Up The Bracket

Norwich City 1-7 Colchester United

You really could not make this stuff up.

2.59pm: 25,000 Norwich City supporters are up on their feet, waving flags given out for free by the club sponsors and generally creating a very good atmosphere. The pain of relegation from The Championship had finally subsided. Three months of thoughtful new signings, changes at boardroom level and very careful PR by the club seemed to have done the trick. The supporters were back on side, every seat in the ground was sold and there really was a feeling that today marked the start of a new era in the life of Norwich City Football Club.

3.23pm: Good will gone. It's already 4-0 to Colchester and two fans are being led away having run half the length of the field along the touchline. One stopping to throw is barely-used season ticket in the direction of Bryan Gunn. By half-time it is 5-0 and angry disbelief hangs in the air.

It ends up not just being embarrassing, humiliating or ignominious but Norwich City's biggest ever home defeat.

Two facts underline this: Firstly the manager pays tribute to the club's stewards in his post-match interview. Bosses are always so keen to stress the positives but this is the first time I have ever heard security staff at a football ground praised ahead of any aspect of what happened on the pitch.

Then there is the painful addition of brackets to our scoreline on Sky Sports News. Norwich City 1-7 Colchester United is not enough for them. They add S-E-V-E-N in capitals after the figure 7. Having to spell numbers out is never good news. It usually means you are writing a cheque for something expensive, say for example a new Norwich City season ticket.