A star is born?
Tuesday night's match was one of the most dramatic seen at Carrow Road for a while, forgetting the first hour, and it was thoroughly satisfying to see one of our academy products make some headlines. 18 year-old Chris Martin made a huge impact against Blackpool after coming off the bench to allow Darren Huckerby to move to the left-wing and Lee Croft to the right.
As well as hitting the bar, having a seemingly legitimate goal ruled out and scoring the dramatic extra-time winning goal to send us to Stamford Bridge, Martin's pace, bustling energy and link-up play with Chris Brown turned the game on it's head. Let's hope his rapid development continues so that he becomes an important part of the first team. The confidence and enjoyment that the Beccles lad will have got could be the difference between him becoming a fixture or a lingering also-ran that Ryan Jarvis appears to have become.
If he has the talent and the determination then hopefully he will give the Gaffer no choice but to pick him, in the same way that a young Craig Bellamy did, good luck to him.
There's something about having a local boy do well that is just that much more satisfying isn't there?
Undoubtedly our hero was once again the messiah, Darren Huckerby, two fantastic goals and Neil Adams summed it up perfectly on Radio Norfolk after the first wonder strike when he said, "where would Norwich City be without Darren Huckerby?" Best not to think about that is it?
We've scraped our way through to the last-16 of the world's oldest cup competition then and you just never know with the FA Cup. With no pressure or expectation on our shoulders and with Chelski having the first leg of their Champions League tie away to Porto on the following Wednesday and then the Carling Cup Final against Arsenal at Cardiff next Sunday to think about, we may just stand a chance.
The likes of Drogba, Lampard and Essien could well be rested meaning not neccesarily match fit or sharp players such as Jon Obi Mikel, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Geremi could well get their chance. The game could well represent a big chance for Lee Croft as well though due to both Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge being injured and Jose Mourinho not having an established left-back as cover. I would think that John Terry and Andriy Shevchenko will be likely to play though, to try and get the England captain match fit and the £30 million Ukranian striker back on the goal trail.
With the six-point gap to be made up on Manchester United to be taken into consideration the game could be an uncertain one for Jose and his men and with us having nothing to lose the tie begins to look more attractive to me the more I think about it. The bookies must feel we are in with a chance as well, with Coral offering reasonably low odds of 14/1 for a City win and 5/1 for us to bring the Champions back to Norfolk for a replay.
If City managed to pull it off it could be a major boost for both the clubs finances and confidence, here's dreaming for Ipswich in the sixth-round!
We've got Lappin and Fotheringham to return on Saturday, giving the Gaffer some real selection posers. Does he stick with a 4-4-2 that has Simon Lappin on the left and Hux up top with Fozzy and Martin on the bench or does he revert to an attacking 4-5-1 with Hux and Croft joining Chris Brown in attack when possible and Fozzy joining Etuhu and Youssef in the middle, leaving Martin champing at the bit, desperate to repeat his goalscoring heroics of mid-week?
Grant has some big decisions to make before he tests his managerial abilities against one of the best but it's far better to have these options than to having little choice with who to pick, such has been the case for most of his tenure with the club. I'm sure he'll be adventurous and strong with his decisions, in an attempt to continue his love affair with the FA Cup.
Fellow Pink 'Un message board user Canary Boy has kindly compiled our goals from Tuesday night in a short video which he published on 'YouTube.' Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alJT6fVLSjI to see them, cheers Canary Boy!
The Loan Files
Andrew Cave-Brown came home victorious with the Scottish under-19's a couple of weeks ago, after captaining the young Scot's to victory in the La Manga tournement in Spain. More good experience for the youngster as he continues to look towards the under-19 World Cup in Canada this summer and tries to catch the attention of Peter Grant while on loan at Kings Lynn.
He and Andrew Fisk took part in both of Lynn's games this past week, a credible 1-1 draw with league leaders Bath City and the tight 1-0 loss to Rugby Town in the Southern League Cup and both appear to have become important players for Lynn but will need to make some more headlines in Lynn's drive to catch up leaders Bath over the rest of the season if they are to get a chance at Carrow Road.
Matty Halliday played 90 minutes at centre-back for Torquay and Rossi Jarvis 80 minutes in their 1-0 loss to Lincoln last weekend and Halliday will be the only fit centre-back available for the Football League's bottom club when 2nd in League Two Hartlepool come to town
Rotherham's match against Blackpool fell foul of the weather last weekend but Ian Henderson will be hoping to get on the scoresheet in a tough match against second in League One Scunthorpe United this weekend.
Let's get the Green Flag flying high again!