Bring on the Ram's!!

Three games, seven points, nine for and seven against. Combine that sort of form with a better defensive record and a difficult and disappointing season could well finish in a cloud of yellow and green optimism.

Two weeks ago Steve Claridge was co-commentating on Five Live for City’s game at Stamford Bridge and last Saturday he was again co-commentating on the Charlton against West Ham relegation dog fight.

A few minutes before half time John Inverdale read out that Coventry had taken the lead against City and Claridge’s reaction filled me with as much frustration as it did pride. He said “Norwich played fantastic last week against Chelsea, I’d of never put them where they are!”

We hear it all the time but to hear it from someone outside of the club just made me feel perhaps things aren’t as bad as it seems.

Of course our new hero Chrissy Martin gave us reason for hope that day against Coventry and with two wins away from home on the trot; we might be able to quietly start to believe that Norwich City’s stock might just be back on the rise.

Martin has impressed massively, not just through his performances on the pitch but through appearing to have a brain off it as well. Our academy youngsters receive media training now-a-days and I was concerned that this would just produce a conveyer belt of PR robots but Martin seems to very much have a voice of his own.

Speaking through his fairly strong ‘bootiful’ Norfolk accent, not something you hear from many Norwich City players these days, he told Canaries World, “I think that’s my personality really, to keep my feet on the ground, not to get too excited about things, ‘cos I know it’s only the start of my career sort of thing and I know there’s a lot more hard work to come to get more success.”

He proved that this wasn’t just part of the PR speech when he went on to talk about still attending College on Wednesday’s and Thursday’s saying that it was a “release” from the pressure of first-team football and that it made him appreciate how lucky he is to be getting his chance with his boyhood club.

Let’s hope he carries on taking his chances and can further help connect club and fans again, as he is sure to have a great rapport with the fans if he keeps playing the way he has been.

Our other home grown talent Jason Shackell has been performing excellently recently as well and it is getting the goal difference looking healthier that must be the most important thing to Peter Grant over the rest of the season.

Shackell should be captain next season as far as I’m concerned but we need a solid and experienced defender to rely on as well if we are to stop leaking goals. I have a feeling Dion won’t stay on next season as I think he is giving it his all this season in the same way that Shane Warne did for Australia this winter.

We must remember he is 38 years-old and his recent knock shows that his body is tiring, quickly. He has been fantastic for Norwich City this year but we need a solid central defensive partnership, not a stop-gap.

Grant took a significant step to trying to shore up our defence this week by pulling off what could be a peach of a signing in Fulham’s Tony Warner. At 6ft 4in Warner should certainly bring the aerial presence that Gallacher lacks and his experience of this division could prove invaluable.

We need a definite number one goalkeeper for the start of next season, to prevent the de-stabilising merry-go-round that can hardly be helping to form a solid defensive unit. If Warner can do the business for the rest of the season then that number one shirt could well be his for keeps.

With Derby demolishing Colchester on Friday night, the Ram’s visit to Norfolk on Tuesday night looked daunting before Saturday’s result in Yorkshire, but it could well be a blessing in disguise.

Had City have had a game against another also ran, a Hull or a QPR, the players may have once again believed their own hype and taken their eye off the ball slightly. With the league leaders coming to town Grant and his men will know that they need to re-double their efforts and successes of the past week to stand toe-to-toe with Billy Davies team.

We always seem to play better against better teams and if we can play as well as we have shown in patches recently, we are more than capable of getting three points. With an optimistic and excited crowd behind them, thoughts of unhelpful protests erased and players starting to perform, Carrow Road can once again be the twelfth man that has been missing from our team-sheet. All together now, KICK IT OFF……

Things that have made me chuckle this week…..

Matthew Upson – Swapped a highly possible promotion and hero status, while recovering from his long-term injury, to find his fitness and form, while having a bit of fun in the Championship with Birmingham for relegation with West ‘Am. Greedy sod.

Paul Scholes vision – Clearly it’s becoming blurred again, awful punch, stupid decision, that could have ended up costing Utd dear, but when it’s your year, it’s just your year, as we found out in 2003/04, Phil Mulryne’s deflected shot against Reading on Easter Monday 2004 anybody?

Things that have made me sad this week…..

Sky Sports News Dissapearing – Or ‘Old Sky Sports Snooze’ as Virgin/NTL has called it since Sky tore it away from the majority of the country that can’t afford the Sky Sports package.

Millwall Investment – How do they get £5 million+ invested in them instead of Norwich City or dare I say it… Ipswich Town, crazy!

The Loan Files

Ryan Jarvis played 80 minutes in Leyton Orient’s 0-0 draw away to play-off hopefuls Swansea in a quiet game of few chances.

Ian Henderson played 90 minutes in Rotherham’s 2-1 defeat to Swansea and another 90 minutes in the Miller’s 4-1 win against Bradford on Saturday but he has yet to find the net in his seven games in League One despite playing as a striker throughout. However, he was given 8 out of 10 for his performance against Bradford in Sunday’s News of the World.

Rossi Jarvis and Matty Halliday have both returned to Norfolk after a fairly unsuccessful month with bottom of League Two Torquay, knowing that they have a lot of work to do if they want to avoid dropping back down to the less glamorous end of football.

Andrew Fisk has been short of a game this week with Kings Lynn having both of their games postponed, leaving them with four games in hand on the majority of their promotion rivals.

Let’s get the Green Flag flying high again!