Picture the scene on Tuesday night if you will, in a 'before' and 'after' kind of way ? you know, the type that you see in TV sitcoms and the like.
Half-time, and the Canaries file into the home team dressing room five goals to the good and after delivering a 30-minute spell of football that has probably never been surpassed in terms of the number count here at Carrow Road.
And City boss Peter Grant literally has nothing to say to them except something like, “Absolutely outstanding boys, just keep it going….”
He, like everyone else, has probably never experienced anything like this before. It's a fantastic feeling.
Now the television screen goes blank for a few seconds, and the caption “Forty-five minutes later…” fades into view.
And then we see that the players are sat about starring at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with their manager who is giving his best impression of England manager Mike Bassett and absolutely doing his nut.
It's surreal, because City have done the job required of them and placed themselves in the draw for the next round by a scoreline of five goals to two, yet there has clearly been problems.
I suppose you had to be at the game against Barnet on Tuesday night to fully appreciate it all really, because anyone seeing the scoreline would surely wonder what the hell all the fuss was about.
Only with the Canaries.
Now then, whilst acknowledging that the manner of City's second-half performance did indeed smack of more than a touch of lethargy and it hopefully being something that won't be repeated too often, to allow it to overshadow the product delivered in the opening period would be completely crass.
Because let's face it, what was it that everyone was crying out for up at Deepdale three days earlier?
'Give us goals, give us a few shots at goal, and give us anything in terms of an attacking intent rather than purely settling for a solid defensive display..!', we screamed.
OK, so this was against League Two opposition, but boy did the Canaries not deliver everything that we could have wished for – and more?
So rather than adopting the pessimistic view and focusing on what wasn't up to scratch in midweek, keep that scintillating burst of football in the first-half fresh in the mind and let's hope for more of the same tomorrow.
After losing out in the play-off semi-finals to eventual winners Derby last term, visitors Southampton have got off to the worst possible start this season by losing their opening two matches.
Now without the services of some of his best players who were reportedly sold off for financial reasons in the summer, Saints boss George Burley clearly has his work cut out to try to match last season's exploits, and last Saturday's opening day 4-1 home defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace will have hit home just how tough they might find it this year.
And things hardly improved at Peterborough on Monday either, when they were dumped out of the Carling Cup by the League One outfit in a 2-1 reverse.
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