Looking to the future with confidence

05 August 2010 12:44
Hands up all those City fans who thought their team would bounce back from the humiliating 7-1 home defeat a year ago to get promoted at the end of last season as League One champions? Not many hands showing if we are going to be completely honest about it! My explanation for what happened on that fateful day centred on Norwich players being overcome: initially by the high expectations of their fans; closely followed by a severe knock to their confidence caused by the ease with which Colchester started knocking in the goals! Could the same thing happen when Malky Mackay's Watford provide the first Championship test for Paul Lambert's Norwich in front of the TV cameras? Not one for predictions - since forecasting that relegation to League One would be averted by Bryan Gunn - on this special occasion I will stick my neck out and suggest that the Canaries will get this season off to a flying start! Why so confident? Simple - as a meerkat might reply - compare the form last season in League One with the preceding one, which ended in relegation. Add to this statistic the team strengthening by a manager with an uncanny knack of putting round pegs into round holes and you begin to see why former players such as Dion Dublin and Iwan Roberts are tipping Norwich to finish in the top half of the Championship table - at the very least! Will more than twenty thousand season ticket holders be prepared to settle for anything less than the play-offs? Probably not, but they should not need Delia Smith to remind them that by their consistent vocal support over the next nine months, they might just lift the players into a top-six spot by the end of April 2011. Back to the more immediate future, I wonder how many 'under-sixteens' will be taking advantage of the "Kids for a Quid" offer for the visit of Gillingham next Tuesday in the Carling Cup? More significantly, I wonder how many other clubs are making similar concessions to young fans who could easily become their loyal season ticket holders in the not too distant future...

Source: FOOTYMAD