At last, in a superb second half performance, we had our boys back playing as we know they can in a cohesive confident team, having been released from the shackles of fear. Not since 9 April ‘05 whilst beating Man. Utd 2-0 have I felt so positively emotionally connected to the team.

Talk following the game centred around what a magnificent performance the players gave and who would be filling the managerial vacancy full time. Bryan Gunn’s name was mentioned in passing but the general consensus was that nobody wanted to put him up on the pedestal where he could fail and incur negative feelings from the City that loves him.

Then Wednesday morning a press conference is called confirming Bryan Gunn as manager at City until the end of the season, with Ian Crook joining him as coach and John Deehan taking over as Chief Scout and having an input on coaching as and when required.

I was surprised. Shocked even. We were meant to be having a new manager. Someone off the bookies list. Boothroyd, Robins, Ince, Calderwood, Hareide, I knew how I felt about each candidate. If the right one was appointed then praise the board, if a poor appointment was made then it was another stick to beat them with. But this? I initially felt cheated.

On reflection, it is an exciting time to be a Norwich City fan. Gunny has done what was needed a long time ago and put an arm around the whole squad, replacing doubt with confidence and smiles. The desire to play for the shirt and team mates is coming back. Looking forward to match days must surely return for players and fans alike.

The new management team played over 1000 games for City between them, add in potential assistant manager Ian Butterworth’s and that’s 1387 appearances for this club by four guys entrusted with saving and rebuilding it. They were playing, or assistant manager in Dixie’s case, when the Club arguably achieved it’s best success; in the inaugural Premier League season and then the following seasons UEFA Cup run. Plus it represents a player in each area of the pitch; goal, defence, midfield and up front.

Looking at the way the players’ reacted to Gunny on Saturday they approve of his appointment too. He brought a real togetherness to the dugout. Most fans seem to be concerned about the possibility of this appointment not working because Gunny is Mr Norwich City and failure is a horrendous thought. We’ve become used to abject failure and disappointment over the past three years. We now have someone in charge who knows the fans and what the Club is all about. Sure there are plenty of side issues to sort out, but we have a good enough squad to survive this season, and that’s the current requirement. So well done Norwich City board. Things have started looking up at the club since the day Jamie Cureton was recalled from loan.

There’s plenty of water to flow yet, but the bridges are being built and in Gunny, Chippy and Dixie theirs is made from solid gold.

Here’s how I see it. Having drawn o-o at Barnsley earlier in the season, where David Marshall saved a 13th minute penalty and made a few impotant saves to win us a point, and beaten Southampton 2-0 and Doncaster 2-1, we should have the upper hand. However, following Glenn Roeder’s man management skills our entire squads’ self confidence and self belief is at an all time low. With the Rodent having been shown the door after Wednesday nights dire 1-0 reverse against bottom of the league, not won in 18 games, Charlton, we have to be on the up and up.

Putting aside potential replacement managers for the time being, the appointment of City legend and all round good scotch egg Bryan Gunn is a good move by the board. He made 477 appearances as City goalkeeper, the vast majority being in the top flight, he’s been a coach, a liason officer and is currently the head of player recruitment. As he spoke to the press yeasterday and indicated that tears had been shed at the state of the club, it’s obvious his love of all things Norwich City runs deep. He knows this club. He knows the players and has their respect I’d venture, either having played with them, coached them or helped sign them in the first place. So a good performance from the lads for Gunny is a given and with plenty of vocal support a full house at Carrow Road brings I’d imagine a win today over an overperforming Barnsley team who we’ve beaten six times in the last eight meetings, drawing the other two.

We then have a ten day break of games. time to appoint a new manager and build the squad’s confidence further. Hopefully…

Tuesday 27 Jan evening game at home to Southampton, a new managerial appointment and a win is essential as this and the Doncaster game are ‘6 pointers’. Speculation keeps linking Saints with a permanent move for our little Italian loanee Arturo Lupoli and if they pull it off I’d bank on him scoring against us. La Viola aren’t in any dire need for finances following the sale of Pazzini and rumoured other sales so hopefully they’ll do us a favour and keep him here. In which case we’ll definitely win. Saints are even more goal shy than us, with a similarly poor defence. I see our back four starting to return to form with the re-aquisition of Jonathan Grounds and having Jamie Cureton back from his successful goal scoring and starting role at Barnsley (why would you Glenn???) we’ll have the upper hand. Southampton are always a banana skin with Norwich, games seem to ding dong back and forth and the results are never clear cut, so I’ll err on the side of caution and predict a draw.

Then oop North to Donny. They have the worst attack in the league, scoring just 17 goals, in all four English leagues no one has a worse record in front of goal with WBA and Hereford Utd being equally inept. Under the Roeder regime you would bank on Doncaster filling their boots and hitting the goal trail big time as every other team on a bad run has against us this season. No longer I feel, and this game should see a win for the Canaries if we can put away our chances.

If we get the performances we should then 7 points from these three games is a very realistic target, even with current form. And it’ll have to be, as we then travel to top of the league Wolverhampton where we’ve hardly ever performed well. They’ll be up for revenge after our 5-2 win here this season and we’ll have to be on our mettle.

On the Ball City!

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…