headers I've ever seen. It's a phenomenal skill to be able to do that. Since then, imho, he's been a model pro. He works his guts out, he leads the line against much bigger centre halves than he is, often coming out on top, and he's stepped up to be the experienced, mature player that Duff needed in this young team. I've read a few comments accusing him of shthousing (not critical comments), but I don't think he does. He's tenacious, and a pain in the arse for the opposition, but I reckon he stays within the laws of the game much more often than most centre forwards. He wins the ball a lot and he wins it fairly, using his build to his advantage. I can't praise him enough. He's given everything he's got and most importantly he's kept his head and kept his professionalism and become a real team player. And some of his goals have been magic. It's a pity Duff wasn't his manager when he was 22 rather than 32.
Well said, Jay. There are countless examples about why patience is needed when a new player joins the club. Seen loads of stick aimed towards Russell, especially on Twitter. He needs and deserves the same patience.