You would be hard pressed to find a person who was happier about the win on Saturday than I was. My two favorite players linked up for the first goal, and the continued revitalisation of Lewis Grabban killed the game off. Our defense stopped one of the best strike forces in the division from scoring and even the atmosphere looked better than usual. But, in reality, that performance only put us into the playoff places with fifteen matches remaining. The job is not done yet; it’s not even close to done. But how we perform at Vicarage Road next week could help. The next step after a big win is keeping your emotions in check and moving on; will the Canaries do that on Saturday?
Take Leicester for example: a side that absolutely obliterated the Championship last season with 102 points. The absolute nightmare occurred in November when they lost at home to local rivals Nottingham Forest. Instead of moaning about it, they picked up the slack, won two in a row, and went top of the table. After beating promotion rivals Derby, they reeled in their excitement and kept their eyes squarely on the prize by winning four in a row after that. It’s pretty easy to see why the Foxes were champions. They responded to both the good and the bad and let their talent speak for itself on the pitch, which is exactly what I want to see from the Canaries.
Right now we are on a three game winning streak, which has previously only happened once this season. That was back in August against Watford, Blackburn, and Ipswich in fact. After the derby day triumph, we had a home game and then an international break. The perfect way to make sure you do not get too high and caught up in all the praise from the media is a two week break to reset things. In hindsight, I wish that international break had never happened; it would have given us a chance to see how us as a team responded to all that praise and success. This is even truer when you have young players that have not experienced a lot of success.
But this time there is no protection. After the three game winning streak we have two tough away games in four days, followed by an East Anglian Derby. Our youngsters have to take the challenge of handling success head on. There is no hiding from it this time. It is something that every footballer has to learn, and we can only hope Alex Neil instills that into his players. There is a fine line between confidence and cockiness, and we have to make sure we don’t cross that line. Russell Martin played every single minute of our 2010-11 promotion campaign, and knows what it takes to handle winning and losing. I expect him to be massive both on and off the pitch in keeping us on the right side of that line.
Some teams win a few and can’t get in their heads that there is still work to do. Others lose a few and never recover. But if you can get the right mix of veterans and youth, a strong manager, and sometimes a bit of luck you can avoid both of these and the rewards are massive. It’s up to Alex Neil and the boys in yellow to prove that we can get that reward, and I have complete faith they can.
