As starts to a new campaign go, City had pleasingly emerged unscathed from their opening two matches.
A resolute first point on the opening day at Preston followed by another three at home to Southampton last Saturday would have satisfied even the most cautious of Canary fans, even though it was plain to see that there was still plenty of room for improvement insofar as both of those 90 minutes performances were concerned.
On Saturday however the old familiar feelings resurfaced of it possibly being another long, hard season ahead.
First things first, and it has to be said that this current City side under Peter Grant is unquestionably more robust than has been the case in recent years. And you get the feeling that there won't be too many occasions this season when defeat can be directly attributed to the Canaries basically having been bullied or over-powered.
But as for whether or not they can make the leap from being the team that scratched around in the bottom half of the table for the majority of last season to one that can make a genuine push for the play-offs this term is a very big question indeed.
Unfortunately though, 'not on this showing' would have to be the answer that accompanies that particular question after Saturday's defeat at Hull I'm afraid, as despite the Canaries' performance delivering more of the same encouraging signs from certain aspects of their play that were evident in the other two games, the recurring problems from previous seasons of City lacking the necessary bite away from home and conviction to actually get the job appears to remain.
Against an opposition in the mould of Hull, a desire to match aggression with aggression is a basic requirement, and in this department the Canaries came through with flying colours: Insomuch as earning the right to play, City do seem to be able to tick all the boxes.
They did precisely that on Saturday?
But unfortunately they then struggled take the next step to be able to impose themselves on their opponents for any significant length of time.
It's a similar to the manner in which certain sides are able to take the bull by the horns from the start of a game when they're away from home and not just solely when they're on their own patch: Again, 'not yet' in this department in the case of the Canaries.
As for the game itself, Hull boss Phil Brown might point to the combined efforts of all his players that earned them all three points, but basically it was Dean Windass who the main difference between the sides on Saturday.
He delivered an almost flawless performance of clever forward play, combining an ability to drop off his marker to link attacking moves with knowing precisely when is the right time to release the ball to his team-mates.
He scored one, made the other and was generally just too good for the Canaries on the day ? simple as that.
It's certainly not all doom and gloom though for the Canaries, especially when you can point to the midfield industry of Darel Russell, the frightening pace and ambition to drive forward of Jon Otsemobor, the goal potential of Jamie Cureton and, of course, the ? hopefully ? imminent return to the fold of Darren Huckerby.
But, and it's a big but, as things stand at present, it seems that there's still a helluva' long way to go before we'll be turning up at games ? especially away from home – confident of the Canaries churning out another generally all-round impressive display.
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