The Drury's Out on This Record

Norwich City 2-1 Hartlepool

Adam Drury is Norwich City's longest serving player and one of the most reliable around. Since joining the canaries in 2001 he's been right up to the Premier League and back down and then down again. He's been an excellent, solid, often impressive performer - one of few constants during several chaotic years with the club.

The one thing the left back doesn't do is score goals very often. He picks his moments when he does. The last one, more than 5 years ago now, was the dramatic late equaliser in a 4-4 Premier League draw with Middlesbrough as Norwich thundered back from 4-1 down with 12 minutes to go. So how must Drury have felt when his replacement in this game scored within about half an hour of making his debut?

Michael Rose was brought in on loan from Stockport after the unfortunate Drury got injured at Walsall. He'd got back to the sort of form that once earned him the tag of 'the best left back outside the Premier League' lately after a couple of injury-ravaged seasons.

Rose thumped in an angled drive to make it 2-1. Norwich had gone 1 down just seven minutes earlier but Cody McDonald equalised within 63 seconds and in doing so helped create one of those magic moments that has made the Jeff Stelling hosted Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports one of the genuine success stories of the modern day.

After getting the winner Rose unleashed a shock just as big as a goal from a left back at Carrow Road. It turns out he can take a long throw-in. He may not quite be Rory Delap size but when he bent his back and lobbed the ball into the Hartlepool penalty area just before half-time there were big gasps around the ground. The surprise extended further than the stands. Having joined on the Friday, Rose hadn't got round to telling his new team mates that he had this 'in his locker' as football people say. No-one managed to get on the end of it because they didn't know he could do it. There's something to work on up at the training ground then.

Norwich have won won ten straight games at home. That's the first time the canaries have ever managed it in one season.

Walsall 1 Norwich City......................2

Walsall 1-2 Norwich City

When Paul Lambert emerged from the tunnel for the post-match interviews at The Bescot, sorry The Banks's Stadium, Walsall being one of a growing band of clubs to sell naming rights to their ground, the City boss gave a big puff of the cheeks and let go a sigh of relief.

Lambert was probably more animated than I have been used to seeing him during games here as Walsall led 1-0 with 15 minutes to go and the canaries were struggling to get going on a pitch described by my colleague Neil Adams as 'a ploughed field' but then Wes Hoolahan came to life and played superbly for the last quarter of an hour.

Chris Martin and sub Cody McDonald scored. Any goal from the latter is enough to give any soft football romantic a fuzzy feeling inside. He was a scaffolder on the London Underground and playing for Dartford until City signed him 12-months earlier. He had his Roy of the Rovers moment when he scored within 15 minutes of making his debut at Carrow Road and, even after a year in the pro game, he still reacts to goals in the way that I think I probably would if I ever got the chance to play for Norwich.

The Walsall tannoy man also had a good sense of the dramatic, leaving a big X Factor style pause during his half-time round-up of latest scores. He particularly sounded like the West Midlands Dermot O'Leary when he reached one of The Saddlers local rivals. A good example here was:

"Wolves Nil, Liverpool......................NIL"

Sadly he blotted his copybook by having Leeds and Swindon drawing 0-0 at half-time when Norwich fans knew their main rivals at the top of the table were actually 1-0 down. When the PA announcer was gently corrected by the away support ('you don't know what you're doing') he decided to take them on - he had a microphone after all so had a very easy right of reply.

"Well it says 0-0 here."

"Don't blame me, it's the computer that's got it wrong."

The Voycheck's in Between the Posts

Norwich City 1-0 Brentford

Even the sending off of Grant Holt, the talismanic comic-book hero of a skipper could not keep the canaries fans from finally being able to sing the 'We are top of the league' song.

With Leeds engaged in a fancy FA Cup run at a game at Tottenham, a win by any score was always going to be enough to take Norwich to the summit. Eventually the goal came. 14 minutes from time Chris Martin slotted home a pass from new boy Oli Johnson.

Fraser Forster played his part with three remarkable saves as Paul Lambert took a calculated gamble.

Many managers would have seen a point as a decent result after having a player sent off but Lambert went with three at the back and clearly told his team to go for it. Had Forster not been in such good form Brentford might have won it but Lambert was rewarded for his bold approach.

As a commentator it was also good to get to grips with Wojciech Szczesny for the first time.

I know the idea of a foreign player in English football should not really be worthy of comment here in 2010 but the nudging and sniggering from people in my direction when the team-sheets came out made the on-loan Arsenal goalkeeper a talking point.

Thankfully there is an unofficial commentators club who can come to your rescue at times like these. My knight in shining armour was a marvelous chap by the name of Billy Reeves - a former record label owner, regular podcaster, BBC London travel presenter and reporter on all things Brentford.

Thanks to him I can tell you that when this Polish 'keeper reaches his potential, and having been described by Arsene Wenger as a 'great goalkeeper in the making' you may see him in the Premier League in the not-too-distant future, you can turn to your mates and tell them with much certainty that this man is called Voy-check Sir-Chezney.

Paul Lambert wins 12-1 on Aggregate

Colchester United 0-5 Norwich City

Since the 7-1 on the opening day and the subsequent departure of Paul Lambert to Norwich, January 16th had been a date firmly inked into the diaries of Colchester and City fans.

Having turned up and seen it hammering with rain on an already soggy pitch I had two worries. 1- Would the game even be on and 2- Will Norwich fancy this?

I needn't have troubled myself. Norwich took to the conditions and after a confident start from Col U, never looked back from the moment Chris Martin scored his first. Some of Colchester's defending in the second half was on a par with Norwich's on the opening day. Perhaps the numerous replays of the goals from the 7-1 on the big screen at the ground distracted the home side more than Paul Lambert's new team.

The Norwich fans enjoyed what was a sweet victory and baited Colchester chairman Robbie Cowling who had spoken of his desire to 'win this game more than any other' before the match. After the game he responded by claiming a 7-6 aggregate win for the season. I suppose he has got a point, but I prefer to look it as Paul Lambert 12-1 The Rest.

Freeze A Jolly Good Fellow

Norwich City 3-1 Exeter City

The problem when your team is doing well is that other clubs start to take notice. It was with much alarm that I watched on the Thursday before this game as Paul Lambert got gradually shorter.

He started the day at about 20-1 to become the next manager of Premier League Burnley. By the time I was skidding my way home through the snow after another early shift he was odds-on favourite. The more pessimistic City fans waited for the inevitable announcement. Thankfully it never came and by Friday morning Lambert was in the mood to puff out his chest and declare his undying love for the canaries. It made for a tremendous atmosphere for the Exeter match.

Having spent much of BBC Radio Norfolk's breakfast show on Thursday and Friday reading out school closures (more than 360 each day) I wondered whether the cold snap that was gripping Britain may even be too much for the Carrow Road undersoil heating. Not a bit of it. Only 6 games kicked off at 3pm in the whole league but this was one.

Even a goal from ex-Ipswich striker Marcus Stewart failed to prevent Norwich from winning again.

New signing Oli Johnson also made a terrific start to his City career, coming off the bench and beating three of four players with his first few touches of the ball before curling an effort wide. It would have been the most dramatic debut since Marc Libbra scored 15 seconds into his Carrow Road bow. Johnson got a song quicker than anyone though. 'Oli, Oli, Oli' - it may not be imaginative but it was good enough for 'Iwan, Iwan, Iwan' Roberts and 'Earnie, Earnie, Earnie' Earnshaw when they were leading the canaries line.

Wycombe, We Saw, We Conquered (just)

Wycome Wanderers 0-1 Norwich City

The first game of 2010 and an exciting way to start the new decade.

Our commentary position at Adams Park, which I hilariously referred to as Neil Adams Park for the first part of the afternoon until my erstwhile co-commentator got fed up with it, was right in amongst the passionate City away support.

So many Norwich fans wanted to see the game that we met a couple when we arrived at midday who had been told they would not be allowed in the ground as they were not on Wycombe's mailing list. It is a sad state of affairs that football supporters cannot be trusted to all sit together and watch a game without causing trouble. I understand why the attitude of the minority makes segregation an important part of the modern game but when I saw how many empty seats were in the home end for this game, I wondered quite what Wycombe's policy had achieved. They had missed out on the income of selling two tickets and two Norwich fans who were (and I say this respectfully) old enough to be my parents and, although I am no security expert, didn't look like trouble makers to me.

If this was Ipswich v Norwich you might have understood. Wycome v Norwich is a much lower wattage.

The canaries found Wanderers 'keeper Scott Shearer in inspired form. He saved everything. He was that good that Paul Lambert, the Norwich boss, walked straight over and shook his hand afterwards. His Man of the Match award was one of the most straight forward I have ever seen.

Wycombe were holding out and almost took the lead when a rare second half attack saw them hit the post. Seconds later Norwich finally did score, young Korey Smith finally finding a way past Shearer.