The miraculous healing power of three, big Championship points was working to Glenn Roeder's benefit this morning as the City chief prepared for tonight's trip to Blackpool.
Suddenly – long-term injury victims Adam Drury and Matthew Gilks apart – the new Canary boss has virtually a fully-fit squad to select from.
No aches or pains; no bumps or knocks – everyone, it seems, wants to be part of a winning set-up on the back of Saturday's 2-0 win over Coventry City.
?It's amazing what a win can do,? said Roeder, who might be forgiven a wry smile.
?Those aches and pains – you suddenly don't feel any more. Psychology…?
All of which ensures that he has an abundance of playing riches going into this evening's game at Bloomfield Road – particularly given the fact that Darren Huckerby has now completed his three-match ban and is back in contention.
All in all, the place is ?buzzing? – to quote one or two players after Saturday's game. Again, that prompted a smile from Roeder.
?Players tend to leave school pretty early, don't they? And they don't start to do their English A-level….? said the Canary manager, not one to do buzzin'
He did, however, sense a feel-good factor creeping back into both the corridors of Colney and Carrow Road.
?I have genuinely felt that within a few days of being here, but what we didn't do at Plymouth was transfer that feeling around the place to a performance,? said Roeder, clearly not wishing to see any repeat of that 3-0 defeat at Home Park tonight.
?What they did on Saturday was transfer that good feeling I had last week and the previous week into a winning performance.
?And I'm 100 per cent certain that they can reproduce it.?
He isn't, he insists, counting too many chickens. Norwich have been down that road all too many times before. Back-to-back away trips to first Blackpool and then Stoke City this Saturday normally doesn't bode too well in the best of times, let alone the worst in recent memory.
?It's obviously the very early stages,? he said. ?We've just won one game. One game of football.
?But I'm glad that we're playing now on Tuesday – after winning and the good feeling that was running through the team, the squad, the staff, everybody, I think it's good that we're getting out there again on Tuesday. W've just got to replicate that again.?
Interestingly, Roeder insists it is not always about results – his post-match mood is far more dictated by performance, not result. Certain results can hide a multitude of sins. And he has grown to look beyond that – to see a game for what it truly was. Be that good, bad or indifferent.
?Sometimes people look at the scoreline alone,? said Roeder, citing the Watford game as an example.
?Lost 3-1 – must have played bad. I can't have that.
?If the team wins when they've played poorly – which will happen – I won't come in and say: 'Well done, chaps!',? said Roeder, that lage streak of simple honesty coming back to the fore.
?I can only work off a performance, a performance, a performance… So if we've won and we haven't played well it will be: 'Well done, but realise that wasn't a good performance…'
?That we need to do better here, there and everywhere. Equally you can play really well and lose the game. And I won't come and scream and shout at them just because we lost. My feelings are not dictated solely by the result.?
All of which provided further intriguing evidence as to which way Roeder's managerial mind works; how experience has taught him what does – and doesn't – earn a player's respect.
For players know when they – and their team-mates – have played well or not. So you respect that knowledge and don't pretend otherwise; don't say the king has got a fine set of clothes on when you – and everyone else in that dressing room – knows that he is naked and shivvering underneath.
?I've played for too many managers like that. And they were rubbish. Rubbish managers. And some of them were quite big names, but they would just be dictated by the result.
?You know if you've played well,? he added. ?And he comes in and starts to scream… Yeh, you're intelligent…
?And you can get it the other way round. So I have to deal with each performance whether it's a win, a draw or a loss – I don't focus so much on the result. I focus on the performance.?
So, Saturday's performance was good. Or rather better. But there was, said Roeder, plenty of room for improvement.
?There's a lot of improvement in the team and the squad from Saturday's game,? said the City boss, turning all the latest ProZone technology to his best advantage.
?There'll be lots of positive stuff to show them; lots of positive stuff. Both goals were good goals; very well-worked goals.
?No, Plymouth was the one performance that from start to finish that it was difficult to find anything positive to say.?
Cue wholesale changes to his team; cue three new loan faces; Dion Dublin's return from injury; tonight, Huckerby's return from suspension after those three, big points at the weekend.
The proof of all the above will come in the pudding – in the performance tonight. But there are the first signs that times are a-changing; that a small corner might, just, have been turned.
Might.
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