The season in review (part 2)

Norwich were locked in a 3 way death battle with two Yorkshire teams, Leeds and Sheffield United. And Leeds were the media and pundit's favourites, because: leedsleedsleeds.

Whichever one of the three would be on top, we all knew that at any point our team could suffer a loss of form, and never recover. So, none of us could relax, even if we were a point of three ahead at any point, well, until the last ball of the season was kicked.

November began with Norwich playing away at Sheffield Wednesday, a ground that had seen City fold several seasons in the past, so an impressive 4-0 away win, looking for all the world like potential champions, Pukki scored, we cheered.

But next week, well, words fail us.

A home game against already struggling Millwall should have been easy, but with the scores at 1-1 with ten minutes to go, nothing suggested this would be one of the great games the old ground witnessed. Norwich took the lead, then in three minutes, Millwall scored twice.

3-2 down and heading into injury time.

A ball through to Jordan Rhodes and a deft touch made it 3-3 after 92 minutes. Then with time almost up, a ball threaded through into the box, and Pukki or the defender beat the keeper, and the ball ended up in the net.

Chaos, a huge roar went up, and City ended the day top of the league.

Crazy day.

That was followed by another huge away win, a 4-1 triumph at Swansea, so City still were top.

That was followed by the last 0-0 draw in City's season, home against Hull.

And into December, whose seven games could make or break anyone's season, but coming after a huge November, a month in which City had not won in before 2018 for some years, and who knows what could happen?

Well, I was at Carrow Road on the 1st for the visit of Rotherham, and it could have been so different. Rotherham took an early lead, and struck the inside of a post soon after, had that gone on, well, City might not have come back.

As it was, they levelled soon, and in the 2nd half, scored two fine goals, using such vision from City's youth players, I have not seen such things on the hallowed turf before. I ended the day hugging the guy next to me, before meeting my friends in the city for an evening or beer, more beer and some added beers.

Still top.

Another late show followed, when Norwich played Bolton, cruised to a 2-0 lead, then relaxed to allow Bolton back in to 2-2, and ended in injury time again with Pukki pouncing on a lose ball to last into the back of the net.

Still top.

A 2-2 draw away at Bristol City followed, and then a 1-0 win at at Blackburn, but Leeds ended up being top at Christmas, and every team top at Christmas has gone onto be promoted. But then you can prove anything with facts.....

And then came Boxing Day, a 3-3 draw with Forest, after City were 3-0 with ten minutes to go. But then a single goal pulled back. And then another in the 94th from Rhodes, and finally, Hernandez slamming the equalizer in in the 98th minute.

Were you not entertained?

We were.

But the good run came to an end in the next game, the final match, a home one against Derby. City one down, but fought back to lead 2-1 when the floodlights went out. The match was suspended, but when the teams came out, Derby scored twice and for once, there was no barnstorming comeback.

That was the end of the year, 26 games down, twenty to go. And a huge month in which City were to play both Sheffield Utd and Leeds, and with the season in the balance, who knows what the new year would bring.

It would bring just one more defeat, but we didn't know that at the time, otherwise we could have really enjoyed the game.