NCFC 25/26 • Southampton (H)

After our first home win of the season against QPR two weeks ago, the defeat to Watford and draw to Sheffield United put a slight dampener on hopes of suddenly pissing the league, but the performances have all been better and there's been hope of a result with every game.

I had to get up "early" to make the 12:30 kick-off today, but it was worth it.

The visiting team had a free kick hit the post and another shot curl just wide while we were firing shots into the top tier of the River End. Darling gave a way a penalty which for some reason McConville got booked for, but Big Mad Vlad punched it wide to roars from the crowd.

On the subject of the ref, he was abysmal. Not only did he book the wrong player but he was giving Southampton a free kick for every challenge we made, while turning a blind eye whenever they bodied someone. Along with the usual "you're not fit to referee" and "you don't know what you're doing", there was a very loud ironic cheer when we finally had a decision go our way.

A few minutes into the second half, Wright put a lovely ball into the box for Makama to slot home. Who knew that having Wright on the pitch would make us better? He's been brought in from exile and has looked great. Are you watching Liam Manning?

On the subject of Manning, Ryan Manning equalised 10 minutes later with a shot from distance, which Vlad probably could have done better with, but otherwise was a decent goal to be fair.

Now under Manning the players would switch off at this point, but this is Norwich under the Big Bald Belgian Bloke, and we don't do that any more. We kept pushing forward and Makama got his second. From the replays you can see it was a handball, but did anyone care?

Sometimes you need a bit of luck like that, and after the ref had been in their pocket the entire game and they'd been taking 30 seconds to take every fucking throw-in, we deserved a bit of good fortune.

We had a bit of a break for a third with Forson through on goal from the half way line, but he was a little too slow and the opportunity went away.

Things felt a little cagey towards the end but we saw the game out for another 3 points at home.

It was another solid, improved performance. Wright and Fisher were excellent, and both treated us to a nice outside of the boot pass each (I'm a sucker for an outside of the boot pass or shot, me). Mattsson was excellent. Makama was excellent. Kovačević was excellent.

This team isn't getting relegated playing like this. It begs the question what the fuck Liam Manning was doing with them. If we'd had Clement the whole season we could have been pushing top 6. There's still a long way to go but we're now only 3 points from safety with some very winnable games coming up over the Christmas period.