At the end of last week Roeder signed former Wimbledon/MK Dons Manager Stuart Murdoch to become Norwich’s new goalkeeping coach. He made a statement to the press saying how great the facilities were and the potential of the goalkeepers astounded him.

Sadly, he left after three days at the club citing “personal reasons”.

A couple of weeks ago too Joe Lewis, a product of the goalkeeping academy, was sold to Peterborough for £400,000. It is a shame as I remember Bryan Gunn saying once he should have had a promising future for Norwich. Lets wish him the best!

Three players have left the club…Strihavka, Brown and Brellier are gone. Brown was sold to Preston, the other two had their contracts terminated with immediate effect. Pattison (permanent), Camara, and Evans were resigned along with the the arrival of Chelsea left back Ryan Bertrand.

Norwich went a goal down at Barnsley thanks to a spectacular Devaney strike on 18 minutes. Norwich however really sparked in the second half, a great performance with goals from Ched Evans, Mark Fotheringam and Dion Dublin making it 1-3 at the whistle.

Then, as is typical with Norwich there is a down turn. Especially when it is a cup game and even more especially when the opposing club is in crisis and have sacked their entire coaching staff the night before. Norwich managed to go 2-0 down at the interval and were dumped out of the cup 2-1 with a consolation goal from Dublin. Still, Norwich never have a cup run. I read a statistic that it is the ninth time in eleven consecutive seasons that we have gone out at the first round. Lovely.

And yesterday, listening to the radio it just seemed like it was NEVER going to be Norwich’s day. A free header from Gary Doherty, Dion Dublin hiting the post, twice. Roeder said afterwards he had never seen such a one sided 0-0. We are still four points from the relegation zone but we really do need to start swamping teams in terms of score line that we show a chance and possession advantage over. We need the results to avoid any end of season relegation wrangling.

It was a sparky game, confrontations between Russell and the Leicester goal keeper. Ian Holloway and Glenn Roeder squaring up to each other as Mr Antagonist Holloway suggested Roeder’s coaching staff had conspired to get his player sent off.

Norwich created chances, indeed Roeder said he feared what the result might be as early chances were squandered one after the other. Gradually, as is natural, the visiting team take comfort from this and march on with confidence and Bury stole a goal late in the game thanks to Andy Bishop. Thankfully, Gary Doherty spared the Canaries yet more rubbish headlines, especially with regards to cup performances, by equalising shortly after… ending his year and half goal drought! After the game Doherty said he found scoring in the Championship much harder than in the Premier League where he did have a much better record.

Oh well, another game we scarcely need in our precarious desire to avoid relegation. Norwich must make a journey to Bury for a game that isn’t desirable nor important (sadly) given our league position.

The only good news recently is that Mo Camara’s loan was extended to the end of the season and Matthew Pattison signed permenantly for an undisclosed fee. Also, we can wait and see what Chelsea’s Ryan Bertrand will be like.

Please, please may Norwich get a few wins under their belt again. Its too precarious I tell you!! Too precarious!!

This does show how far our form and pattern of play has come. We no longer capitulate. In the two games against Charlton and Wolves Norwich came from behind via Darel Russell and Jamie Cureton. We had the better chances against Charlton and sadly didn’t convert to a win, and the same can be said for the Palace game in which we fought hard and nearly denied an impressively on-form team that had leapt from the relegation places to seventh in the table.

We do need now to press on with a win or two. We still lurk in danger, tottering precariously with only two points between us and the relegation zone. I have to say however, although Roeder and his team have done a superb job so far with the spot-on loan signings directly affecting the lacking areas, to talk as he did after the Palace game and suggest that ‘this club can now start thinking about getting back to where it belongs’ is dangerous I think and staggeringly premature. The hard work has no doubt been ploughed in, we can see the visible results in the change in league position and manner of play. However, it must never be forgotten we lurk only two points away from danger. One game of failure, with another team’s success and back we are in the maelstrom.

I don’t believe in this kind of talk yet. Norwich do not belong as club with its facilities two places above the relegation zone…but to ignite premature fantasies is a gamble. We all know they can lead to the deadening offshoots of complacency and we do not want to trek towards that unsightly place.

But yes, Roeder should be pleased…thus far. That is all I suggest.

Having said that, Charlton’s Sodje made a string of important moves and blocks in defence and looked an integral part of the Charlton machine…that was until he decided to lunge two feet off the ground at Darel Russel and was correctly sent off (after the game, Alan Pardew decided he agreed…how humble).

This changed the nature of the game, and not for the better as some commentators expected. Norwich piled forward but weren’t seeing much coming to fruition…Darren Huckerby had a shot blocked, Ched Evans was denied…but eventually Darel Russel converted a Darren Huckerby corner into a 1-1 scoreline through a good header.

It was ours to win really, Cureton was operating the channels…all players were working really hard and as always…when Lee Croft comes on a new side of creativity is introduced…. which is really what you want when you are playing ten men! But we didn’t win, we managed a draw. And, as a tad of disappointment sizzles in the back of your mind remember only this:a month or so ago we would have been terrified of playing Charlton. Now we gave them a good game and should have won. Still a few points from safety. Keep it moving!

It was a tricky, labouring affair with Scunthorpe showing how they have gone eleven games now without a win and Norwich fans praying their team would take advantage. They did in the end, in a fashion the BBC described as “smash and grab” and it was particularly savoury because of its importance. Six games unbeaten? Picking up points is great!

Jamie Cureton made the difference in scoreline when he came on for Dion Dublin on 61 minutes and after about ten minutes his impact was made when he converted Otsemobor’s cross to send us home 0-1 happy!

Ched Evans had a one on one and Darren Huckerby seemed to blaze wide but we were also indebted to Mr Reliable David Marshall for a string of important and typical saves. The best from a powerful Scunthorpe header.

Having said all that positive comment and logging about what happened on Saturday I do feel a little nervous about how me might fair against a club like Charlton on boxing day…

Most people regarded the game itself as a rotten, toiling, drab affair where neither side showed any sparkle. A typical championship relegation battle a cynic would say. The one promising thing that did come out of it was Norwich’s willingness to fight and toil in a winter Layer Road subsumed with gloominess and cold. This could prove to be a vital result really, we didn’t slip back down back into the relegation places…swapping places with Colchester twice in two weeks would have been frustrating after having done so well to be undefeated in five games out of six. That is promising we kept at it till the very end and gained our rewarded point. Its important for the trip to Scunthorpe to be still in there, fourth from bottom, amongst it all.

It’s a shame. I thought perhaps he might stay… but Roeder has said there were several other Championship clubs interested. So, it appears to me there’s not much room for sentimentality these days. Taylor did extremely well for us, and I grew to hope in sentimentality that having won such widespread respect from the fans and helping us out of the bottom three he might stay. Wrong! Sentimentality check everyone! He played out of his skin because he wanted to get his career back on track, he wanted to raise his asking price, boost his wage demands from other Championship clubs, perhaps not lurking so near the foot of the table. I have now had my reality check. I don’t blame Martin Taylor, I am just disappointed by the nature of things.

Is ‘the Doc’ up to it? The old relationship resumed, Doherty and Shackell…then?

Ched Evans scored from a superb Darren Huckerby cross on ten minutes. Huckerby more than making up for the hard time the crowd gave him on Tuesday night. He summoned his old sparkle and match-winning qualities for the first half against Sheffield United.

That wasn’t it however. Roeder said before the game he didn’t want anymore ‘avoidable goals’ being given away (Stoke, Plymouth) and that he wanted Norwch when in the lead to squash the potential of the game. That didn’t happen, Norwich let it slip and slip and the Blades were running Norwich ragged in the second half with James Beattie volleying wide and Keith Gillespie having fun causing all sorts of horrific problems in the Norwich half.

Gary Cahill even had a goal ruled out for Sheffield United. The Sheffield United players complained en masse and continued to complain in their comment after the game but my alibi used is the Radio Norfolk commentary team: Neil Adams and Chris Goreham clearly said, after watching the replays, that Cahill was a yard offside. A tough decision then, but the right one.

Norwich win, they hold on raggedly in an embattled second half, and swap places with Colchester who are now in the bottom three at the expense of Norwich. Wahoo! Now lets make this change permenant. Full credit to the team and management for the character of the turnaround. I didn’t expect positives this quick. The loan signings have been superb, and the new spirit and character to merely start scoring after a month-long drought let along ending the eleven match winless run with four wins out of five is big enough. But as we all too easily know, now is not the time for complacency.

I think so. I went to the game on Tuesday night and it was refreshing to see Norwich take the lead in the opening minutes through a slicing pass from Jamie Cureton to new loanee Ched Evans to score on his full league debut.

That was nice. Tha game however from then onwards fizzled out into something scrappy, neither side with any final incisive belief. Norwich were the better side though. Then, about four minutes from time Norwich win a penalty and Darren Huckerby scores from the spot, in good fashion. 2-0 looks good until a tame Plymouth corner was allowed to enter the Norwich goal and 2-1 sent nerves jangling in the crowd that we were going to throw important points away. We didn’t, and Plymouth didn’t look like doing so.

One thing I will say, and perhaps I am wrong but it distresses me nonetheless: why pick out and make “ohhhh” noises and shouts of “get him off” to one of our players only recently returned from injury and low in confidence? It seems a self-destructive thing to do, causing our own players to feel nervous as they undoubtedly feel their own crowd’s playful derision. Gary Doherty isn’t perfect, I am not saying he is a world-class defender or any other kind of babble but I do believe he has a genuine character and is an honest servant of the club. I would like to see his confidence boosted, not mocked. If things don’t improve under Roeder, then fine, but lets not try and force our own players out when they have just come back from injury and are low on confidence. I maintain that is a bit unfair. No?

Other good news. Roeder has just admitted Martin Taylor has been told he is free to leave Birmingham City by new boss Alex McLeish. He is tall, with a big physical presence and scored two goals in a month’s loan. Watch this space carefully for updates.

As for tomorrow, roll on Sheffield United. They come on the back of a 3-0 home defeat to Stoke.