The Canaries could yet slam straight into that famous 'new manager bounce' as they prepare for another crucial home clash against Nottingham Forest tomorrow.
On the back of slumping to yet another away-day defeat – this time to Crystal Palace and an all-too predictable 3-1 reverse at Selhurst Park – City know that a good win against their fellow strugglers is imperative if they are to keep that four-point cushion intact.
However, last night's dismissal of Forest boss Calderwood has altered the landscape again with the City Ground side reported to be desperate to appoint a new man before the trip to Norfolk – ex-Preston North End and Derby County boss Billy Davies being the No1 target.
He was, reportedly, first approached over a month ago as Calderwood's grip on both a place in the Championhsip and his own position started to slip.
Yesterday's 4-2 home defeat by fellow strugglers Doncaster Rovers was the final straw for the Forest board.
“We are grateful to Colin for leading us to promotion from League One,” said the club's chief executive Mark Arthur. “But we are in a results business and it is imperative that the club stays in the Championship. We need to give ourselves an opportunity to do that.”
Ex-Canary star Robert Earnshaw is likely to be firmly in the mix again tomorrow – whoever the new man at the helm might be. Having missed the home clash with his former employers through injury, the Welsh international hitman is back in the running again now and could be found offering no excuses for Forest's efforts against Rovers – in particular, finding themselves four goals adrift at the interval.
“We can have no excuses,” said Earnshaw, curiously held responsible for inflicting a bloody toe on Ryan Bertrand in that Forest game by Canary boss Glenn Roeder – despite not even making it to the bench.
“We have to pick ourselves up and we have a game with Norwich tomorrow and we have to learn from this,” Earnshaw told the Nottingham Evening Post before news of Calderwood's dismissal broke.
“It was awful and we are not happy,” he added. “The game plan was for us to close them down, not give them time on the ball. But we gave them time. It does not matter where they are in the league, they are good players and play good, passing football.
“We did a bit better in the second half but everything was wrong in the first half. We have got to be better than that.”
Starting at Carrow Road tomorrow.
“We have a couple of knocks and we have to see what kind of team we can put out but it is good to have that game,” Earnshaw revealed.
“We have to put on a good performance because of what happened in this match. The only consolation is other teams around us have lost but we have to put on a performance and we have no excuses.
“It was a bad day at the office and a poor performance and we lost the game plan. But we have to keep going. You cannot crumble.”
Roeder, unaware of the drama that was about to unfold at the City Ground later that evening, wasn't viewing the Forest clash in any special light; they – like Norwich – were just one of the pack. Nothing more.
“I think that there are maybe a dozen clubs that should be aware of that situation [the possibility of relegation],” said Roeder, still fuming at the mannerof those two, first-half Eagles goals.
“We feel very confident that we will, over the course of the second-half of the season, pull ourselves away from that and it would have been nice to have got a point or three today which would have been fully deserved.”
Tomorrow's game is likely to prove the last in a City shirt for Leroy Lita as he prepares to return to Reading – his professional career firmly at a crossroads following the end of his three-month loan spell with the Canaries.
“I'm not going to talk about a Reading player at the moment,” said Roeder, refusing to accept that Lita's time in a City shirt was over.
“To say: 'How are we going to replace him?', well, he hasn't exactly gone yet.
“Officially he has got one more game and we'll see what happens thereafter,” added the Canary boss, fresh from having watched Lita spoon the easiest of chances against an upright shortly before the interval. That would have made the scores 2-2; at which point all things might have still been possible…
“He's told me for the past month [what he wants to do] – most days,” said Roeder, quizzed further as to whether Lita himself had made his intentions plain.
“That's between me and Leroy. But some things have to stay private at the moment. And I don't particularly like talking about other people's players anyway.
“He's a Reading player, but I am absolutely certain what Leroy wants to do. If possible – if it's achievable. And I think anyone would like to keep him.”
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