If anyone wanted further evidence that Barnsley might be the ones with a death whiff hanging over them, then events at Oakwell on Monday might be another straw to cling to.
For as the Canary faithful were once again confirming that they were wholly indifferent to the fact that Bryan Gunn had no hair as that 2-0 win over Watford saw City scramble out of the bottom three on goal difference, up in South Yorkshire the mood among the natives was rather different.
For Barnsley's 3-1 home defeat by Swansea was accompanied by a bitter chorus of 'We want Davey out! We want Davey out!'
And if to confirm te fact that all is not well in the Reds camp, the under-fire Davey no-showed for the Press conference afterwards – despatching his No2 Ryan Kidd in to face the music instead.
Even the club's official site carried no quotes from a home player or manager – just those of a delighted Swans boss Roberto Martinez.
None of which bodes well. Not when your last four games include a trip to play-off hunting Reading this weekend and just one, final home game – at home to title-chasing Wolves.
Barnsley's 'extra' game is away at Coventry next week. And while the Sky Blues may have already packed their bags for the beach, right now there is little evidence of Davey and Co being in the mood for a fight. Particularly if the Royals follow the form book on Saturday and pile on the pressure again.
“Losing 3-1 on your home patch at any time during the season isn't great, but to lose when we needed a win is hugely disappointing,” admitted Kidd afterwards, as he spoke to the Sheffield Star.
It was, he said, “massively damaging”.
The fact that a ten-man Forest were prising a potentially priceless point outof near-neighbours Sheffield United as the Canaries were doing all that was required against Watford was irrelevant, said Kidd.
“We don't really worry too much about other people's results, we've got to take care of our own business and we've got four massive games to come,” he said, claming that just another six points would see them home.
“I think to we need to win at least two of them to be safe, so there's a lot of hard work left to be done.”
Whilst what others are doing might be irrelevant for as long as survival is in your own hands, the spirit in the camp has to be right. This stage of the season is all about momentum; Norwich's stalled on the back of that 1-0 home reverse against Sheffield Wednesday – then compounded by the away defeat at The Liberty.
Now, they're up and running again; ditto Forest, who in fairness have pulled out two, huge results of late – the last-gasp 3-2 win over Bristol City followed by that 0-0 draw at in-form Sheffield United. And all with ten men for 75 minutes after Kelvin Wilson managed to end his season early with a head-butt – a three-match ban now follows.
That and a big, fat fine from a furious Billy Davies, who is also likely to be without ex-Canary striker Robert Earnshaw (knee) and keeper Iain Turner (toe) for the remainder of the campaign.
Nevertheless, Davies sees spirit a-plenty in his dressing room as they prepare to play host to Coventry City this weekend. That, you suspect, ought to be a home win – enough to drop Norwich a place nearer the drop ahead of that East Anglian derby clash on Sunday.
“I believe it was a sign of the continued improvement that we are seeing in this young side and the maturity with which they are starting to perform,” said Davies, as he looked back on that big result from Bramall Lane.
“We are going to need that in the final three matches but, as I keep saying to the players, it is business as usual. We have to approach the final three games in the same way as we have approached all the others, we have a job to do and we will be prepared for it.
“But we are playing with a battling spirit and excellent work rate and that can only be good.”
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