A MONSTER stat was unearthed by a fellow City fan this week. And for The Man, it basically sums up Worthy's problem.

A MONSTER stat was unearthed by a fellow City fan this week. And for The Man, it basically sums up Worthy's problem.

In our past 43 away games - FORTY THREE games - we have only scored the first goal six times. We have fallen foul of the first goal a whopping 34 times.

There you go Jolly Roger, you like a good stat, how do you like them apples?

It is incredible; an appalling record.

And it leads to the heart of the issue which is likely to undermine December's Manager of the Month. He just cannot set up a team to play away from home. In a sense it is deeply irrational. How can NW have such a good home record, yet such a dire away record?

The Man believes it boils down to a negative attitude away from Carrow Road. You get the feeling before every match, no matter who we are playing, that Worthy would settle for a draw. In fact, you get the feeling he'd crawl over broken glass for it.

I think that lack of ambition permeates to the players. There is a huge difference between not wanting to lose a game, and wanting to win it.

But The Man thinks he may have a novel solution to this dilemma. How about we appoint separate home and away managers? We can keep Worthy for the home games, as more often than not he will grind out a good win. Whereas we could get a more rumbustious gaffer to lead us on the road.

How about Gordon Ramsay? Imagine him ripping into some of our players if they do another white flag routine away from home.

Or maybe we could opt for an ultra-attacking away boss like Keegan or Ardiles. Imagine Ossie transposing his Famous Five formation onto us.

Whatever, anything - ANYTHING - has to be better than the current away performances.

Away from Carrow Road we have been kicked about like a red-headed stepchild for too long.

The Man knows many previously regular away fans who just can't abide the thought of watching us on the road anymore.

There comes a point where even a trawl around the local DIY centre is more appealing than watching us get done by dire sides like Stoke and Derby.

An example of our desolate form away from the Rud is the fact that our 2-2 draw at Leeds in now held up as some sort of shining beacon of hope. Countless players have since referred to that game as an example of the team's ability. Let's get this in perspective, we drew. Exactly the same result as Stoke got at Leeds in the following fixture, and two points less than Palace got there after that.

Worthy was obviously so delighted with his Leeds masterpiece that he rolled it out at Burnley again.

Any system that involves us having a £300,000 bloke from Peterborough up front while a £3 million Premiership striker sits on the bench is clearly flawed. I'm not having a pop at Leon, it just doesn't make sense, that's all. Not to mention Safri's absence. Quite frankly, a 10 per cent fit Youssef is better than some of our other midfield options.

It must stop, but The Man is not holding his breath.