Finally there's reason to smile

The vital win against Coventry on Saturday was the first time that we have been able to truly enjoy a matchday from start to finish in a long while.

It was the sort of day that people follow football religiously for and one that sent the good people of Norfolk into pubs and restaurants across the County on Saturday night, with a well overdue and thoroughly satisfied smile on their faces.

The new boys certainly did their part, you can’t ask for much more from Matty Pattison than 2 assists on his debut. Darrell Russell and Luke Chadwick got back to the form that they had shown against Ipswich and Mark Fotheringham’s performance was even more impressive considering it was his first match back from a lengthy injury.

Hopefully Jamie Cureton’s goal can give him the confidence to start knocking the goals in regularly again, especially with Ched Evans breathing down his neck, but the case of who to partner him with is still a difficult one to suss with Dion going off injured.

The stats that sum-up the difference since the international break for me are the amount of shots we had. Against Coventry we had 12 shots with 7 on target, at Home Park we had 8 shots with only 2 on target and in our last home match we had a measly 3 shots with only 1 on target, admittedly against league leaders Watford but still, a terrible stat.

There were 24,590 people at Carrow Road against Coventry on Saturday, despite City being rock-bottom of the division. That’s just 932 short of Carrow Road’s all-time record all-seated attendance against Man Utd in the 04/05 Premiership season.

It was the highest attendance of the 11 Championship matches and nearly 1,000 more than the next highest attendance at Bramell Lane managed.

That is real support and if Norwich City should survive for just one reason this season, it is because the club’s supporters bloody well deserve it!

The cherry on top of the ‘much-needed-three-points-with-a-top-performance’ cake on Saturday, was Kings Lynn’s fantastic 3-1 win against Conference South league leaders Eastbourne Borough in the FA trophy, not to mention Ipswich losing!

Let’s enjoy it while it lasts, after a thoroughly depressing week provided to us by Steve Maclaren and co, and take Glenn Roeder’s Green Revolution to Blackpool on Tuesday night and remind them that Norwich City are one of the big dogs in this division, it’s just taken us a bit of a while to remember it!

Our season is up and running and Roeder’s honeymoon period has started properly, so lets arrive back in Norfolk this time next week with at least four points from Bloomfield Rd and The Britannia, and start moving back towards where we belong.

All together now, KICK IT OFF…….

For those of you who don't know, I present a Championship podcast on www.footballfancast.com.

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