Mick Dennis

There were more misleading stats from the game. One set said Everton had enjoyed 67 per cent of the possession: an extraordinary figure for a visiting team. Opta, the company used by the Press Association and the BBC, later declared Everton’s possession to have been only 56 per cent – still good but not so substantially better than Norwich to raise alarms.

I can’t think of him without remembering the demolition derbies. In the first, at our place, Holty’s hat-trick epitomised his attacking qualities: never giving defenders time to think or room to move, always ready to indulge in low-level illegality to better an opponent, always alert to an opportunity, always striking the ball like someone who knows he can score rather than someone who hopes he might.

How could Chelsea fans stomp out on their kids? How could they become so sated by success, so flush with a sense of entitlement that they wouldn’t stay to the finish and applaud teenagers? It will never be like that at Norwich. We remember what failure feels like, so when success comes, boy, it feels so good. But we can’t take it for granted.

If Sunderland had won, Norwich would now be 15th, with confidence crushed. As it is, it is Sunderland who are 15th, four points above the drop zone and with belief of supporters and probably players deflated. As I have said on this site, Norwich will always have to chisel out every point in the Premier League and must treat every point won away from Carrow Road as a triumph.

I think of games under Glenn Roeder when Darel Russell was pressed into service as a striker. I shudder at the recollection of the string of genuine(ish) forwards upon who we invested our hopes: men like Elvis Hammond, Chris Brown and Paul Dalglish. I think of players in other positions – Julien Brellier, Steve Walsh and Simon Whaley among them – who stretched my determined optimism to breaking point.

Here is a truth which some will find unpalatable: as long as we live, Norwich will always have to scrap for every Premier League point. And any point earned away from home will be a good one…

I’VE had two spats with Norwich fans at recent matches. My wife tried to stop me, but sometimes I am so angered by some of the glass-half-empty contingent that I cannot bite my tongue. Both rows centred on Steve Morison. At West Brom, a guy behind me made a highly disparaging comment about Morison as […]

Looking back now, there are some lessons ahead of City’s reunion with Lambert. We certainly need to remember how we got him before we allow ourselves to be consumed with angst about how we lost him. And we need to realise that, once he moves on, there is no sentiment in his soul…

Instead, as the magnificent travelling fans yelled themselves hoarse and the players dug in for the draw which was the very least their endeavour and enterprise deserved, there was an almost palpable sense of: “We’ll be all right!”

He contrived to guide Birmingham into the play-offs, but you can see why Norwich – stable, Premier League, well-run Norwich – present Hughton with an opportunity. It will be a change to work somewhere sane. The calm man, who has shown time and time again that he can steady a rocking ship, has arrived at a safe harbour…

I could blather on about “sources” or bury you in coded cliches, but instead I assert baldy that I know for an absolute fact that Lambert understood and accepted the need for Norwich to keep the spending brakes on for two more seasons….

Of course people who pay to watch Norwich have a right to boo. Even keyboard warriors who stay at home have a right to boo. But the real question is why would you want to? Why would you look for negatives at Norwich City now? It is like winning the Lottery and moaning that it wasn’t the Euro Millions…

I always rage at the moaners and the snipers who, even this season, can find something to make themselves miserable before they phone Radio Norfolk or log-in to message boards. Yet Lambert was less able to deal with the [Manchester United] defeat than any of them. You’ve got to love the guy.

The changed football landscape meant that clubs like Norwich could never again compete at the very top of the English game on equal terms. But, there are no other clubs exactly like Norwich, with fans who stay so loyal and so passionate in the third tier. Certainly there are no managers quite like Paul Lambert…

“People say staying up is success, and I can understand that and agree but I don’t want the players to think that is enough. I want to drive them on. Sir Alex Ferguson must have a bad back, from lifting trophies but he still wants more. So I want to be at that sharp end, where you can win things.”

Those who warned that he would need men with Premier League experience in the top division should think about the Sunderland defence who were so bemused and confused as Norwich City constructed that Barcelona-esque second goal against them…

I don’t expect anyone – not one person – to agree with this column, but if I only write populist stuff on this site, I’d there would be no point in contributing. You can get your fill of one-eyed jingoism on message boards….

De Laet will be one of the Premier League’s top performers this season. I saw enough of him in pre-season to be certain of that. He is a pro-active defender, blisteringly quick, intelligent and with a healthy hatred of ceding an inch.

“It will be extremely tough, we know that, and I’m not going to make a rash prediction but we are going to enjoy it and if we can stay in the league it will be incredible…” Lambert tells FourFourTwo Magazine.