READING through the match reports from last weekend The Man stumbled across a bleak assessment of our worth from Plymouth manager Paul Sturrock.He described their recent 2-1 defeat to us as “a dark moment in the club's history.

READING through the match reports from last weekend The Man stumbled across a bleak assessment of our worth from Plymouth manager Paul Sturrock.

He described their recent 2-1 defeat to us as “a dark moment in the club's history.” Ouch.

To be fair, that's how we have portrayed recent defeats at Home Park, so it's only fair they draw their own biblical conclusions about us too.

These continue to be troubled times, but it's not as if we haven't been here before.

The bottom six of the Championship is our natural orbit at the moment, so while our current league position is a bit depressing, it is hardly a surprise.

If nothing else, we are battle hardened now.

The Man is a touch ashamed to say that his reaction to Derby's late winner was laughter. Not uproarious laughter, but a chuckle nonetheless.

There was a time when I'd of raged about losing a game like that; I'd be so angry I could crush a grape, a total splutter of anger.

But I just laughed. What else can you do now?

I think there is a feeling of resignation among many fans that will be difficult for Roeder to shift.

Before the Derby game he called on supporters to get behind the team, and while we rallied briefly after the goal, the overall atmosphere was mute to say the least.

Sadly we've already lost at home twice to 10 men, in both matches the game has been all square when it was 10 against 11 too. We haven't even scored in the first half at home yet. Hardly the sort of stuff that gets the crowd going.

THE banking industry continued to be exposed as the biggest gambling racket in the world this week.

The only difference from normal betting being that the people that really gambled are not the losers.

Those chief executives have already squirreled their bonuses away.

Even the individual idiots who put their savings into dodgy banks in Iceland are seemingly going to get their money back…

If The Man bets on a horse, and it loses, he does not expect to get his cash back. I know there are political motives for bailing these morons out, but what utter nonsense. If something seems too good to be true, that's because it normally is.

The tale of this gimcrackery can even be exposed via the debts of our dear, beleaguered Norwich City.

As far as I understand, Bank of Scotland lent us £3m to build a new infill stand, with the obligatory greedy interest rates.

The bank then runs into trouble and is bought by Lloyds TSB. It continues to run into trouble, to the point where this week government provisionally agrees to lend it a few billion quid to keep going.

Effectively, that means Norwich fans - assuming that most of us are taxpayers - are lending Bank of Scotland money so it can continue to lend it back to our club at a higher rate, and our enslavement in debt continues. It's the perfect scam.

AND so it appears that Fozzy - he of the flick - is the latest player to attract the angst of the Carrow Road crowd.

In recent years it seems there always has to be at least one player we are positively annoyed at for their supposed lack of ability, and our Captain Marvel is the latest holder of that title.

Matty Patty can rest easy in his bed, the boo boys have a new target now…

The Man will admit, I never saw what the fuss was about Fozzy in the first place.

When I first saw him play I thought he was an average footballer who could occaisionally pick out a decent pass.

But as we are an average football club that occasionally wins games I didn't necessarily see anything wrong with that.

When he came on last week his sedative influence on the game doubtless got up people's noses, but he was only trying his best.

I have said it before; I just do not see the point in getting on players' backs during a game.

Fozzy has got a big challenge in front of him now, in terms of moving his game on to make sure he can continue to command a place in the side.

Roeder has dropped him, which is a hell of a kick in the teeth for someone who thought he was so good he'd only sign a one-year deal, so let's see how he reacts to that.

Whatever happens, I am sure he will try his best; and we can't really knock him for that.

If he comes up short, so be it, but the challenge is there for him. The excellent Sammy Clingan has raised the bar and Fozzy has got to try to push on.

If you talk to anyone around the club they will tell you that Fozzy's attitude last season was absolutely first class, and went a long way to driving the team to stay up. So let's give the lad a chance eh?

TRYING to find positives from the game against Derby was a bit like trying to find someone from Ipswich with a GCSE, but The Man did manage to find one.

David Bell, despite having the same hairdresser as Norwich evacuee Ian Henderson, offered one chink of light.

The Man has waited so long to see a City winger consistently whip in a decent cross I had forgotten the art actually existed.

I promise to wash my mouth out with soap, but even the legendary Huckerby (legend) couldn't be relied upon to always put in a decent ball.

So a promising start from Glenn Roeder's record signing, and let's just hope the sometimes debilitating effects of Colney do not remove that talent. Over the years we have seen some decent debuts, only for the player to slowly deteriorate before our eyes.

You could almost call it Mulryne Syndrome, although that is perhaps a bit unfair.

Of course, a regular supply of decent crosses is one thing, getting a striker to thunder in on the end of them like Iwan Roberts is another. OTBC