Most City fans didn't really know whether to laugh or cry after last Saturday's goalless draw with Leicester.
After one of their most lacklustre displays of the season against Bury in the FA Cup four days earlier, they had just seen the Canaries deliver an almost faultless 90 minutes of football encompassing every positive aspect of the game there is?except one, of course!
Even City boss Glenn Roeder couldn't completely hide his disappointment and concern at his side's increasing failure to convert a considerably higher percentage of the goal-scoring chances they have been creating lately, and any despondency in his voice was forced to take a back seat to the overriding pleasure that he had just experienced in witnessing Norwich completely overpower Ian Holloway's team from the first minute to the last.
Everything seemed to flow so fluently for City last weekend, and for arguably the first time this season the Canaries were able to maintain an impressively high tempo to their play for the duration of the game without any fluctuation in the levels of quality of their football.
Of course, everyone is only too aware that there will come a time when City will have to start scoring goals.
It might be that Roeder may have to have a rethink in terms of his philosophies, ranging from the manner in which he wants the Canaries to play, right through to the actual composition of the team itself in order for the goals tally to improve.
Then again, and aside from what would appear to be an obvious solution to the problem ? that of adding a new striker or two to the squad ? it would surely challenge even the most pessimistic of supporters to not believe that goals will inevitably soon start to flow if the type of performance evident against the Foxes can continue to be produced every week?
And that's certainly the principal thought that should be accompanying the travelling City fans as well as the team themselves to St.Mary's tonight, because that previous display against Leicester was bang on the money.
This evening's clash with managerless Southampton could have been the second trip to St Mary's within the space of four days for the Canaries, but instead of battling out a fourth round tie in the FA Cup on Saturday the Canaries were left to twiddle their thumbs while Bury enjoyed the occasion instead.
As it transpired, Southampton took care of business quite comfortably against their League Two opponents and that was obviously something that Norwich failed to do despite being given two bites of the cherry.
But City can take heart from the fact that Southampton have only won one of their last seven league games now and have struggled to reach the standards that they would have been hoping for at the start of the campaign.
However, it is difficult to predict what might lie in store for the Canaries tonight if you consider that their particularly impressive performances have often been interspersed with examples of precisely the opposite in recent weeks.
Think of the notable performances against Crystal Palace away, Barnsley away and Leicester at home, and then the contrasting efforts in the displays against Wolves and each of those against Bury, and you'll understand what I mean.
So who knows, it could be all smiles on the long journey back to Norfolk tomorrow night or it could just as easily be another case of wishing that we'd never left in the first place?
We'll probably have a fair idea of which of the two it might be after five or ten minutes have been played at St.Mary's tomorrow, because then we'll also have a fair idea of what sort of mood the Canaries are actually in.
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