Charlton match has just finished...

[Canary02 III 0]

and a fairy godmother comes down and says that she will wave her wand and give us 4 points from the next two matches, have Wes score twice and look even better than the player we thought we were getting from Blackpool, have the team playing expansive attacking football, scoring six in two games without any new players, but with Darren Purse in negotiations over a permanent transfer and be rid of Roeder to be replaced by a management team of Gunn, Crook and Deehan with Butterworth likely to join them soon also.

Would anyone tell the fairy godmother to disappear? Thought not.

Last night was disappointing but if anyone expected a cakewalk to the play-offs then this is perhaps a welcome reality check. We may be better than the table suggests, but we''re also where we are for a reason. The frailty of confidence doesn''t disappear overnight. But equally leading 2-0 only to allow the opposition to return is a habit that a lot of sides, good and bad have, and Norwich seemingly more than most. Would one have our better sides from the past have thrown away a 2 goal home lead at half-time? They have done it before and will do it again. A flukey own goal or deflection as happened last night gives the opposition the ability to get back into the game and earn a point they didn''t deserve. The biggest disappointment was that we allowed a team as poor as Southampton to come back at us, but then we are exceedingly fragile right now.

The extremists and panic jihadists appear to be screaming that anything less than 9 points from Barnsley, Southampton and Doncaster would have us relegated for sure as the fixture list indicates we won''t pick up any points after these three games. Personally I believe that if we can pick up our form from the first half of last night and apply it over a sixty minute period we will win at least 90% of the games we play in, regardless of the opposition or venue. The team last night would have been a match for most Premiership sides in the first half. So to suggest that we can''t pick up points at home to the Mighty Bristol City, or even away at wobbling Wolves is ridiculous.

Yes there are frailties, but that''s inevitable with any team that has been as bad as we have for four seasons uninterrupted, and with a squad so thinly spread and packed with young loanees. Southampton may have come away celebrating a point won whereas we mourned two points lost, but I know which club stands a better chance of getting points in the weeks to come, and which will finish higher in the table.

Last night proved that we arn''t riding the crest of a ridiculous, optimism-based wave that will sweep all before us. Neither however does it mean that we''re all doomed for all eternity. We certainly displayed our ability to look nervous and back off the opposition when there was really no need which was a setback. We also however, look like a team capable of creating chances and dominating the opposition with instinctive attacking football.

Given where we were after Charlton, this is real progress, and one disappointment shouldn''t mask the fact that last night demonstrated genuine potential and the possibility of some light at the end of the tunnel which was never there under Roeder. I''m excited by the future for the first time since we signed Huckerby, and despite the result, we saw some football worthy of the name Norwich City last night. Keep it coming Gunny.

[Robert N. LiM 6,282]

I''d agree with most of that except the sentiment that we would have been a match for most Premiership sides in the first half. We kept the ball okay in the first thirty minutes against an awful Southampton team, before playing extremely well in the last 15 mins before half-time, in which Cureton could/should have scored twice in addition to the two goals we did score.

We are still deep in the mire and Friday''s game looks much more difficult now than it would have done had we won last night. But I think people tend to forget that there are lots of clubs who are struggling just as much, or even more than us at the moment: Derby, Southampton and Charlton, despite last night''s results.

So while I think your excitement for the future is overstated, nor do I think we''ll go down.

[if I promise to behave 0]

I too agree with much of what you say. Southampton looked dreadful in the first half, but reorganised, rallied and caught us on the hop. We need to take into account that, for some reason, they have one of the best away forms in the Championship; one point fewer than Reading, whom I seem to remember they beat at the Madjeski.

I have seen two halves of football in the last two games which matches anything I have seen for years at Carrow Road. And that is before the new coaching team have been able to get to work. I too am optimistic that we will survive.