Four wins out of the last five; the threat of relegation over… time to put the feet up and enjoy a decent Christmas, isn't it?
“No chance – not while myself, Lee and Glenn are in charge,” said new Canary coach Paul Stephenson this afternoon.
“All we've done with those four wins is to give ourselves a really great opportunity to get away from the relegation zone. Apart form that we haven't done anything yet.”
In fairness, that's not completely true. Someone, somewhere must have done something somewhere given the transformation in Norwich's performances over the last six weeks.
From down and utterly out against Plymouth, Norwich have now proved that they can more than hold their own against the Championship's genuine play-off contenders – Sheffield United on Saturday principal among them.
And whilst, in part, people can point at new personnel – be it the likes of Martin Taylor or Matty Pattison – there has to be something else at work; something new and fresh going on at Colney to inspire such a turnaround in the club's playing fortunes.
Stephenson can readily identify one improvement he sees on a day-to-day basis.
“They're talking a lot more; there's better communication between them. And I think you can see that in training and in the way that we've been defending in recent games – the spirit has really been lifted.”
Certainly look back now at the second 45 minutes of the Blades game and there were bodies being thrown onto every line. They were, in short, unrecognisable from the unmitigated shambles of Home Park.
Little wonder that the former Hartlepool coach is having the time of his coaching life among the Geordie management nation of manager Glenn Roeder and his No2 Lee Clark.
“Have I got one highlight from the games so far? No – the whole thing has been a highlight,” said Stephenson, who wasn't at Carrow Road for at least two weeks before his switch from Victoria Park finally went through. Not at all.
It wasn't him putting out the cones and bibs at the Britannia Ground, Stoke.
“Even the game that they lost at Stoke, I thought they played ever so well – it was just the manner in which they conceded the goals that was disappointing. And that was a lack of concentration more than anything else.
“But, saying that, there was still lots for the boys to be proud of.”
Did the final whistle on Saturday come clase to the feelings you get as a player?
“No. I always say this is the second best job in the world – and I think we'd all adhere to that. Even now I love still being out there serving balls; clipping balls in; testing myself. Nothing beats playing.”
Playing, in Stephenson's case, twice nearly came to an abrupt end.
Roeder revealed the first occasion when, as a 17-year-old fresh into the first team, a meaningless, end-of-season reserve game found Paul Gascoigne's England Under-17 pal picking up a serious ankle injury. One that, Roeder suggested, ended any hope of Stephenson following Gascoigne on the road to serious fame and fortune.
Stephenson added a second occasion what the fates did him no favours – a double depressed fracture of the skull while playing for Brentford.
“I was 28, 29 at the time and they said then that I'd probably never play again,” said the Canary coach, thoughts that had already crossed his mind as a teenager with that serious ankle injury.
In the event he was still pulling strings in the middle of that Hartlepool midfield at the age of 35 before he gradually channelled his interest and enthusiasm into the next generation of talented North-East youngsters.
“I've never looked back with regret,” said Stephenson, not one for what-might-have-beens. “In whatever aspect of my life it is, I always look forward.
“So back then it was just a case of having to adapt my game. Before I was always very quick off the mark; very quick in those first five, six yards.
“Afterwards, I became a decent dribbler – and that's what I'd look to do.”
In the Tyneside of the mid-80s, inspiration wasn't too hard to find.
“Chrissy Waddle was in the first team when I was a first and second-year apprentice – he was a great talent.
“But my boyhood idol was Kevin Keegan. He was fantastic – he was such a professional. And his ball retention was brilliant.”
And then there was Gazza.
“It's not quite the same set-up then as it is today – we probably only really played together from the age of 12 or 13. And then mainly in the holidays,” said Stephenson.
“Plus he was nine months older than me and a year up. But from the age of I'd say 14 we played a lot together and he was just fantastic.”
But did you ever get the ball off him, as Gascoigne's quick feet and quicker mind left everyone else bedazzled?
“Paul never passed the ball to you, he lent it to you – so whenever he did give it to you, he immediately expected you to give it back to him.
“So I just used to blank him – and as long as I went on to make a goal or whatever, then I'd get away with it!”
It is a rich, teenage experience coupled to 20-years of hard graft in the less glamorous reaches of the English professional game that is now being brought to bear on the playing fields of Colney.
“Just because I'm now coaching Dion Dublin and Darren Huckerby, I've not changed the way that I coach at all – I'm just the same as I was with my boys at Hartlepool,” said Stephenson.
Knowing when it's time to play and when it's time to work would appear the key to surviving and thriving under the Stephenson-Clark-Roeder axis.
“The lads are learning that quickly – when it's time to concentrate, to work on things that are important and when the time's right for enjoyment.
“So they're showing good spirit and things ae going well. Really well.”
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