On-loan Baggies defender Leon Barnett certainly lacks little by the way of timing.
If there was ever a moment to bag your first goal in a Canary shirt since that summer loan switch from The Hawthorns, then the moment that David Fox’s 65th minute corner swung into the Leeds penalty area on Saturday was probably it.
Simon Grayson and company might busily complain that Chrissy Martin was impeding Kasper Schmeichel as the ball hung oh-so invitingly in the air, but there was very little wrong with the way that Barnett rose to meet the ball and thump an unstoppable header into the far corner.
It was, after all, something that he had been threatening to do for much of this autumn.
As his team-mates had gently been reminding him.
“Some of the boys have been telling me it was about time I scored and I’m glad I did,” laughed the 24-year-old afterwards.
Barnett celebrates his 25th birthday next week; the bottle of bubbly that came with the day’s Man of the Match award is equally well-timed.
Alas, his strike did not set the Canaries on their way to picking up all three points; in the end they had to settle for a fourth, successive draw – and the knowledge that they are fast making that eighth spot their own.
“The only frustrating thing is that we didn’t win the game,” said Barnett, well aware that City have developed a nasty habit of conceding one early – even if it invariably prompts a hugely spirited and entertaining response.
“It always seems that we are going a goal down before we get started and I can’t explain that.
“If we could get that first goal when they attack us to try to get back into it we could hit them on the break, but it never seems to work out like that. We’re a bit frustrated as a team by that.”
He was, it appears, well aware of Leeds’ upset at the leveller. These days it is all a bit of push and shove in the heart of that congested penalty area.
Besides, justice might have been done – both on the day and overall after the antics of Reading referee Michael Oliver the week before.
“I don’t know why they are complaining about my goal,” said Barnett, who complemented his attacking triumph with another sure and swift-footed outing at centre-half.
“I was concentrating on looking at the ball and getting a good connection with my head,” he added.
“I never saw anything else. I’ve got no complaints. It was a well-earned draw.”
Whether Barnett’s blossoming partnership with Elliott Ward will continue into the New Year is something for the two clubs to resolve.
For now, events are pretty much out of his hands – even if City chief Paul Lambert suggested that tentative talks with the Baggies had already commenced re Barnett’s longer-term availability.
The player himself was making all the right noises after keeping that record-breaking Carrow Road crowd more than happy.
“My own situation isn’t going to be resolved until January at the earliest. But it’s nice to be loved and have someone interested enough in me to want to sign me.
“I don’t really know what’s going to happen but it a great feeling to be wanted.
“This is a massive club going in the right direction and I would be stupid not to be interested in signing for them. There are a lot of players out there who would love the chance to sign for Norwich.
“I’m happy with the way things are going, but I think we need to put away more of our chances.”
What it takes to turn such second-half performances into first-half efforts of similar endeavour and end product is, he admitted, a subject for all-too regular discussion.
“We’ve had the same chat several times before and the Gaffer is not very pleased that he keeps having to say the same things.
“It’s not pleasant what he says but obviously it’s making us work because we keep coming back after we have gone a goal down.”
Does Lambert reach for the ‘hair-dryer’?
“It’s not just at one player but to the whole team,” said Barnett. “We just take it on board and try to react to it by stepping up our game.”
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