Seven points from nine and the ship feels well and truly steadied

Today at 02:17 AM

Two Games. Ten goals for City. And two very different match-day experiences. Both of them freezing!

Tuesday night found myself making a rare venture to Carrow Road. Thirty-plus years of Norfolk exile has meant I have only made it to away games of late. Hopefully, the exile will end very soon, but that's a different story.

Tuesday was predictably cold. No excuse for leaving my hat and gloves in the car – so a visit to the club shop was added to my itinerary. Fellow follicly-challenged supporters will appreciate the necessity of something warm up top!

Yes, it was a cold night, but I was surprised by how cold the atmosphere was inside Carrow Road. I'm sure when I attended every week there were at least some stirrings of life in the ground, other than the Barclay and the Snakepit.  

It took until it was 4-1 for the strains of On The Ball City to break out. Meanwhile, near me, people chatted all game, barely paying attention to the football. I even heard one person say 'Well at least that might make the game better' when Plymouth scored.

I doff my metaphorical cap (nothing was getting the physical one off my head) to the Plymouth fans though. To travel so far on a night like that and keep singing – even mocking the City fans sneaking out to beat the traffic – while losing so heavily, deserved warm praise indeed.

Saturday saw a very different situation. This time, for me, it was Lusail Hill for the F1 Sprint race and Qualifying in Doha. 

That meant watching the City game between the main events, on my iPhone – tricky enough normally but having left my reading glasses behind (there's a theme here) I could really only follow the general flow of the game. Until I saw the highlights that is.

The one thing in common though was the temperature. There is something very different about 18° in the desert and the same temperature back home. Wearing only a t-shirt on top I was freezing – colder than at Carrow Road, and by the time we left my feet were numb with cold.

But to the football.

Last week I wrote 'Crnac was willing and got into some great positions. Yet somehow the final touch eluded him, getting horribly tangled with the ball when it looked seemingly easier to score at one point.'

What a difference a week makes. The oft-quoted 'Was' gorn on in traynun?' must surely take on a new twist.

On Tuesday, Ante Crnac looked like a different player. Leading the press he twice blocked the keeper's kicks. He made great runs and came oh-so-close to scoring in the first half with a great downward header. 

There was something about his strike for City's sixth and final goal though. A few days previously he would have taken a touch or tripped over the ball, yet his strike was so clean, so perfect. Johannes Hoff Thorup said he had been spoken to in the week about getting a shot away earlier. Whatever was said, and whoever said it, clearly worked.

Then there was Saturday. It reminded me of the playground game 'headers and volleys'. A touch to bring the ball in, a flick up and away from the defender and a confidently struck volley to finish.

And there was more.

A Jack Stacey cut-back (more of that later) and arriving in the box at the perfect moment to slot home, Crnac gave City the lead.

And still there was more!

The run, winning the ball on the turn and then the presence to square it for Emiliano Marcondes were all top-class.

Just as his previous poor form didn't make Crnac an awful player, two excellent games don't mean that City have found the next Teemu Pukki, but the signs are encouraging.

Credit has to go to the City backroom team.

And not just for Crnac. The contributions of Stacey have been instrumental since his return following the injury to Jose Cordoba.

I always felt that he had the energy, drive and determination, but that when he got into crossing positions his final ball lacked quality. 

Well, I can now shove five goal contributions into my pipe and smoke them! His recent deliveries have been absolutely spot-on. How he got to the ball and hooked that cross to Crnac will remain a mystery.

Maybe there has been a crossing masterclass held at Colney.

Gary commented in his post-match piece that Onel Hernandez brought an air of unpredictability to the game. But watch the replay. Onel looks up. He spots his mate Borja Sainz before laying the ball on a plate for the Spaniard to slot his fourth of the week, and City's fourth of the game.

You know what? I think he meant it – the cross went where he wanted to play it. Masterclass indeed.

There's so much more to write about…

• The return of Mayor McLean – I was delighted to see him engaging in banter with the fans in the River End as he took a corner on Tuesday. I have absolutely no idea what he said though – despite being only a few meters away! 
• The return of Marcelino Nunez – so long the metronome that made City tick.
• Or even Emi Marcondes – a stop-gap free transfer now looking indispensable in the City side. Second best freebie ever for City?
• There is also the alarming propensity to ship goals. Careless passes. Poor defending.  All ever present at the back for City this season. It's fine when the goals flow as freely as the last few days, but in the event of injuries or a loss of form, if the errors persist we will see another run of losses like the one we have just experienced.

The hope is that the superb work done by the coaching team on City's attacking play can now be replicated with the defence and in particular, stopping those sloppy passes out from the back that keep costing us dearly.

But seven points from nine have got City fans looking up the table again instead of down. With the return of so many players and the return of Hoff-Ball, there is only one song for this week: Thin Lizzy and The Boys Are Back In Town.