Norwich City 3 - West Bromwich Albion 1

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Kev Buckley:

Norwich 3 Albion 1: Albion's FA Cup cup run ends

Ah yes, the enigma that is the FA Cup. Do its games offer a chance to build some momentum for your settled side, or a chance to rest them, and try out a few new faces who might not otherwise get much of a look in.

Given that Ramsay's semi-settled side had not fared all that well, all that recently, against his Cup opponents, perhaps it was no surprise to see him ring the changes - nine in all - and it's to be supposed that the 5-0 drubbing Norwich inflicted on us a few weeks back, gave them a free pass in making their six changes.

Albion's second stringers had the better of the first ten minutes, hitting the post within two, only for Maja's poacher's tap in of the rebound to be ruled out for offside, before the Canaries started to dominate, Taylor having to block an effort after a simple ball over the top found our defence unable to cope, before his centre-back partner Bielik had to block after another Albion give away allowed Norwich to fashion a chance.

Twenty-five minutes in and Whitwell gets caught in possession, (in his defence, our regular defensive centre-mids often do) leading to Norwich having two shots blocked, and five minutes later we went behind, after a simple ball to our back post was headed back into the centre and, although their goal-scorer was unchallenged, he still did well to direct the header into the top corner.

Imray and Mustapha had combined to make the most of a huge hole down the right, with the keeper just about doing enough to keep out the latter's shot towards the near post, before Diakite (you see, it's endemic) got caught caught in possession, but Norwich somehow butchered the resulting chance, and the half ended with Griffiths forced into a diving save from yet another unmarked header in front of him.

That would be our back-up keeper's last action, as he was subbed at half-time (later reports have him leaving the ground in a moon boot). Mustapha, despite not being on a yellow, also made way for Mowatt as the teams ran out for the second half.

Once again, Albion started the brighter of the two sides, Bostock spinning his man, only to be "professionally" fouled as he broke, and then Maja straying offside once more as he finished, before normal service was resumed, Johnston serving up an awful pass that allowed the home side to break and require a save from O'Leary.

The on-the-hour subs, by now a regular feature of Ramsay's league plans, hadn't materialised by the time Diakite threaded a lovely ball through the inside-right channel, allowing Maja to chip the keeper, delightfully, from the corner of the box.

Maybe it was the prospect of a penalty shoot out that saw Ramsay sub out both Whitwell and Bostock shortly afterwards, Price and Jimoh-Aloba coming on with a quarter-of-an-hour to go.

Bielik had been replaced by Molumby - Diakite dropping into the back four - although whether the injured centre-back would have to been able to prevent Norwich regaining the lead after a shot from the corner of our box found the far corner is debatable, as is whether Griffiths might have saved it.

Maja would hit a powerful strike straight at the keeper, within stoppage time, before Norwich undid us again, one player inside the box flicking the ball over Imray, twice, at the back post, before heading it into the middle of box to set up the home side's third.

So, did this shot-to-nothing, romance of the Cup, game tell us, and Ramsay, anything that we didn't already know: probably not, if we're being brutally honest.

On the plus side though, Norwich will not be able to "concentrate on the league" to the same extent that we now can, and I felt that, for the most part, when we weren't getting caught in possession or giving the ball away, we kept our shape well.