Three weeks into the season and this game is one you wouldn't want to lose

I doubt if the importance of tomorrow's clash against Cardiff will have escaped the attention of Peter Grant and his side.

After all, with the Canaries now set for a two-week break from action as a result of the international fixtures, the outcome of tomorrow's game will, in all probability, have a huge bearing on how the rest of the season takes shape.

Should City finally get their act together and take all three points from Dave Jones' men, they would then be in a position to view their start to this 2007-08 campaign as being satisfactory enough – even if their performances had been generally unconvincing at times.

City would have accumulated seven points from their opening four league games, be sitting in the top half of the table and morale inside the camp would undoubtedly be high as they prepared for the visit of Crystal Palace to Carrow Road in a fortnight's time.

Should things transpire tomorrow in the manner they have in the majority of City's matches so far this season though, whereby the Canaries have continued to lack composure or creativity in possession and appeared to be waiting for the balance of play to swing in their direction without actually stamping their authority on it in order for it to actually do so, you can be sure that it would be a completely different subsequent two weeks that ensued than that of the ideal scenario described above.

Defeat, or even a draw, would mean City having taken just four or five points from their opening four matches, be more than likely sitting in the bottom half of the table and therefore left to stew in their own misfortune for the next two weeks.

And no guessing what that might lead to…

So, yes, it's a pretty big game tomorrow by anyone's standards.

To their credit, after their worst 45 minutes of the season so far at Rochdale in midweek, it was a different Canaries that emerged from the tunnel for the start of the second half ?although it has to be said that Norwich were very fortunate that the contest actually went to penalty kicks considering the gilt-edged chances that the League Two outfit squandered in the dying moments of the game.

But it wouldn't take a genius to figure that the City boss just might have been less than complimentary to his players with his half-time team talk, seeing as he sent them back out onto the pitch a full four minutes before their opponents arrived, and no doubt with the instructions along the line of finally showing some bottle still ringing in their ears.

Which from the moment Dion Dublin equalised not long after the restart, thankfully they did.

But he, along with the rest of us, will be desperately hoping that sooner or later it doesn't take a half-time verbal blast or goal being conceded ?or even scored for that matter (Southampton at home) – to shake the Canaries into action.

There is the possibility of City lining up tomorrow against what not so long ago were undoubtedly two of the best goalscorers in the Premiership.

Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink need no introductions, and although they both might be in the twighlight of their careers, as Dion Dublin has demonstrated only too well in recent games, quality and technique will always remain even when the capacity of the legs and lungs might start to fade.

If they both start tomorrow, make no mistake City will have to be on their toes.

We saw at Rochdale in midweek the amount of trouble that two League Two strikers caused the Canary rearguard, so it's not hard to imagine what two of the best finishers the game has ever seen could do if given the opportunity.